February 11, 2011

Literary Pick (****)

Salvador Dali and the Surrealists
-Michael Elsohn Ross
This is a biography and activity art-book intended for young adults. I received it as a Christmas present from my SIL, who isn't an art lover, as far as I know, which perhaps explains why she gave me this book in the first place, but I was very happy to receive it nevertheless. Surprisingly, up until now I had never read anything on Dali. Of course I've heard of Dali and the surrealist movement.. who hasn't? but that's as far as my knowledge of him extended. I can easily identify his artworks, but I knew nothing of his life. This book perhaps inadvertently portrayed him as an insecure obnoxious rival-rouser struggling to remain confident throughout his early art career. He was portrayed as an attention-whoring opportunist, turning his back on old friends and colleagues once he gained fame and notoriety. He seemed like the Heidi Spencer of his time. However, deep down inside there is something very sad and pitiful about his career and his ego. He grew up as an insecure kid who was bullied throughout his early years in school, and slowly developed his confidence by having a generation me mentality, which made him extremely famous, but in his later years the fame seemed to have gone to his head and he began commercializing his artwork a bit too much, and it affected his credibility as a serious artist. He was in a very long relationship with a woman by the name of Gala, who seemed to have been very abusive towards him when he was old. I don't know..there's just something so sad about his life. But the book was very interesting and educational. It mentions art movements such as Dada, surrealism, expressionism,  and pop-art. It also talks about Franco, Hitler, and how the WWI affected artists and the art world. I enjoyed it very much.

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February 4, 2011

Literary Pick (***)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
-Milan Kundera




















After reading the first 50 pages of Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I was very tempted to read the one and two star reviews on Goodreads. Most especially women's reaction to Kundera, but I did my best to refrain from doing so. As usual, I didn't want to be negatively influenced by anyone's reviews from the start.
There was something about this book that annoyed me very much, and I really did struggle to read it from a objective point of view, however, the scenarios seemed so outrageously absurd and nonsensical that I simply couldn't get Kundera's narcissism and misogynism past the palate, and please note, that I don't say Thomas' or Franz' misogynism. It didn't feel like I was reading a character's character, it felt like I was reading Kundera's character. It's not that I cannot have an open mind and accept women portrayed as weak beings, who suffer and make mistakes and ruin their lives by making stupid choices, but come on! These women were so unrealistic in every conceivable way. Thomas would score 1-2 women a day? and that's after he lost his job as a Dr. and ended up as a window-cleaner? Is that funny or what? and what about Tereza and Sabina response to all this? The part when Tomas' hair smelled like vagina, and after months of enduring this smell Tereza asks Tomas to go wash his hair? I can go on and on about ridiculous instances but it's not even worth getting into. I could accept it as a work if the writing was brilliant, but it's not. It was ok but nothing extraordinary. The references to Ana Karenina make sense. Although I have not had the pleasure of reading Karenina yet, I am very familiar with Tolstoy's works and I understand he too was quite insensitive to women's needs and tended to be self-focused.
Anyway..further research confirmed my feeling about Kundera, he is notorious for representing women as nothing more than sex objects and mistresses.
I have to admit the story did keep me intrigued and curious enough to want to finish it, but overall I didn't enjoy it.

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