First Paragraphs

Sandeep
I like to hand Charlie a book that I’m reading and observe his facial gestures–eyes widening, jaw slightly drooping–as he reads the first paragraph. I’m not a fan of coming to conclusions about a novel from the rear acclaim, and it usually ain’t the first paragraph that impresses me. Two days ago I picked up Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book. I read the first paragraph about 10 times. Pamuk is amazing.

Rüya was lying facedown on the bed, lost to the sweet warm darkness beneath the billowing folds of the blue-checked quilt. The first sounds of a winter morning seeped in from outside: the rumble of a passing car, the clatter of an old bus, the rattle of the copper kettles that the salep maker shared with the pastry cook, the whistle of the parking attendant at the dolmuş stop. A cold leaden light filtered through the dark blue curtains. Languid with sleep, Galip gazed at his wife’s head: Rüya’s chin was nestling in the down pillow. The wonderous sights playing in her mind gave her an unearthly glow that pulled him toward her even as it suffused him with fear. Memory, Celal had once written in a column, is a garden. Rüya’s gardens . . . Galip thought. Don’t think, don’t think, it will make you jealous! But as he gazed at his wife’s forehead, he still let himself think.

We must resuscitate Radicalism

Sandeep

“The new American constitution must enchant the mind of every citizen by its fanatical attachment to liberty.”

-Writing in 1777, a representative of 400 French families in the Caribbean considering a settlement offer in Trinidad, on why they’d prefer the social institutions of the U.S.

From Naipaul’s brilliant colonial history of Trinidad, The Loss of El Dorado.

What I’ve been reading

Sandeep
1. The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz. An incredibly insightful tale of the Eastern intellectuals’ adoption of Russian Socialism, set for the most part in the final stages of, and just after, WWII. Full review coming soon.

2. The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History, by V.S. Naipaul. I’m beginning to favor Naipaul’s non-fiction more than his fiction, though I recommend starting with his fiction to get accustomed to his style. The book begins with Berrio’s and Ralegh’s foolish quests for El Dorado, and continues through the elimination of Indians, slavery, and Indian (sub-continental) indentured servitude. Naipaul’s research and story-telling skill makes this book the most in depth account of Spanish and British Colonialism that I’ve yet read.

3. The California Missions. A Sunset Pictorial with a wealth of fascinating information about the California Missions from San Diego up El Camino Real to Sonoma. Spain employed an explicitly clericalist method of colonial exploration throughout the New World, and the California Missions were built relatively late so we know much more about them.

4. Food: A Culinary History, compiled by Flandrin, Montanari and Sonnenfeld. I’m not reading all of this one, but selectively picking which articles I think will be valuable. So far the chapters ‘The Food of Others’ and ‘The Origins of Public Hostelries in Europe’ have been the most fascinating.