Weekly Recap June 13-June 19 2021

Good afternoon, fellow readers! This week I read books from many different genres and eras, from a Baroque treatise to a modern screwball comedy. One common thread in these works was the human tendency to obscure, knowingly or unknowingly, the truth. I hope my reviews aren’t too much of a misrepresentation:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

As the apocalypse looms, two monks investigate the lethal secrets of a wealthy abbey. One of those books which is more smart than enjoyable, but mystery fans will love the labyrinthine plot and fellow nerds will admire the semiotic shenanigans.

“It is a hard thing for this old monk, on the threshold of death, not to know whether the letter he has written contains some hidden meaning, or more than one, or many, or none at all” (610)

 

Hopkins by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The poetry (and selected prose) of the Victorian poet-priest famous for his use of sprung rhythm. Where every other Victorian poet composes their lines, Hopkins discovers them.

“For Christ plays in ten thousand places

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men’s faces” (18)

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage

An African-American maid to a 1930s Hollywood starlet struggles to win a role in a Southern epic, but her legacy sparks controversy among modern-day academics. The story is fun and screwy, with sharp commentary and plenty of room for performers’ interpretation—just as Stark would have wanted?

“LEROY: It tickles me how half the Negroes in this town are running around like chickens without heads trying to get five minutes of shucking and jiving time, all so they can say they’re in the pictures. It’s just lights and shadows, what’s the big deal?” (37)

 

Ethics by Benedict de Spinoza

A 17th-century heretic philosopher’s guide to God, the mind and the reasonable life. This is probably the densest book I’ve ever read, but Spinoza’s Enlightenment convictions made his tough, logical prose worth reading.

“So let the satirists laugh as much as they like at human affairs, let the theologians curse them, let melancholics praise as much as they can a life that is uncultivated and wild, let them disdain men and admire the lower animals. Men still find from experience that by helping one another they can provide themselves much more easily with the things we require, and only by joining forces can they avoid the dangers which threaten on all sides.”