Sophia Curran’s Top 5 (Inspired by High Fidelity)
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
This book has been one of the most delightful and inspiring reads for me in a great while. It tells the story of a middle aged retired bank manager named Henry Pulling, who leads a very dull life, at least by my standards (his greatest hobby is maintaining his dahlias). When his mother dies he has the great fortune to meet his Aunt Augusta at the funeral. She reveals things to him about his family’s past that he could have never imagined to be true. For one, his mother was actually his step mother and his father fell in love with another woman right before he died. Aunt Augusta is a wild woman, who can’t be told what to do or contained. She brings Henry along on one of her travels and he is awakened to what opportunities life holds for him, or anyone ready to accept it. He becomes hooked on this new lifestyle and continues along with Aunt Augusta on her many adventures. Travels With My Aunt is exciting and inspiring, definitely a must-read.
Defiance, Ohio
Defiance, Ohio is one of my all time favorite bands. They come from Columbus, not Defiance, Ohio and play the most wonderful folk punk you will ever hear. They have been together for eight years now and put out one amazing record after another. They have politics heavily rooted in their songs like in “The New World Order” and “Lambs from the Slaughter”, both from the album “The Great Depression”. They go on tour often and play incredibly high energy shows. It takes a lot for me to think so highly of a band, because I have high standards with bands that preach certain ideals. But I think Defiance, Ohio truly stand behind their politics. They play all-ages shows for as little money as they need to travel. If you send them a shirt they will silk screen their original designs on it for free! They are super nice and awesome and talented, you can even write them letters and they will write back!
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
This novel, which I read for the first time my freshman year, completely changed my life. It presented me with a mindset that I had never even considered and I was truly shocked every time I turned the page. It almost felt like everything I had ever learned was apart of some conspiracy. I’m not saying everything in the book should be taken as fact, but Quinn’s ideas and creative approach are really incredible to take in. For example, he presents the idea of a “Law of Civilization” which most people would have trouble comprehending. Then he cleverly parallels it to a “Law of Aerodynamics”, which people could similarly not understand until scientists figured it all out. Essentially, he theorizes that there are a number of laws that humans have been breaking involving the natural harmony of the circle of life. For an alternative perspective and really enlightening read, definitely give Ishmael a try.
Ryan McGinley
Photographer Ryan McGinley is my favorite photographer and a huge inspiration to me. His subject focus is very similar to mine, youth. He sees artists, musicians, graffiti writers, skaters, kids and represents them in a totally original way. There is this unbelievable spirit in his pictures that make me gape and stare at them for extended amounts of time. He is super successful, especially considering how young he is. In 2003, when he was just twenty-five years old, he became the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. But I admire him most for his courage to tackle such a complex demographic and produce something truly revolutionary in the world of photography.
Eating Animals by Johnathan Safran Foer (And Food Inc!)
Don’t be afraid by the size of this book, it is an easy page turner, if only for the horrific things you’ll learn inside. While I have mixed feelings about the book, especially after learning the author is not a strict vegetarian, I think it is undeniably a positive read and I would recommend it to anyone. The fact of the matter is, there is an entire industry, the food industry, that is kept hidden from us. This, to me, is not only unacceptable but also terrifying. People don’t even realize how much standards have dropped, and in some cases completely disappeared. Eating Animals gives an extremely wholesome argument, ranging from factory farms and slaughterhouses on land, to the trawling of the sea that is decimating ocean life. Foer also intertwines his own personal connection to meat, which really came into question at the birth of his son, which I think is a very admirable approach. Giving up meat is not for everyone, but people should be given the facts so they can consider the best option for them. I truly believe if the industry had glass walls around it, would collapse or change drastically. For this reason, I recommend this book, or if you would rather watch a film, Food Inc is an incredibly informative and engaging documentary about food policy on a wider scale. Get involved!
Death & Dignity
Understood within the natural world not as a failure or misfortune but as a necessary detail in the successful perpetuation of the circle of life, the idea of death couldn’t be more different as it is perceived by humans. Its immeasurable power is so vast it is almost incomprehensible, yet we strive to postpone our ultimately inescapable expirations as long as we possibly can. Through the analysis of three novels, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy one can see that despite differences in time and setting, as well as, the author’s cultural background, death is a theme that consistently serves as a catalyst for the main characters and the society they live in as a whole.
One interesting contrast that all three authors present is the varying of responses to death depending on whether it was brought on by “natural causes” or rather some external force, the most prevalent of which being murder. In Heart of Darkness, disregarding the hints of racism and self-concernedness, Marlow’s distress at his helmsman’s death at least shows his acknowledgment that it was undeserving and premature:
“I missed my late helmsman awfully, —I missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara. Well, don’t you see, he had done something, he had steered; for months I had him at my back—a help—an instrument” (Conrad 62).
Conrad even ventures to compare the worth of Kurtz’s life to those his on-board companions, which shows a more encouraging side to his morality: “He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings…No; I can’t forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him” (Conrad 62). Marlow realizes that for all the hype and “success” surrounding Kurtz, he doesn’t deserve the light that shines upon him while the natives who have been enslaved for his cause remain in the darkness.
Achebe, in his novel Things Fall Apart, presents a society in which culture and tradition are valued above all else, including the individual. Regarding death, the Ibo have many strict practices depending on who dies and how. While their conventions might seem terrifying and foreign to someone raised under Western ideals, they still seem to maintain a positive balance within the tribe, at least up until the missionaries arrive with their agenda and their influence (manipulation). For example, it is not only acceptable but also necessary for twin babies to be thrown away into the forest, based on the belief that twins are evil or a curse. Another interesting focus on death in the novel is that of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo’s adopted son. After the tribe leaders announce that Ikemefuna must be sacrificed, chaos ensues. Okonkwo’s initial response is to respect this decision and in a moment of frenzy he even takes part in the killing. Later on, when reality sets in for Okonkwo, he is deeply affected by the event: “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna…He did not sleep at night. He tried not to think about Ikemefuna, but the more he tried the more he thought about him. Once he got up from bed and walked about his compound. But he was so weak that his legs could hardly carry him” (Achebe 54). What he eventually realizes to be an unjust murder wrecks havoc not only on his emotional strength, but his physical well being too.
Then, by the end of novel, Okonkwo’s suicide directly affects the rest of the tribe, saddened by the loss of legend and a friend. More importantly though, they are distressed by the fact that he took his own life because it is one of the most extreme offenses against the Earth: “We cannot bury him. Only strangers can. We shall pay your men to do it. When he has been buried we will then do our duty by him. We shall make sacrifices to cleanse the desecrated land” (Achebe 170). The Ibos feel an intense sorrow after Okonkwo’s death because it marks a turning point in their life and customs. For them, nothing can ever be the same again after one of the most revered warriors in history was broken down by the corruption of colonialism.
In Roy’s The God of Small Things, death plays an extremely significant role in the development of the plot and the relationships between characters. She cleverly connects certain characters to death, foreshadowing their lingering demise. Sophie Mol, for example, is fascinated by death: “Where do old birds go to die? Why don’t dead ones fall like stones from the sky?” (Roy 17). Similarly, Ammu shows signs of collapse long before her actual end: “Rahel saw that her eyes were a redly dead” (Roy 31). This represents all the loss Ammu endures and the pain she feels, the separation from her children being the final event to send her into her final downward spiral. A more extreme and catalytic death is that of Velutha, which affects many of the characters in a very big way. It compels Baby Kochamma to do her most evil scheming yet and Ammu, Rahel, and Estha lose possibly the only positive figure in their lives. I think Roy expertly arranged his death at the end of the novel to stand as the final and most heartbreaking tragedy within the novel.
While all three authors used death in a creative and intriguing way, as an instrument to convey their thoughts on human nature and society, I think Roy unveiled something truly remarkable in her novel. It seems to me that the delicate relationships she produced were the perfect models with which to express these thoughts.
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