photography; writing; Nabokov; Seven Samurai
Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to my newsletter, "Idiosyncratic Musings."
On photography
After a couple decades of intermittent hobbyist photography, I’ve been attempting to take it more seriously.
Peyton convinced me to apply to a show here in Portland, which I wouldn't have done if not for our friend Kelly putting a couple of my photos on the walls of Canopy Clinic last year. So thank you Kelly for the unexpected vote of confidence.
With that background, you can understand my surprise & delight when Black Box Gallery took a 2020 photo of Glacier National Park for their show on trees & water:
(Max V.: The exhibition catalog is available here. Max maintains the world’s only collection of things I’ve published & now exhibited. A charming act of friendship until moments like this when he finds himself $47 poorer.)
You don’t want the nicest house on the block & the show is full of excellent, envy-inducing photographs. There is one by Kelly Gecewicz called “Lost in the Fog” that I adore.
Last photography item: Irina Rozovsky’s book of pictures of Prospect Park, In Plain Air, led me to her husband Mark Steinmetz’s book of pictures of Hartsfield-Jackson, ATL, and both are awesome.
Writing update
Not much to report other than that I’m writing all the time. I’ll have a short story about studio-system Hollywood in Santa Monica Review in 2025. (Max should be subscribing at any moment.) I have some other short stuff in the works, plus a couple book projects that I’m excited to eventually get out into the world. My past stories are available here.
Chris, who represents my writing, set up a Discord channel of his authors & I’ve been shocked how much I’ve enjoyed it. Writing is the one part of life where I’m happier alone, not a deranged extrovert, etc., but perhaps a small dose of community isn’t the worst.
I await your rebuttal
Since leaving competitive debate years ago, I've tried to avoid arguments with the living. Being alive, they tend to correct me, state opposing views, ask for clarification, and who knows what else, while the dead are wonderfully compliant.
Here’s Vladimir Nabokov arguing that Anna Karenina’s name in English is “Anna Karenin”:
Translators have had awful trouble with the heroine’s name … Ivanov’s and Karenin’s wives are Mrs. Ivanov and Mrs. Karenin in England and America—not ‘Mrs. Ivanova’ or ‘Mrs. Karenina.’
Far be it from me, but this seems wrong?
We don’t translate “Fyodor” to “Theodore.” We don’t translate “Mikhailovich” to “son of Michael.” Why would we translate her name to what she would have been called somewhere else? And yes, I used Dostoevsky's names as my examples because I thought it would piss Nabokov off.
Back to you, Vlad.
Seven Samurai spoilers
Peyton and I recently rewatched it. How perfect is the ending? Katsushirō’s agonized “Where are the bandits?” — & his collapse when Kambei tells him the bandits are dead.
Kambei turning to Shichiroji: “Again we survive.”
I have no idea what the end of battle feels like, but it's easy to believe it feels like that.
Nothing against the postscript (Kambei’s existential musings, a last glance at Shino), but for me the movie ends with Katsushirō’s anticlimax, falling to his knees in the muck.
Makes a guy want to read Helen DeWitt.
Lived up to the hype
— Mikey Madison in Anora
— Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
— the Koe Wetzel album 9 Lives