A film flower photo c. 2011.
This title is a bit of an exaggeration, but Jenny Offill’s “art monster” idea from her book Dept. of Speculation is one that recurred through 2023 for me. For one, I joined a book club called Art Monsters. This club, with members mostly in Toronto and Montreal, was started by the brilliant Magda, and is dedicated to books, paired with an artwork, generally about motherhood. The members of this group are fascinating, talented people, and the discussions have been such a balm as I tend to forget about what is happening in the world for the two or so hours we gather on Zoom. A true gift!
The name was inspired by this passage from Dept. of Speculation:
My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn’t even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.
As such we did make it a point to read and discuss Dept. of Speculation, which I really enjoyed revisiting. The first time I read it I didn’t have a child, so it was a very different experience. It was as clever and devastating as I had remembered; I recall that we talked a lot about rage. The book was paired with Yield to Them by Alison Chen.
In 2023 I also read Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer, which asks, “what do we do with the art of monstrous men?” It’s a question I think of often, such as any time I hear the remix to “Ignition” (this doesn’t happen very often anymore), or any time I see “Miramax” before a rewatch of a beloved movie from the 90s. Monsters was one of my favourite reads in 2023, and will be relevant for a long time, as where there is art, there are monsters. It doesn’t exactly supply any answers, but it’s a lovely, shrewd meditation on the problem. I don’t think it’s possible to have any answers to these questions, frankly. Would a direct answer actually get you cancelled? Am I a monster? I could also be a monster. It could go on forever. It is a deeply personal book and I’ve seen people criticize it for not being what they expected it to be, but that’s also a good reminder for me never to read Goodreads reviews (incidentally I do not wish to review books on Goodreads, ever, and if I have to give a book “stars,” I will always give them five stars).
(I bought the UK edition—RIP Book Depository, I loved you—because I loved the cover so much, though both it and the North American edition are nice to look at. And look who very succinctly blurbed it!)
As with the book club, Claire Dederer was inspired by Jenny Offill. She quotes the passage above, and notes:
I mean, I hate licking stamps. An art monster, I thought when I read this. Yes, I'd like to be one of those. My friends felt the same way. Victoria, an artist, went around chanting “art monster” for a few days.
A GREAT chant.
She examines the life and work of figures who have done or have been accused of (though not necessarily prosecuted for in a court of law) terrible, terrible things, such as Roman Polanski, Picasso, and Woody Allen, alongside women such as Doris Lessing, Sylvia Plath, women accused of abandoning their children. Yes, there are discussions of “cancel culture,” but it’s left up to the readers or fans to decide if they can separate the (terrible) artist from the art. I found it a comforting book to read.
That is: Love is not reliant on judgment, but on a decision to set judgment aside. Love is anarchy. Love is chaos. We don’t love the deserving; we love flawed and imperfect human beings, in an emotional logic that belongs to an entirely different weather system than the chilly climate of reason.
I read Daddy Issues by Katherine Angel immediately afterwards: a nice pairing.
I have a copy of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin at my bedside, but I have not yet read it. My year could have been filled with even more (art) monsters! I signed it out from work which gives me a very luxurious sign-out period of three months; this means I either finish books within the first five days or renew them at the end of the three month period if no one else has requested it. Nothing in between.
In kids’ books: my 7 year old is at a stage now where he has outgrown picture books (though is not above revisiting a Sato the Rabbit book) and prefers to read on his own. This is quite literally the greatest thing in the world to me—I have dreamed of hanging out in coffee shops and reading with him his entire life. He gravitates towards graphic novels, as do many kids his age, but I’m still trying to read him novels every evening (we abandoned Pinocchio, a beautiful NYRB illustrated edition I have with a very short introduction by Umberto Eco, much to the chagrin of that part of my brain that has anxiety about making sure he knows “the classics,” but have started A Series of Unfortunate Events, which is possibly way too sad and too disturbing for a sensitive kid). My favourite book for kids that was released last year was The Skull by Jon Klassen. It hits every note: witty, weird, creepy, funny. To be honest, it’s not a book my kid loves, but that didn’t stop me from buying it in French also, and making him take it to school so it’s his only option for quiet time.
The sunlight through the shadows in the snow… kills me? It’s so good.
Currently listening: any/all of Jen Munroe’s early choral music specials on NTS. This is my go-to for nearly any mood or mode. Nothing is more calming or spiritually soothing to this lapsed Catholic with a medieval studies degree and a now-tenuous grasp of Latin. Also, I found this “Interdimensional Flower Frequencies” meditation on YouTube very compelling. Of course I want to step into a flower portal! Take me!
Hobby zone: I’m currently knitting a baby-sized popcorn sweater for the sweet babe of some friends, but I have struggled with it in a way I haven’t strugged with knitting since I taught myself to knit about ten years ago. I have made so many of these sweaters, and despite the fact that I’m making it in beautiful goldenrod at a time of year when my eyes are most starved for colour, I’ve had to set it aside and re-start it a record number of times. I’m planning to make the Boyne sweater from Good Night, Day once I find 500 meters of an affordable super bulky yarn (seriously considering Wool Ease, despite the high percentage of acrylic—kind of emblematic of my life of yearing for the finest mohair and wool but having an acrylic budget).
Currently reading (online): I did not know there is an official Clarice Lispector website, I mean who would have expected such a thing. I found it while trying to figure out who the “Mineirinho” in her crônicas was. This notebook makes me want to cry? The doodles. There is much to comb through.
Currently reading: Margery Kempe by Robert Glück. I was about to order the NYRB edition when I saw an image of the first edition online and realized that I already owned it and had left it at my parents’ house when I moved out. This is incredibly funny to me, now that I have retrieved it and have read most of it. I found it as a remainder at Book City more than 20 years ago and picked it up because I thought it was a biography of the mystic. Incorrect! There’s a Lydia Davis endorsement on the back of my copy.
Currently watching: in between shows at the moment, but hoping to make better use of my Mubi membership. Feel free to let me know your favourite movies on the Canadian version; something that goes well with knitting baby sweaters, perhaps.
Anabela— It is such a tell that somehow I didn't even get to this until now. I am warmed that you enjoy our book club so much and of course your contributions. I have been wanting to be your friend for a long time, indeed, during your fieldguided time as I sported my Kate Bush tote with pride. I love that we eventually did become friends over books. I agree, that when they get to reading on their own it is magical. S has been doing it for perhaps about half a year, and every day I still get excited. Yesterday he came home and read through three books in a row (Mechant series), and I asked if he would like to make a book journal to keep track of everything he has read. (I am really trying not to project my own obsession with books, but I think if there's any projection, this one seems to be the one that should have a pass). Also, I am not sure if Luca has read these yet but the Jerry Craft series are really really wonderful, and tackle racism, social justice and friendship. S has read each of them a half dozen times in French and English. xx