I had never heard of Klimt or seen any of his work, until I randomly picked up this book while perusing through Barnes and Noble's art section one day. I was immediately struck by the cover, and the few other paintings I saw as I flipped through the book, and ended up purchasing it on a whim.
Needless to say, I'm extremely glad I picked it up, discovering one of my new favoriate artists in the process. Kudos to Stefano for laying out all of Klimt's major works, and some choice selections from those of his contemporaries, in an attractive manner. She also expertly explains Klimt's process, his general thoughts about art, and the social background of turn-of-the-century Vienna.
Klimt's style is a beauty to behold. His mix of decorative arts, geometric patterns, and semi-flat perspective create twisty, spiraling phantom-like figures that seem to spring out of nowhere and never end. As you study them and try to discern their different parts, they invoke a feeling of optical illusion.
His work with female faces and figures is sensuous, erotic, and scandalous even now. I don't know if you could appropriately call his artwork feminist, but it presents female pleasure and authority in such an upfront, positive way (completely free of judgement or misogyny) that it's quite shocking and revelatory to look at. Even more so, considering he lived 100+ years ago.
Dune by Frank Herbert
Reading Dune is like panning for gold. The gold in this case being Herbert's detailed, poetic descriptions of the ecology and environment of Arrakis, and the structure and functioning of the Fremen. Mainly because these aspects seem the most most thought-out.
Unfortunately much sifting is required when slogging the rest of the novel. The aforementioned elements are only one part of the story and don't fully bloom until halfway through a 400 page book. The rest is given over to a standard chosen one narrative with a warring feudal families background that will be familiar to anyone who has existed for a few years on this Earth.
The problems with the book are compounded by the terms and mythology Herbert invented. Much of the created vocab sounds and usually has a real-life analog that could've been easily slotted into a sci-fi setting. The philosophical and religious elements that are not part of the Fremen add little. It's rote new-age, semi-eastern stuff that again will not surprise anyone reading today.
Also troubling is Herbert's refusal to develop any kind of critique of the obviously brutal, oppressive society that Paul and his family inhabit. The closest he gets is contrasting the decadence of the Imperium with the asceticism of the Fremen. But this comparison does not involve any kind of difference in how authoritarian each society is or ends up being.
One could easily imagine an alternative, streamlined Dune that ditches much of the extraneous bits that drag the story down and instead focuses on the Fremen in an anti-colonial resistance to the empire. This would keep what is interesting and original in the novel without the garbled prose and unsettling politics.
Confronting Fascism by Don Hamerquist, J. Sakai, and Others
Confronting Fascism has some important insights into the nature of the most deadly of isms. Mainly that it is possible for fascism to develop into a popular, mass movement rooted in the lower and middle classes that is entirely autonomous from the ruling class. This point is echoed in two other books I recently finished: David Renton's Fascism: Theory and Practiceand Robert Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism.
Renton describes fascism as a form of reactionary mass politics and Paxton does a deep dive into the early stages of the development of fascist parties. Paxton's book is the most useful as it gives a blow-by-blow account of how fascism began as a vaguely revolutionary movement started by an eclectic mix of artists, intellectuals, ex-leftists, and decommissioned soldiers; took root by physically confronting working class organizations; and ultimately came to power by a combination of incompetence, inertia, and cynical plotting among the traditional elite.
Paxton's account is extraordinarily rigorous and also provides a brief overview of the conditions that made fascism attractive to people (world war, depression, the beginnings of mass democracy, a strong left). This separates it from the other two books. Confronting does not provide nearly enough evidence for its claims and twice dips into conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Theory and Practice is too heavy on the former and too light on the latter. It's more accurately a collection of how different thinkers have defined fascism. But all three reach the same, important conclusion: that fascism is a specific danger outside the normal functioning of society that has to be stopped before it can take power. |
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