ImageNations

Thou art a young wife, so I shall open all my mouth. On that first day that his adultery comes to light, the whole world is right behind you, so let the force of your fury be known. Be natural, let it all hang out. The plates, the frame photographs of your wedding, his suits even, these are the legitimate, the expected casualties of his embarrassing sex. Noise the scandal to whom you may, what more do you have to hide?  [11, Letter to a Young Wife From an Old ] Nobody wants their husband to be holding and comforting another weeping woman for days on end, even if they are best of friends. Besides, all your married friends have horror tales of their own, and it is in bad taste to complain to a doctor about your pimple, when he is sitting on a scrotum engorged by elephantiasis. [12,  Letter to a Young Wife From an Old ] [T]he clever wife's rage is entirely premeditated. Nothing is ever done in the heat of the moment. She goes through her house carefully, determinin...

Every art enthusiast has at least an artiste he or she is dedicated to, whom he would follow thoroughly. They may not necessarily like everything about these artistes but they make it a point to know them and their works. This is common about musicians and visual artists. Almost five years ago, when I was making a list of  100 Books I want to read in five years , I took such a decision. I promised myself I would read every book  Chimamanda  publishes, irrespective of the reviews that she would garner. (Another author I mentally selected was Ayi Kwei Armah.) Since then I have read all four of Adichie's known published books, including  Americanah  (Fourth Estate, 2013) ,  the author's third novel after the highly-successful  Half of a Yellow Sun  (2006) and her fourth published book following her anthology of short stories,  The Thing Around Your Neck   (2009).  When a writer achieves success and fame with his early works and ...

March was a not-so-good month. Unlike last year, I have been falling behind in my reading targets very early in the year. At the end of March, I was two books behind and have read 13 books instead of 15 towards the target of 60 for the year. Though I am improving on my reading speed, I am slacking on consistency. It is likely that April will not be different.  I read the only book I projected to read in March and three others. The dwindling numbers of unread books on my shelf means that I am not motivated enough to pick a book. Most of the unread books are those I have passed by on several occasions, not that they are not good but I do not have the urge to read them. This reduced degrees of freedom is impacting badly on my vision to read more African books. Thus, any African book that comes into my possession is given priority. Two of the four books I read were African books. Of the four, one was a poetry anthology, two were collections of short stories, and one was a novel...

The Writers Project of Ghana has a book club it prefers to call The Book and Discussion Club which meets once every month to discuss the selected text for the month. The Book and Discussion Club has selected and read several books since its formation in 2011. Last month's (March) book was Mawuli Adzei 's collection of poems Testament of the Seasons . When information reached Dr Adzei - author of Taboo  - that we were going to read and discuss his book, he volunteered to be present. It was always going to be tricky discussing and interrogating the work of a writer in his or her presence. In his absence you could always say whatever you like and this was the first time it was happening. The Book Club has played host to some authors before, though their works were not under discussion at the time of the meeting. We have had Binyavanga Wainaina and Kojo Laing visiting us and reading to us their works. ( Note that this discussion is different from the monthly Book Reading ...

The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms by Friedrich  Wilhelm Nietzsche is a collection of two essays and a selection of aphorisms on the Nietzsche's views on the music of Wagner in particular and the problem of degeneracy and the dangers of accepting it as the main culture. I read this e-book only because I wanted to read something by Nietzsche not because I truly understand high-culture or Classical Music, to which Wagner's music belongs. Though I enjoy this music genre. Yet, I do agree with Nietzsche on the need to guard against the tendency of misconstruing degeneracy for the norm at any epoch. As has happened today. Reading this essay, I shivered to think of what the author's response would have been to today's compositions, if there are any. Especially since Wagner, whom he critiqued caustically, is considered a virtuoso today by all standards and for whom a whole festival was organised to mark his two hundredth year last year. How...

The greatest event of my life took the form of a recovery . Wagner belongs only to my diseases.  All that is good is easy, everything divine runs with light feet. For, as a rule, artists are no better than the rest of the world, they are even worse - they misunderstand  love. Even Wagner misunderstood it. They imagine that they are selfless in it because they appear to be seeking the advantage of another creature often to their own disadvantage. But in return they want to possess  the other creature... Even God is no exception to this rule, he is very far from thinking "What does it matter to thee whether I love thee or not?" - He becomes terrible if he is not loved in return... [N]othing so easily makes a painful impression as when a great mind despoils itself of its wings and strives for virtuosity in something greatly inferior, while it renounces more lofty aims. People can actually kiss that which plunges them more quickly into the abyss. [T]he mu...

The Lord of the Rings , written between 1937 and 1949, was published in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. According to Tolkien it was not meant to be three separate books, however the size of the manuscript (original manuscript is estimated at 9,250 pages) dictated the form in which the publications would take. This is seen in the structure of each book, which many Harry Potter fans have used against it without realising that unlike the Potter series which was planned to be a seven-series book, the LOTR was not. Each Volume does not have a complete arch; it does not visibly rise and fall. This structure is however seen when all the three books are taken together. Though these books had been in circulation for over forty-six years, it was not until the movie production that the name of Frodo, Bilbo, Sauron, Gandalf, and Gollum became household names and Tolkien became a worldwide phenomenon. Today, only a handful of individuals could be absolutely ignorant about The Lord o...