Midsommar – The Truth Behind the Twisted Fairy Tale
In many European countries, the Summer Solstice has traditionally been linked to pagan fertility rites and the anticipation of a fruitful harvest. In Sweden, one of the many beliefs linked to this time was that if a girl picks seven different flowers on the midsummer night and puts them underneath her pillow, she will dream of her future husband.
Teacup Travels: Istanbul (Part 2)
View from Galata Tower 
Sunset on the Bosphorus There is so much to see in Istanbul that you’ll need more than just a short break. I went for three weeks in 2018, and just about managed to cover the main sights. In the last article, I looked at the city’s history and main historical sights. Here are a few more reasons to visit the city that spans two continents..
Teacup Travels: Istanbul (Part 1)
Houses along the Bosphorus 
Ortaköy Mosque There are few cities in the world that can match the magnificence of Istanbul. It has everything – a rich history and a huge range of historical sites, amazing food, street cats, perfectly manicured parks and so much more. I was there for three weeks in 2018 and now can’t wait to go back to see everything I missed the first time. Here’s what makes Istanbul an unmissable destination…
Review: Anne with an E Brings Green Gables into the 21st Century
This nostalgic drama tells the coming of age story of the flame-haired Anne of Green Gables (played by Amybeth McNulty), an orphan embraced by a small farming community living on Prince Edward Island off the coast of Canada. Based on the novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the series is set in the 1890’s, when attitudes to a range of social issues were beginning to change. Despite her traumatic start in a nightmarish orphanage, Anne is a bright, incessantly talkative and adventurous child who breathes life into the home of her elderly adopted parents and the wider community. It certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the series has a lot to offer, including the beautiful scenery of Prince Edward Island, its appreciation of nature inherent in the source material, and some deeply emotional story lines. Thanks to the brilliant writing, Anne with an E is much more than just cosy nostalgia, taking on some weighty social and cultural issues.
Anne with an E has PTSD
In the first season, Anne is taken in by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, elderly siblings who are buttoned up, starched and set in their ways. After experiencing many previous rejections, Anne is rejected yet again by Marilla who had requested a boy to help out on the farm. Eventually the Cuthberts reconsider and bring Anne back to Green Gables, but by this time she has experienced so much harsh treatment and bullying during her time in the orphanage it is unsurprising that she has PTSD. Her experience of the condition is treated sensitively and realistically. Many seemingly insignificant situations give rise to painful flashbacks of her time in the orphanage. As the Cuthberts and the wider community begin to accept Anne as their own, these flashbacks begin to subside. At the same time, Anne’s passion and joie de vivre help to soften the hearts of Matthew and Marilla.
Gender Inequality, Gay Rights and Freedom of Expression
Anne proclaims that her destiny is to be the ‘Bride of Adventure,’ while her best friend Diana is destined to simply learn how to be a good wife. Despite this, one of the most gripping aspects of the show is Anne’s rocky road to romance with her love interest Gilbert. She keeps him at arms-length throughout however, rather than romanticising about their love and possible marriage. Through Anne’s influence, Diana also rejects what is expected of her as a young woman in high society and opts to go to the local university rather than the finishing school in Paris her parents had planned for.
Anne rejects the cultural norm in many ways and speaks out against the injustices she sees. One of her close friends, Cole, confides in Anne that he is gay after being severely bullied at school. Anne is fiercely protective of Cole and eventually arranges for him to live with Diana’s rich aunt, who holds fabulous parties and is revealed to be a lesbian herself. While this is a satisfying conclusion for Cole’s character, most gay people in that era wouldn’t have been so lucky.
Racism and the Dark History of Native American Residential Schools
New characters have been added that weren’t in the original material, but bring so much to the story. Gilbert goes away to work on a ship after his father’s death. There he meets his eventual best friend and business partner Bash, a warm-hearted Trinidadian. Gilbert takes Bash home to his farm in Avonlea, where he starts a family. While they face severe prejudice at first, Bash and his family become a key part of the community. I can’t say how realistic this portrayal would have been for this time, but Prince Edward Island did have a history of slavery, and was the only place in Canada (then British North America) to ever enact its own law enforcing the institution of slavery. It also went on to repeal that law and abolish slavery nearly a full decade before Britain’s Imperial Act of 1833, which did the same throughout the Empire. Reverend James MacGregor, a key figure in Canada’s abolition movement, was influential in bringing this about. For anyone interested in the history of PEI, I would recommend the PEI History Guy.
Another new character introduced is Ka’kwet, a Native American girl from the Mi’kmaq tribe who Anne befriends. At first this story seems unlikely, but it goes on to uncover an important point in history that many will be unaware of. Ka’kwet’s parents are told of a nearby missionary boarding school, where she can learn to read and write in English. The grim reality of the school is later shown – Ka’kwet has been forced to cut her beautiful long hair short, she is given an English name (Hannah) and all of the children are treated cruelly. Reading into this further, it turns out these schools did the same to hundreds of children. Known as Indian Residential Schools, they aimed to ‘assimilate’ children into ‘Euro-American’ ways. The Government paid religious orders to run them and the last schools closed as late as 1973. Very young children were forcibly removed from their families, and forced to abandon their native identity and culture. Investigations have since revealed that there were many cases of mistreatment and abuse. Unfortunately, we never learn Ka’kwet’s fate and whether she is able to escape this prison.
After three seasons, Anne with an E was cancelled but you can still catch it on Netflix now. While it might not be entirely faithful to the original work, Anne with an E tells important stories that still need to be told today.
Charlie Kaufman is Life
Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman is known simply by some for creating quirky, out of the box concepts. Armchair philosophers and film school nerds on the other hand, would argue he serves devastating truths about the human condition. Truths through the lens of white male privilege of course, but truths nonetheless. (I’m on the side of the armchair experts and film nerds by the way.)
Fans will be hugely excited to learn that he has a debut novel due for release in July 2020. Available to pre-order now, Antkind is ‘a searing indictment of the modern world’ and ‘a richly layered meditation on art, time, memory, identity, comedy, and the very nature of existence itself―the grain of truth at the heart of every joke’. Funny, because that’s how you could describe many of his films, too. In anticipation of Antkind, I was compelled to reappraise the work of this somewhat underappreciated genius.
Synecdoche, New York
After multiple re-watches, I still haven’t fully cracked this one and I think that’s the point. Like life, you’ll never fully understand its whole meaning. You might come very close, but then you’ll die. I won’t offer my theories here, as like any work of art, people will take their own meaning from it. And there is almost too much to understand in this film – every frame, let alone every scene, has deeper significance that you won’t catch on the first watch. Even the title, Synecdoche, isn’t what it first appears.
We follow Philip Seymour Hoffman as a struggling theatre director named Caden Cotard (again, not just a name), who is trying to make a play that will be his magnum opus. He attempts to capture the truth of all (his own) life experience through art, but the art ends up mirroring or even recreating his life in minute detail. It gets bigger and bigger until the stage takes over the entire city. His life becomes indistinguishable from the art, which is a metaphor for Kaufman’s own experience in making this film.
One of my favourite elements of this is its dark humour. Caden’s love interest Hazel (Samantha Morton) buys a house that’s on fire. As she looks around with the realtor, her assessment is classic: ‘I like it. I do! I’m just really concerned about dying in the fire.’ Joking aside, this is an important point about Hazel’s character – unlike Caden, Hazel has accepted that one day she will die, but decides to enjoy what life has to offer anyway (even if it is a burning mess).
I could go on forever about this film, but there is one scene I absolutely have to mention. Later on in his production, Caden watches a funeral scene where the pastor (Christopher Evan Welch – taken before his time) delivers a moving and darkly funny speech concluding with ‘F everybody, Amen.’ At this point, another director has taken over from Caden and achieved what he had spent years trying to convey about life, in just two minutes. Even if you pass on the rest of the film, watch this.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Tennyson, not Shakespeare, said ‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all.’ Kaufman explores this concept in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is based on the idea of an invention that erases the memories of romantic relationships post break-up. The literary title is derived from an Alexander Pope poem, Eloisa to Abelard, which contemplates lost love.
The end is in the beginning – our protagonist, Joel (Jim Carrey), has already broken up with Clementine (Kate Winslet) when they meet and embark on a relationship. With his memories erased, he goes on to make the same ‘mistake’ again. There lies the conceit of the film – if we have our memories erased, we lose the pain but we also lose the joy, and we will never learn from our mistakes. Wasn’t it a worthwhile experience to meet Clementine, to open up and learn more about himself, even if it didn’t end well?
Being John Malkovich
So, on first look this sounds like the acid-induced fever dream of a deranged lunatic. Essentially, the premise is that an unemployed puppeteer (John Cusack) takes up residence in the mind of actor John Malkovich in order to achieve romantic and career success. It might seem bizarre and meaningless at first, but then you find yourself asking the question – are we just meat puppets being inhabited by some enduring consciousness, entirely incongruous with our physical form..?
Adaptation
This film features Nicholas Cage. (I really wanted to end the review there because, sold.) In arguably the best performance of his career, Cage plays Charlie Kaufman himself, trying to adapt Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief (great book, worth reading) into a screenplay. Writer’s block is a central theme as the neurotic ‘Charlie’ finds it impossible to adapt this book, while his twin brother Donald (who is much more ‘simple’ in every way) picks up screenwriting and runs away with it immediately. He completely changes the meaning and content of the original work – adding in multiple clichés, drugs, sex and an alligator fight. All of this is of course an ironic comment on the Hollywood machine – what sells isn’t necessarily ‘good,’ true or meaningful, and conversely, watching a screenwriter struggle over his art doesn’t make good entertainment. I’m not saying this is a bad film, it’s a film about making a bad film!
One of the highlights has to be Brian Cox’s impassioned rant: “Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There’s genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ’s sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can’t find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don’t know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don’t have any use for it! I don’t have any bloody use for it!” Charlie looks up, destroyed, and mutters: “okay.. thanks.”
I have yet to see Kaufman’s latest film, Anomalisa, because the puppets creep me out, but I’m looking forward to I’m Thinking of Ending Things, due to be released this year and I will definitely be reading Antkind.
“We’re all hurtling towards death. Yet here we are, for the moment, alive. Each of us knowing we’re going to die. Each of us secretly believing we won’t.”
― Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New YorkInterview: Jewellery Designer Kelly Zogheb on her New Collection, a Love Letter to Animal Crossing
Based in New York City, Kelly Zogheb founded Soulbound in 2017 to meet the demands of gamers, geeks, and alternative brides who are looking for whimsical fine jewellery that is unlike anything else on the market.
Being a gamer myself, I was blown away by the intricate detail of Kelly’s work. Even if you’re not into gaming, you can’t deny the craftsmanship involved in the creation of these little works of art. Her latest collection, New Horizons, is an adorable love letter to the must-have game of 2020, Animal Crossing. Just like the game, these pieces are infused with emblems of nature such as leaves, butterflies, grass and flowers. Each piece has its own cute Japanese name, including Chouchou (butterfly), Uchi (home), Mori (forest) and Kirei (beautiful).
Having admired her jewellery for a long time, I was thrilled to ask Kelly a few questions about her work and inspiration.
I know you love Animal Crossing, and the latest game in the series inspired your adorable New Horizons collection. Can you explain what this collection means to you, and what it is about this game that captures your imagination?
I’ve been playing Animal Crossing since the first game came to the United States, back in 2002, when I was just 12 years old! I remember sitting on bean-bag chairs in the basement playing for countless hours. I loved the game because it was wholesome and sweet, but also very witty and endlessly creative. There were many nights back then where I’d get so sucked into the Animal Crossing world that I’d accidentally play until sunrise (which is something I’m still accidentally doing now!) After that I played every single Animal Crossing game religiously. I played Wild World every day on the bus to and from high school, during lunch when I didn’t have any friends to talk to, and pretty much every night until I fell asleep. I did the same with City Folk.
When New Leaf launched I was already a year out of college and working full-time in the fashion industry. Even though I was now a busy adult, I still camped out overnight at Nintendo World to get New Leaf at midnight! Nintendo World (now called Nintendo NYC) actually had a huge launch event that night and I was able to meet Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo of America at the time. People thought I was crazy waiting outside on the streets of New York City for 15+ hours just to get a video game, but it was so much fun. The Animal Crossing community is so friendly and kind, and I made lasting friendships with the people standing in line around me!
So basically – the Animal Crossing series of games have been a part of my life for over 18 years now, so they’ve had a huge impact on me as a person. I love these games of course because of the aspect of escapism, but also because they allow me to be almost limitlessly creative. I look at my island/town from a designer’s perspective and obsess over every little detail until it’s just right.I also really enjoy the fact that there are a lot of Japanese elements to these games that aren’t lost when they’re localised for other countries. As a child playing Animal Crossing: Population Growing, I learned so many things about Japanese culture through the holidays, events, and items I encountered in the game. I’ve always had a love for Japan, and Animal Crossing allows me to indulge my fantasies of living in that magical country, since it’ll probably never happen for me in real life!
Since these games are so important to me, I put a ton of pressure on myself to get the New Horizons collection right. It ended up being the hardest collection I’ve ever designed! I wanted to express my love for Animal Crossing, but not be too literal, while also making sure that the designs were beautiful and wearable. I can’t tell you how many designs I scrapped, how many times I had to walk away, clear my mind, and start over before creating the final rings that are now on my website!
You’re also a huge fan of Zelda, which has been a source of inspiration for your work. What other favourite games have you had over the years?
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has and will always be my favourite video game of all time. I played it through for the first time with the help of my dad and my sister in 1998 (when I was 8 years old!), and I’ve replayed it at least once every year of my life since then. I play every game in the Zelda series because they’re all wonderful, but my favourites are Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Breath of the Wild.
Other than the Zelda series, I also really love Super Mario games (especially Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, and Odyssey). I play every Mario Kart game as well and get incredibly aggressive and competitive with those. The original Luigi’s Mansion is another game I replay every year without fail. I always start a new file on October 1st to get me in the mood for Halloween. Every year I tell myself I’m going to get the golden picture frames on all of the boss ghosts (which means you need to kill them without taking more than 5 numbers of health damage), and every year I fail! Haha!I’ve always been a Nintendo girl, but when I started dating my fiancé back in 2006, he introduced me to World of Warcraft. We’ve both been playing WoW ever since, so that’s about 14 years at this point! He’s played a ton of different classes over the years, but I’m always a night elf priest!
You use all sorts of materials in your jewellery – gold, diamonds and many other precious gemstones. Do you have a favourite to work with or any new materials you’d like to try?
Personally I love working with yellow gold because there’s something ancient/medieval about it. When I imagine a new design, it’s always in yellow gold. I’m always happy to create any of my designs in white or rose gold, and I actually love when I receive orders in these gold colors because I get to see my designs in a totally different way. Sometimes I’m surprised by the results! I now think that all of the pieces in my Sailor Moon inspired collection look even more amazing in rose gold!
My favourite gemstones to work with are diamonds, because no other stone comes close in terms of brilliance and scintillation. A lot of my designs are very delicate and I love the fact that even a super tiny 1mm diamond sparkles! My favourite coloured stones actually change through the seasons. I’ve been excited about spring and cherry blossom season here in New York, so lately I’ve been loving morganite and peridot because the delicate warm pink and bright yellowy green are pretty close in colour to sakura flowers and leaves!
In the future I really want to design some pieces with salt-and-pepper diamonds. I think they’re stunning, but since they’re full of random inclusions, every salt-and-pepper diamond is unique. This makes them a bit tricky to design with, especially when you’re running an e-commerce business. I’ll never be able to find stones that look exactly like the one I used for the sample that’s shown on my website, so every customer will receive a piece that looks a bit different.Can you explain your process for working with clients on bespoke pieces?
Bespoke pieces are so much fun, because they give clients a chance to put their own spin on a piece of Soulbound jewellery! I have a little bespoke request form on my website where clients can fill in all of the information I need to get started, such as the style they’d like to change, gold colour, ring size, and details of the customisation they’re looking for. Most people choose to swap out gemstones for alternatives.
From there I edit the original 3D CAD model of the design with all of their requested changes, and send 3D rendered images of what the final piece will look like! After we create the piece I always try to photograph it for my records, and I’m hoping to update the custom page on my website soon with a full gallery of bespoke pieces.
One of the most fun pieces I’ve worked on was a Spiritual Stone of the Forest Ring with a lavender sapphire center stone and an ombre of blue sapphires on either side of the band that went from a deep blue to a light, faded blue. It was so unique!
With the outbreak of COVID-19, many small businesses are struggling to survive and New York has been one of the worst affected cities. How has the outbreak impacted your business?
Running a small business by myself has always been incredibly challenging, but now with the COVID-19 situation in New York, running Soulbound is downright terrifying. At first I completely shut down production, because I rely on the help of artisans in New York City’s diamond district for things like casting and stone setting, and since all of these artisanal professions are considered non-essential, everyone was forced to stay home. Since then many of these artisans have actually set up robust home studios, so they’re able to continue their craft at home!I feel much better now because this means I’m able to continue creating jewellery, however communicating with all of these artisans is more difficult and I now need to ship all of the materials back and forth to them, so I’m spending quite a lot of money on shipping fees. We’re also obviously operating much more slowly than usual, so I email everyone who places a new order and ask for their patience as we do our absolute best! So far everyone has been so kind, and I really can’t thank my customers enough for being so understanding. I also have customers and followers on Instagram who contact me just to see how I’m doing and make sure I’m still safe and healthy, and it means so much!
I’m really hoping that things will be back to normal soon, but since New York was hit so hard with COVID-19, I doubt the city’s restrictions will be lifted any time before July. So far all of my friends and family have remained safe and healthy, so I really can’t complain. I miss seeing people in person, but we hang out together in Animal Crossing almost every day!
Are you able to say anything about any other current or upcoming projects?
At the moment I’m working on adding earrings and necklaces to the New Horizons collection. They’re taking a bit longer than I expected because I’m so concerned about getting them just right! I think I’m almost there and I’m hoping I can have them completed and ready to launch on the website in June.
I’m also going to add a few new ring designs to the New Horizons collection for June that’ll be inspired by summer! Part of what makes Animal Crossing so special is the fact that the time in the game is synced up with time in real life. There are always new things to do and see during different seasons, and I plan to launch new mini-collections to go along with the change of seasons in the game!
About the Designer: Kelly Zogheb started Soulbound in 2014 selling brass and silver pendant necklaces inspired by video game characters and low poly graphics on Etsy and at various craft fairs and comic book conventions. After 2 years, she decided to take her jewellery company to the next level. She attended the Gemological Institute of America, studying fine jewellery design, 3D CAD modelling, diamond grading, and coloured gemstone identification.
In July 2017, she re-launched Soulbound as a fine-jewellery company featuring video game inspired designs that are handcrafted from the highest quality materials in New York City.
Copyright: All pictures in this post are copyrighted Kelly Zogheb. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
Interview: The Enchanted World of Ashraful Arefin
“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl
With so much doom and gloom in the world today, many of us are looking for ways we can escape without getting on a plane and flying away. Fine art photographer Ashraful Arefin has found a way to do just that – discovering magic and enchantment in everyday objects. Dreamy and ethereal, Ashraful’s photographs remind us that there can be beauty everywhere if you look for it. If you’re suffering from lockdown anxiety, these images will help to soothe your mind with a moment of peace, quiet and calm reflection.
After being captivated by his Flower Stories and the fantastical Alice in Wonderland themed cinemagraphs on his website, I was so excited to have the opportunity to ask Ashraful a few questions about his work and inspiration.
You are renowned for bringing everyday objects to life with a sense of fantasy and childlike wonder. What inspires your magical outlook on life?
I used to daydream about dreamy scenes and fantasy stuff when I was a little boy. When I started photography, I wanted to express those ideas and my imagination. Also all the fantasy storybooks, and Harry Potter movies really inspire me to add magical elements to everyday life.
Your photography brings a sense of peace, quiet and reflection. I wondered how living in a busy city such as Dhaka has influenced your work?
I think since I have lived in the chaos and crowd of Dhaka, I learned to appreciate quiet and peaceful moments more and this inspired me to look for these moments. Especially when I started shooting streets, I saw people even in the middle of a large crowd taking time to relax or just getting lost in their world. That inspired me to create these quiet atmospheres.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I noticed you often include literary quotes alongside your work. Do you have any favourite authors who continue to inspire you?
I do love the poems and songs of Rabindranath Tagore. Also, I am a big fan of Rumi. His words and wisdom have always been inspirational to me.
Having studied Fine Art before photography, were there any artists you particularly admired, and what drew you to their work?
I am obsessed with the works of Rembrandt. I studied his paintings when I was a student of fine art and his lighting techniques have a big influence on my work. Another one of my most favourite artists is Claude Monet. I learned about colours by studying his works and I always try to apply those techniques in my photography.
Are you able to say anything about any current or upcoming projects?
Currently, I am working on a series of cinemagraphs inspired by Harry Potter and the wizarding world. I am also planning to create a cinemagraph series inspired by 16th century Dutch still life paintings.
You can check out more of Ashraful’s work here:
About the Artist: Ashraful Arefin is a Fine Art Photographer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He started studying Fine Arts and chose Graphic Design as his major at university. Ashraful was photographically born in 2013 when he completely fell in love with photography and found his true passion for it. Ashraful tries to portray his appreciation for the beauty of simple things through his work, capturing beauty and emotion within his photographic frame by using colours and simple techniques.
Copyright: All pictures in this post are copyrighted Ashraful Arefin. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
Review: Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda
Remember when every party seemed to be a Great Gatsby theme party? While many people will be aware of the glitz and glamour that the author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda enjoyed, fewer will know of the heartbreak and tragedy that followed.
I revisited Fitzgerald’s work after watching Z: The Beginning of Everything, which tells the story of how the couple met and their early life together from Zelda’s perspective. I went on to read The Beautiful and the Damned, which is Scott’s thinly veiled autobiography chronicling the early, hedonistic years of their marriage. The pair reel from champagne fuelled chaos to the trials of domestic life, keeping their heads above water between riotous parties and raising a young child.
I then skipped to Tender is the Night, in which Scott undertakes a much more complex narrative that he laboured over with agonised rewrites. This novel covers their time living in France, socialising with the greatest talents of the 1920’s artistic community– Hemingway, Picasso, Matisse and Gertrude Stein. During this period Scott’s relationship with alcohol becomes much more problematic, his behaviour ever more erratic and distressing for everyone involved. Their friends Sara and Gerald Murphy on the other hand, through Scott’s lens, seem to have cracked the code for living a beautiful and fulfilled life – ‘la belle vie.’ Wanting to know more about the people behind the literary façade, I read the fittingly titled New Yorker article ‘Living Well is the Best Revenge.’ A fascinating (but very long) read, the article uncovers the Murphies’ own perspective on their relationship with the Fitzgeralds and this time in France.
It was in France that their marriage began to break down. Zelda became obsessed with ballet, taking lessons with the great Russian ballerina Lubov Egorova and dancing obsessively eight hours a day. She became physically and mentally exhausted, was eventually diagnosed as a schizophrenic and admitted to a psychiatric facility. She would spend the rest of her life in and out of these facilities and they would never live together for any extended period again. Scott’s own crisis would be explored in his three deeply personal essays – The Crack-Up, Pasting it Together and Handle with Care, as he began to lose confidence in his abilities and market worth.
This brings us, finally, to Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda. This definitive collection of their letters to each other spans from their initial meeting up to Scott’s death in 1940, from a heart attack at the age of 44. There may have been infidelities on both sides, but their deep and enduring love for each other is apparent all the way through these letters. Scott never abandoned Zelda, in fact he constantly fretted over her care and wellbeing.
While they were known for flashing the cash in the early days, it becomes apparent that money was a constant worry for Scott as he tried to ensure that his daughter had the best possible education and his wife received the best care. He would be frustrated with Zelda’s frivolous spending habits, but also understood she had a very active mind that needed stimulation with artistic pursuits such as painting while held captive in an institution.
In one exchange Scott becomes exasperated that Zelda has beaten him to the pass with the completion of her novel on the same period of their lives that Tender is the Night covered. Save Me the Waltz was dashed off in a matter of months while she was reposing in hospital; Scott laboured over his novel for years while trying to pay the bills. We are lucky this extraordinary couple left so much behind – their charm, wit and charisma is brought back immediately to life through these letters.
There has been much debate over the years on who stifled whose creativity or even who ruined who. Scott didn’t have much faith that Zelda would become a prima ballerina while pushing thirty, and she became something of a burden as he tried to realise his literary potential while raising their child. What did become clear, however, was that there would be no F. Scott Fitzgerald without Zelda Sayre – their life together was his greatest inspiration and Zelda his greatest muse.
Eight years after Scott’s death, Zelda died even more tragically in a fire at Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Survived by their daughter Scottie, they were buried together. The final, immortal words of The Great Gatsby can be found inscribed on their tombstone: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.“
– F. Scott FitzgeraldReview: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak is a prolific and internationally renowned British-Turkish author. Her most recent novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, was nominated for the 2019 Booker Prize.
Shifting between the present day and 13th century Konya, The Forty Rules of Love explores the relationship between the wandering Sufi mystic Shams of Tabriz and the now more widely known Persian poet Rumi. After his death, Rumi’s followers founded the Mevlevi Sufi Order, also known as the ‘whirling dervishes’.
In this novel, Shafak chronicles Rumi’s life-changing transformation into a mystic and poet through his close relationship with Shams. This is framed by the eponymous ‘Forty Rules’ created by Shams – profound ruminations on the nature of life, love and our connection to God. One such rule is particularly relevant to the nature of their relationship: “Eventually it is best to find a person, the person who will be your mirror. Remember, only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you.”
To make this story more relatable to our everyday lives, Shafak brings us back to the present day through the character of Ella, a dissatisfied housewife looking for deeper meaning in life and love. For me, this element was unnecessary as I found myself completely transported by the history and mysticism explored in the main story.For anyone interested in finding out more about Rumi and Sufism, I would recommend this as a good starting point.
“You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for him: in the heart of a true lover.”
Review: Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
As it says on the cover, this book truly is a masterpiece. Birds Without Wings is an incredibly insightful and well researched piece of wartime history, shining a light on the customs and daily life of people in Greece and Turkey during the early twentieth century. De Bernières captures the foibles and the beauty of the human condition from birth to life and in death. Some of the passages were so moving they brought me to tears. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the great Turkish leader Ataturk, this period of history and the culture of Greece and Turkey during this time. Even if you have no knowledge of this time or region, it will resonate with anyone simply interested in what it means to be human.
