Teju Cole discusses history and writes about photography and black image-making in Known and Strange Things.
The Reading List
The Vedanta Treatise: Swami Parthasarathy’s seminal work about recognising and harnessing one’s core self is the kind of gift that finds you if its teachings are what you seek. It’s a collection of treatises about diminishing distractions, developing spiritual guidelines to live by and quieting the mind so that it can get to the work of living its purpose. I’m a third of the book in and I’m already holding my mind differently and recognising the difference between the useful and the useless when it comes to what to engage with. (MB)
Known and Strange Things: Teju Cole is better at nonfiction than fiction, and his latest book of essays is some of the smartest cultural writing in recent memory. Cole is able to discuss history in a decisively modern vernacular, and his writing about photography and black image-making breathes new life into the stale genre of the photography essay. Also, if anyone sees him, please ask him to come back to Twitter. (SM)
The Play Lists
Moving (340ml): I looked through an old stack of CDs while preparing for a long drive alone last week and had completely forgotten about this album — my personal soundtrack for 2004 to 2006, years characterised by Greyhound trips across the Cape, graduating into the “system”, paying tax, changing looks and dark encounters at Evol in Cape Town. (MB)
The Leftovers: This is a perfect TV series. The premise is simple: What happens when 2% of the world’s population disappears? Rather than going to a sci-fi mystery place, it focuses on those who are left behind and how they deal with a world that has shifted underneath them. It’s a searing meditation on family and grief, anchored by beautiful performances from an ensemble cast led by Justin Theroux and Regina King. (SM)