TOBI'S DESK

Left: detail from  Two Studies for a Skeleton by Gustave Klimt; Right: detail from  The Pacer by Egon Schiele The year 2018 marks the centenary of the deaths of the Austrian artists Gustav Klimt (born in 1862) and Egon Schiele (born in 1890). Even after a hundred years, their drawings have a compelling immediacy, a sense of energy and presence, of searching and questioning, that still feels fresh. Both artists welcomed deep engagement with their art, a kind of looking that encompassed feeling and seeking. Klimt was nearly thirty years Schiele’s senior, and the younger artist looked up to him, but their admiration and recognition of artistic skill were mutual. When Schiele asked Klimt if he was talented, Klimt replied, “Talented? Much too much.”    Schiele proposed an exchange of drawings, offering several of his own sheets for one by Klimt, to which Klimt responded: “Why do you want to exchange with me? You draw better than I do.”    Schiele was proud when...

Mid-way through Christine Angot ’s pioneering, genre-bending novel, Incest —originally published to shock and acclaim in France in 1999 and newly translated into English by Tess Lewis —Angot’s lover laments, “I think of love and I feel invaded . ” Angot is known for using the facts of her life as the basis for her fiction, and it seems that to love her is, indeed, to invite a kind of invasion. (She was sued for literally “pillaging the private life” of a different lover’s ex-partner in her 2011 novel Les Petits ). The line also evokes what it feels like to be immersed in Angot’s most taboo work, a cyclone of language and raw emotion that explores, among other things, an incestuous relationship with her father. There’s the sense that things—traditional narrative structure, linear time, and so-called “healthy” boundaries, to name a few—have been breached.  It probes at ideas and emotions that feel untouchable. I think of this book, and I feel invaded. The first and longest of the bo...

Real life reviews from the City of Light, compiled from TripAdvisor.com Musee d’Orsay MUSÉE D’ORSAY Not worth unless you are into art Only go if you are interested in art history. I love history, but I couldn’t stay here for more than an hour, as its pictures doesn’t make sense to me.   EIFFEL TOWER Very not good! We expect from the Eiffel Tower something romantic. But we got—very not good and not clean around the Eiffel Tower! At night you can’t see the city of Paris because there is not enough lighting!!! After visiting the Eiffel Tower, NO body helped us to find the way to go down!!! Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, France. NÔTRE DAME 10-euro charge to see a small church All church’s were free to see in Italy but not in France. You pay 10 euro to see house of God What a business ? Over priced !! The floor show at the Moulin Rouge. MOULIN ROUGE Worse show ever… An excruciating one and half hours of pain watching dance...

On female ambition and what gets thrown out. Photo © Kate Reali Photography   Around halfway through writing my novel, I read a book that nearly derailed me. As any writer knows, reading while writing is always a risky pursuit. Cadences are easily stolen; we find ourselves singing a lullaby we don’t remember being sung to us. But there’s something worse than a book that turns us into magpies and mimics: one that squelches our very desire to write. The book that had this censoring effect on me was called, both innocuously and officially, The Baby Book. It was the first book I read after giving birth for the first time, as sleep-deprived and receptive as any cult joiner. I had not read about baby care during my first pregnancy, which ended after eleven weeks, or during the second. Due to an autoimmune illness that could compromise my ability to carry a baby to term, as well as my family’s Judeo-magical thinking that links stillbirths to positive thoughts, I refused to im...

Yemisi Aribisala’s Longthroat Memoirs, which won the John Avery Award last year, is in the running for yet another high-profile award. The book has been shortlisted for the Gourmand Awards, a.k.a. oscars of food awards, in the Food Writing category. The prestigious Gourmand Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau and honor the best food and […] from Brittle Paper http://ift.tt/2nlLDIX

EPISODE 6 I stood statue still as I stared at Kingsley, his hands still on my shoulders, my heart beating ten times its normal speed, and I think I was about to hyperventilate because Kingsley said in a soothing voice (a soothing voice!) it’s so creepy for your kidnapper to talk to you in a … Continue reading Ada. Episode 6 → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2rRynjX

It is true that we live but to die, but life itself becomes death when there is no certainty of tomorrow. That was what life became that morning. That morning I heard the thundering voice of what they call bomb for the first time. Father, like a frightened dog, barked at us. ‘Get under the … Continue reading A New Beginning → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2GAKqpe

The night is far spent As darkness awaits the dawn Darkness waits creation dawn The cockcrow has crow Ushering the dawn of a new day   Waking my sunshine In the sunshine of the day Radiating in the glorious sun of the day I look forward to the day when we be together To wake … Continue reading Wake Up Mylv → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2rRyiNb