📚 24 - April
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1795). The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily.
An allegory that seems to defy interpretation, in which characters pass secret knowledge to one another that is inaccessible to the reader. In my little reading group, we came to the conclusion that the defiance of easy or coherent interpretation might have been part of the point; the reader is expected to use the text to generate their own knowledge (perhaps—carry their own lamp into a cavern?) instead of receiving direct wisdom.
Sarah Schulman (2018). Maggie Terry.
I've been reading a lot of detective fiction lately it seems! This one did feel like a novelized Conflict Is Not Abuse. Some of the very scenarios laid out in Schulman's previous book (police brutality, withholding of custody, running from distressed people instead of speaking with them, etc.) are played out as fiction.
Something I noticed with this book is that everything seemed very measured—a "negative capability" that sometimes gives detective fiction a frisson is missing. Everything seemed mapped out by an author keeping very tight control on the text.
That said, I did enjoy the book.
###