"Nighted colour seeps into the mind"

Thoughts on hiatus; reading recommendations; photographs from Paris.

Sep 2, 2023

The source fails me, but the quote reads as follows: “The more I heal, the less ambitious I become.”

I open with that, as I’ve not written a word or taken a photograph in several months – and, in all honesty, I’m at peace with it. Mostly.

While writing and art remain priorities (and I’ve plenty of ideas to exorcise), it feels as if the need for validation – that primary fuel source for the fledgling creative – fell off somewhere along the way. Not to mention, any interest in creating more “content”.

In any case, more writing will come. For now, some reading recommendations – but first, a stack of newly acquired books! -JRS

Articles

Maclean’s Magazine, The Best Places to Eat in Canada

A list of restaurant reviewer Chris Nuttal-Smith’s favourite restaurants in Canada. If you follow my work, you know how I feel about best lists. Noteworthy here is that newish St. John’s restaurant Portage made the ranking; my congratulations to the Marco Group.

Jen St. Denis, Why Can’t We Build Like It’s the 1970s?

The housing crisis in this province continues; I figure we’re not far from a tent city in St. John’s. As with many of our current crises, this one results from – surprise, surprise – decades of neoliberal policy.

Damian Carrington, Vegan diet massively cuts environmental damage, study shows

I’ve written about this topic before (e.g. here); while the trend of boutique butcher shops continues apace here in Newfoundland, the evidence that we need drastic reductions in the amount of meat we consume grows also. (More: Scientific American; The Economist. )

Books

Thick, Tressie McMillan Cottom

Occasionally, very occasionally, you encounter work that makes you stop and rethink everything you do as a writer; this was the case for me here. An incredible essay collection, I consumed it in a single evening on the couch. (Time well spent.)

Ann Patchett, Commonwealth

Hyperbole time: If you haven’t read this book, you have my envy. I’d love to go back and experience it again, for the first time. The first chapter in particular is a masterclass in fiction.

Teju Cole, Every Day is for the Thief

A brief, beautiful, hybrid work of fiction, reportage and photography. One gem:

“The mind roams more widely in the dark than it does in light. It is no surprise, then, stepping out of the unlit house into the unlit compound to find myself with the sudden thought, What if I inhabited another body and had a different destiny? We have all had these notions, perhaps while standing on a porch over a lake in the summer night as our friends enjoy a party indoors, or maybe on waking alone at three in the morning. Moments of great isolation. And there is that other thought: What if everything changed tonight? […] Nighted color seeps into the mind.”