Essay · Film & Lives The Girl Who Never Quite Belonged to Herself Natalie Wood was one of the most naturally gifted actresses of the Hollywood studio era, a woman who made the transition from child star to adult performer with a completeness that almost no one manages, who received three Academy Award nominations beforeContinue reading “Natalie Wood”
Category Archives: Aesthetics
Chapter 63: Fairytale of New York
“Birdie, honey!” Mrs Montgomery calls. “Come here,” she says, slipping an arm around my shoulder. “What do you think of this seating?” The countdown to the wedding is on, and Mrs Montgomery has taken over completely. Topper and I are fine with it. Neither of us is particularly invested in wedding planning, and she’s aContinue reading “Chapter 63: Fairytale of New York “
Speaking for God: How Medieval Women Seized Power Through Divine Voice
They had no pulpit, no vote, no university, no legal standing, and no legitimate path to public authority in any institution their world recognised. So they found the one loophole the medieval Church could not easily close — the direct line to God — and they used it to address popes, command armies, reshape theology,Continue reading “Speaking for God: How Medieval Women Seized Power Through Divine Voice”
Chapter 62: I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)
I’ve barely stepped through the front door when Miss Mary calls for me from the kitchen. I’ve taken a taxi from the airport, deciding at the last second that I wanted a few days “visiting with Miss Mary,” as I tell Topper, who “understands.” I rush in and hug her tight, greeting her like theContinue reading “Chapter 62: I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)”
Ian Fleming’s Bond
Essay · Literature & Culture The Man Who Cannot Be Killed James Bond was created in 1952 by a bored, unhappy, recently married former intelligence officer writing his first novel in a Jamaican house he had built to escape from England, and he has refused to die for seventy years. The refusal is the mostContinue reading “Ian Fleming’s Bond”
Chapter 61: Edge of Reality
I check my reflection in the mirror before heading out to see the boy at his hotel. I wear an off-the-shoulder black dress from Paris and a pink shawl. I look, in my own humble opinion, like a Vogue model, casual and elegant at the same time. Topper has gone to Palm Springs for theContinue reading “Chapter 61: Edge of Reality”
Georges-Eugène Haussmann
Essay · Architecture & History The Man Who Demolished Paris to Save It Georges-Eugène Haussmann did not build Paris. He destroyed it, systematically and at enormous speed and with the full authority of an emperor behind him, and what he built in its place was something that had not previously existed: the modern city, withContinue reading “Georges-Eugène Haussmann”
Chapter 60: Where Do You Come From?
“I love you,” Topper says over lunch in the garden. “Do you know why?” He looks up from The New Yorker. I feel some force field ripple between us.“You’re making a girl flush.” He sits up straighter. “I need you to know,” he says, fixing me with that intense gaze. “It’s your insistence on beingContinue reading “Chapter 60: Where Do You Come From?”
Arthur Jafa
Essay · Art & Ideas The Question He Has Been Asking for Thirty Years Arthur Jafa has organised his entire artistic life around a single question: how do you make a Black cinema with the power, beauty, and alienation of Black music? The question sounds like a problem of aesthetics. It is, in fact, aContinue reading “Arthur Jafa”
Chapter 59: I Sing the Body Electric
Topper arrives for a week in the California sunshine, having taken time off from the Senator’s office. I run into his arms at the airport; he laughs and holds me close. “Let me have a proper look at you,” he says. We dance our way out of the terminal toward the car. “Is this new?”Continue reading “Chapter 59: I Sing the Body Electric “
My World of Interiors 