Tuesday 4 September 2012

The view from up there

So, the Room for London was home for a few days last week to Teju Cole, and, like those who went before him, he left behind a podcast. Humane and complex and discomfiting, it's essential listening, responding on many levels at once to our question: how is the view from up there?

4 comments:

Anne said...

I listened to the podcast. It was on Natalie's blog as well. He had a lovely, smooth voice. His writing was lovely and smooth. I haven't read any of his books, but I felt his words were wise and humane. And yet, somehow, I felt that rarefied world, at the top of London, at the top of New York, in the realm of first rank minds and prize winning authors I could never enter, never participate. No space for an old white American woman of moderate intellect and sometimes slow wits. Am I being petty? Perhaps I should be content to adore from afar.

Jean said...

Anne, I'm NOT one to adore from afar. I felt this, smooth as it is, was full of uncomfortable questions - without which I would feel the same as you.


alembic said...

Anne's feeling of "no space for an old white American woman of moderate intellect and sometimes slow wits" is a familiar one to me. In fact, I am so mired in the dust and dirt of just getting through the outerlands these days, that I have a hard time making out the shape of things "up there." So much of literature has become a luxury beyond my means.

But it was a lovely listen and I am happy that he had the chance to take in the view from up there and provide us with a map to that territory.

Dick said...

Did you attend, Jean? I was disappointed not to be around for TJ's visit.