Coffee Letter #026: Effervescence
And other notes about the weather.
It’s April and the weather is a beautiful menace. Although it should stop with the frost and the snow, if only for the blooms and the storks. It’s a fun month and one of the most beautiful of the year, in my humble opinion. Just look outside! Magnolias. Tulips (although not yet in bloom at the Botanical Garden). Daffodils. The birds, so many birds. Walk at sunset, listen to the blackbirds. Go to a pond or river. Check on the baby ducklings. The swans. And, of course, my favourite part: April showers.
Nature is alive and blooming! The balance between cold and warmth is perfect. As people we like to complain about Spring weather and joke about what season it is, but to me, Spring was always about surprises and spontaneity.
If March is about darkness (like I wrote in the first post of March), then April is about joy! I’ve always loved April. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so attuned to the seasons, or at least distance myself by how I perceive each month — March - dark, April - ah-mazing; this stops me from living in the moment. Naturally it’s even more damaging in the months I see as “dark” since I live in constant fear that the darkness will overtake me and forget to live in the present.
I like myself a lot more in these “joyful” months. I’m energised, ready to conquer the world, I’m alive! I’m less shy, more bubbly, I open up more, I am more vulnerable — things that the me-version from the “dark” months wouldn’t do for fear of not burdening others. The dark-months-me avoids instead of embracing, she hides herself and her feelings, she dims her light and her joy. And I get her, I do, because the dark months are not easy to navigate.
But I wish it was April year-round.
~ read
This week I finished a couple of picture books for kids — in typical me-style I read at a pub accompanied by a Negroni and my friends chatting. I don’t know why (and please don’t ask me how I do it, I just do), but I love reading surrounded by my friends as background noise.
And I’ve also finished Sappho:
If Not, Winter by Sappho, translated by Anne Carson. Heartbreakingly beautiful.
I don’t think I know how to talk about this volume — how does one talk about incomplete writings? How do you explain how just one word on the page carries the weight of her entire work and you just know deep down that that lost poem is everything? How to tell you that in only a few words or just three lines Sappho can make me cry?
someone will remember us
I say
even in another time
Her work — even in its incomplete state — is beautiful and intense.
What’s even more beautiful and impactful about Carson’s translation is that she shows you the absence… by translating every piece, every fragment that is traced back to Sappho even if it’s just one word or two or nothing at all, she highlights how much of her work is lost. And that breaks me.
~ watch
The White Lotus (TV series, 2021-). I finished the third season and I’m still not over the finale. I knew it was coming, yet I was not ready, guys!
Where this show shines is in creating these little scenes where characters just talk that are so perfect — the tension, the subtleties, the reveals. It’s delicious. Other than that, privileged people at an expansive resort not having the perfect vacation they expected.
Mike White, I want more, please! And bring the opening back! Available on Max.
~ and other things I did last week
Music: I have two just released albums to share — BODIES by Thornhill, which I recommend with headphones, it’s atmospheric metal (is there such a thing? I’m a book reviewer, not really that confident talking about music), and The Inbetween by POESY, never heard of her but her music reminds me of Florence & The Machine.
Other things consumed last week:
Sayaka Murata’s Alien Eye (The New Yorker). I’m almost done with Sayaka Murata’s newest novel in English (although originally published in 2015) hence why I stumbled upon this profile by Elif Batuman. She also talks about her newest translated novel in this article, so read carefully. I will also talk about the novel next week — I’m almost done with it! Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata will officially come out tomorrow!
On that note: The Scambusters (The Elif Life - substack). More on Sayaka Murata, also by Elif Batuman.
Céline Sciamma’s Quest for a New, Feminist Grammar of Cinema (The New Yorker). Another profile by Elif Batuman — are you sensing a trend maybe? Last time I mentioned Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this week I read a profile on Sciamma. I think everything points towards a rewatch or maybe a Céline Sciamma marathon (I also loved her film Tomboy).
10-Minute Challenge: ‘The Seasons’ by Lee Krasner (The New York Times). I love NYT’s painting challenges. And spending 10 minutes looking at peaches is just up my alley.
International Booker Prize Shortlist: 6 Books to Talk About (The New York Times). The shortlist is out and I’m more excited than ever because this year I will try to read them all (although I can’t promise to do it before the winner is announced, but I shall try)! Follow more about the prize on their website.
This joy and energy are not without consequences — but I prefer being enthusiastic and ecstatic over lethargic. I’m writing this post very late and honestly in a bit of hurry because this week I’ve been too busy living: I spent time with people, I made plans — a lot of buddy-reading plans, I played and I laughed. I also went to see the Dali exhibition (and I just found out it will be in town until May 18th) and to the Botanical Garden (I repeat, the tulips are not yet in bloom). Who knows what else I’ll do!
Thank you for reading!
PS: I also ate all the cake! And I might rewatch Marie Antoinette after this post.
