June 2015

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Persian delights, Iranian art and architecture – BODFAS 2

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Behind the Veil: the Arts of Islamic Persia  – John Osborne 

 

So my second BODFAS approached and I was determined not to make such a mess of it this time. However, the fates are cruel and things cropped up. The phone rang as I was leaving, the car needed fuel, there were massive roadworks and eventually I arrived 10 minutes late and had to sneak in and sit at the back. Naturally as I reached for my glasses I realised I had left them by the phone. AGH! A fuzzy shadow play of pretty things followed. 

 
 

The talk was interesting but had a rather scatter gun feel to it. There was no obvious thread but I did learn an awful lot about the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam. Shia believe in a twelfth prophet coming back to save his people, worship at tombs of various holy men, women and scholars and have a relaxed attitude towards their religion.






Sunnis are far stricter, they only worship Mohammed and are considered to be more fundamental. Persia / Iran is mainly Shia and has a strong population of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians (the pre-Islamic religion) they are protected religions and have representation in parliament. Iran combines theocracy and democracy in that everyone votes, women as well, but the overall ruler is a religious figure. It’s not my country of choice but it has more going for it than we probably give it credit for.
The main colour of Zoroastrianism is blue and this can be seen all through the religious decoration of Iran, showing the long standing religious feelings of Persia and their tolerance of earlier beliefs.
Islam forbids the representation of figures in its religious buildings which has lead to the most stunning tessellation patterns made in hand cut pieces of tiles adorning the temples.
Beyond the temples we see beautiful decorations of manuscripts and paintings often showing a strong mongol influence, or Persian art heavily influenced mongol art. At one time Persia stood in the centre of the Eastern and Western world. Everyone passed through Persia on there way to somewhere else and there art and culture was shaped and changed by visitors and influenced cultures as it went on.











 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We didn’t get time to look at much in the way of writings but John did read one poem from Persia’s most celebrated poet Saadi Shirazi. Translated from the original Farsi, this brilliant little poem was written in the 1200s and has very strong echoes of Dr Suess!
 
 
 
Observe this precept whenever you can – 
Never make friends with an elephant-man;
For an elephant-man has a pet to keep,
Eating and drinking, awake or asleep,
And if you are friendly one day you’ll see,
When the elephant-keeper comes to tea,
That, not in the least by chance or whim,
The elephant will accompany him.
Then as soon as the animal’s through the door
You’ll notice cracks in the parlour floor,
And however much you may frown or stare
He’ll sit across-legged on an easy chair,
And swill your tea with his cumbrous trunk
Till you think ‘My Word, what a lot he’s drunk’
And if you should offer a mild reproof
He’ll be up from your table and off with your roof.
In your sorrows you’ll only sink deeper and deeper
If you ever make friends with an elephant-keeper.

SAA’DI
Translated by JCE Bowen
Published in Poems from the Persian (Scorpion Press o/p)

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What we read in May

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Picnic in Provence, Elizabeth Bard

This is the most gorgeous tale of an American city girl falling in love with rural France. On holiday with her French husband in Provence they stumble across the home of a French resistance hero. They fall in love with it and in a moment of instant attraction they decide to up sticks from their cosmopolitan lifestyle and move to a small village. To make things more complicated Elizabeth discovers that she is pregnant and has to learn to cope with the French attitude to pregnancy and childhood. It’s a long way from her own New York, Jewish upbringing and you often find your heart going out to a lady sometimes out of her depth.

Throughout the book, as she struggles with sense of identity and the concerns of motherhood, she shares with us her love of food and the recipes she accumulates as she settles down into the community. This book is so full of warmth and love as well as joie de vie that it made a hugely refreshing change from the usual London couple renovating a house in Brittany. Sometimes when she writes I think that French are the foreigners, other times it is her own behaviour and observations that I find alien. Regardless, this is a very engaging book and all the recipes  are the final icing on the cake.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

Following my recent mortification with the lovely Rupert Everett, I thought I should read the book that the film was being based on.  It’s appealed for a while but you know, its one of those things that you never get round to. The book has an interesting print style, quite close to the margins, shiny white pages and lots of printed black and white photos throughout.  I think that’s why it hasn’t appealed, it doesn’t quite feel right in the hand. Silly, huh?

Anyway, it’s quite good fun.  Children with special powers live in a special home battling evil forces, all with a modern gothic patina. Frustratingly though as I got towards the end it became clear that the book was the first of a series.  I hate that!  Also I wasn’t that sure that I would bother to read the next book. Never a good sign.

 

Once, James Herbert

Never heard of this one so I was really looking forward to it. The production of the hardback is lush, lots of line drawings, embossed covers, although plain board boards. I love English ghost stories with a bit of horror thrown in.  Gave up after only a few chapters.  Oh it was so predictable. By chapter five I’d pretty much figured out the rest of the story and gave up!

 

 

Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett

 

So disappointed, I’ve been saving my last few unread Pratchett’s but this one is one that belongs to his group of repetitive formulae 🙁 I may pick it up again but for now it’s a miss.

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What we read in April

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Tigerman, Nick Harkaway

Oh yes! When a good man goes to war, father and son patterns, accidental chemical warfare, what happens to desperate people and killer tomatoes. If you haven’t read Harkaway before, and he’s only done two other novels, so why would you, you are in for a treat.  If you have read him before then this is nothing like the last one, but then, that was nothing like the one before. That’s the great thing about Harkaway, each book is odd, different  and very readable.





The Fifteen Lives of Harry, Claire North

A clever idea of people that live their lives in a loop whilst everyone around them lives in a linear timeline. These people get to relive events and therefor have the power to shape history by communicating with fellow travelers up and down the time loops.  It’s a great concept but it’s so boring, there’s to empathy for the main protagonist, no development and much much repetition. Towards the end it began to speed up but by then I couldn’t care less if the world ended or not, so long as the book did.  Sorry to be mean but its just not for me. (Lots of other people seemed to like it though)



The Girl From Nowhere – Dorothy Koomson

Well out of my comfort zone so not fair to review this poorly.  What I read of it was well written but family stories don’t engage me.


The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher Ahn Do-Hyun 

Such a pretty book. French flaps, embossed gilt cover, line illustrations. Lovely to hold and to look at.   Contents a bit too zen for my taste though. (Another review copy)  Probably suit people that like Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

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Knickers, knockers and knee britches – BODFAS 1

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The Foundations of Fashion – Kate Strasdin 

Well I’m just back from my first NADFAS talk. For a long time I’ve missed the lecture circuit and academic discussions and so it was nice to stumble across the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies, recommended to me by a friend. I had managed to miss several talks and was most annoyed to miss The Treasures of Catherine the Great and The Architecture of Barcelona, so I was determined to not miss any more. You know how it is with work and families. It’s not made any easier by the fact that the talks are on a Wednesday afternoon, clashes with the auction house and the boys’ surf session (yes school is tough isn’t it?) and it’s over in Bodmin (BODFAS) so that takes more time out of the day. Anyway the joys of being self employed and having a great husband is that you can juggle things and so I headed off to The Secret History of Underwear.

I arrived early so that I could suss things out and instantly realised that I had left my glasses at home. Nothing for it but to sit at the front of a rather large room (lurking at the back is more my style but what can you do if you want to watch a slide show of beautifully digitized photos rather than a blurry shadow show). Anyway there I was quietly reading my book when a chap wandered over, introduced himself as the president and then somehow convinced me to lead the vote of thanks at the end to the speaker and say a few words about the talk. As he sauntered off to say hello to others I sat there in a state of shock. What had just happened? I hate talking in public, I stutter, garbled and often burst into tears of panic. To be honest, that usually detracts from what I am trying to say and rules me out of most people’s first choice of public speaker. Anyway as I sat in horror a rather lovely lady sat down next to me and started to chat about her wonderful grandchildren and how happy she was that the world was in good hands. In fact as I looked around I realised that the general population in the room was very well dressed and about two decades ahead of myself. Hmm.

Still the talk proceeded and it was fascinating. We started with the basic shift which everyone wore and its primary function was to preserve the over-clothes from sweaty bodies. After all 400 years ago a shift was a far easier garment to wash than wool and linen or silk and velvet. In fact the shift remained a mainstay for men, women and children alike until the start of this century with very little change. (Very little change in design, hopefully lots of changes in the laundry department) We saw examples of bodices made of straw and horsehair worn by working women and corsets made of silks and satins, often worn as over-garments in vibrant colours.

We looked at various paddings, bicep padding for Victorian ladies, calf padding for Georgian gentlemen and lots of other weird and wonderful garments to constantly re-shaping our silhouette. We discovered the meaning of “Charlie’s showing” when your slip is exposed. What was meant by “Red shoes, no knickers” but no one including the lecturer knew why the silt panel decoration on stocking is called the clocks. Although we all recognised the terms Knickers! Gussets, girdles and girders and finally over the shoulder boulder holders.

 

Towards the end she showed a liberty vest, an item that children commonly wore in the 50s that ad finally replaced the shift. It raised a laugh amongst the audience as they recoginsed a childhood staple. It was easy to thank her at the end and as I asked her if boys wore the vest as well? Before she had the chance to answer a large number of deep voices from the audience laughed and said yes, definitely. History in action!

The laughter helped me struggle to the end, and the applause gave me leave to return the mike and go and sit back down again. As soon as the light came on I scarpered bumping into a familiar face who complimented me on my bravery and recommended sitting at the back with her next time.

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