The March Archive

March roses shall burn me in the land where I was first born. (Mahmoud Darwish)

some recommendations based on what i’ve been reading, watching and using in the month of march.

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to read —

• The Odyssey written by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. (2017)

(you can read my review here)

Poets are not to blame for how things are.

The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer's sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer's music.

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• Mary Toft; or the Rabbit Queen written by Dexter Palmer (2019)

(you can read my review here)

"Cities are complicated," said John. "They can be both the beautiful thing you believed them to be and the dark thing you did not imagine they could be. The one does not obscure the other."

Zachary was silent.

"People, too," said John more quietly.

Surgeon John Howard is a rational man. His apprentice Zachary knows John is reluctant to believe anything that purports to exist outside the realm of logic. But even John cannot explain how or why Mary Toft, the wife of a local farmer, manages to give birth to a dead rabbit. When this singular event becomes a regular occurrence, John realizes that nothing in his experience as a village physician has prepared him to deal with a situation as disturbing as this. He writes to several preeminent surgeons in London, three of whom quickly arrive in the small town of Godalming ready to observe and opine. When Mary's plight reaches the attention of King George, Mary and her doctors are summoned to London, where Zachary experiences for the first time a world apart from his small-town existence, and is exposed to some of the darkest corners of the human soul. All the while, Mary lies in bed, waiting for another birth, as doubts begin to blossom among the surgeons and a growing group of onlookers grow impatient for another miracle...

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• Are Writers Born or Made? Jack Kerouac on the Crucial Difference Between Talent and Genius written by Maria Popov.

  

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  to use —

1. Calla Lilies

2. Fried Vegetables Noodles

3. Folksongs & Ballads by Tia Blake

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to watch —

• L’arte della Gioia directed by Valeria Golino. (2024)

Io non la conosco la pace, ma la gioia, quella sì. E quella la volevo tutta per me.

Born on the 1st of January 1900 in a poor family in rural Sicily, Modesta pursues happiness since her childhood without falling victim to the constraints of society. After a tragic event that takes her away from her family, Modesta is welcomed into a monastery, where she becomes the Mother Superior’s protégé thanks to her intelligence and stubbornness. Later, she arrives at the villa belonging to the Princess of Brandiforti, where she makes herself indispensable. This relentless process of emancipation goes along with a journey of personal growth and sexual awakening, which lead her to discover and claim the right to pleasure and happiness.

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• Monkey Man directed by Dev Patel. (2024)

The pain, it will leave you once it’s finished teaching you.

Kid is an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

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(to watch and listen) —

• quiet mornings, slowly waking up to the smell of fresh coffee

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see you next month!

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