FEAST OR FAMINE

  Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants  by Mathias Enard (2017) is set in May 1506 in Constantinople, now known as Istanbul in Turkey.    Michelangelo Buonarroti –  the  Michelangelo – a young sculptor from Rome arrives in Constantinople in 1506. The Sultan of Constantinople, Bayezid the Second, has called him to the city to design a bridge over the Golden Horn. The Sultan had just rejected the design of another sculptor – Leonardo da Vinci – and has high hopes for Michelangelo’s design since he has been touted as a promising, upcoming sculptor.    The Sultan has provided Michelangelo with a large sum of money, a translator, and a studio in the ‘outbuildings of the former palace of the sultans; a stone’s throw from a grandiose mosque whose construction has just been completed.’ The Sultan has also promised Michelangelo immortality – everyone will know the name of Michelangelo forever.   Michelangelo looks at da Vinci’s rejected design. ...

  The Longcut   by Emily Hall (2022) is set in America in contemporary times.   The narrator works in an office, and her work is boring. She says all day she moves the status of projects in an excel sheet from “in progress” to “completed.” During the evening, she can’t sleep.   She lives in a studio apartment, because she is also a part-time artist striving to be a full-time artist. She is lost on her way to an art gallery for an interview. She walks around in circles, all the while in deep reflection about her art.   She doesn’t know what her art is, or how to articulate her art to anyone else. Who is she an artist for? What is her art? Is it taking shape into something comprehensible? Does it matter if it’s not?    How is her art relevant in her world, in her local world and in her wider world? How can she know the answer if she doesn’t know her art and what it represents?   She resists answering herself – is that because she doesn’t know her ow...