As challenging and excruciating Covid was for the everyday life, its potential as a source of inspiration for literary and artistic endeavours in general is still to be manifested. The experience of solitude, the forced inactivity - both physical and economically-oriented - due to the repeated lockdowns, are a good challenge for the writer, whose art of translating reality through words may be on high request. How other but through wording are we able to understand the world around us, particularly the unusual encounters with unusual circumstances.
The Light Room. On Art and Care by Kate Zambreno is for me, by far, one of the most stringent meditation on life and nature, family and ourselves prompted by Covid 19. I´ve listen to the book, read by the author herself, with her soothing yet inquiring voice, and it added on more authenticity to the memoir.
While going through different stages of the pandemic, Zambreno is nursing her youngest child, while adapting to the new work realities and the changes in her worldview as well. There is more focus on nature, as refute and source of education. She is constantly searching for new toys and learning methods on Montessori blogs - something I definitely miss from my child education, but one day I promise myself to pay more attention to it.
But as usual when the memoir is at work, there are hidden places in the memorialistic journey that may be revealed, memories and people who brought them to life. The memories in her memoir are very much alive, happen in the present because, anyway, where else are those memories taking place when re-enacted. All is there, in the light room of our minds.
I really loved following Zambreno´s thoughts and I consider challenging putting into the same equation children care and education with environmental concerns. It may be obvious but theorizing this double take at the same time may take some time in reality.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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