Reader’s Den
Reader's Den: Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner Wrap up
I hope you have enjoyed reading Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner. Listed below are suggestions of novels, poetry and non-fiction that might also be of interest to you.
- The Tennis-Court Oath by John Ashbery (1957)
Contains poem Leaving the Atocha Station - The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke (1910)
another novel by a poet - Angle of Yaw by Ben Lerner (2006)
a book of poetry from the author of Leaving the Atocha Station - Selected Poems by Frederico Garcia Lorca (2010)
Spanish poet assassinated during the Spanish Civil War - Criminal Ingenuity by Ellen Levy (2011)
for more on Ashbery and the dynamic between art and poetry. Also visit Prudence Peiffer's review of the book in her article, "Free Agents," in the Nov. 2012 issue of Artforum magazine, which names Leaving the Atocha Station as an "excellent novel." - Great Painting: The World's Masterpieces Explored And Explained (2011)
- The Rothko Chapel: Writings On Art And The Threshold Of The Divine by Dominique de Menil (2010)
More on transcendent art. - Here and Now: Poems by Stephen Dunn (2011)
From the poem Landscape and Soul (pg 82)
"...I find myself
conjuring Breugel-like peasants cavorting
under a Magritte-like sky – a landscape,
I think, the soul if fully awake might love."
Although it is a completely individual experience, if you'd like to try conjuring transcendent experience with art, here are a few suggestions in New York City:
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
- Approaching Thunder Storm by Martin Johnson Heade
- Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lapage
- The Crucifixion; The Last Judgment by Jan Van Eyck and Workshop Assistant
- Eternal Spring by Auguste Rodin
- Monolith and Trees by Thomas Fearnley
at the Museum of Modern Art:
- The False Mirror by Rene Magritte
- The Street by Balthus
at the Brooklyn Museum:
- Battle at Karbala by Abbas Al-Musav
- Female Torso
at the The Frick:
- St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini
- Fishing Boats Entering Calais Harbor by Joseph Mallord William Turner
We are already pumped and ready for A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, next month's Reader's Den selection. The protaganist Sasha, has an uncle who travels to Naples and has an epiphany staring at the sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale, "What moved Ted, mashed some delicate glassware in his chest, was the quiet of their interaction, the absence of drama or tears as they gazed at each other, touching gently. He sensed between them an understanding too deep to articulate: the unspeakable knowledge that everything is lost."
It appears that whether or not people have life-changing experiences with art, many of us are open to the possibility.
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