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On Beauty Reading Guide

On Beauty Zadie Smith reading guide review

“On Beauty” has deservedly won the 2006 Orange Prize – our congratulations go out to Zadie Smith for winning this great prize.

FilmFour have bought the movie rights for “On Beauty”, and are set to film the novel on a budget of $20m. Alison Owen and Scott Rudin will produce the film. Scott Rudin has previously handled successful literary adaptations, such as “Angela’s Ashes”, “The Hours”, and also produced “The Wonder Boys”.

“On Beauty” is Zadie Smith’s glorious third novel. Howard Belsey is having a difficult time. He is still in the doghouse after a one-night stand. Then he learns that his academic adversary, Monty Kipps, is joining the staff at Wellington, the Bostonian university at which Howard teaches (which seems to be based on the Harvard Zadie Smith knew as a Radcliffe fellow). Howard, whose unfinished magnum opus is entitled “Against Rembrandt: Interrogating a Master”, ironically casts Monty as an iconoclast: although Monty’s targets are political, rather than artistic. It is Howard who is the direct opposite of a Simon Schama or a Harold Bloom. Howard and his liberal colleagues fear that the conservative Monty will argue against Affirmative Action and the unqualified discretionaries that they allow on their courses. It doesn’t help that Howard’s son, Jerome, has previously engaged in a brief connection with Victoria, Monty Kipps’ exceedingly beautiful daughter. Howard’s daughter Zora (whom Zadie Smith has named after literary heroine Zora Neale Hurston) jealously regards Victoria as a vacuous beauty. However, not all of the Belseys’ are at war against the Kipps’: Kiki, Howard’s wife, finds a common shelter with Carlene, Monty’s friendly but sometimes distant wife. Meanwhile, Levi, the other Belsey child, embarks on a quest to assert his black identity, and falls in with a crowd of deprived Haitian immigrants. Along the way, they encounter Carl Thomas, a young black poet with conscious hip-hop lyrics, who strives to make something better of himself.

Carl is the Leonard Bast, Carlene is Ruth Wilcox, and Kiki is Margaret Schlegel, in Zadie Smith’s reworking of E. M. Forster’s “Howards End”. In this, Zadie Smith seems to be taking her cue from Elaine Scarry’s essay, “On Beauty and Being Just” (which Zadie does acknowledge to be one inspiration for the title of this novel). Scarry’s thesis starts out with the observation that Beauty leads to replication – the artist sees a beautiful bird, which leads artist to paint the beautiful bird beautifully. Thus does Zadie Smith embark on a seemingly perilous voyage to reproduce a book she loves. It would appear that it’s okay for a beautiful boy band to reproduce the millionth version of “Unchained Melody”, because we don’t expect much of the poor darlings: it is not okay for a respected literary novelist to do the same, because we expect so much more from them. That, at least, is the initial perception. But if one thinks of the origins of storytelling – bard on rock embellishing the already fantastic tales of his predecessors – then what Zadie Smith is attempting to do here does not seem so strange. However, it just seems more acceptable nowadays for the oral culture (boy bands) to do it, rather than the set-in-stone literary culture. At times though, it does seem as though Smith is following E. M. Forster’s line too far – the aborted rail trip to Amherst reads uncomfortably due to this – Carlene’s terminal spontaneity could have been revealed in a more original way. Yet, the final analysis must be that she uses her source material very intelligently and subtly. Although Zadie Smith seems to regard Roland Barthes as being very dry (no doubt due to the utility of his prose), “On Beauty” could be seen in some ways as indicative of “The Birth of the Reader”, with the reader going so far as to create their own version of the text (although I prefer to see the relationship between author and reader as a dialogue, which is a whole lot less dramatic than this birthing and dying and circle of life kind of thing). For instance, Leonard Bast pursued Beauty in “Howards End” through books and impromptu midnight walks. Although “On Beauty” is in some ways a love letter to “Howards End”, in its wit and vitality, the love goes both ways, resulting in a novel that is very much Zadie Smith’s own. On a mundane level, there are scenes set in Zadie’s homeland, Willesden, just like “White Teeth”. On a more sublime level, Zadie Smith’s voice in this novel seems liberated, exuberant, and confident: she is a novelist who is in full command of her literary powers. “On Beauty” is very much her book, full of her character, her twists and turns, rather than E. M. Forster’s. To paraphrase a popular film of the 70s, it’s she who is the master now.

There is another more practical reason for Zadie Smith’s employment of “Howards End”, other than her love for the novel. Current day America is analogous with Great Britain at the end of the Victorian era. This always seems most evident when you compare the popular culture of the two. Back in the Victorian era, good old Blightly was suspicious of threats from the East, and enamoured of youthful American strength (if Bram Stoker’s Dracula is anything to go by), and was scared witless by alien attack. Admittedly, Americans were also scared of this during the Cold War, but they had brash trekking heroes to fall back on to. Something has changed in these fictions however: now the Federal government is itself something to be feared, and who knows what demon may be lurking amongst your friends or lovers. Zadie Smith doesn’t know a Klingon from a half-Vulcan, but she does know that there are many Leonard Basts out there in America: in pursuit of beauty, but angry and resentful because they have been deprived of it, or because it has been literally robbed from them. Just as the liberal women debate how to save the Leonard Basts of this world from their fate in “Howards End”, so too do Howard and his liberal colleagues battle to save the discretionaries. Can Beauty ever be reached in an inherently unjust society? Zadie Smith has produced a very timely novel, as the truth in her novel has been made self-evident by the ugly catastrophe of Katrina.

It would also be a pleasing irony if a Great American Novel, (as “On Beauty” is), were to win the Man Booker Prize. Zadie Smith should walk off with the prize in my view, because this outstanding novel deserves nothing less.

Below is Kevin Patrick Mahoney’s reading guide to the novel:

H. J. Blackham – was a leading figure in the field of Humanism

“It’s in this bit of North London called ‘Kilburn’” – Kipps and Belsey 1 p. 4 – this webpage explains the meaning of the name “Kilburn”, and has photos of the locality. I believe Zadie Smith lives in Kilburn now, so she didn’t have to do much research for this bit. “Bucolic” means “rustic”, “pastoral”

Matthew 24 – Kipps and Belsey 1 p. 6 - read this passage. As Samuel G. Dawson writes, this chapter is very much open to interpretation, and has been used by sects such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. All very “White Teeth” this

“in answer to your ‘polite query’, yes, I am still one” – Kipps and Belsey 1 pp. 6-7 – Jerome is, of course, talking about his virginity. Nice juxtaposition with the next passage, Zadie

Love and relationships: Song of Solomon – Kipps and Belsey 1 p. 7 – find out more about the Song of Solomon

Frowzy – Kipps and Belsey 2 p. 8 – means “unkempt”, “slovenly”

“In this pose, the daughter bent over the mother, they reminded Howard of two of Picasso’s chubby water carriers” – Kipps and Belsey 2 p. 12 – don’t know which picture this refers to

Representational painting – Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 18 – find out more about what Howard hates

The Empson lectures – Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 19 – look to occur annually in Cambridge UK, and were probably once attended by Zadie Smith

Emily Dickinson – Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 19 – a biography

Eatonville, Florida – Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 19 – most famous for being the birthplace of legendary novelist Zora Neale Hurston, after whom Zadie has doubtlessly named the Belseys’ daughter. For an art critic, Howard seems to spend a lot of time visiting places famous for their literary heritage

Soyinka Professor - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 19 – a reference to Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian novelist

Brixton riots - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 20 – the BBC view of events

“Coloured” - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 20 – learn the history of the use of this term

“I’m just another black man caught up in the mix” - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 24 – is a quote 
from the Tupac song “I get around”, from the album “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.”

“Zola’s novel” - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 25 – Zadie Smith is referring to Germinal

Diethylstilbestrol - Kipps and Belsey 3 p. 26 – Zadie Smith shows how paranoid Howard is to comic effect, as this is a synthetic oestrogen that was banned after widespread use in the US. It’s been shown to cause breast cancer in women, and would never be utilised as a food additive

Dalston - Kipps and Belsey 4 p. 28 – more about this area

Iconoclasm - Kipps and Belsey 4 p. 29 – more on this

Gamine - Kipps and Belsey 4 p. 41 – a homeless girl or urchin

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” - Kipps and Belsey 5 p. 44 – was something that Elvis Costello once said in an interview

Haiti - Kipps and Belsey 5 p. 49 – this webbpage gives some indication of the current turmoil in Haiti

“What does Howard like?” - Kipps and Belsey 5 p. 54 – it’s probably ironic that Howard views Kipps as an iconoclast, as Howard sounds like he is a literal iconoclast

“I dressed like Salome” - Kipps and Belsey 5 p. 55 – Salome is a biblical character famous for the exotic dance of the seven veils, in which the veils are removed one by one. It kinds of make you squirm when you imagine Claire doing this on her wedding night, and this is effect that Zadie Smith doubtlessly intends. It was on Salome’s request that John the Baptist got beheaded, hence Warren’s remark on the page, which makes Claire sound even more tasteless

“I got the slickest, quickest dick… A penis with the IQ of a Genius!” - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 64 – no idea where this quote comes from

myopic - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 64 – short-sightedness

highball - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 65 – a cocktail, perhaps suggesting that Jack French came of age in the 1920s

duologic - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 66 – I guess this means that Jack French can’t cope with 2 conversations going on at once. But then he is a man, and men are not much given to multi-tasking

“Jack asked the date. Kiki told him. Jack’s face gave in to that tiny, involuntary shudder with which Kiki had, in recent years, become familiar” - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 68 – as Authortrek reader Bill Reynolds points out, this is the first subtle hint that the Belseys’ anniversary falls on September 11th

soul food - Kipps and Belsey 6 p. 68 – like what Momma Cherris does in Brighton

Mozart’s Requiem - Kipps and Belsey 7 p. 69 – read a translation of the lyrics. Mozart did indeed not finish his own requiem (p. 72). “Amadeus” is the sublime film that is referred to

The Pastoral Tradition - Kipps and Belsey 8 p. 79 – find out more about the antithesis of Levi

“You could pluck bass notes on those veins” - Kipps and Belsey 8 p. 81 – I love this description

“insane in the membrane” - Kipps and Belsey 8 p. 82 – is from the song “Insane in the Brain” by Cypress Hill, who I’m told are Bostonians

doo-rag - Kipps and Belsey 9 p. 87 – see whatt one of these looks like

“I’ll go out there and cut you a switch, shall I?” - Kipps and Belsey 9 p. 88 – a “switch” is what Americans call an implement that they use to discipline their kids, like a belt

“There is such shelter in each other” - Kipps and Belsey 10 p. 93 – is a quote from “Pedigree” by Nick Laird, Zadie Smith’s husband. According to the American publicity for “On Beauty”, it’s a take on Forster's "Only Connect", part of Zadie Smith’s homage to E. M. Forster’s “Howards End”

“L’enfer, c’est les autres” - Kipps and Belsey 10 p. 94 – i.e. “hell is other people”, as pronounced by Sartre

“Years ago I used to help Montague in his office” - Kipps and Belsey 10 p. 95 – it just struck me that Carlene must be like Ruth Wilcox in “Howards End”, so does that make Kiki Margaret Schlegel?

“all the Jews in the first tower had been warned” - Kipps and Belsey 10 pp. 95-96 – a reference to 9/11?

Michel Foucault - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 100 – find out more about Meredith’s favourite topic of conversation. “At various parties Kiki had listened carefully and yet not understood what Meredith was saying” (I often had the same experience with my Cultural Studies lecturers – but I still managed to competently acquire my Masters degree – ed). “Whole hermeneutic systems have coalesced with more speed” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 101 – bless! I haven’t heard such utterings for years – find out more about hermeneutics

“Full fathom five thy father lies” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 101-102 – from Ariel’s song in “The Tempest”. Reading Tatiana Retivova’s essay “Reconstructing Sylvia Plath through Ariel”. Plath was born in Boston, so it’s not inconceivable that Kiki made the articulation

“the Wilcoxes, one of the rare, genuinely moneyed Wellingtonian couples of their acquaintance” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 102 – no, they’re not from Wellington, they’re from “Howards End”

“’For poet poets” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 105 – looks like Carl may be a reincarnation Leonard Bast from “Howards End”

“’Strange date for it, though,’ he heard someone say. And then the usual response: ‘Oh, I think it’s a wonderful date for a party. You know it’s their actual anniversary, so… And if we don’t reclaim the day, you know… then it’s like they’ve won…’” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 105 – as Authortrek reader Bill Reynolds points out, this is another subtle reference that the Belseys’ anniversary is on September 11th

“almost everyone had asked their neighbour whether they recalled Cheever’s story” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 108 – a reference to John Cheever’s story “The Swimmer”, most famous for the movie starring Burt Lancaster. He’s another writer who was born in Massachusetts

“Aristotle’s praise of friendship” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 108 – is from Books 8 and 9 of Aristotle’s ethics

schadenfreude - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 111 – pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others

basso profundo - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 112 – a deep bass voice

“He was striking, but wholly void of sex appeal” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 113 – the thought occurs that Michael could be based on Charles Wilcox from “Howards End”

Haitian art - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 113 – find oout more about this subject

Lodestar - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 113 – a guiding principle, interest or ambition

Mulattos - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 117 – read more about this term

“she knew Powell personally, and Rice” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 117 – obviously Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice

décolletage - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 118 – a low neckline on a woman’s dress

Wallace Stevens - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 120 – find out more about him

Affirmative action - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 121 – read more about this practice

WMD - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 122 – an acronym overused in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq

“looks like Nerfertiti” - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 123 – more about the famously beautiful Egyptian Queen

Al Green - Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 123 – find out more about him

Professor Scarry has a theory – The Anatomy Lesson p. 127 – Elaine Scarry takes literary criticism where no other critic has gone before. Scarry is a Professor at Harvard, so it’s likely that Zadie Smith met her during her time there, and indeed, the title of the novel is derived from Elaine Scarry’s essay “On Beauty and Being Just”, which is available online in pdf format

“I said I think you’ve got my goggles” - The Anatomy Lesson 1 p. 132 – sounds like Zora could be Helen Schlegel from “Howards End”

The Requiem Controversy - The Anatomy Lesson 1 p. 136 – find out more about this and Franz Xaver Sussmayr

The perils of Googling - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 142 – read and learn

“Nosce te ipsium” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 144 – should actually be spelt as “Nosce te ipsum”

Joseph Addison - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 146 – founded “The Spectator”

Bertrand Russell - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 146 – a biography

Oliver Wendell Holmes - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 146 – another Massachusetts writer

Thomas Carlyle - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 146 – his early writing informed the development of socialism, and his later writing informed the development of fascism

Henry Watson Fowler - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 146 – read a brief biography of him

Stymie - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 149 – the ddebate rages on

“How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 149 – comes from the song “Maria” from “The Sound of Music”

“The war continues” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 151 – The Iraq war of 2003 to -?

“the fourth estate” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 151 – a term coined by Thomas Carlyle to refer to the press

Allen Ginsberg - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 152 – a biography. The anti-war protests in the UK were much bigger, but were unheeded

First estate - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 152 – in prre-revolutionary France this referred to the clergy

Veronica Lake - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 152 – a biography and photo

pantoum - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 152 – more on this poetic form

“On Beauty” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 153 – this poem, is of course, by Nick Laird, Zadie Smith’s husband, which, needless to say, influenced Zadie’s choice in the naming of this novel. Both the novel and the poem were named after Elaine Scarry’s essay “On Beauty and Being Just”, as Zadie Smith revealed in an interview with Linda Herrick. Interesting to see that the poem features the word “statuary”, and that the beautiful Victoria Kipps has already been liked to statuary (Kipps and Belsey 11 p. 123).

“the bizarre etymology of the intransitive verb ‘ramble’” - The Anatomy Lesson 2 p. 154 – and a very arousing etymology it is too. No wonder Janet Street Porter finds rambling so irresistible

Enter Rembrandt, pursued by Rubens - The Anatomy Lesson 3 p. 155 – Michael Kimmelman’s review of “Rembrandt’s Eyes” by Simon Schama provides a critical summary of the book that Zadie Smith has used as part of her source material for “On Beauty”. Schama seeks to defend Rembrandt from those critics like Howard who believe that the artist was more conformist than rebel, who just painted whatever his patrons asked for. Kimmelman is quite critical of certain aspects of Schama’s book however, so hopefully Zadie Smith did not rely on it too much. Simon Schama could be viewed as a ‘celebrity intellectual’, just like Monty Kipps in the book

“What a piece of work that girl is!” - The Anatomy Lesson 3 p. 158 – is, of course, an adaptation of Hamlet’s famous speech from Act 2, Scene 2

down-home - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 162 – a deffinition

Alice Walker - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 163 – our comprehensive webpage on her

“give me some gossip, I am your neighbour” - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 164 – is an adaptation from Outkast’s song “Hey Ya”, as one of our readers has informed me

The signs - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 171 – more about astrology

Malcolm X - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 172 – this biography reveals that he lived in Boston as a youth. Kiki’s desire to be his personal assistant was doubtlessly thwarted by his assassination

Vertiginous - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 173 – an unsettling feeling, derived from vertigo

“Hallelujah” - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 173 – read the Leonard Cohen lyrics. “Halleluiah” is a typo in the novel that is repeated on p. 174, but “Hallelujah” is also spelt correctly on p. 174!

Hallelujah - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 174 – was ccovered by Jeff Buckley, he drowned in Wolf River, which flows into the Mississippi

John Lennon - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 174 – needss no introduction really. It was a silent vigil, and a 10 minutes silence was observed, but no doubt a few songs were song after the pause. There was similar mass mourning, or as Howard would put it, ‘mass psychosis’, when Diana, Princess of Wales died

Milgram - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 174 – a biography of Stanley Milgram

Erzulie - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 174 – more about the Haitian goddess of love. To find an image of the painting featured in “On Beauty”, and some controversy surrounding it, click here

Clotilde - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 175 – a French Catholic saint, which probably explains why Clotilde doesn’t like looking at the painting of Erzulie, if she is herself Catholic

Reverend James Delafield - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 178 – is a fictional character, uncannily like the Reverend Peter Gomes who is a Professor at Harvard

Bill O’Reilly - The Anatomy Lesson 4 p. 178 – a US TV host noted for his conservatism, but he has defended homosexuality

John Ruskin - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 179 – read a biography of this critic of art and architecture, who taught Oscar Wilde at Oxford that “Beauty was essential for uplifting the masses in an era obsessed with progress and prosperity, and that great art was no longer possible in England because the country had grown materialistic and unjust; (Walter) Pater, on the other hand, building upon the French poet Gautier's idea of "art for art's sake," taught that Victorian art was terrible because it was too utilitarian (aiming at moral improvement rather than Beauty), and that one's highest duty is always to live life as fully as possible by constantly seeking out new sensations. Wilde, by temperament a libertine but by upbringing a conscientious liberal, would spend the rest of his life struggling to reconcile these conflicting claims of what was known then as "the Aesthetic Movement… Because he refused to work for a living, when Wilde was offered a salary in 1881 to tour the United States wearing velvet knee breeches and carrying a lily as a sort of living advertisement for Patience, Gilbert and Sullivan's satire of aestheticism, he quickly agreed.

The tour (during which Wilde famously told a U.S. customs official that "I have nothing to declare...except my genius") was a tremendous success. Wilde's speeches on topics such as "The House Beautiful" and "The English Renaissance of Art" made him one of the first true superstars, a gorgeous bohemian figure in a green overcoat of otter fur who was mobbed everywhere from Boston to Wild West mining towns, and feted by everyone from Oliver Wendell Holmes to Walt Whitman. During this tour, which stretched from weeks to months, Wilde began to take aestheticism more seriously: His scathing denunciations of the kitschy excesses of 19th century capitalism prompted one of his biographers to describe the tour as "the most determined and sustained attack on materialistic vulgarity that America has ever seen." Joshua Glenn’s excellent discussion of Oscar Wilde’s relation to the Aesthetic movement seems highly relevant to Zadie Smith’s novel

“Levi liked the way the mythical British guy who owned the brand was like a graffiti artist, tagging the world” - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 180 – kind of like Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin umbrella of companies. The “Our companies are part of a family rather than a hierarchy” etc is a direct quote from Virgin literature (in the commercial sense). The Virgin megastore in Boston is in the Frank Gehry building, rather than a converted library. I have to stress here that Zadie Smith is presenting a fictionalised account of Levi working for a store that is kind of similar to Virgin, but it is not Virgin itself

Machiavelli - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 180 – more on him and his works

Direct Action - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 181 – all you need to know about this practice

Gramsci - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 181 – more on this other Italian thinker

The Situationists - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 181 – more about Guy Debord and this French movement from the late 60s

Rap music - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 181 – Wikipedia has a comprehensive history

“Harold Bloom wax lyrical about Falstaff” - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 182 – as Chuck Lipsig relates, Harold Bloom wrote a book called “Shakespeare: Constructing the Human”, which sounds like Howard’s talk “Constructing the Human”. However, Harold Bloom is seen to be conservative and celebrates the human, while Howard Belsey is liberal and deconstructs the human. Harold Bloom could be viewed then as a celebrity academic, like Monty Kipps

“two roses growing out of concrete” - The Anatomy Lesson 5 p. 184 – this is the Tupac quote: “If you walked by a street and…you saw a rose growing from concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So way is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how am leaning crooked to the side, u can't even see that I've come up from out of that”. Levi likens himself to Machiavelli earlier, and one of Tupac’s aliases was “Makaveli”

“I myself have never been able to figure out precisely what feminism is” - The Anatomy Lesson 6 p. 195 – is a quote from Rebecca West, who, amongst doing many other things, had an affair with H. G. Wells that lasted a decade. I have previously wondered if Monty’s surname is related to Wells’ novel “Kipps”

Noam Chomsky - The Anatomy Lesson 6 p. 200 – a bioography

“To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 209 – is from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock” by T. S. Eliot, who studied at Harvard

Gustave Flaubert - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 209 – a bioography

Jane Austen - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 209 – needs no introduction really

Theodor Adorno - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 209 – a critic from the Frankfurt School

“The Ethics of Ambiguity” - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 210 – is the title of an existentialist book by Simone de Beauvoir

Kevin Bacon - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 210 – he off “the Kevin Bacon game”

Ezra Pound - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 210 – a major proponent of Modernism, who edited T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

ADD - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 211 – is soomething that can last into adulthood

Liza Minnelli - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 214 – famously starred in the film of “Cabaret”

“The present conversation concerned a television show so famous even Claire had heard of it” - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 215 – given the context, “The West Wing” is the most likely candidate

“The Elephant in the Room” - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 217 – is a poem by Terry Kettering

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 218 – is a poet who was heavily involved with the Beat Generation

Mick Jagger - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 218 – needss no introduction

Sam Shepard - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 218 – a bioography

Alexander Pope - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 218 – a biography

The Georgics - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 218 – more about Virgil’s work

Plato - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 219 – more about the great philosopher

Baudelaire - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 219 – a bioography of the French poet

Rimbaud - The Anatomy Lesson 7 p. 219 – another French poet

“Doc Brown” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 221 – also known as Ben Smith, Zadie’s brother

Jeroboam - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 221 – was aalso the first king of the kingdom of Israel

objects of desire/desiring subjects - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 226 – Richard C. Hay discusses Jane Gallop’s writing on this subject

Womanish - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 227 – well, Alice Walker coined the term “Womanist” (rather than “Womanish”) in her collection of essays “In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose” (1983), so Claire seems to be a bit muddled theoretically. As Alice Walker has said, "I don't choose womanism because it is 'better' than feminism...Since womanism means black feminism, this would be a non-sensical distinction. I choose it because I prefer the sound, the feel, the fit of it; because I cherish the spirit of the women (like Sojourner) the word calls to mind, and because I share the old ethnic-American habit of offering society a new word when the old word it is using fails to describe behavior and change that only a new word can help it more fully see."

“It was not possible to make the last leap – to consider what it was Kiki now thought of Claire. To do that was to become subhuman before yourself, the person cast out beyond pity, a Caliban. Nobody can cast themselves out” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 227 – Harold Bloom has written on Caliban and Colonialism (reminds me of US foreign policy of the last 50 years – giving arms and support to rebels, who then bite the hand that feeds them, a la 9/11). On a side note, it doesn’t look as though anyone has written an essay on “Constructing the Subhuman”, which seems to be an unfortunate by-product all too often of “Constructing the Human” (my essay on “The Color Purple and History” deals with subjectivity)

“AH-RIS-TEED” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 228 – of course refers to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, sometime President of Haiti, forced out due to a popular uprising in 2004 (so Levi’s group must be rapping prior to this). Aristide claims that he was kidnapped by US special forces, although the US has previously supported Aristide, so America’s involvement in Haiti is complex

troubadour - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 229 – courttly minstrels? I think Terry Jones has revised their role in history, but I can’t find his thoughts about them online

“he was trying to prove he had Native American blood in order to get into the top colleges in the country” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 230 – such Affirmative Action programmes seem to be widespread in America

“Was gonna get my Dr Spock on / Dat’s the medic, not the Klingon” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 230 – the old Dr. Benjamin Spock / Mr. Spock joke. While Dr. Spock is indeed famous for his books on child rearing, Star Trek’s Mr. Spock is half-Vulcan, rather than a Klingon

“Macca D’s” - The Anatomy Lesson 8 p. 231 – i.e. McDonalds

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” ” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 234 – is indeed the correct quote from “Hamlet”, Act 1, Scene 5

Boston Common - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 235 – America’s oldest public park

Japanese electro - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 236 – “ODD” is such a group. The Kraftwerk music at the party must have been Howard’s

“The Magic Flute” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 236 – so Howard did once love Mozart, contrary to his reaction to Mozart’s “Requiem”

transcendence - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 237 – the pphilosophical meaning

hyphy - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 238 – 𔄬“hyphy” is a mixture of hyper and fly—and it means “get stupid,” or, as succinctly expressed in the title of another Rock-produced Federation cut, “Go Dumb.” To wit, if you see a hip-hop head doing an insane, nonsensical dance—eyes rolled back, arms akimbo, looking like an epileptic zombie—he’s hyphy. If you see someone so beautiful you stop and do a blatant double take, you’d call her hyphy. If you see people driving their cars in a way not conducive to getting anywhere—by accelerating, then slamming on the brakes before accelerating again (or “gas-brake dippin'”), often with the doors open and stereo blasting—they’re definitely hyphy.”

Hate crime law - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 239 – find out about this controversial topic

“Taking the ‘Liberal’ out of ‘Liberal Arts’” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 239 – sounds like Yilu Zhao’s article on David Horowitz’s views in The New York Times, “Taking the Liberalism out of Liberal Arts”

Roland Barthes - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 240 – the King of Semiotics, the proponent of “The Death of the Author”.

“It was a beautiful song by the fattest man in rap: a 400-pound, Bronx-born, Hispanic genius. Only twenty-five years old when he died of a coronary” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 241 – probably a reference to Big Punisher

John Milton - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 241 – a biography

The Michelin Man - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 241 – more about this iconic figure

The Iliad - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 242 – find out more about Homer’s epic

“as fleet as foot as Gene Kelly” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 242 – a reference to a famous sequence in the film “Singin’ in the Rain”

CVS - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 245 – more about them

“Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Gucci, Fendi, Fendi, Prada, Prada” - The Anatomy Lesson 9 p. 246 – more about these fashion labels

Picasso - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 249 – a biography

Cabaret - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 249 – more about the musical

On liminality - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 250 – a discussion of this concept by Tim Kinsella: “The ordinary person when in the liminal state of transition is free of the forms of status. To be of "no rank" means to be equal with everyone, whether beggar or king. Writers, too, must be persons of "no rank" for whom no part of existence is more holy than the rest. The writer offers herself or himself to everything and everyone, turning to the inconsequential and almost invisible weeds for meaning as much as to the glorious blossoms, valuing the dark parts of the story as much as its light. . . For the writer to write at all, he or she must cultivate a heart that opens to all things. . . It is up to the writer to love everything that happens to him or her and each thing that comes under the eye's contemplation, inner or outer. To set up straw men is not only a failure of heart--it will also be, inevitably, a failure of writing.”

Caravaggio - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 250 – Rembrandt is likely to have been influenced by him and his homoeroticism

“And Jacob was left alone…” - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 251 – is from The Book of Genesis, Chapter 32

cross-hatching - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 252 – a definition

mytheme - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 252 – a definition

logos - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 252 – the Wikipedia entry on this word

Heidegger - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 254 – a biography

coltish - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 255 – i.e. frisky

Emerson Hall - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 257 – named after the great American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who came from Boston

glee club - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 258 – find out more about this English tradition that now only prevails in American colleges

Keats - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 259 – a biography of the doomed poet, John Keats, fittingly born on Halloween

“Iambs, spondees, trochees, anapaests” - The Anatomy Lesson 10 p. 259 – more on these

Iden - The Anatomy Lesson 10 II p. 266 – more about this charming place, home of the rebel Jack Cade

“three Edward Hoppers, two Singer Sargents and a Miro!” - The Anatomy Lesson 10 II p. 266 – more on these

“Actually, when you think about it, it’s a pretty Christian policy. Thou shalt worship no graven images; thou shalt have no other God but me” - The Anatomy Lesson 10 II p. 267 – strictly speaking, this is a Jewish policy, as Kiki is referring to the Ten Commandments, since there is some controversy regarding the Catholic practice of symbolising holiness by art, which was attacked by Protestantism. So Santa Claus could be regarded as a graven image, despite the close appellation to St. Nicholas

“On Beauty and Being Wrong” – p. 273 – is also the title of the first part of Elaine Scarry’s essay “On Beauty and Being Just”

“When I say I hate time” – On Beauty and Being Wrong p. 273 – this is from Mark Doty’s collection “School of the Arts”, as acknowledged on the copyright page

felicitation – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 275 – meaning “a cause for celebration”

Hampstead Heath – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 275 – the country house is Kenwood House, but I didn’t see Llamas in my previous to the park

“Where Keats walked” – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 275 – John Keats lived close to Hampstead Heath

Derek Jarman – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 275 – a biography of the British film maker. “Where Jarman fucked” is a reference to Hampstead Heath being a favourite cruising ground for gay men, and Jarman revealed in his diaries that he had engaged in casual sex there. One of Derek Jarman’s most noted films was “Caravaggio”, about the Italian artist who inspired Rembrandt

George Orwell – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 275 – died from tuberculosis and lived at Parliament Hill for a while, next to Hampstead Heath

Kensal Green Cemetery – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 276 – has some very ornate tombs

Queen’s Park – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 277 – find out more about this area

“Upon my death I leave my Jean Hyp…painting of Maitresse Er – Erzu…” – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 277 – this looks to be an error in the text, or perhaps it proves that Carlene was not of sound mind when she wrote the note? Anyway, Jean Hyppolite was a French philosopher who influenced Lacan and Foucault, but who is no relation to the Haitian artist Hector Hippolyte who painted the similarly titled “Mistress Erzulie”. However, it is also possible that Zadie Smith has fictionalised this painting, as someone else presumably owns it in real life. Then again, Zadie writes in the “author’s note” that “Carlene’s Jean Hyppolite painting is also a real one and can be seen in the Centre d’Art, Haiti”: so a gremlin has definitely got into the text

bedevilled – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 278 – To possess with or as if with a devil; bewitch. No doubt Amelia’s getting carried away with the voodoo nature of the picture

Rastafarian – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 280 – more on this religion

Windrush – On Beauty and Being Wrong 1 p. 280 – a reference to the Empire Windrush, the ship that first carried a large number of Jamaican immigrants to the UK in 1948

Willesden – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 281 – where a certain Zadie Smith comes from. The pictures on this webpage seem to have been selectively chosen, as Willesden proper looks a bit run-down. As Zora says, “It gets kind of… more crappy down here”

“land that they rented from an Oxford College” – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 281 – as this pdf file reveals, the land belongs to All Souls’ College. “Winchester Lane” is an invention on Zadie Smith’s part

eglantine – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 281 – a rose

Hotel de Crillon – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 282 – is rather posh

“famous black British newscaster” – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 283 – probably a reference to Trevor McDonald

Oxonian – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 283 – i.e. they all attended Oxford University

Concameration – On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 286 – an arch or vault

Ave verum Corpus - On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 287 – more on Mozart’s composition

The Cambridge Singers - On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 287 – looks to be a reference to King’s College Choir

“flapper’s helmet” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 2 p. 289 – more on this hairstyle

Cricklewood - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 291 – also familiar to the denizens of “White Teeth”

Primrose Hill - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 292 – more about this area

Kente cloths - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 292 – more about these

Soviet realism - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 292 – find out more about this period of Russian art

Flaneur - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 292 – idle man about town, a loafer

“We scum, we happy scum!” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 292 – a reworking of the St. Crispin’s day speech in Shakespeare’s “Henry V”: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”

Mevagissey - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 293 – see for yourself what Harold Belsey has been looking at

Psoriasis - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 294 – find out more about this skin ailment

Brass monkeys - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 297 – the debate rages on

“The unexamined life is not worth living” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 297 – is a quote from Socrates, after he had been found guilty of heresy and sedition, and sentenced to death

“Now: how much do you want to put on it as a reserve?” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 297 – probably a reference to David Dickinson or Tim Wonnacott and all those crappy reality sell-an-antique redo/sell-your-house shows that currently reign over daytime British TV

“A Room with a View” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 298 – one of my favourites. I got a kick of joy when Cecil Vyse was mentioned in “Howards End”. It is also the novel that made Zadie Smith fall in love with the works of E. M. Forster. Zadie’s essay, “Love, Actually” is very much related to the themes of “On Beauty”

Mona Lisa - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 299 – needs no introduction

Merda d’Artista - On Beauty and Being Wrong 3 p. 299 – more about this fecal art

London’s Magnificent Seven - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 302 – the low-down on London cemeteries, concerning their history and wildlife (?)

“famous Zoroastrian” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 302 – probably the only famous Zoroastrian, apart from the Magi, was Freddie Mercury, the singer from Queen, who was cremated at Kensal Green cemetery

La Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 302 – was the inspiration for Kensal Green Cemetery. This BBC website also has mini-biographies of Thackeray and Trollope

Iris Murdoch - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 303 – was also cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery

Wilkie Collins’ grave - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 303 – is pictured here, along with an author biography

“to paradise by way of Kensal Green” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 303 – is from “The Rolling English Road” by G. K. Chesterton. He went to paradise by way of Beaconsfield rather than Kensal Green

The Windmill - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 305 – find out more about this pub

The Greek Chorus - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 308 – sound as though they would be bloody annoying

Tomato - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 315 – the fruit/vegetable dichotomy continues

Lolita - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 315 – more on the novel about an older man who falls for a pubescent girl

Mrs. Robinson - On Beauty and Being Wrong 4 p. 315 – the older woman who famously seduced Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate”

Helen Keller - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 319 – apparently Harvard rejected her bid to become a student, and only gave her honorary degree many years later

Matryoshka dolls - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 320 – have hidden depths

Stalin - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 320 – possibly responsible for more deaths than any other world leader

Robespierre - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 320 – was slightly less homicidal

dyad - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 321 – made up of 2 units, i. e. 2 reasons

horse sense - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 322 – means “common sense”, and is therefore much more down to earth than spider sense

harlequin - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 323 – is very colourful. “Fay” is a synonym for “fairy”. Could Zadie Smith be suggesting that Christopher Fay is gay? He certainly has bad fashion sense, if nothing else

The Politics of Hate - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 323 – more from David Horowitz, who holds the opposite views to Howard Belsey concerning “hate laws” (p. 326).

“Around this opening gambit, Howard drew a series of interlocking curlicues, like elegant branches, in the style of William Morris” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 323 – Howard is possibly unconsciously thinking about his infidelity

“One lucky sod now escaped through the squeaky double-doors – a feckless novelist on a visiting fellowship” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 324 – sounds like Zadie Smith at Harvard

sophism - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 325 – is a plausible but fallacious argument

fillip - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 325 – stimulant, encouragement

“I will remind the committee that last year members of this university lobbied successfully to ban a philosopher… because he expressed… what were deemed to be ‘Anti-Israeli’ views… that were offensive to members of our community” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 325 – in 2002, the British poet Tom Paulin was invited to speak at Harvard, but the invitation was revoked due to the controversy surrounding his anti-Israeli views

Freedom of speech - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 327 – is, of course, enshrined in the US Constitution

“textual anarchist” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 327 – textual anarchy is discussed on this page concerning Nietzsche, but Zadie Smith’s use is probably related to Roland Barthes’ concept of “The Death of the Author”

Constitutional Originalism - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 327 – a “constitutional originalist” is one who wants the US Constitution to be enacted as the drafters originally intended. Although, given that the drafters left room for further amendments to be made, this seems to be a somewhat ridiculous stance

“We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 328 – according to P. J. Knights in her poem “an existentialist ghazal”, Sartre is referring to evolution. Monty is basically saying that he can’t predict what meanings his audience will take from his lectures, or how they will act upon it, according to Howard’s belief in semiology. In other words, what Howard is arguing for is contrary to Howard’s stated theoretical beliefs. If it is true that Howard is a semotician, then it is not surprising that Victoria Kipps should spend so much time quoting Roland Barthes in Howard’s lectures (p. 240), since Barthes is probably the most prominent semiotician

multivalency - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 328 – according to Sarah Kettley from Napier University, “is used to denote the many potential readings of an object within different historical eras, or from different cultural perspectives”

‘heterogeneous consciousness’ - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 328 – Monty is acknowledging that his audience will be from all walks of life. However, I’m not sure that he’s doing himself a favour here, since, if his stance against affirmative action is enacted, then his audience would be a hell of a lot less heterogeneous

“mind your p’s and q’s” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 328 – possible derivations

“in this great freedom-loving institution, a group of Muslim students requested the right to have a room given over to their daily prayers” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 328 – Harvard Muslims do have a prayer room, so this is not based on any real incident

“Justice Scalia” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 330 – a reference to the US Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia, who is considered to be a conservative originalist. He studied law at Harvard

Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 331 – a very important legal ruling that declared segregation “unconstitutional”

“Windmills of my mind” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 332 – Authortrek reader John Koenig has written in about the provenance of this song: “"The Windmills of My Mind" is the English translation of the French song, "Les Moulins de Mon Coeur" (literally, the [wind]mills of my heart), music by Michel Legrand and words by Eddy Marnay… The English version was… used prominently in the original film, "The Thomas Crown Affair"”.

“Paint it black” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 332 – no doubt a reference to the Rolling Stones song, Stefan Guilleme’s name reminds me of the French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem

Anansi - On Beauty and Being Wrong 5 p. 332 – the Wikipedia entry. Check out some Jamaica Anansi stories

corsage - On Beauty and Being Wrong 6 p. 337 – more on this

chutzpah - On Beauty and Being Wrong 6 p. 337 – arrogantly self-confident, from Yiddish

“Here was his family and they were legion” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 6 p. 338 – a reworking of “My name is Legion: for we are many” from the Gospel of St. Mark in the Bible, Chapter 5, verse 9. Since the man who says this is possessed by demons, this is not a happy metaphor for Howard’s family

“Nehru collar” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 6 p. 338 – a style of dress commonly associated with Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of India

Fleming - On Beauty and Being Wrong 6 p. 339 – probably a reference to Williamina Fleming, a prominent Harvard astronomer

aurora borealis - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 342 – pretty lights

tundra - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 342 – more on this

“so black in their white shirts… speaking their boisterous Creole” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 342 – no doubt the waiting staff are Haitian

“Fifteen white young men in matching black suits and gold waistcoats walked into the hallway” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 342 – the arrival of Howard’s dreaded glee club?

“impertinent” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 343 – improperly forward or bold. The usual adjective is “pert”, but Victoria’s backside evidently goes beyond this

Josephine Baker - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 343 – mostly famous for dancing dressed only with a ring of bananas, no doubt due to the colour of her skin. As she herself said, “Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life”. She later supported the American Civil Rights movement, although France was home for most of her life

M.I.T - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 344 – the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology

passive-aggressive - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 345 – more on this personality disorder

“Once more into the breach” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 345 – Erskine misquotes Shakespeare’s “Henry V”: “Once more unto the breach”

F. Scott Fitzgerald - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 346 – more on this great writer

George Gershwin - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 347 – a biography

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 347 – is about the leader of the American Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King. Although U2’s Bono made an error in the lyrics – King was assassinated in the evening, not the morning. The glee club’s version sounds excruciatingly bad

Moonwalk - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 347 – as popularised by Michael Jackson

Crepey - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 348 – i.e. wrinkled

“Alice in Wonderland” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 349 – although Lewis Carroll gave it the more cumbersome title of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“I would have asked you to walk the Doc” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 349 – probably not a typo, more like a Belsey family in-joke juxtaposing “Murdoch” and “dog”. I like it – it gives Howard and Kiki history and background in a simple phrase

“Like a Virgin” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 7 p. 350 – Madonna’s debut song

cans - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 354 – slang term for “earphones”

iPod - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 354 – ubiquitous now, but if people are still reading this webpage in 300 years time (!), they may not know what it is

Papa Doc Duvalier - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 355 – his body was exhumed and ritually “beaten to death” in 1986, which gives an indication of how popular he was. Baby Doc Duvalier took power when he was 19, and was deposed in 1986

U.S. Immigration and Travel Policy - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 356 – this webpage details why the HIV positive Haitians were held in Guantanamo Bay from 1991 to 1993. The US never seems to learn, as they still use Guantanomo Bay to detain people without due process

Pepe le Pew - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 357 – “Pepe Le Phew”, more like

“bourgeois de souche” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 359 – means “middle-class by birth”. It looks to be a title that Aristide critics like to label his wife. This critical webpage looks to have been put together by a Haitian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, so is doubtlessly representative of the kind of bulletins Zadie Smith would have encountered at Harvard

“Fear of a Black Planet” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 360 – Public Enemy’s famous album

Bob Marley - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 362 – a biography

“You rob the peasants of their art and it makes you a rich man… Those artists died poor and hungry” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 362 – Choo is referring to Monty’s Haitian art collection

reparation - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 365 – this webpage covers the debate in-depth

meritocracy - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 365 – more on this

“We got black kids dying on the front line on the other side of the world, and they’re in that army ‘cos they think college has got nothing to offer them” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 8 p. 368 – a reference to the Iraq war. Army turns to hip-hop has more details about US army recruitment strategies

“Forty Acres and a Mule” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 370 – refers to the compensation that freed slaves were supposed to get during Reconstruction after the American Civil War

“Five guys with big afros in tiny pink shorts, hugging themselves, posing by a Cadillac that was being driven by a monkey in shades” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 373 – I’ve no idea what album this is

Tracy Chapman - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 376 – I saw her perform at that Nelson Mandela gig at Wembley

A Brief History of the Living Wage Debate at Harvard - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 376 – seems to be a similar dispute to that at Wellington

Hip-Hop at the Crossroads - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – uses the crossroads analogy

Make room for conscious Hip-Hop! - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – an overview of conscious lyrics

Gangsta rap - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – the Wikipedia entry

Discover Roxbury - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – looks to be the most comprehensive guide, although Wikipedia does mention famous residents

Robert Johnson - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – legend has it that this prominent blues man sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for prowess at playing the guitar. However, Authortrek reader John Koenig has written in with the following expansion on this: “It was not Robert Johnson who purportedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for learning to play the guitar, but the rather less well-known Mississippi bluesman, Tommy Johnson. As Robert Johnson was considerably better known than Tommy Johnson, because Robert Johnson was a virtuoso of his style unmatched by any of his contemporaries, and because Robert Johnson died in his 20s under dubious circumstances, overenthusiastic fans misapplied the legend to Robert.” To make things even more complicated, it wasn’t the devil that Johnson met at the crossroads, but the African warrior deity, Eleggua, according to Dzifa Benson’s short story “Tempting Faith”

“Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 378 – are lyrics by Ringo Starr for the song “It don’t come easy”, but I don’t think he is the source of the phrase

Gloria Steinem - On Beauty and Being Wrong 9 p. 379 – a biography

Bill Gates - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 382 – attended Harvard, but dropped out (thank you to Authortrek reader John Koenig for correcting me on this). His company invented PowerPoint. Apparently only his wife knows why he really called his company “Microsoft”

x-ray vision - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 384 – gives some idea of how Rembrandt changed the painting. “The men in the painting are: Jacob van Loon, Folcket Jansz (sic), Willem van Doyenburg, Frans Bel (a servant), Arnout van der Meye and Jochem de Nev. Jansz was first painted standing up, but he didn't like it. So Rembrandt changed the painting, making him look as though he was about to sit down. You can see both the standing and sitting versions of Jansz in an X-ray, the mistake fainter, of course. The governor, who is in the middle, was someone that Rembrandt evidently gave a lot of thought to. He changed the position of his head and hands thrice”. Frans Bel is most likely the guy without a hat, and according to this reading, there are 5 syndics, not 6. The spellings of the syndics’ name vary from source to source. The following details come from a Dutch webapge titled Rembrandt, which I have translated with the aid of Babel Fish: “Willem van Doeyenburg, approximately 46 years old, and the President. Furthermore the Mennonite Volckert Jansz., who was a collector of shells, animals and books; Jacob van Loon who had a shop on the corner of the Kalverstraat and the dam. He was Roman Catholic, as well as Aernout van der Mye.,Jochem de Neeve, the younger of the group, was of very good family with Remonstrant sympathies. In the background finally the servant Frans Hendricksz Bel.”

“Klu Klux fucking Klan” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 392 – Howard pronounces the name of the “Ku Klux Klan” incorrectly

neo-con - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 392 - is a reference to neoconservativism, that rather oxymoronic term

“this man wants to destroy Roe v. Wade” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 393 - i.e. Kipps wants abortion to become illegal in the US

Jean Baudrillard - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 394 - a biography. “The Spirit of Terrorism” is the paper that Baudrillard wrote about 9/11. Binoy Kampmark discusses Baudrillard’s ideas in his essay “Wars that never take place: Non-events, 9/11 and Wars on Terrorism”

stonewall - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 395 - to employ delaying tactics

“co-parents” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 395 - can be defined as “are two or more adults in a two-home post-divorce nuclear family or in a multi-home stepfamily, intentionally nurturing dependent kids together. A co-parent can be a bioparent. a childless stepparent, or involved adult relative. Legally and physically, divorced-family and stepfamily co-parents are custodial or non-custodial.” So, the future does not look rosy for Howard

“He touched his lips to her neck and kissed her there. And again on her ears, which were wet from tears” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 395 - this looks to have missed the copy editor, or maybe Kiki’s ears are wet from Howard’s tears?

“Wakiki” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 396 - probably derived from the well-known Hawaiian beach Waikiki

spooning - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 397 - thus Wikipedia fulfils the ultimate destiny of all reference books, the looking up of rude words

“big Buddha” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 10 p. 397 - sounds like a reality TV show. Apparently, Fat Buddha is not the same person as Thin Buddha. He is not Thin Buddha who then went on to eat all the pies. No, Fat Buddha was a Chinese monk called Ch'i-tz'u or Chang Dingzi, who “wandered throughout China giving generously from his never empty sack. Only at the time of his death did he reveal his true identity as the incarnation of Maitreya, the Buddha of the future” because he could see into the future. He may not have been fat – the fatness could just have been meant as a symbol of his generosity. There was a custom for women to rub the fat belly of his statues in the hope that this would help them to conceive. He is also referred to as “Hotei”

Speaker’s Corner - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 402 - more on this famous English institution apparently frequented by William Morris

“in media res” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 402 - from the Latin “in or into the middle of a sequence of events, as in a literary narrative”

diffident - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 402 - weak or timid

Louis Armstrong - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 406 – a biography

Mr Smith goes to Washington - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 410 – more about Frank Capra’s great movie

“play the Dozens” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 413 – this African-American custom is associated with hip-hop

skank - On Beauty and Being Wrong 11 p. 413 – American slang

TIME - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 423 – more about this journal

“the Black American Mother’s Guild” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 424 – only exists in Kiki’s head

Scarface - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 426 – more about the Al Pacino version

“all postal” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 427 𔂿 means “extremely hostile. [From the observation of postal workers going insane and killing fellow co-workers. Found most often in expressions go postal and get postal] Context and source: Unable to cope, he got all postal.” “all Florida” – not quite sure what this refers to, although it may be a reference to the disputed Florida count in the 2000 Presidential election

redistribution - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 429 – more on this concept

eBay - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 429 – needs no introduction

“his head’s on a platter” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 432 – this idiom refers to the execution of John the Baptist, whose head was brought to Salome on a dish after she requested his death

“Here Zora used an ancient English expletive, very loudly” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 12 p. 433 – most likely the same expletive that Zora uses twice more in this sequence

Pomona - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 438 – more about this institution

Courtauld - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 438 – another institution for the arts

“He listened, on his car stereo, to the Lacrimosa and, like a teenager, turned it up high and kept his windows down” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 440 – Howard actually listens to Mozart’s “Requiem” for a change

the Big Dig - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 440 – more about this construction, which I guess is designed to get traffic flowing more smoothly

apoplectic - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 440 𔂿 i. e. furious

“The loneliness of the long distance runner” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 441 – is the title of an Alan Sillitoe short story that was made into a film in 1962 starring Tom Courtenay

“dead man walking” - On Beauty and Being Wrong 13 p. 441 – an American phrase to described the final walk of prisoners on Death Row

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