Footnotes to a Conversation, November 25, 2024

“Describe your sorrows and desires, your passing thoughts and your faith in some kind of beauty — describe it all with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and use it to express yourself, the things that surround you, the images of your dreams, and the objects of your memory.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

In Search of Perfumes

I’m enjoying reading In Search of Perfumes by Domique Roques. Roques has devoted his career to finding sources, establishing production centres, and importing the natural ingredients for perfume-making. He emphasizes the connection between the workers in the field collecting the blossoms or resin and the perfumers labouring in European laboratories to create the perfect blend. Roques travels around the world, from fields of jasmine in India and Egypt to cinnamon in Sri Lanka and vanilla in Madagascar, sharing the history of flower-growing and ingredient collection in each region.

Tracing History

Elaborately designed wall lights currently hung in Swinton Castle, Yorkshire, have been traced back to Madame de Pompadour’s homes in Versailles and elsewhere. Madame de Pompadour was Louis XV’s official chief mistress and played an important role in politics and culture. She was a proponent of the late baroque, rococo style and filled her 15 residences with furnishings in that style. She hosted visits from the king as well as intellectuals, writers, and artists in her Grand Salon Assemblée, which was more than 16m long and 8.5m wide. [The Guardian]

In Translation

I’ve been surprised by the sudden appearance of many, many Japanese books in translation. I’ve tried a couple on a somewhat haphazard basis and am now realizing that I should have chosen more carefully as the ones I landed upon are both so-called comfort books, featuring recurring themes of coffee shops, bookstores, and libraries. “Known in the industry as ‘healing’ or ‘heartwarming’ fiction, comfort books often go unreviewed in the press but represent more than half of the bestselling Japanese fiction titles this year.” The works that appear in translation are heavily curated and not representative of the books that are popular in Japan. “We’re not seeing very much hard sci-fi, supernatural or horror. We don’t see very much romance outside of light novels and manga. Japan has a very strong tradition of historical fiction, especially the samurai novels. We don’t see those.” [The Guardian]

Who Has Seen a Walrus?

The Anglo Saxons and the Vikings referred to the walrus as a ‘horse-whale’, which was later reversed to ‘whale-horse’, which then became ‘walrus’. [Word Perfect, Susie Dent]

Advent Calendar

Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the lights, the music, the fellowship. I have been downloading the Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar app for many years now. Beautifully designed, there are daily windows to open with short videos along with games and surprises. This year’s festivities take place in Paris. [Jacquie Lawson]

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.

If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.