- The 20th C. Hollywood power couple: Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, at right- Study of a head and shoulders, center-right; on left, bust of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti:
- To what extent is a battle between beauty where you're not objectifying a person opposed to the conventional notion of beauty? Beauty as ideas, like motherhood or sisterhood. How else is beauty discussed in the novel? When Zora talks about her mother to Carl, she sums it up as Kiki having let herself go - Kiki ignoring herself, putting herself last. Carlene Kipps, though, says that Kiki carries the weight well. If you look at Kiki without evaluating her in any way, she's beautiful. Howard says he still loves her face. Kiki herself compares Claire's weight to one of her legs.
Who else's body gets discussed? Carl's body! His appearance slows down traffic in hallways!
- How is this related to art and art history? What does that have to do with beauty? (*Kiki makes me think of an ancient fertility goddess, at right
):- In addition to the discussions about women cutting parts of themselves off, separating from a partner can feel like cutting a part of oneself off. In Kiki's case, she can survive one night in Michigan - then she finds out Howard's one night was really three weeks with a friend. It's an exponentially bigger betrayal.
- Howard is less irritating only in comparison to Zora. The way he talks to Kiki in relation to the affair, p204: he goes about it like a lecture, "...the onus is on me, I know that. It's for me to - to - explain my narrative in a way that's comprehensible... and achieves an... I don't know, explanation, I suppose, in terms of motivation..." There is no possible narrative, explanation, or motivation that do not make an extramarrital affair anything more than idiocy.
- What does Carl think when he overhears the Belseys talk about genius after the Mozart concert? He sees it as a wonderful, privileged, somewhat exclusive exchange of high-quality ideas - spoken between members of a black family, no less. He also loves that, when Mozart died, other people had to finish the music - the person who finishes it, Sussmeier, "steps up" to the challenge of completing this work of music. Preserving who did what adds to the depth of musical apprecation, possibly, but it also adds to idolatry of the music creators.
- pg. 116 - when Howard, who does not believe in genius, talks to a curator about how Rembrandt is not the start of the Renassaince, and that the movement propagated a fallacy. The curators are justifiably nervous about this possible talk. Page 123, Kiki's figured out the truth about Howard's affair - with Clair. What is going on in terms of beauty, intellect, and intellect, and why does it make Kiki so made?
Kiki and Claire are opposites. Culturally, Claire is the preferred woman - she is thin, active, in shape, WHITE, very academic. Kiki is aware of this, and for Howard to choose her opposite to have an affair with makes her feel as though he does not want the relationship she devoted so many years to anymore. Their level of education, not brain power, differentiates them - Claire speaks Wellington, Kiki does not, and Kiki is outside of the academic circle. Howard objectifies both Kiki and Claire - he examines Claire the same way he does his wife.
- What does this say about Howard? Did he just want to know about another body - was this just a curiosity he wanted to address?
- What Claire says about Kiki, how she should be in a fountain in Rome, is condescending. Kiki is aware of this. This is also the moment when Claire is unaware that Kiki knows, and Howard does know.
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