Known and Strange Things
Teju Cole
[Random House]
Teju Cole’s first collection of essays is handily organised into three sections: ‘Reading Things’, ‘Seeing Things’, and ‘Being There’. Many of the think-pieces are informed by his background as an art historian and his passion for photography, but this book goes far beyond aesthetic appreciation. Instead, the former New Yorker columnist focuses on the ways in which art can reflect, or challenge, dominant cultural narratives. Good photographs “tell us what is happening and make a case for why things must change”, standing in stark opposition to the “dispiriting stream of empty images [that the] Russians call poshlost: fake emotion, unearned nostalgia.”
In the controversial piece ‘The White Saviour Industrial Complex’, the author deplores Kristof’s inability “to think constellationally”. The criticism is revealing, suggesting his general approach to the essay form: finding patterns is what Cole does best, and his rapacious hunger for learning helps him to uncover connections in the unlikeliest of places. His nonchalant erudition is made even more intimidating by the fact that it is never rubbed in the reader’s face: whether he is sharing his insights on politics or literature, or talking about the focus settings on his “beautiful Contax G2 rangefinder”, Cole simply assumes we will keep up. Suffice to say that, if you like to emerge from a book feeling smart, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Instead, you might feel challenged, mortifyingly uninformed and determined to find out more – not a bad start.
Words – Eliza A. Kalfa
