The wise person sees far beneath the surface. She perceives not only what is superficial and obvious but things that are hidden from most. William Shakespeare is a patron saint for this virtue, not only for his insight into the human condition but for his ability to express it through language in compelling and poetic ways.
Real
True Narratives
Satyajit Ray was a master cinematic story-teller with an uncanny gift for portraying his characters’ inner lives.
- Andrew Robinson, Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (University of California Press, 1990).
- Bert Cardullo, ed., Satyajit Ray: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2007).
- Keya Gangula, Cinema, Emergence, and the Films of Satyajit Ray (University of California Press, 2010).
- Darius Cooper, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity(Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Other true narratives on perceptiveness:
- Erik Larson, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown, 2011): how an American diplomat foresaw the horrors of Nazi Germany while those around him remained oblivious to the mounting threat.
- Ellen Willis, Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music (University of Minnesota Press, 2011): insights of a rock music critic.
- George F. Kennan (Frank Costigiola, ed.), The Kennan Diaries (W.W. Norton & Company, 2014): Kennan was a deep thinker, when his ideology did not interfere.
- Harold Holzer, Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion (Simon & Schuster 2014): on “his canny manipulation of the popular press . . .”
From the dark side:
- Jung Chang, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China (Knopf , 2019): “Cocooned in wealth and privilege, the sisters dreamed noble dreams but were buoyed by naïveté and sometimes led astray by bourgeois idealism. Although the sisters had ample intelligence and irrepressible spirit, they had almost no contact with ordinary Chinese, and, at the most critical juncture of their country’s modern history, found themselves to be baffled foreigners in the place of their birth.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily perceptive observer of the human condition.
Stewart O’Nan’s novels are noted for their “depth of characterization”:
- Stewart O’Nan, Emily, Alone (Viking, 2011).
- Stewart O’Nan, Songs for the Missing (Viking Adult, 2008).
- Stewart O’Nan, Last Night at the Lobster (Viking Adult, 2007).
- Stewart O’Nan, The Good Wife (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005).
- Stewart O’Nan, The Night Country (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003).
- Stewart O’Nan, Wish You Were Here (Grove Press, 2003).
- Stewart O’Nan, Everyday People (Grove Press, 2001).
- Stewart O’Nan, A Prayer for the Dying (Henry Holt and Co., 1999).
- Stewart O’Nan, A World Away (Henry Holt and Co., 1998).
- Stewart O’Nan, The Speed Queen (Doubleday, 1997).
- Stewart O’Nan, Names of the Dead (Doubleday, 1996).
- Stewart O’Nan, Snow Angels (Doubleday, 1994).
Poetry
Poems:
- William Wordsworth, “Yes! Thou art Fair Yet Be Not Moved”
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Jonathan Swift Somers”
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Plymouth Rock Joe”
Books of poems:
- Nelly Sachs, Flight and Metamorphosis: Poems (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022), “reveals a poet full of mystery and depth.”
From the dark side:
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Serepta Mason”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Ernst von Dohnányi (Ernő Dohnányi), Variationen über ein Kinderlied (Variations on a Nursery Song), Op. 25 (1914) (approx. 23-25’): The theme is simple and child-friendly but this set of variations is music for adult tastes, emotions and intellect. The introductory bars give no hint that a nursery tune is the main theme. “Written in 1914 for piano and orchestra, it captures the spirit of Romanticism, and manages to delight and enthral in its sparkling piano writing and lush orchestral textures, and its wit in the treatment of the theme – the French nursery song 'Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman', otherwise known as 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.” Top recorded performances are by Ernö von Dohnányi in 1931, Smith in 1953, Aller in 1956, Wild in 1967, Lantos in 1980, Kocsis in 1989, Shelley in 1998 ***, Nebolsin in 2010, Gülbadamova in 2022 **, and Kanneh-Mason in 2023.
Conductor John Barbirolli was known for his musical-emotional depth. “His interpretations were often praised for their emotional depth, lyrical beauty, and profound understanding of the music.” “He had enough dramatic depth to disdain mere showmanship, enough inner fire to opt for ice.” Here is a link to his playlists.
Robert Schumann, Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 (1850) (approx. 24-30’): “. . . Schumann’s assertion that ‘The concerto is also really quite a jolly piece’ seems to contradict the work’s brooding A minor tonality . . .” “The concerto’s success in today’s world stems from its emotional and mood shifting compass . . . which ranges from profound intimacy to sounds of joyous vivacity and tonal, rhythmic and thematic unification.” Top performances are by Rostropovich (Rozhdestvensky) in 1960, du Pré (Barbirolli) in 1968, Maisky (Bernstein) in 1984, Gabetta (Antonini) in 2018, Gautier Capuçon (Haitink) in 2019, Gromes (Carter) in 2020, and Magill (Takahara) in 2022.
Daniil Trifonov is a classical pianist known for the depth of his interpretations. “Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of awe.” (This language, from his website, appears on many sites.) Here is a link to his releases.
With a voice “that embodied that of a siren, a voice that could seduce, sadden and soothe with its elegance”, Cape Verde’s Cesária Évora sang with a touching emotional depth, born it seemed of her life experience. She came from poverty, raised three children by herself, and always performed barefoot. She was “known as the country's foremost practitioner of the morna, which is strongly associated with the islands and combines West African percussion with Portuguese fados, Brazilian modhinas, and British sea shanties.” Known as a mournful offshoot of blues music: “Morna is based on the Portuguese fado and features bluesy vocals set against a background of acoustic guitars, fiddles, accordion, and cavaquinho, which is a small, four-string guitar”. Évora’s voice was a “a finely-tuned, melancholy instrument with a touch of hoarseness, highlighted her emotional phrasing by accenting a word or phrase.” Her many live appearances included these in Paris in 1995; in Paris in 2004; at au Grand Rex Paris in 2004; Nancy Jazz Pulsation in 2006; at Estival Jazz Lugano in 2007; and at Lisbon Coliseum in 2010. She created a large volume of releases.
Inger Marie Gundersen’s voice drips with the sadness of a woman who has been passed by romantically throughout her life. On her album “Five Minutes” (2023) (41’), she displays a depth of feeling that surpasses her earlier efforts. “Her breathtaking voice is part of her appeal - Gun-dersen has her own distinct sound. It’s warm, dark, and sincere, and she can bring new meaning to even the most familiar songs and lyrics through her empathetic approach and imaginative arrange-ments.”
Art Ensemble of Chicago is an iconic free jazz ensemble “that evolved from founder Roscoe Mitchell's musical vision, explorations and adventurous collaborations in Chicago of the early and mid sixties”. Founded in 1965, the group “helped pioneer the fusion of jazz with European art music and indigenous African folk styles. They also combined music from sanctified church services, minstrel shows, and bawdy houses of late 19th and early 20th century America -- with a modernist spirit and lively stage show”. Fifty years after group’s founding, as it was going strong, Mitchell observed: “It was always a learning experience, because I was lucky enough to be with five individual thinkers.” Paul Steinbeck has authored a book about the group. Here they are live and on video in Lugano in 1979, in Montreux in 1974, in Montreux in 1983, and in Lugano in 1993. A vast collection called “The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles” (1114’) was released in 2018. The group’s albums include:
- “Message to Our Folks” (1969) (41’)
- “A Jackson in Your House” (1969) (34’)
- “People in Sorrow” (1969) (40’)
- “Bap-Tizum” (1972) (40’)
- “The Paris Session Sides” (1973) (38’)
- “The Spiritual” (1975) (39’)
- Live in Willisau, 1978 (set 1; set 2) (79’)
- “Great Black Music” (1978) (68’)
- “Full Force” (1979) (42’)
On his album “Basse Barre” (2021) (38’), jazz string jazz bassist Barre Phillips displays a rich array of musical contours and textures, resulting in a fascinating sound sculpture. He has a substantial playlists body, with many other releases, as well.
Other albums:
- Aliaksandr Yasinski, “Hylbini” (2022): “Aliaksandr Yasinski's debut international release sees him unlock the expressive possibilities of the accordion. The album title 'Hlybini' means 'depths' in his native Belarusian language and in his words represents the ‘far corners of the human soul or something that touches us powerfully like music.”
- Jin Ah Kwon, “Music by Chopin and Liszt” (2021) (54’)
- Sean Shibe, “Profesión” (2023) (58’): “finds Shibe taking his questing, questioning artistry to the next (spirit) level. Nowhere more so than in Villa-Lobos’s 12 Études, which form the centrepiece of the recital. Villa-Lobos’s Bach homage, the third of his Five Preludes, slips seamlessly into Barrios’s La catedral like an extemporised organ prelude opening out into something more expansive yet equally intimate.”
- Éva Polgár, “Liszt - Harmonies patriotiques et religieuses” (2021) (61’): “Even her lightest touch on the piano carries a weight—of knowledge, understanding, appreciation, and grace—and listening to her performance is almost as intimate and close as listening to her pulse.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Bob Dylan, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (“Yonder stands your orphan with his gun / Crying like a fire in the sun.”)
Visual Arts
Film and Stage
- Catch-22: The ability to spot absurdity is an important part of wisdom.
- Being There, a film about perception in the negative: a slow-witted man gains so much unmerited admiration that he is promoted as a presidential candidate
- The King of Comedy: a self-deluded aspiring comedian misreads the message