| Title | : | Shadows on the Grass |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0140180435 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780140180435 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1960 |
Shadows on the Grass Reviews
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Twenty-five years after her return to Denmark from British East Africa, Baroness Karen Blixen wrote “Shadows on the Grass”. The four stories in this novel were additional anecdotes that offered further glimpses of her sojourn in Africa from 1914 to 1931. Readers who love “Out of Africa” will appreciate the opportunity to be re-acquainted with Blixen and her Kikuyu and Somali Squatters. Blixen’s recount was a reprise of sorts – beautiful, tender and nostalgic.
Aspects of Blixen’s strong connection with her servants gained prominence in this short novel of less than 150 pages. In it she captured their voices, idiosyncrasies, and loyalty with a candor that was delightful and heartwarming. Reading what happened to the Natives some thirty years after Blixen’s departure was as gratifying as catching up with long lost friends. Commenting on her writing about her life in Africa, Blixen said, "People work much in order to secure the future; I gave my mind much work and trouble, trying to secure the past." That past was a dream – colorful, comforting, cherished. It became for her a bower of sweet remembrance. -
ovu autoricu bolje ćeš prepoznati po njenom pravom imenu - karen blixen čije je najpoznatije djelo "moja afrika" (da, da, meryl streep i robert redford..). u ovoj knjižici (niti sto stranica) ona se kroz četiri priče s tridesetogodišnjim odmakom prisjeća svojih kenijskih dana, ljudi i događaja koji su obilježili njen boravak u africi. na neki način, kao da je htjela "upotpuniti", zaokružiti knjigu "moja afrika", kao da je sama imala osjećaj da je izostavila neke važne stvari pa to nadoknađuje sada.
taman mi je, nakon hamsuna, fino legla, kao produžetak jedne pastorale - u sličnom tonu, ali stilski sasvim različita. dio u kojem ti se obrve lagano u čuđenju podignu je onaj u kojem opisuje svoju lovačku strast: "kad sam prvi put došla u afriku, srce mi je bilo nemirno sve dok si nisam pribavila stvarno lijepi trofej od svake vrste divljači. (...) lov na lavove mi je međutim ostao kakav je bio otkad sam došla u ovu zemlju, požuda mojih očiju i čežnja mog srca. (...) stajao je nepomično [lav], okrenut na stranu i podignute glave, najljepša meta koju ću ikada vidjeti u životu.". u današnje vrijeme osviještenosti, ovo bi bilo potpuno neprihvatljivo i skandalozno, ali jasno je da se autor ne bi trebao izdvajati iz sredine, vremena i okolnosti u kojima piše.
ako imaš slobodno poslijepodne i zanimaju te običaji nigerijskih plemena i autobiografske crtice jedne dankinje na svojoj nigerijskoj farmi, pročitaj "sjene na travi". -
Author wrote this one 30 years after she left Kenya. Its the last book she wrote. She died shortly after its publication. It fills in the facts of what happened to the people that Karen wrote about in her book Out of Africa. We get more information about Farah, the Somali-born servant who acted as her chief of staff. He is depicted as fiercely arrogant and utterly loyal, and his death is one of the most moving and tragic moments in the author's writing. Other characters who figure prominently include Kamante, who goes blind, old Juma, who dies, and Abdullahi, Farah’s son, who ultimately prospers.
In this book, the author is reflective and self disclosing, admitting that the African experiences made her writing possible. We also learn more about Masai and Kikuyu culture and the introduction of Western technology and culture, all of which made them listless and turned their old lives into boredom. There is less on the exotic landscape and animals and more on human values and spiritual appreciation. Perhaps she was saying goodbye to her friends in Africa. The author died of malnutrition. She was unable to eat. Some speculate that she died of anorexia nervosa. -
Rather like a charming postscript to her previous memoirs. This book mentions some of the author's friends and servants readers will know from 'Out of Africa' (the book and the film). A few of the anecdotes are affectingly rendered, particularly her descriptions of her relationship with Farah. This book, I think, would be most appreciated by those who already know and enjoy her work.
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Later thoughts? Completing circles? Pieces from the cutting room floor? Dinesen famously recounted her experiences as a Danish pioneer in Kenta in her widely-acclaimed book, “Out of Africa.” “Shadows” is a modest appendix to her earlier work and adds details not included in the first autographical book.
The four sections of the book serve as short reports of her stay. “Farah” describes the excellent household management services provided by her Somali servant of that name. It also describes the associations of several other colonists with their Somali servants.
“Barua a Soldani” describes what healing power of a letter from a king has for her native servants.
“The Great Gesture” describes Blixen’s role as an impromptu physician to the locals living on or near her farm. It also introduces us to Blixen’s growing understanding of native logic regarding Western medicine. The hesitancy of Masai to go to the hospital is based on their custom of removing a dying person from a house; otherwise, if the person dies the house would have to be destroyed. Not destroying the hospital when someone dies in it was simply not acceptable. Of course, destroying a house in which someone has died from a communicable disease makes every bit of epidemiological sense. Blixen demonstrates a serious sense of cultural sensitivity.
“Echoes from the Hills” completes her book, concentrating on Abdullahi, the brother of Farah, who turned out to be another Somali gem, and small notes on her other servants and friends, ending with her “hibernation” in Denmark during the numbing Nazi occupation, 1940-1945. A snippet of literary information is included – how “Winter’s Tales” was written during this time and how it had to be smuggled out to neutral Sweden, thence to the UK and US for publication.
Throughout the book she paints a picture of what life was like for a European woman settling in Kenya in the first half of the 20th century independent of writings in her earlier book. Her plantation, largely based on coffee production ultimately failed, but she carried on as long as she could.
Blixen’s writing is informal, almost personal, as if she were chatting with a Danish friend not seen in years over afternoon coffee and pastries. I enjoyed the book and now must read its prequel, “Out of Africa!” and the two other previously unread Dinesen volumes I have at home – her wonderful short stories in “Winter’s Tales” and “Seven Gothic Tales.” -
There were cringe- worthy moments when reading Dinsen's essays, mostly because of the white saviour complex often associated with colonial writing. And even though she briefly talks about this at one point, it does not water down some of her perceptions or actions, no matter how modest she tries to appear. This is naturally based on a reading of the text and the impression that it leaves, it doesn't necessarily reflect on her per se. There wasn't much that made me think this collection is anything outstanding, but I can appreciate how personal it is to her to follow through on the well-being of those she once knew, and of how her readers would like to have these conclusions after reading her ordeals in 'Out of Africa'.
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Even the humans describing themselves as tolerant could learn something; mutual respect for humans very different to each other in both culture, belief and general behaviour and often not understanding neither. Thus some wars might be avoided!! A great description of Blixen's "summing up" her life and spirit she left in Africa.
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Blixen (pseudonym Isak Dinesen) is a good writer, but she definitely carries a colonial lens over her time in Africa. This was not at all my favorite.
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Um dos expoentes da literatura dinamarquesa, Karen Blixen fez sucesso com sua obra prima: A Fazenda Africana (que eu não li), onde ela narra sobre o período em que viveu no Quênia, administrando uma fazenda de café. Aqui ela mostra fragmentos do que poderia ter sido parte daquele livro, talvez ideias cortadas do original?
Em Sombras na Relva, Blixen não tem um objetivo específico. O livro trata de memórias e pensamentos da autora sobre sua estadia na África, principalmente da sua relação com seus empregados e os nativos que viviam por ali.
O maior mérito de Sombras na Relva é revelar um pouco de culturas e crenças africanas daqueles que viviam na região, seus mitos, ritos, ideologias e sua relação com os Europeus (povo tão estranho). As divagações de Blixen e o choque de cultura são momentos muito gostosos de apreciar (como quando ela usava uma carta do rei da Dinamarca com fins terapeuticos).
De todo modo, o livro soa mais como um acessório à literatura de Blixen e menos como uma obra por si só, uma leitura auxiliar para A Fazenda Africana (que eu não li), o que tira um pouco de seu impacto.
Apesar da inconsistência, a narrativa fluída de Blixen, sua humanidade e sua imensa empatia para com o próximo, lembram muito Antoine de Saint Exupéry, que também amava divagar sobre as pessoas e sobre o tempo que ficou para trás. -
These four brief but beautifully written vignettes are best read as an enjoyable digestif after the author's excellent but meatier Out of Africa. Of course, like all of us, she is a child of her time. Protesting that she is writing from an aristocratic or "colonialist" mindset is like protesting that Virgil writes from the perspective of a Roman slave owner. The fact that things were different then, and times have changed, does not detract from the beauty of the writing, which is luminous with a deep love and respect for the people, animals and landscape in which she lived.
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Like Out of Africa by the same author this book reads like a love letter to Somali culture. And also the book reads like one lovely sigh as Dinesan reminisces on her life in the African Highlands of Kenya. The book is a little more reflective than Out of Africa, while having the same elenent of 'Paradise Lost.' As a consequence the book is a bit slower and possibly a bit more philosophical. Her Somali farm manager Farah is at centre stage and her memories of her hearing of his death are especially poignant. A short and beautiful gem of a book.
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This short sequel (well, not really sequel, but additional stories of things that happened during the author's time in Africa) is probably only for people who have read the original book, Out Of Africa. I really enjoy the way that she describes the land and the people with mostly impartial eyes, not in a "isn't this strange?" way, but in a "this is the way it is" manner.
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This was my first book by Karen Blixen, and I finally understand why she is so cherished - she's SO BADASS! Hunting lions in the African wilderness, receiving letters from kings and you know, just keeping so calm and grateful. I can't wait to read more of her work.
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4 more memoir/essays on her life in Africa: frequently quite touching and/or revealing, and always smartly written.
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I probably started with Blixen's books in the wrong end, but nevermind, I really liked this one so I'll just work my way back to her first (and more famous) books!
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Makes it all about herself
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Why am I about to call out such an old book for racism? Why bother picking apart the noble savage/white savior themes prevalent throughout this book?
1) Because this is a massively influential book. Dinesen's books have been widely recognized as "literary." although do we maybe think that's because she was born into a noble family that, as the bio at the back of the book says, had a "tradition of making contributions to Danish literature." Like maybe it's not objectively good. Maybe certain people of a certain class with particular connections have their worked judged "literary" simply because it's expected to be literary. I mean, has it ever struck anyone else as weird that all the most well-known poets/novelists of the romantic era hung out together. Literally just basically one clique of rich white kids. Anyhow, earned or not, Dinesen is regarded as one of those "important" and "literary" writers, because all the right people said so, and of course the literary world wouldn't be influenced by money or status, right?
2) Because you should call out evil shit when you see it. Not to punish people (because hello, lady is dead) but because a society needs a shared value system, at least to some degree.
Also, people be giving Dinesen a pass because "it was a different time" and then calling out male colonizers who said or did awful shit.
The leeway given to people of the pst for racism is not applied consistently. I see a clear gender bias and I'm not having it.
If we're calling out past racist shit, we're calling out past racist shit.
And this book is some racist shit.
3) There is too much of this white savior/noble savage shit still prevalent today. Lefties/social justice warriors/ "allies and advocates"/whatever the hell you're calling yourselves now: I am looking at you. All the "poor widdle black people" shit y'all do is gross and reeks of this very insidious, but judt as deeply evil, white supremacy. I saw a lot of it during the George Floyd riots. A lot of proud left-wingers declaring that people of color were reacting with violence due to the trauma of racism, and that they saw no other way to make their voices heard. Anyone who thinks black people are basically children, so low-functioning that the only way they can communicate hurt and frustration is with violence and property destruction, IS A FUCKING RACIST. And when I say things like "anti-racism is actually really fucking racist"-that's the kind of nonsense I mean. You can do all the mental gymnastics you want. If you think black people need white people to save them, OR you go around trying to prove what a good woke white person you are-using BIPOC individuals (or gay people or trans people or whatever group of people) as a PROP to prove your own virtue, if you can not discuss a particular group without bringing their oppression and pain into it and fetishizing the hell out of said pain, you are perpetuating the noble savage/white savior dichotomy (or some other variation of oppressor/subaltern dichotomy) and it's gross. And you should be ashamed.
All you gotta do in this world is be decent and treat people with dignity and respect.
Treating other humans as props to prove your own virtue is not decent.
And we get a LOT of it in this book. It's an old book. but since this "look at me saving these (implied) lesser ignorant people" shit is still prevalent today, we've gotta call it out. Too many Isak Dinesesn white ladies in this world still.
This entire book is her bragging about everything she did for the African people and how much they loved her. Like I'm glad she sent Abdullahi to school and bought him a typewriter. I'm glad he went on to become a judge, and yes, she probably had a hand in that. She sure jerked herself the hell off over it. She also spent a massive percentage of the word count telling us about how she protected the native people from the government, how she advocated and fought for them, how she drove them to the hospital when they were injured or sick.
This lady is a literal colonizer. She actually says that Kenya had a climate "in which white people could not take on manual labor." These people injure themselves working on HER coffee plantation. She doesn't mention that though. She just gives herself a nice long handjob over how she doctored them when injured. And yes, not ALL their injuries were work-induced. As she says, they often slept around open fires, so this was not the result of working her farm. I'm still quite a bit put off by her not mentioning that they workers are injured working HER farm.
Maybe it's just the fact that she is farming African land with African bodies and reaping the rewards of it (I know her farm went under, but with World War 2 just on the horizon, business and trade was bound to be bad for many industries-that doesn't mean she didn't reap colonizer rewards for a good long time). She pilfers African soil with African bodies all while crowing about what a good person she is.
I think my problem is this: everybody stop crowing about what a good person you are. Everybody stop focusing so much on intrinsic traits. everybody I meet who is this focused on intrinsic traits ends up being a massive asshole using the pain of others as a prop to prove their own goodness.
Everybody stop trying to prove how good you are. You're not good. Nobody is good. everybody is a selfish asshole, but you can at least be decent. You can at least treat people with dignity. "I'm a good woke white person saving all the poor widdle black people" is absolutely, decidedly not decent.
And I'll end my rant with some of the crowning jewels of this incredibly racist book that strays from white savior shit into actual Eugenics several times.
"The dark nations of Africa, strikingly precocious as young children, seemed to come to a standstill in their mental growth at different ages. The Kikuyu, Kawirondo and Wakamba, the people who worked for me on the farm, in early childhood were far ahead of white children of the same age, but they stopped quite suddenly at a stage corresponding to that of a European child of nine."
-That passage definitely reminds me of the flavor of progressives who claim it's racist to grade for grammar (apparently black people can't learn grammar-and that.......is anti-racism! Ta-da!). This is that bigotry of low expectations shit. It wears the facade of love and togetherness (Dinesen talks a good game about Unity and how much she adores the African people) but really....it's gross. And the people who do it today in the name of "anti-racism" are also gross.
In another passage, she compares the blood on the King's letter, blood left by her African patients, to the blood on a handkercheif from King Christian IV. She writes, "The blood on my sheet of paper is not proud or eddifying. It is the blood of a dumb nation."
In talking about a precocious African child, she writes, "He was a small, slightly built child with a sudden, wild, flying gracefulness in all his movements and a corresponding, incalculable, crazy imagination of a kind which I have not met in any other Native child, and which maybe will have been due to that mixture of blood."-So again with the Eugenics shit.
In writing about the ability of African people to sneak up on her, she writes, "The Africans have got this to them-they will make their presence known by other means than eyesight, hearing, or smell...Wild animals have got the same quality, but our domestic animals have lost it."
This book reeks of the white savior narrative. It's the same shit we still see in the popular zeitgeist. Not much has changed since Pocohantas and Avatar. We are still writing stories with magical, closer-to-nature, peaceful and placid "nobel savages" who have yet to be tainted by civilization. They are spoken about as if they are an endangered species to be protected. Preserved by the oh-so-caring "good white people."
In narratives such as these, the BIPOC individuals are fetishized, commodified for the consumption of white people who seek to grab hold of their pain-their very being-as a tool to bolster their own egos. To build up their own sense of self.
It is the worst sort of objectification. and do all the mental gymnastics you want, it is NOT anti-racist. -
"Min høst skulle være komøg", skriver Karen Blixen, da to billeder på katastrofe rammer hendes elskede kaffefarm og samler sig i én sætning. Denne sætning er for mig essensen i denne lille perle af en bog; genialitet og kaos går hånd i hånd. Snart forføres man af smukke iagttagelser af mennesker og natur, snart irriteres man over det sjusk, som kan forekomme i fortællinger om livet. Når man læser Karen Blixen, og særligt erindringsbøgerne som denne, så er det hendes intellekt og evne til empati og indlevelse i fremmedhed, som jeg beundrer. Jeg beundrer hende som menneske og for det mod, som hun udviser gang på gang i tanke og handling. "Skygger på græsset" er minder, som uddyber "Den afrikanske farm", og som går helt tæt på de lokale. Og netop denne historiske tråd er vigtig. Det er sindssygt interessant læsning. Karen Blixens historie om Afrika er kærlighed - bedre er det næppe gjort. Men om det er litterær kunst, det ved jeg ikke - jeg er med andre ord ikke her blæst omkuld. Skygger på græsset vil dog altid fremover, for mit vedkommende, genkalde den lokale befolkning fra et fortidigt Afrika. Jeg vil se dem og bedre kunne forstå.
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Ärsyynnyin Blixenin omatekoisista rotuopillisista höpötyksistä, rasistisesta suhtautumisesta afrikkalaisiin. Ärsyynnyin myös metsästyksen ylistyksestä ja ylimielisyydestä. Sisälsi kirja toki myös mielenkiintoisia kertomuksia afrikkalaisten tapakulttuurista.
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A further memoir of Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885–1962), written in the 1950s and 1960, this is almost an epilogue to her earlier book Out of Africa. It consists of four short stories, the first featuring her majestic Somali major-domo Farah Aden. The second story is about “Barua A Soldani” or a letter from a king, which she has received and is seen to have healing properties. The third story is about her attempts to act as a doctor for her people, and their fear of going to the hospital. The final story features the correspondence she has with her former servants after she leaves Africa. I liked Abdullahi Ahamed, the very bright child who’s education she sponsors, who goes on to become a judge.
There is a significant dose of imperialism and white saviour complex going on here, but I found this book more relatable than the first as it tells the stories of people and relationships, and gives more insight into her ongoing sadness and nostalgia over having been forced to have given up the farm and her life in Africa. -
Captivating, easy to read and occasionally touching. The Kenyan "shadows" in the title appear as the most vivid personalities in the book even thirty years after the author left Africa for good. The four stories deal with themes such as farming, hunting, health care and dreams, but the core of the book portrays Karen Blixen's African employees, who in practice enabled her to live as a colonizer in Kenya. Particularly detailed is the description of her main servant Farah, faithful but also extremely self-conscious. His younger, super-intelligent brother Abdullahi ends up as a judge in (British) Somaliland.
Although the book may seem nostalgic and politically incorrect, Blixen clearly thinks that the era of the colonizers would be short-lived, and that even the big-game hunters - like herself - had to find themselves replacing their rifles with cameras. (I read the book in Norwegian translation). -
The author's reflections directly address the disparities of class in her time, and her possible regret over being unable to experience a more harmonious relationship with the people she encountered:
We white people, I reflected, were wrong when in our intercourse with the people of the ancient continent we forgot or ignored their past or did indeed decline to acknowledge that they had ever existed before their meeting with us. We had deliberately deprived our picture of them of a dimension, thus allowing it to become distorted to our eyes and blurred in its Native harmony and dignity, and our error of vision had caused deep and sad misunderstandings between us and them.
(p. 464, movie tie-in edition).
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Reading Dinesen thrills me. Not quite sure why... Not particularly engaged with her hierarchical, racist (though loving) world view, but regardless, her astonishing powers of description and the passion dripping off these pages transports me to an Africa no living human being will ever see again. Her love of shooting lions is still shocking even when I remember these stories occurred over a hundred years ago and death was not viewed then as death is today. But her ability to express what it means and feels like to be a human animal, emotional and embodied--dust-covered, sweaty, blood soaked--is as undeniably compelling as it is lost in the past. Today, life in this virtual world is thin gruel by comparison.
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It's hard to know what to appreciate most about Karen Blixen: her cultural insights (even if, at times, they are colonially cringeworthy or downright incorrect); the literary dreamscapes she constructs out of even the most mundane circumstances; or the overly-romanticized persona she paints of herself as a Danish-turned-African author. Blixen was an ever-present figure of my childhood, putting me far too close to this material to be anything but utterly destroyed by her intimate memories of the home we shared, but as an adult I'm now capable of appreciating her literary voice as well. She was a natural storyteller and the result is a beautiful blend of cultural milieu and linguistic devices set against the backdrop of the Kenyan highlands. What is not to love?
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Dinesen has such a beautiful way of describing the world around her. Here is my favorite quote from the book.
"After a minute or two I could not help laughing. And as, scrutinizing my face, they caught the change in it, they joined me. One after another all faces around me lightened up and broke in laughter. In the faces of toothless old women a hundred delicate wrinkles screwed up cheeks and chin into a baroque, beaming mask - and they were no longer scars left by the warfare of life, but the traces of many laughters." -
لطيفة بشكل عام
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En su mayoría son notas adicionales a las anécdotas de Memorias de África (Out of Africa). Es interesante como cuenta los pormenores de la ocupación nazi en Dinamarca, y de alguna manera da un cierre a los capítulos que abrió en el libro anterior, al contar como siguió la vida de aquellos que quedaron en Africa cuando ella volvió a Europa.
Lo más importante para mí, es que le falta la poesía que tenían las descripciones en libro anterior. Sin embargo, habiendo amado el otro libro, aprendí a respetar a quien puede tener tal independencia de criterio con respecto a los prejuicios raciales y culturales, que puede apreciar lo que tienen de distinto otras culturas sin desmerecer la propia, que puede ver las historias que encierra un paisaje transformando una foto en una cantidad de historias que entrelazan individuos, formas de vida, relaciones familiares, y profundos afectos.
