The Beauty of Gesture: The Invisible Keyboard of Piano and T'Ai Chi

Rating:
Summary: The Beauty of Gesture
Review: As an tai chi chuan player of more than 14 years and an amateur pianist for a much longer period, I thought this book might have been written especially for me. Not so, unfortunately. It is beautifully written in a rather voulu, creative writing school kind of way. But it has little to say about taichi--no Chinese sources are mentioned, none of the tai chi classics are mentioned. Indeed, she touches very lightly on tai chi and most of what she does say seems to come from a Japanese source (David speaks of katas, her dojo). No mention of chi (qi), the style of tai chi she does, names of the forms etc; and the dantian appears as the tanden. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who knows anything about tai chi. Nevertheless, there is some pleasure to be had here, some insights into literature and gesture. It just doesn't really deliver on the promise of its subtitle.

Rating:
Summary: 'tis about beauty
Review: Can we, by practicing a discipline such as Tai-Chi, refine our sense of self, our Being-In-The -World? Catherine David, in this sublime book, investigates the space that is behind the physical movement, behind the conscious mind, at the very core of what constitutes our sense of the Self - that space which gives birth to our sense of beauty and which can be translated through innumerable ways (including the Tai-Chi exercises and piano playing) into wordly manifestations of our uniqueness. In this space imagination and sensation are interlocked, like lovers. Once we realize that Self is just a metaphor and that the mental image can be the impulse to opening of a technical skill , we hold the keys to true freedom. In this society in which the essential is generally considered incidental (which is reflected in the unberable dullness of the contemporary man), Catherine David picks the essence from inconspicuous corners where it has been gathering dust and shows us how she uses it to unlock the gates leading to inner beauty. By doing this she helps us glimpse and perhaps touch that space. This book is a rare treat.

Rating:
Summary: I Can't Get Through This Book
Review: I bought it years ago & have tried several times, but I find the writing style nearly impossible to read. At times it reads as if the author is trying too hard to make every sentence convey a deeply profound concept and at other times she jumps erratically to some obscure thought, feeling or concept. Not only did these jumps not move or interest me, I often couldn't even figure out (on either an intellectual or emotional level) what the author was trying to do.

After several attempts at completing the book, and having read only about 50 pages, I could barely bring myself to skim through the rest of the book to try to pick up a few interesting points or stories. I saw nothing to warrant additional attempts on my part.

I bought this book because I love to read about people's experiences in martial arts. I also enjoy poetry (and good writing in general), and Tai Chi is an art that I practiced at one time, so I really thought I would like this book. I love the concept (and even the cover) but this book did not do it for me. Perhaps linguistically and culturally this book works better in French. For those who are looking for a more readable book describing a person's experiences in Tai Chi, I would suggest, "There Are No Secrets" by Lowenthal.