Remind me again why the stereotypical “smart” character is always some antisocial atheist pseudo-nihilist who doesn’t believe in love and thinks emotions are unimportant like literally none of those things have anything to do with intelligence and most of them are hallmarks of stupidity.
Le Sommeil [The Sleepers], which depicts two women entwined in a post-coital embrace, caused a stir when it was first shown in the 1870s. The police were called in, and the painting was not shown again until the 1980s. But its brief showing had an influence on a number of contemporary artists, and helped challenge the taboos associated with lesbian relationships. For modern audiences it’s a good reminder that people in the 19th century were not ignorant of lesbian relationships, as we tend to believe. And it’s pretty damn sexy, don’t you think?
They called the police on this lesbian painting.
The best part is, the lesbian embrace isn’t even the biggest thing that made the painting so controversial, it was the art style. People in the artistic community at the time were wholly familiar with sapphic relationships being portrayed in art, but were used to these scenes being portrayed in the ‘academic art’ style, which consisted of smooth, simplistic, idealised versions of the nude female form. This often went hand in hand with the depiction of Roman & Greek allegories to illustrate certain ideals (think Cabanel’s Birth of Venus). Courbet’s journey into realism was met by heavy critique from the academic movement, as the women he painted were, well, more realistic. Leaving in details such as the rolls of fat around the ribs acted as a blunt reminder to the audience that these were not euphoric goddesses caressing in ecstasy, but ordinary women having a nap together after making love. Other realist paintings suffered the same controversy, Manet’s Olympia is a perfect example, where the problem was not that the painting depicted a nude woman in an erotic pose, but the fact that she was just an ordinary courtesan, given an identity & portrayed in a place of power & control. Realism humanized the female form in art, & removed it from its previous role as a representation of the ideal.
So what disgusted people about the painting wasn’t so much that Le Sommeil depicted two women, but rather that it depicted two ‘real’ women.
if you had a time machine you could sleep til like 6 then get in and go back to midnight and get double sleep. that’s probably the only use for such a machine though
to the person who suggested “triple sleep” my reply to you is: absolutely not. don’t be greedy
Also – seeing theatre productions and concerts that were
never filmed.
This is going to be, I think, not actually books that are like JS&MN in any way, but books where I feel the same way about the magic. If I aim for “like JS&MN” I get the sort of emotional roadmap of Shirley; the Nine Tailors; the Last Unicorn. I think at least one of those is even maybe a good answer? Anyway:
1. The Mysterious Mr. Quin – Agatha Christie; did you know that all Poirot novels take place in the same universe where an avatar of death walks around encouraging a little Victorian gentleman to solve romantic mysteries, because, that’s totally a thing.
2. The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones; also… the second of two related yet different books… Deep Secret is also good and would sort of work? But this is mainly here because it’s got shades of Wild Hunt/I have a huge crush on its version of Gwyn ap Nudd.
3. I can’t decide which Frances Hardinge novel to say but my top two contenders are A Face Like Glass and The Lie Tree. Frances Hardinge is great at hitting the same… emotional resonances? … that keep me coming back to JS&MN. So.
Mr. Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite are awesome (as Deaths go, Mr. Quin is much more Hermes than Grim Reaper.)
2018 Grinch has no edge. He’s got no bite. He’s not even that much of an asshole. He’s just a sassy gay furry with unusually nice teeth despite his famous theme song declaring otherwise.
1966 Grinch? Now that was a mean, scary bastard. He was a crusty old fuck who hated society so much that he only came off his shitty frozen mountain to commit crimes and terrorism out of spite.
Bennyhoo Cumberland Grinch comes down from his mountain to buy groceries.
You can round the edges off a character to make them more “relatable” or whatever, but you also run the risk of losing what defined them in the first place. The end result is bland and generic.
2018 Grinch is a reflection of modern society’s rejection of real character flaws in the interest of being “unproblematic” and in this essay i will
congrats OP this is literally the only grinch post i’ll ever reblog
1966 Grinch was basically Grendel except he didn’t have a
mother and no one ripped his arm off.
Mooncustafer 