Rooms of the Palace (Detail) - Raffaele Minotto, 2022.
Italian, b. 1969 -
Oil on panel , 80 x 80 cm.
64 notes
·
View notes
A reimagining of the Medea myth as a crime-drama-horror film set in 1950s and ‘60s suburbia. Magdalena and her family are immigrants/non-White in America growing up during WWII, maybe Chicano, maybe Turkish, Armenian, or Syrian. Or maybe Black. Magdalena is indirectly responsible for her younger brother’s death when they’re children (perhaps an accident at the local swimming hole, where she isn’t watching her brother like he’s supposed to, or she tells him to swim out to deeper water as a way to get rid of him because he’s annoying her, and he ends up drowning), an accident her parents never fully forgive her for. As a result she grows up dedicating herself to her family and culture, and studies and studies, and proves to be bright and ambitious, and well-suited to academia. She particularly excels in the world of ancient Greek scholarship, and even teaches herself the language as she studies the plays. She loves and identifies with the “villainous” women of Greek tragedies, and in high school writes a brash yet brilliant multi-page essay psychoanalyzing and defending Medea, which her teacher submits to the state academic board.
She earns a scholarship with it, and becomes one of the women earning degrees in postwar coed colleges, where she thrives, and writes one or two seminal theses on Greek myth and theatre, and where she gets involved in feminist circles. She also meets Jason, the son of a wealthy businessman from New York. Young and impetuous, the two fall in love and get married after graduation, and Magdalena shelves her bright future in favor of Jason’s, who enters the world of finance. Over the years, they have two sons, and Jason imagines the rich college life of studying, parties, and football they’ll one day enjoy. Magdalena tries to be a good housewife, but is intellectually and emotionally stifled, and she frequently starts spats with Jason and her children that are often uncalled for. With nothing to occupy her academic ambition, she oscillates between intense coldness and affection for her husband and sons, leading to them feeling alternatingly jilted and smothered.
As the 1950s roll into the ‘60s they experiment with drugs (LSD and marijuana, among others), attend house parties, and occasionally the theatre and poetry gatherings, to brighten Magdalena’s mood, but it’s only temporary respite for her. Magdalena tries to get involved in feminist circles again, which Jason is at first supportive of, but soon sours on and discourages. One time Jason brings her to what turns out to be a wife-swapping party, and when hit on she becomes enraged and physically assaults the guy hitting on her, then storms off and steals the car, leaving Jason stranded at the party, who goes home with another woman in her car. Magdalena never forgives him for that, and turns cold toward him for a while. After several years of her hot-and-cold treatment toward him, Jason begins pulling out of the relationship emotionally, and grows close to the president’s daughter, Glenda, at his firm. They begin a friendship that slowly turns into an affair, and after some time he promises to marry her.
Jason begins staying out late in the evenings, flaming Magdalena’s jealousy and anxiety. She questions him on several occasions, but he always says it’s work, only work, and gets angry at her that she’d even think he’d cheat on her. At first it’s the truth, but his friendly get-togethers with Glenda eventually turn romantic, and his usual practiced excuses become lies toward his wife. Ultimately Magdalena believes him, but Jason tells of his affair in confidence to a friend from work one night when they’re drinking, making it sound like an open marriage thing, who in turn tells his wife about it, who in turn chats about it to Magdalena , thinking she’s aware and had given the OK. Magdalena turns to stone as she feels the world drop away beneath her feet. That night she confronts Jason about it; at first he denies it, but then he says he feels suffocated in their relationship, he’s unhappy, and he plans to divorce her and marry Glenda. She starts screaming at him that she’s devoted ten years of her life to him, that she’s smothered herself for him, for his career, and this is the thanks she gets? He’ll pay for this, she’ll make him pay. He starts screaming at her back, and they scream at each other until he gets sick of it, spins around, and marches out of the house to spend the night somewhere else. Alone, as she sits thinking to her self all night, her heart turns to Greek myths, and she remembers the story of Medea, and decides to walk that same path herself. She begins formulating a plan. She resolves herself to it, and says to herself “Now I am become Medea”.
Christmas Day approaches, then comes. She slaves away in the kitchen preparing a big feast for her family, and poisons the food. Maybe rat poison, maybe wiper fluid, idk. It’s enough to kill the children and make her husband violently sick. She serves the meal to them, all smiles. It’s the last meal her children ever have. Or maybe she poisons them with a gas oven. I’m not decided yet. Jason is wracked by pain but survives, and when he finally pulls out of his illness checks on his children, finds them dead, and calls the police. The police come, and Magdalena is arrested, alternately sobbing and laughing maniacally. Amid the atomic tests and Red scare the trial becomes the trial of the decade, plastered over every newspaper in the country. “The Christmas Killer: Mother turns Homicidal Maniac”. Nobody understands what could’ve driven Magdalena to such drastic lengths. She should’ve been happy to be a housewife with such a successful husband. Jason’s lawyers try to smother the story about his cheating, but Magdalena brings it up in court and her lawyer provides evidence of it, bringing shame to Jason and Glenda and ending his chances of marrying her. For the murder of her children Magdalena is found guilty and sentenced to death. After several weeks in jail she heads to the electric chair. To the last, she’s unrepentant. She goes to the chair humming the lullaby her mother sang to her as a child.
6 notes
·
View notes
Excursion to philisophy , Hopper's house - Ángel Mateo Charris , 1996.
Spanish, b.1962 -
Oil on canvas, 195 x 130 cm.
216 notes
·
View notes
watching this youtube video about victorian haircare wherein the woman testing the products out inhales so much alcohol fumes she gets tipsy and that’s joining lead in everything, corsets, and doctors who cured hysteria with vibrators in “reasons why victorian women loved fainting”
101K notes
·
View notes
Evenki people, photos by Alexander Khimushin
1. Evenki girl, Republic of Buryatia, Siberia
2. Evenki girl, Sakha Republic, Siberia
3. Evenki mother and child, Sakha Republic, Siberia
The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki) are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognised as one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 38,396 (2010 census). In China, the Evenki form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People’s Republic of China, with a population of 30,875 (2010 census). There are 537 Evenks in Mongolia (2015 census).
Traditionally they were a mixture of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers—they relied on their domesticated reindeer for milk and transport and hunted other large game for meat (Vasilevich, 620-1). Today “[t]he Evenks are divided into two large groups…engaging in different types of economy. These are the hunting and reindeer-breeding Evenks…and the horse and cattle pastoral Evenks as well as some farming Evenks” (620). The Evenks lived mostly in areas of what is called a taiga, or boreal forest. They lived in conical tents made from birch bark or reindeer skin tied to birch poles. When they moved camp, the Evenks would leave these frameworks and carry only the more portable coverings. During winter, the hunting season, most camps consisted of one or two tents while the spring encampments had up to 10 households (Vasilevich, 637).
Their skill of riding the domesticated reindeer allowed the Evenks to “colonize vast areas of the eastern taiga which had previously been impenetrable” (Vitebsky, 31). The Evenks used a saddle unique to their culture which is placed on the shoulders of the reindeer so as to lessen the strain on the animal, and used not stirrups but a stick to balance (31-32). Evenks did not develop reindeer sledges until comparatively recent times (32). They instead used their reindeer as pack animals and often traversed great distances on foot, using snowshoes or skis (Vasilevich, 627). The Evenki people did not eat their domesticated reindeer (although they did hunt and eat wild reindeer) but kept them for milk. (Forsyth, 49-50).
The Evenks wore a characteristic costume “adapted to the cold but rather dry climate of Central Siberia and to a life of mobility…they wore brief garments of soft reindeer or elk skin around their hips, along with leggings and moccasins, or else long supple boots reaching to the thigh” (49). They also wore a deerskin coat that did not close in front but was instead covered with an apron-like cloth. Some Evenkis decorated their clothing with fringes or embroidery (50). The Evenki traditional costume always consisted of these elements: the loincloth made of animal hide, leggings, and boots of varying lengths (Vasilevich, 641). Facial tattooing was also very common.
^Evenks in 1862
In the 17th century, the Russian empire made contact with the Evenks. Cossacks, who served as a kind of “border-guard” for the tsarist government, imposed a fur tax on the Siberian tribes. The Cossacks exploited the Evenk clan hierarchy and took hostages from the highest members in order to ensure payment of the tax. Although there was some rebellion against local officials, the Evenks generally recognized the need for peaceful cultural relations with the Russians (Vasilevich, 624). Contact with the Russians and constant demand for fur taxes pushed the Evenks east all the way to Sakhalin island, where some still live today (Cassells). In the 19th century some groups migrated south and east into Mongolia and Manchuria (Vasilevich, 625). Today there are still Evenk populations in Sakhalin, Mongolia, and Manchuria (Ethnologue), and to a lesser extent, their traditional Baikal region (Janhunen). Russian invasion of the Evenks (and other indigenous peoples) resulted in language erosion, traditional decline, identity loss, among others, of thereof. This was especially the case during the Soviet regime. Soviet policies of collectivization, forced sedentarization (or sometimes refer to as Sedentism), “unpromising villages”, and Russificationof the education system compromised social, cultural, and mental well-being of the Evenks . Today, few people can speak the Evenki language, reindeer herding is in significant decline, the suicide rate is extremely high, and alcoholism is a serious issue.
(source)
732 notes
·
View notes
Soglio - Turo Pedretti , 1942.
Swiss, 1896-1964
Watercolour and pencil , 32,5 x 42,5 cm. 12,8 x 16,7 in.
84 notes
·
View notes
book reviews: Only As the Day is Long (Dorianne Laux)
This book is a mix of poems from all of Laux's previous books. Laux's poetic voice is beautiful, crisp, vivid, and bursting with a loving attention to the details of mundane living. Her work is also incredibly depressing, as she frequently writes about heavy subjects, including the physical and sexual abuse she and her sister suffered from their father, and being committed to a mental hospital for a time, and does so very explicitly. Many of her poems are otherwise highly sexual, and she writes about past relationships in a sexually frank, explicit way. The book was too heavy for me, and I didn't get more than a third of the way through, although I covered the samplers of two of her books. I don't recommend her work.
0 notes
Story idea: a merperson/siren debuts at the city aquarium, drawing thousands of awed onlookers. But rather than a helpless prisoner, the merperson is a willing participant who's only there for a year, while recuperating from injuries sustained in the ocean and patched up by the marine biologists. The whole situation is completely consensual and the merperson gets free fish and healthy socialization in return for providing entertainment for the aquarium visitors. After the year is up, the merperson will return to the ocean (though they'll probably continue visiting the marine biologists every so often)
1 note
·
View note
book reviews: We Must Make a Kingdom of It (Gregory Orr)
The fanciful title is attention-grabbing, but ill-fitting for the volume, as most of the poems in the book are of an earthy, mundane nature. The language and poetic voice are frequently, though not always, of high quality. There are only one or two poems that are really great, and the rest are merely good or decent. The subject matter is far-ranging, but in a way that feels disjointed, and the book has absolutely no thematic cohesion. This book is utterly unworthy of the awards it won (it's quite telling that it won an award in Virginia, whose literary scene is academic, self-inflated, and conservative), being less a book for brilliant, deep people and more a book for humdrum academics who falsely think they're brilliant, but it is a thoroughly decent book, and a pleasant enough diversion.
0 notes
The Last Place You Look (2023)
oil on canvas
Instagram: @suhaylah.h
Shop: suhaylah.bigcartel.com
Patreon: patreon.com/suhaylah_h
324 notes
·
View notes
807 notes
·
View notes
The Charleston (Album “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby - Come On, Let’s Do the Charleston”)
197 notes
·
View notes
book reviews: Angel (Giles Dorey)
The most unbelievable saccharine, schmaltzy, doe-eyed crap I've read in a long time. Don't pick up this book.
0 notes
Modern people make fun of the Victorian literature trope of a woman slowly wasting away from an unknown disease whose main attributes are causing her to become more and more beautiful the closer she is to death, they think it's saccharine and shallow. But it's actually a very reasonable trope that makes a lot of sense in context when you consider that 1. The Victorians had no way to see what was happening inside a person's body besides post-mortem autopsies, and 2. The Victorians actively fetishized both paleness and thinness, which are both symptoms of many wasting diseases common to the period, especially Tuberculosis, but also Leukemia and other cancers. Poisonous dyes and metals were also common in everything from wallpaper to cosmetics, and many people were actively suffering from slow poisoning from bad air and skin contact (mold or moist air would cause arsenic-green wallpaper to off-gas arsenic particles, for example).
0 notes
People who haven't studied history extensively really do not understand how awful it was for women, minorities, and the disenfranchised just a hundred years ago. Women were not allowed to have bank accounts in their own name without their husband's or father's explicit permission until the 1970s. The first countries to give women voting rights were in the 1920s, but Switzerland didn't give women the right to vote until the 1970s. Up until the mid-20th century adult women in Western countries were treated like children in that whole areas of learning were forbidden to them so that their all-important "innocence" and "moral purity" could be "maintained". It was expected until after WWI for anything that women read to be heavily bowdlerized so that they didn't come across anything "immoral" or "imprudent". A man would control what his wife was allowed to read, and it was typical that a scholarly man would forbid his wife reading his own books that he wrote—just one example being Sir Richard Burton, who published an unabridged translation of The Arabian Nights, and made his wife promise to never read his edition because of the sexual content in it. And, contrary to what women nowadays like to think, most women back then were in fact fine with being policed like this, because it was part of the social fabric of their day. Women took pride in their purity and self-policed to a high degree in order to maintain their perceived moral purity.
And you get so many women nowadays who engage with history on a shallow level, who gravitate toward historical eras because of the aesthetics, who don't understand or refuse to understand how awful it was to actually live in those eras. So many gravitate toward the Regency era, for example, because of Jane Austen, and the pretty, diaphanous dresses of the time, but because they only read Romances set in the era, which are fundamentally fantasies, they don't understand how awful it actually was back then. In the early 19th century your average woman aged 40 was less educated than your average boy of twelve, and married women had no legal right to their own children. Rich daughters were only educated in the arts, like letter-writing, music, and needlework, and poor daughters were not educated at all. The only practical education women received was in learning how to read, and that was only guaranteed if you were upper-class. While still unmarried you were entirely legally and socially dependent on your father and brothers, and once married you were entirely legally and financially dependent on your husband, and ceased to be a legally independent personage entirely. You were utterly at the mercy of your husband, who controlled your finances, your children, what you ate, and could legally beat you with any stick thinner than his thumb, and nine-tenths of men back then were monsters.
And of course medievalists love to talk about how these extreme conditions were the product of the Renaissance and didn't exist in the Middle Ages, and how women being oppressed wasn't as much of a thing because of all the responsibilities they wielded back then, but that's only half-true, because in the middle ages women did have lots of responsibilities, but their rights were still severely restricted compared to men's. In the middle ages the only people who had rights or privileges as we think of them nowadays were the landed class, the nobles, and in most medieval societies noblewomen were subordinate to noble men. The men had say over their households except when they were absent, and where Salic Law prevailed women were barred from inheriting the property of their parents, a significant restriction for the only class that held property at all. Women reined over the private sphere and men the public sphere, and while there were politically powerful women they were only of the most powerful families in Europe, and were deliberately going against what was socially expected of them. A woman from a minor noble house had little power and was indeed controlled by her husband. And commoners had no property and few rights at all, and women were still socially inferior to men. So, contrary to what medievalists like to claim, women of all classes were indeed disenfranchised compared to their male counterparts, and had fewer rights and privileges in whatever way counted for their socioeconomic bracket.
In short, up until very recently, women have, for all of history in every culture, been severely controlled by men and have had very few rights, and the people of today do not understand how dire it was for them for most of history. And this ignorance is very dangerous, when a significant percentage of our ruling class wants to take us back to that. And the fake historians, the historical fangirls/fanboys who claim "Not MY time period! Women actually had it good in MY time period!" are doing the devil's fucking work and actively contributing to the rampant historical illiteracy of today's society. Fuck them.
0 notes
Parlor-Observation car "Juno" on the Nebraska Zephyr, a daytime passenger train operated daily by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) between Chicago, Illinois and Lincoln, Nebraska. Beginning operation in 1947, the train was typical of streamlined trains of the postwar period in that its carbodies were built of stainless steel and featured an all-silver exterior, the trademark of the Budd Company, but it was also notable in that it continued the CB&Q's unusual tradition, which began in the 1930s, of articulated, unified trainsets, with all passenger cars in each consist sharing bogies (wheel-trucks) and permanently coupled together.
The Nebraska Zephyr operated once-daily in each direction, with Westbound #11 departing Chicago at 12:45 PM and arriving in Lincoln at 10:30 PM, while Eastbound #12 departed Lincoln at 11:00 AM and arrived in Chicago at 8:45 PM. The 551-mile (887 km) trip took 9 hours and 45 minutes, and its average speed was 56 miles per hour (90 km/h) including stops. Service utilized two trainsets which each operated one direction on day and the opposite direction the next. One trainset's cars bore the names of Roman female gods, and was nicknamed "the train of the goddesses" (Venus, Vesta, Minerva, Psyche, Ceres, Diana, and Juno), while the other trainset's cars were named for male Roman gods, and was nicknamed "the train of the gods" (Apollo, Mars, Neptune, Cupid, Vulcan, Mercury, and Jupiter). The trainsets were in fact built by the Budd Company back in 1936 as the second pair of Twin Zephyrs, for CB&Q service between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, making them some of the first stainless-steel trainsets built by Budd, and as such they initially bore the same style of locomotive as the other CB&Q Zephyrs from the 1930s, of a smooth, semicircular front curving seamlessly into the roofline at its top, but these locomotives were later replaced with the stainless-steel-bodied, shovel-nosed diesel locomotives of the 1950s which all the CB&Q's Zephyr trains later received.
Each of the Nebraska Zephyr's two trainsets consisted of several coaches and parlor cars, a coach-dinette, dining car, cocktail lounge, and parlor-observation car. The parlor-observation car on "the train of the gods" was named Jupiter, while its goddess counterpart was named Juno. The locomotives were named Pegasus (CB&Q #9904) and Zephyrus (CB&Q #9905). The trains were generously appointed and provided comfortable travel throughout the 1940s and '50s, and the high level of service was maintained until 1963, when the cocktail lounges were removed in favor of additional seating. In 1966 the dining cars were rebuilt as "cafeteria cars" with vending machines for additional cost-cutting. The aging trainsets were retired from service entirely in 1968, although CB&Q continued to operate the Nebraska Zephyr train with other rolling stock until 1971, when the newly-birthed Amtrak took over all remaining passenger rail service in the US.
3 notes
·
View notes