jeanjauthor
Jean Johnson, Author
Jean Johnson, bestselling author, discusses writing, the writer's life, & other absurdities. Pronouns are she & they, just be respectful, okay?
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oh my god, the SHADING on that bull-riding figure!!
Red figure calyx-krater depicting the abductions of Europa, crafted in Paestra, Greek Southern Italy (Magna Graecia), circa 380 BC
from The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
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It puzzles me when people cite LOTR as the standard of “simple” or “predictable” or “black and white” fantasy. Because in my copy, the hero fails. Frodo chooses the Ring, and it’s only Gollum’s own desperation for it that inadvertently saves the day. The fate of the world, this whole blood-soaked war, all the millennia-old machinations of elves and gods, comes down to two addicts squabbling over their Precious, and that is precisely and powerfully Tolkien’s point.
And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again.
And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil.
“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”
So where’s this silly shallow hippie fever-dream I’ve heard so much about? It sounds like a much lesser story than the one that actually exists.
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it feels bad to have someone say ‘we will not accommodate your unique way in our space’. that is what the texas library association did to chuck
the thing is, WE have the power to create our own spaces. sometimes that space is SO SMALL, just one cubic foot inside of a pink mask, and sometimes that space is a whole ballroom full of buckaroos cheering and laughing and proving that LOVE IS REAL
thank you to true buckaroos MARK OSHIRO and TJ KLUNE for creating that space with me last night. thank you to NOWHERE BOOKSHOP and BONHAM EXCHANGE and JENNY LAWSON for hosting, and thank you to NIGHTFIRE for going along with this wild idea when chuck said ‘hey if the dang TXLA does not want unique buckaroos inside their convention, then lets have our own across town’
every day there are strong forces pushing back against love, but when we trot together we can make spaces where love thrives
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flickr
A satirical papyrus showing a lady mouse being served wine by a cat while another cat dresses her hair, a third cares for her baby, and a fourth fans her. The mice have hilarious huge, round ears.
Where: Egyptian Museum Cairo
When: New Kingdom
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And if your family gets mad at you for leaving...ask them why are they mad?
Let them answer in their own words--don't ask any loaded questions!!--but also ask yourself, too, based on your observations and their actions & replies to your question. Are they afraid of distance separating you emotionally? Or are they afraid of losing someone to do the chores, or to help pay the rent? Or is it for some other reason?
Failure is a possibility; we live in an era that is price-gouging everyone, so the struggle to survive on your own will be a genuine financial burden. But you also have every right to try, especially since you have what you need: financial stability via a job that you don't mind, and the transportation to get to it.
Hi Neil,
I write to you because I find myself without answers, and who better to turn to than you, the person who has arguably raised the most questions in my life due to your lovely stories.
I currently live with my dad and step mother, his two sons (my brothers) and her two children. There are a lot of us in one space right now and it’s safe to say we don’t get along very well.
Getting to the point, I want to live on my own. I have the means to do so (hypothetically). I have a job and a car and savings put back, but up until recently it hadn’t occurred to me that leaving was an option. I always thought it wasn’t allowed for some reason. That there would be consequences for revoking my presence from them like I’m their favorite toy instead of a person.
The fear, I suppose, is that they won’t forgive me for leaving. That I’ll leave and fail somehow. That I won’t be able to come back from the hubris that is thinking I could do things on my own. Truly though, the real danger is that I’ll never be in a place where I can be myself without some all consuming guilt gnawing at my stomach.
The question is whether or not to deal with the current circumstances or risk losing everything for the chance at success.
Can you get the things you want and keep the things you have?
Sincerely, a huge fan wishing they had a beloved Bentley to live in and offering condolences for the rant.
As a parent, you are doing your job when your children leave the nest and become independent. It means you did something right.
As a child, it's always scary to leave. But it's necessary. You aren't punishing the people you are leaving. You are beginning your journey to independence.
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I love the fact they gave us plaid colorations, too!
Women with swords. You agree. Reblog.
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we did the best we could to extract the perfect columbo reaction gif, and here it is - been wanting to make this for bloody weeks
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ANZAC DAY
Today, 25th April, is Anzac Day, commemorating when ANZAC troops landed at Gallipoli during World War I.
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Every year Australians and New Zealanders celebrate ANZAC Day to commemorate the troops landing on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean coast. Of the 1500 men who waded ashore that first day, 755 remained in active service at the end of the day. The remainder were killed or wounded. Establishing a foothold, the ANZACs found an advance to be impossible. After eight months of stalemate, the Allies withdrew from the peninsula, leaving over 8000 dead amongst the troops.
From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC services were held on or about April 25. In Australia, it was decided at the 1921 state premiers conference that ANZAC Day be observed on April 25 each year.
In Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC Day commemoration features solemn “dawn services”, Marches by veterans from all past wars are held in capital cities and towns nationwide. This is usually followed by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL Club, often including a traditional Australian gambling game called “two-up”, which was an extremely popular past-time with ANZAC soldiers. Although the last ANZAC veteran has now died, the tradition lives on as Australia and New Zealand choose to remember the sacrifice of their young men during WWI.
The State Library of New South Wales holds extensive collections of materials relating to World War 1 and the Anzacs, including soldier’s diaries, maps, posters and art works.
Read more in our feature article Writing at Gallipoli by Elise Edmonds.
“Allied troops remained on the Gallipoli peninsula until the evacuation on 19 and 20 December. The landing of troops on that morning in April continues to be an enduring and powerful milestone in Australia’s history. The myths and realities of the landing site, the nature of the landing, and how far inland the troops got on that first day are still being debated by historians 100 years on.
The Gallipoli campaign cost Australia 26,111 casualties, including 8,141 deaths.”
LEST WE FORGET
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Skeleton of a Scythian queen and her jewelry, found in the Chertomlyk barrow, near Nikopol, Katerynoslavsk Governorate (today Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine)
Headdress and ornaments of the clothes of the priestess Dimitra / Demeter, found in the tomb.
Vasily A. Prokhorov, 1881
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The Battle of Iwo Jima is absolutely considered the hardest battle of the entirety of World War II. Look up the details sometime.
U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Regiment, take cover and a break as a Sherman tank named "Bed Bug" rolls pass their position, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, March 1945.
(Official USMC photo)
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Etched and gilded armor, Dutch, dated 1612
from The Royal Armouries Collection
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We don't hear a lot about Portugal in History classes here in America. Yes yes, everyone knows about the Age of Exploration stuff, but not much about what happened in living memory.
Carnation Revolution in Portugal
The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also referred to as the 25th of April (Portuguese: vinte e cinco de Abril), was initially a military coup in Lisbon, Portugal, on 25 April 1974 which overthrew the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo.[1] The revolution started as a military coup organized by the Armed Forces Movement (Portuguese: Movimento das Forças Armadas, MFA) composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but the movement was soon coupled with an unanticipated and popular campaign of civil resistance. This movement would lead to the fall of the Estado Novo and the withdrawal of Portugal from its African colonies.
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