#August blue
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Henry Scott Tuke - Preliminary Sketch for “August Blue” (before 1893)
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Henry Scott Tuke - August Blue (1896)
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I undressed and left my clothes on the sand. I was not at ease with my body, not even in the darkness of night. It had been unloved, perhaps forever.
Deborah Levy, August Blue
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My extremely objectively correct media favorites for 2023:
Books
Fantasy
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torsz
The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Other Fiction
The September House by Carissa Orlando (horror, arguably fantasy)
The Winter Guest by W.C. Ryan (mystery/historical drama)
Kala by Colin Walsh (mystery)
The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel (historical drama, arguably fantasy as well lolll)
August Blue by Deborah Levy (contemporary fiction (for once!))
Nonfiction
No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson
A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman
The Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy
Nazi Culture by George L Mosse
Movies
Polite Society (action/comedy, dir. Nida Manzoor)
Rustin (historical drama, dir. Colman Domingo)
Saltburn (dark comedy, dir. Emerald Fennell)
Flora and Son (comedy/drama, dir. John Carney)
Past Lives (drama, dir. Celine Song)
TV
The Bear
Slow Horses
Succession
Doctor Who (RTDv2)
Beef
#black sun#the centre#ink blood sister scribe#the oleander sword#piranesi#the september house#the winter guest#kala#the wild hunt#August blue#no ordinary war#the Russo-Ukrainian war#the nineties#a village in the third reich#polite society#saltburn#Rustin#flora and son#past lives#the bear#beef#doctor who#slow horses#succession
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The 2nd full moon of August 2023 l Rami Ammoun
#moon#full moon#space#stars#blue moon#supermoon#astrophotography#astronomy#solar system#nasa#night#sky#August
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August Blue - Review
2/5 stars
I was drawn to this book by an inarticulable affinity for the title, probably due to its similarity to August Rush (of which this is a reinterpretation). That’s a very thematically appropriate way to approach the novel, but it did little to improve the actual reading experience.
The classical music world gets a bad rap for being dull, elitist, and pretentious, and August Blue does little to refute that perception. As the title might imply, August Blue is the depressed and cynical reinterpretation of August Rush. What if instead of an extremely corny plot about an orphan prodigy reuniting his parents though the power of music (demonstrated by the protagonist playing a rhapsody that spontaneously captures the attention and emotion of the audience), the orphan prodigy grows up as the golden child of the elite world of classical music but when the time comes for her rhapsody, the untraditional departure from the tradition of performance is immediately crushed and ignored. Our prodigy finds herself unable to perform, navigating the realization that she will have to discover the identity of her parents (and by extension herself) from the clinical language of her adoption documents.
That premise may sound engaging, but it’s because I’ve omitted basically all the details. August Blue has a bad case of literary-itis. It is at the intersection of literary fiction and classical music, two things that people who mostly don’t actually engage with them see as pretentious and boring. Unfortunately while both these art forms are more interesting, exciting, and accessible that one might think, August Blue isn’t going to convert you. This is what people who never read literary fiction but hate it nonetheless think all litfic is: unpleasant people doing boring things. It’s not great about the music either. Protagonist Elsa might as well be a talented athlete, or stock trader, or airline pilot for all her career seems to matter. My point of reference here is Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. I didn’t like that book half as much as I wanted to but the one thing that was unreservedly great about it was how effectively it established its characters’ passion for music. August Blue spends a lot of time with Elsa teaching young students, but can’t seem to summon any emotion at all for music. It’s about people… in the most boring way imaginable.
The central emotional issue of the novel is Elsa’s identity as the pseudo-daughter of former maestro Arthur. She was materially his prized student but emotionally closer to his adopted daughter and when her identity as a piano prodigy is challenged by her failed performance, every other element of her sense of self is thrown into question as well. Her double the manifestation of her desire for a self-image that isn’t dependant on her audience; a woman just like her but unselfconscious of her desires and eccentricities. I am saying this to demonstrate that I did understand the book, that understanding just doesn’t lead to me liking it any more.
August Blue just approaches this emotional arc in such a dull and bitter way. There’s no sense of joy and beauty in the music and there’s no sense of joy and beauty in anything else. Elsa jetsets across Europe — Greece, Paris, London, Sardinia — but these might as well be different terminals in the same airport for all the interest they bring. Technically, the novel does effectively establish Elsa’s alienation from anyone else in her life but does that even matter? This book has no soul. It could be technically perfect and it would still fail because it makes me feel nothing at all. Elsa is disagreeable and unpleasant in a realistic way for someone who was a piano prodigy first and a person second, but I found myself wishing the book was a little less realistic because it’s just such an awful grind to get through.
For my money August Blue’s original sin, the thing that makes it actively bad rather than lacking in good, is its commitment to extreme stylistic naturalism. One can easily see how, in another book, this could be a unique authorial flourish, meriting (for example) a Booker prize nomination. However, here it is combined with the tendency for childish absurdity peculiar to rich British people. We got a glimpse of this with Spare; whether you’re team Harry or team Windsors, they’re both the kind of people to call their parents ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ their whole lives. Due to various unfortunate events (being British), I’ve interacted with a number of rich English people and they’re all goofy as fuck. It’s a very strange echo chamber — the confidence of global privilege convincing them that every thought they have is philosophical, even if it’s ‘if you’re not here, then where?’ For discerning audiences from outside the bubble, a huge amount of August Blue’s dialogue is simply ridiculous, a second grader’s first essay delivered with the confidence of a tenured professor who should have retired decades ago. It sucks to read because this dialogue is obviously absurd but the people who do speak like this have more than enough money to make fetch happen.
If you want a book about music and identity read Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson or Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress is also about the interaction of family identity and art. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is a surprisingly touching exploration of feeling existential malaise when there’s nothing actually wrong with your life. Maybe you just have to be in your thirties to appreciate this book. I’m not going to wait around and find out. The nicest thing I can say about it is at least it was short.
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August Blue by Deborah Levy
#august blue#Deborah levy#books#literature#book recommendations#quotes#literature quotes#female authors#women authors#novels#booklr#novella
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super blue moon 🌕
30th of august, 2023
📷: @iekphotography
#my photography#moon photography#moon#supermoon#blue moon#super blue moon#photographers on tumblr#iekphotography#astronomy#astrophotography#nikon#nikon photography#space#solar system#nasa#august#clouds
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August Blue
I recognized the author’s name, having read “Swimming Home” and “Hot Milk,” but Deborah Levy’s new book August Moon had two more things going for me. It promised a short read, only 208 pages, and it brought back a memory.
When I was a preteen shuffling through photographs with my grandmother, I came across pictures of me. But it was not me; it was a cousin in Italy who looked just like me.…
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I knew I was running away from everything, but I did not want to plunge a fork into my life and look at it too closely.
Deborah Levy, August Blue
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The Last Super Blue Moon until 2037 © daryaastrovas
#blue moon#supermoon#night sky#August#201#astrophotography#stars#full moon#nasa#space#solar system#galaxy#astronomy#universe#cosmos
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satoru gojo who has the biggest sweet tooth ever but won't hesitate to offer you a bite of his kikufuku-- even though it's his favorite.
satoru gojo who, when you shake your head to him buying you an expensive gift, buys it for you anyways, because no amount of money will be more valuable than seeing you happy with a what he's bought you. especially when he knows its his name on the card that's being slid through the reader to purchase whatever it is you set your eyes on.
satoru gojo who readily pulls his blindfold/sunglasses off in your presence because only you quiet the overlapping, draining echoes in his head.
satoru gojo who peppers you with kisses for as long as you let him, because you deserve to feel just how much adoration he has for you.
satoru gojo who takes you out to gorgeous high-end restaurants, having the both of you dress up just as gorgeously. not to mention, throughout the night you'll hear endless compliments of how "that outfit really compliments your figure," or how, "that color makes your eyes look so pretty." and so on and so forth, satoru can't run out of compliments when you give him so much to talk about
satoru gojo who is the best at princess treatment. do not try opening your own door around him. he will do somersaults to get there before you can. you know those tiktoks of people rolling over the top of the car and dropping onto the ground to open the door for their significant other? yeah, that's satoru.
satoru gojo who surprises you with those giant, beautiful bouquets that have money and your favorite snacks in them because he loves to see your expression when he hands it to you
satoru gojo who loves to show you off. he'll send the gc with him, shoko, and suguru endless texts about how he loves his s/o so much and how he's so lucky to have them. and he sends especially petty messages sometimes about how suguru and shoko are still single while he's happily married (he'll say this before you're even engaged)
satoru gojo who used to not get flustered by anyone because-- well he's satoru gojo-- he's the one who gets people all flustered up. but when you came into his life? try as he might to talk smooth and be flirty, you turned him into a stuttering mess sometimes. he'd play it off when he got lucky, but whenever you caught him off guard? he'd blush to his ears, glancing away and all.
satoru gojo who always texts you if he's at the store to ask if you want him to pick up something for you while he's there.
satoru gojo who, if you're sick, will act like you're dying in his arms. he'll panic, rushing around to get you medicine, whatever snacks you're craving, etc. he showers you in kisses and cuddles like they'll be his last
alternatively, satoru gojo who, when he gets sick, demands attention 24/7. you're not there when he wakes up? he'll pout and be upset until he's had his fill of your cuddles. loves when you feed him while he's sick, it makes him feel so loved and taken care of.
satoru gojo who loves when you ask for his opinion. which outfit is nicer? well both of them look perfect on you, but that one brings out your skin tone. which show should you watch? what about the one where you'll love to watch together? it makes him feel so important when you ask what he prefers.
satoru gojo who kicks his feet and giggles when he gets a text from you. he's on a mission with suguru, shoving his phone in suguru's face giggling over whatever you said. the phone is so close to his face that whatever is on the screen isn't even legible at this proximity but it makes satoru skip like a little schoolgirl as he and suguru walk to wherever they've been assigned to.
satoru gojo who asks shoko for advice since she's a friend of yours. asking her questions like, "should I get them this or this?" or "do they like this or this better?"
satoru gojo who starts a book or tv series just because you recommended it to him. because when has his beautiful partner ever steered him wrong? this applies for any advice you've given him too
satoru gojo who makes you an example for megumi. "see this, megumi? your standards should be this high! look how perfect y/n is, you should find you a partner like that too!"
satoru gojo who shows you megumi's picture album of when he was younger because he loves to see the two most important people in his life bonding, even if it means embarrassing megumi.
on that note, satoru gojo who's apartment is filled with photos of you and megumi and all his friends and family, and his phone's wallpaper is a picture of you too
satoru gojo who watches old tapes of you and him in high school together a lot whenever you're on missions without him. the nostalgia makes him miss the times when everything was okay in high school, but it also makes him so grateful that he finally managed to make you his after pining for you for so long
satoru gojo who's possessive but in a boastful way, you posted a tiktok? he's the first like, comment, and save. spams your comment section saying, "THATS ACTUALLY MY S/O" and whatnot because he's absolutely obsessed with you
satoru gojo, the strongest sorcerer, who is absolutely no match for you because the moment you make eye contact with him, he just goes weak and can't say no to a single request of yours
©beanxiv — all rights reserved. copying, reposting, translating, and modifying in any platform or by any means is not allowed.
#i love him#beanxiv writes#my first piece of writing since august 2023..#i improved didnt i 😜 (jk)#anyways i hope u guys like this cus i think this is my first jjk post?#anywyas stan satoru#my beautiful blue eyed princess#jujutsu kaisen#jjk#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jjk x reader#gojo#gojo satoru#satoru#satoru gojo#satoru x reader#gojo x reader#satoru gojo x reader#gojo satoru x reader#gn reader#gojo headcanons#satoru headcanons#gojo imagines
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this arts was drawn more than a year ago with special emotions, but now it’s very suitable for my ww2 au
#tf2#team fortress 2#tf2 medic#tf2 heavy#heavymedic#red oktoberfest#art#tf2 headcanons#blue medic#red heavy#tf2 august#tf2 au#tf2 fanart
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