#if i hadn't moved because the cost of living was batshit i was planning on taking history classes to qualify | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

katabay · 4 months

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A SPY FOR A SPY

an informal AmRev sketch dump type of thing circling around some thoughts: Benjamin Tallmadge and the corpse of Nathan Hale (they never did recover Hale's corpse, so this is like. you know. symbolism. it's why Tallmadge isn't looking directly at the body, but oh something in you has changed. loss defines the outline, the shape. that body is going to be inside you forever), bad dreams with John Andre and something that looks like Nathan Hale, and the finally Tallmadge and Andre. they turned your friend into a martyr, Tallmadge, but before that, he was your friend, and that makes this personal.

there's a. triangle. happening between these three. a kind of ritual substitution. the absence of Hale's body demands a body in it's place, John Andre's fate was sealed the minute Nathan Hale died.

also, in the first one, Hale's feet are bound because that's my favorite awful detail from both the MacMonnies statue and the Pratt statue.

(MacMonnies)

(Pratt)

on the topic of Hale statues, what really fucks me up is that the MacMonnies rendition of Nathan Hale is. it's a hot statue. the posing suggests something almost provocative (in combination with the open collar of the shirt), but only because his arms have been tied behind him in a way that forces the position, so it turns vulnerable and voyeuristic. horrifying and delightful. I'm obsessed with it.

bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara ⭐ ko-fi

#amrev tag #god all i did when i lived in greater boston was go to historical reenactment sites on the weekends #if i hadn't moved because the cost of living was batshit i was planning on taking history classes to qualify #to apply for one of those reenactment societies lmao #benjamin tallmadge #john andre #nathan hale

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