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louisetaylor · 27 days

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kind of interesting how the land and the weather outside Gormenghast are the complete opposite of it in that they're brightly colored and changing and unpredictable, forest to desert to plains to rocks, baking heat to torrents of rain. And Gormenghast stands still and grey and unmoving, unchanging, bound in tradition more predictable than the seasons. Titus runs away to the forest again and again. The Thing lives in it and embodies it, even as she dies. Flay is banished to the forest but learns to love it and comes back gentler. Every time the rain comes in the books, it changes something important in Gormenghast. Fuchsia runs away to the forest when she's younger, but as she gets older and less free she does this less and less, and when she finally falls she hits her head on the grey stone of Gormenghast. Strange how she was looking at the water when she died, hoping it would release her even then.

I wonder if the still grey Gormenghast contrasted with the wild colorful country around it is anything like the English settlement in China where Mervyn Peake grew up. The traditions of the British Empire fading slowly in a fortress surrounded by an alien landscape with wild weather.

My small town feels a little like Gormenghast at times. I wonder if the world outside is bright and wild and dangerous, and if I could survive it.

#i lift my eyes to the hills #gormenghast #titus groan #fuchsia groan #mervyn peake #british empire #literary history #literary analysis #lit crit #literary criticism #though that seems pretentious #symbolism #man vs nature

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yandere-writer-momo · 10 days

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I’m leaving both creatures’ intentions ambiguous since I see the entire internet in disarray over this question. It’s up to the interpreter to decide which would be safer for them. Personally, I’d pick the bear

#would you rather #man vs bear #man vs nature

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thegoodmorningman · 1 year

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If you're not in it to win it, get out of My Morning 🌞 Good Morning

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adityaportfolio404 · 6 months

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Tom Sawyer's Picket fence ;) Coordinating colors

#fence #coordinating colors #nature #man vs nature

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haggishlyhagging · 5 months

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For in [de Sade’s] vision of the world, nature is criminal. Thus he writes to us: "those murders which the laws punish so rigorously, those murders which we assume to be the greatest outrage which one can do to Nature, not only . . . do her no wrong; they become useful to her." And elsewhere in de Sade, we read: "Nature lives and breathes by crime," or "hungers at her pores for bloodshed"; we hear that "Nature is weary of life."

We do not rise up with love for the world from de Sade's vision. He tells us nature's eyes are "sick of seeing, her ears heavy with hearing," and we sicken as she sickens, grow heavy as she does. Nature is not, in de Sade, bent on joy, but rather she "yearns for cruelty." And spelling out for us the pornographic ideology which would turn eros into death, he writes: "she kindles death out of life, and feeds with fresh blood the innumerable and insatiable mouths suckled at her milkless breasts."

Here is an ideology which appears an exact mirror image of the miraculous initiation which seers experienced from the goddess Persephone at Eleusis. For at the apex of this transforming ritual, when a sheaf of grain was held up to the open eyes of the initiate, the initiate was supposed to have understood that there is no death, that life and death are one, the soul is immortal, and thus to have taken into herself (or himself) the secret of rebirth. But where this mystic vision sees life, de Sade sees death; where this vision sees rebirth, de Sade sees an interminable cycle of meaningless cruelty. And where the Eleusian mystery embodies a vision of both woman and nature, in the figure of a goddess, as sacred, in de Sade's mind woman and nature are embodied by a figure of cruelty who mocks every idea of the sacred in the human imagination with her avid and terrifying hunger for death.

-Susan Griffin, Pornography and Silence: Culture’s Revenge Against Nature

#susan griffin #persephone #Eleusinian Mysteries #de sade #male perversion of the sacred female #man vs nature

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uschi-the-listener · 10 months

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We admired their home

Small, grey, meticulously constructed

They encroached on our property

But hey

Live and let live

Their people may have been here first

We are new

Not from around here

They merely followed their native customs

We left them alone

So far

So good

But then

For no reason we could understand

(Perhaps we stepped over a line, offended their customs, appeared wrong, immoral)

They rushed out

Clad in black and yellow war paint

Rushing us

Stabbing

Singing a terrifying war song

In unison

Throwing small bodies

Ferociously

In unison

We retreated

Studied strategy

Gave them wide berth

As wide as we could

Then attacked at night

Sentinels drowsy

The whole fierce group

Asleep inside

We captured

Incarcerated

Executed

Desecrated

Felt bad

But

We hold no quarter

For wasps' nests.

.

#man vs nature #wasp nest #sorry not sorry

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adddramabutton · 1 year

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The truth is that I am not a progressive at all. I am the traditionalist of traditionalists. It is not the image of a bright future that guides me, but rather the singing of bones from the ancient past, buried in the ground. Anthropology, archaeology, and mythology form my values.

If evidence were found of trans people being respected in Minoan civilization, that would be all the argument I need. If there were a mention of abortion being administered in the Old Testament, that would be all the reason I require.

The Earth is old, very old. It has seen it all. Polyamorous families of hunter-gatherers and pagan Bacchanalia, Greek lovers betrothed by the rage of the battlefield, and huntresses piercing the mammoth's heart in the final strike. The chorus of believers calling to the goddesses of fear and wisdom, and the blinding fires of the inquisition.

There is a habit of seeing ancient cultures as underdeveloped and ignorant. To those who believe this, spend a week in a forest. Sit by the sea in a storm. Learn the voices of herbs and the habits of birds. Build a system of knowledge and memory necessary to survive. And the net of faith and relationships to keep your sanity intact when the sky falls down on you. The older cultures that had to understand the multiplicity and unpredictability of existence, to adapt to it, and even manage to have fun - this is where our power comes from. This is tradition.

Crying about how things were not as they were 100-50-20 years ago is a banal weakness of imagination.

#archaeology #anthropology #progressive #conservative #mythology #ancient origins #greek mythology #man vs nature #paganism

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ketchuplaser · 2 months

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I'd watch this

#man vs animal #birds #man vs nature

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thedirectorscuts · 2 years

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Fall

#nature photo art #man vs nature #minimalphotography #minimalart #nature photography #black and yellow

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blackswaneuroparedux · 2 years

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Ῥοδίοις ἐκέλευον ἀνέμοις καὶ μέρεσι τοῖς πελαγίοις ὅτε πλέειν ἤθελον ἐγώ, ὅτε μένειν ἤθελον ἐκεῖ, ἔλεγον μέρε(σιν) πελαγίο(ις)· μὴ τύπηι τὰ πελάγη· ἅλ᾿ ὑποτάξατε ναυσιβά[τ]αις. ὅλος ἄρ᾿ ἄνεμος ἐπείγεται. ἀπόκλειε τὰ πνεύματα καί, Ν[ύ]ξ, δὸς τὰ [. .]ατ᾿ εὔβατα.

- Anonymous, To The Rhodian Winds

I used to give orders to the Rhodian winds And the neighborhoods of the sea When I wanted to sail When I wanted to stay there

I used to sing to the corners of the sea: Don’t let the waters strike me! Put the waves at the command of the sailors! The whole wind is pressing on us!

Night, Lock up your winds and make safe our way.

#greek #classical #quote #antiquity #ancient greece #sparta #sea #sail #storms #rhodian winds #poem #nature #winds #man vs nature

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grayrazor · 3 months

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I think the biggest thing holding Star Trek back (and a lot of other spec-fic/action series) is falling back on "angry revenge guy" as a storytelling crutch.

I think that one needs to be shelved for a long while before it can feel fresh again.

A lot of the worst ones are some original character nobody’s ever seen before who shows up out of nowhere and is like “Remember me? You killed my father! Prepare to die!”

I think it's a trope that works if they’re a recurring villain that the audience already has feelings about.

Any action franchise that goes on long enough starts to become one of these guys after another instead of the stories they were originally known for. In Star Trek in particular it's the long shadow cast by The Wrath of Khan, which was revolutionary in its time for breaking the rule of "nothing from one episode can ever have consequences," but has kind of lost its novelty in the decades since.

Halo is another good example of this. The villains of the original trilogy are "insane computer," "charismatic politician/televangelist," and "cthulhu," but then the sequel trilogy has "Angry Revenge Guy 1," "Protagonist Infighting," and "Angry Revenge Guy 2."

I know people are afraid of the post-release backlash against Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it is possible to just do a movie about finding a weird space thingy, there doesn't always need to be a charismatic villain. Man vs. Nature is like a whole massive chunk of the literary universe.

I don't even think it needs to be especially weird and niche. Think of successful non-sci-fi movies like The Poseidon Adventure or Castaway that didn't have a central human antagonist.

#writing #long-running series #franchises #science fiction #action series #revenge #man vs nature #big dumb object #mystery

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painsandconfusion · 3 months

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He Sang Little Joe The Wrangler

I've loved this poem all my life, but I'm only now understanding why I loved it o much as a child. It's exquisitely written, the descriptions are incredible and vivid, and it's also whump.

Man vs Nature - the story of a cowboy who gets caught in a wildfire with his horse. It's terrifying and brilliantly done. There's such incredible descriptions of panic, some life-saving cleverness, and some absolutely stunning caretaking as he calms his horse and keeps him safe through the chaos.

tw for possible death, burning, broken bones, and and animal (horse) gets injured.

I'd let you just read it, but I've never been table to find this poem in writing, and it's also vastly more effective if you can hear his voice. The delivery is key. I'm so incredibly sorry it's not more accessible.