autistic! theo nott hcs because i want to

in first year he claimed a table at the library and sat at it so many times he couldnt sit anywhere else. one day he comes in to see some random sitting in 'his' seat and accidentally pops the poor lads inkpot out of rage. there was a hasty reparo from theo and a very quick exit after that

has broken so many quills from bending them between his fingers its unreal. he buys them in batches of ten or twenty and has broken all of them by terms end

hates getting his hair cut but also hates feeling his hair on the back of his neck. every month or so its a constant internal turmoil

really likes potions but hates touching the slimy ingredients so often ends up compromising with his partner with him doing the "boring stuff" like precise weighing or stirring to get out of touching the awful textures.

hates divination bcs there are no solid rules. the phrase "its up to interpretation" puts him into fight-or-flight mode

once stupefied someone as a reflex when they grabbed his shoulder. he was very deep into a good book and it scared the shit out of him. do not grab him ever

has learned how to use silencing charms that follow him so he doesnt have to hear the loud noises in the corridoors. this also makes it very hard to get his attention

uses sarcasm often but half of it is by accident. he just doesn't tell them its accidental

"hey, wanna go to x?"

"well. doesnt that sound exciting?"

"no need to get snarky, theo. i'm just saying it could be fun"

*was being completely serious* "fine, then. i suppose there's no harm in trying it"

brilliant poker face purely because he forgets to show emotion half the time in any way thats noticeable if you arent either used to it or looking for it

very twitchy. like, he cannot sit still. he can try. but it wont last long.

'quiet kid' until you ask him about time travel or something he's interested in. then you can't get him to shut up. i am a firm believer in theo nott who wanted to be an unspeakable but was put off by the confines of the ministry so decided to research mad shit by himself

loves the dungeons' low light level. no light means less headaches.

has the exact same breakfast every day: two toasts and a tea. except on holidays and his birthday, in which he has fruit pastries, or on sundays, where he has jam and toast

only found out he was autistic bcs a random kid he was working with asked him if he was 'on the spectrum' and he was so confused on what 'the spectrum' was that he fell down a research rabbithole and realised, oh, i am the spectrum

"sorry if this is overstepping, but are you on the spectrum?"

"the what"

"yknow, the autism spectrum"

"pardon my english, but what the fuck is an autism"

*two weeks of looking into it later*

*staring into a mirror* "ah"

hated the yule ball.absolutely despised it. went anyway because it was a once in a lifetime thing, but mainly hated it apart from the bit at the end where everyone left.

does that thing where if one side of him taps something, he. has to tap the other side to feel balanced again. if you do it you'll get what i mean, if you dont doit im sorry i cant explain it

loves pressure. sleeps with two blankets so he can feel properly buried

Landmarks of Early Soviet Cinema

The 1920s was a miraculous golden age for Soviet cinema, both for features and documentary. 

The eight films included in this meticulously curated and handsomely presented collection convey the incredible excitement filmmakers felt at the opportunity to participate in the construction of the world’s first socialist state. Freed from the need to make money that drove the Hollywood industry, they could focus on “educating” the new Soviet population. Even Vladimir Ilych Lenin, the father of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the country that would become the U.S.S.R., understood that cinema, an art based on technology and machines, was the most suitable one for a country founded on the transformation of humanity through industry and technology. Cinema was nothing less than “the most important art,” Lenin famously declared. Experimentation was the order of the decade. It was a brief but brilliant interlude, before Joseph Stalin came to power and cast a puritanical and paralyzing pall over all the arts, including cinema, in the early 1930s.

In the thick booklet of detailed critical essays that accompanies the DVDs, curators Maxim Pozdorovkin and Ana Olenina write that their goal is to expand understanding of the early Soviet film industry beyond the relatively well-known work of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov. (So highly respected was Eisenstein by the end of the 1920s that he was even invited to Hollywood in 1930 to work at Paramount Studios.) Pozdorovkin and Olenina sought to chronicle the development of Soviet Montage and to showcase “the many ways of approaching that mysterious moment between two shots…. Though the films collected here run the gamut of genres and montage styles, what unites them is a belief in the power of fragmentation, recombination, and juxtaposition. They take an active, transformative approach to the footage and display an acute awareness of the medium’s power over the spectator. They believe in cinema’s ability to transform the spectator.”

Four feature films and four documentaries make up the set. The directors are a who’s who of kino luminaries: Lev Kuleshov (The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr.West in the Land of the Bolsheviks and By the Law), Sergei Eisenstein (Old and New), Dziga Vertov (Stride, Soviet), Esfir Shub (The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty), Mikhail Kalatozov (Salt for Svanetia), Viktor Turin (Turksib), and Boris Barnet (The House on Trubnaya). All the films were originally released between 1924 and 1930. Each has a nifty new musical score, using both previously composed and original material. Robert Israel compiled four of them; his score to the early morning Moscow street scenes inThe House on the Trubnaya makes ingenious use of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano cycle, Fugitive Visions, to set the mood.

The films of Eisenstein and Kuleshov are the best-known. In Old and New, completed in 1929 with his trusty codirector Grigori Aleksandrov, Eisenstein (1898-1948) was responding to the Communist Party’s appeal to artists in all media to create work that addressed the transformation of the backward Russian countryside. The film’s production was severely complicated by the frequent changes in official policy on economic development in the agricultural sphere, and Eisenstein had to several times reedit and retitle the film. The dominant theme (as in so many other Soviet films of the late 1920s) is the triumph of the machine over outdated traditional methods. In this case, a cream separator represents the apotheosis of progress and a symbol of the shining future. Eisenstein considered the playful sequence in which the cream separator springs into action, spewing luscious cream, an experiment in “cinematic ecstasy” resembling (in Olenina’s words) “an erotic or religious rapture.” Farmwork never looked so sexy. The failure of the excessively “formalist” Old and New, roundly booed by the party press at its premiere, left Eisenstein traumatized. For nearly ten years afterwards he failed to complete another film, despite numerous false starts both in Hollywood and in Moscow. Only with the simplistically propagandistic Alexander Nevsky would he resurrect his career.

Like Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov (1899-1970) not only made films, but also wrote extensively on film theory. His imaginative parody The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr.West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924) upends negative Western preconceptions about Russians and Bolsheviks, even as it consciously imitates the style of the American action films he so admired. With an all-star cast that includes the manic, leering Aleksandra Khokhlova and cameo appearances by two directors (Boris Barnet and Vsevolod Pudovkin), Mr.West reaches its Buster-Keaton-like climax in a memorable chase sequence. “Placing a cowboy in fringed chaps on the snowcovered streets of Moscow and having him lasso an unsuspecting Russian coachman,” writes Olenina, “is a strategy that bespeaks Kuleshov’s pursuit of comic defamiliarization.” By the time he made By the Law two years later, in 1926, Kuleshov’s style had dramatically changed, becoming less artificial and more moody and psychological under the influence of German expressionism. This gloomy story (adapted from a short story by Jack London) of murderous jealousy and passion among three prospectors under extreme pressure in the Klondike packs considerable emotional power, with another hyperkinetic performance from Khokhlova.

Future director Boris Barnet (1902-65) began as a Kuleshov protégé, but they parted ways after Barnet nearly killed himself doing a stunt in the role of the cowboy inMr.West. Soon he had a successful career as a director in his own right. Barnet’s fourth film, The House on Trubnaya (1928), a witty social satire on life under the limited capitalism allowed by the New Economic Policy, made him famous abroad as well. Written by a stellar quintet that included the formalist critic Viktor Shklovsky, The House on Trubnaya deals with one of the favorite topics of the era: the Moscow housing shortage. As thousands of peasants flooded into the capital, they resorted to all sorts of ruses to find a place to live, crowding into communal apartments that provided ample material for domestic comedy. Barnet uses an open staircase in an apartment building for lots of up-and-down action. “Chopping wood on the staircase is not allowed!” warns a poster, but some of the brawny barechested residents do so anyhow. Parasha (played with physical gusto by Vera Maretskaya), the country girl who has come to Moscow in search of her uncle, ends up as a domestic servant to a pretentious bourgeois hairdresser. But he gets his comeuppance when she joins the union and asserts her proletarian rights.

Barnet uses lots of entertaining visual tricks and puzzles: stop-frame with reverse motion, reflections in puddles and mirrors, even a car seeming to move in a full circle with small stop-motion jumps. A scene of a workers’ march through the city streets becomes a symphony of flags and flagpoles floating disembodied in the sky. Unlike most Soviet films of the period, The House on Trubnaya illuminates human feelings and foibles within an ideological framework, in a manner reminiscent of Ernst Lubitsch. A highly original and versatile talent, Barnet later made spy films that have been favorably compared to Hitchcock’s.

In Soviet cinema, documentary film occupied a highly privileged position. As Maxim Pozdorovkin writes in his accompanying essay, “Nonfiction film was recognized both as an art form and as source material for the writing of history.” Many Soviet filmmakers blurred the line between feature and documentary; Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin and October provide only two of the best examples. In his ground-breaking Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov (his real name was the more prosaic David Kaufman) proved that documentary film could be exciting and artistic. In this collection, Vertov is represented by his informational “lecture-film” Stride, Soviet (1926), a plotless and heavily edited assortment of scenes from the daily life and labor of Moscow. Without the aesthetic integrity of Man With a Movie Camera, it requires patience (and probably some political background) from the viewer, but offers in its best moments a dynamic portrait of a “city-in-progress.”

Esfir Shub (1894-1959), one of the few female directors in the early Soviet film industry, had a less “activist” view of documentary than Vertov. Her masterpiece, The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927), is a “montage of historical documents” that she found in newsreels, official film records, and home movies of the Tsar’s family. For Shub, montage meant allowing the original footage to speak for itself without excessive formal manipulation. Because the footage she discovered is so emotionally revealing, exposing the amazing indifference of the Russian aristocracy to the squalor that surrounded them during the horrific slaughter of World War I, what emerges is a powerful documentation of “living reality,” as fellow director Vsevolod Pudovkin described it. The pace of the editing is slower, more deliberate, than in most other Soviet documentaries of the period, but the analytical message condemning the evils of the old regime no less incisive.

Vertov and Shub paved the way for the work of two other directors who took documentary in a more artistic, impressionistic, and even ethnographic direction: Viktor Turin and Mikhail Kalatozov. Both explored the remote and exotic territories on the southern fringe of the newly formed U.S.S.R., in documentaries produced outside the mainstream Russian studios. Both also celebrate the progressive mission of the Soviet government in bringing technological improvements to the lives of people whose lives had been virtually untouched by modern civilization. In Turksib (1929), made by Vostok-Kino in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, Turin chronicles the construction of a new railroad linking the textile industry of southern Siberia with the wool and cotton producing regions of Kazakhstan. His treatment of the harsh beauty of the Kazakh steppe is breathtaking, its endless sandy expanses sculpted by the wind into weird abstract patterns. To illustrate the need for a reliable connection between the textile industry and its suppliers, he shows a long caravan of camels overtaken and submerged by a violent sandstorm. Pumping pistons and speeding locomotives provide the solution. Turin uses many of the same techniques (visual metaphors, striking informational graphics, allegorical montage) seen in other Soviet documentaries of the period, but with unusual taste and restraint.

The setting for what may be the most remarkable film in this set, Kalatozov’s Salt for Svanetia (1930), is an isolated village high in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. Made by the Georgian state studio with Kalatozov as cameraman, it bears an introductory quotation from Lenin: “The Soviet Union is a country so big and diverse that every kind of social and economic way of life is to be found within it.” So Kalatozov (who was himself of Georgian origin) spends most of his time showing the bizarre, vivid world of the Svan community, living a highly ritualized and brutal existence to which the cinematography lends a mythological dimension. The village’s problem is that it has no salt with which to support life for both humans and animals. Graphic images of death and suffering abound. Only the arrival of a Bolshevik brigade in the film’s final moments promises relief.

Several decades later, Kalatozov would become world famous for his searing antiwar film, The Cranes Are Flying, and for his sumptuous portrait of the Cuban Revolution,I Am Cuba. Salt for Svanetia prefigures both of them in its unorthodox and arresting visual imagery. Pozdorovkin calls it “the most visually liberated film of the silent Soviet era,” with its preponderance of crazy angled shots and exaggerated naturalism. The evocative new score by Zoran Borisavljevic, which draws on traditional Georgian music, only heightens the emotional impact.

The quality of all the films restored for the Landmarks of Early Soviet Film DVD box set is exemplary. All but two of them (Turksib and The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty) have the original Russian intertitles as well as easily read English subtitles. The critical material in the accompanying booklet gives extensive historical background and information on the films, but there is one odd omission: the running time of each film is nowhere to be found. But anyone interested in Soviet film, or the early history of documentary, will want to own this set.

~

Harlow Robinson 

Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History at Northeastern University

---

Copyright © 2012 by Cineaste Magazine

Cineaste, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2

1)BigHit made the right move by adding this final member toBTS- Abiz-Entertainment Buzz

This video was shared on this popular Entertainment NewsChannel nearly Two years ago and it as true today as it wasthen. In this informative video it list all of the reasons why eventhough Park Jimin was the last member to be added to the nowglobally popular 7 member kpop group, BigHit made the rightchoice in adding him to the group despite him not havingreceived as much training as the other members. Jimin whorecognizes this fact always works hard in improving his skills,and has become a key member of the BTS team. All in All Iagree with this videos point of view and think BigHit made agood call too, after all BTS just wouldn't be BTS without Jimin,or any of the other members as well. They all have their role toplay in this winning combination and I don't think that the teamwould be the same without any one of them.

2) BigHit CEO thought think that it was impossible for Jungkookto debut as a member of BTS -Abiz

-Entertainment Buzz posted yet another video about the newsuper rookie group a few years back, in regards to why BigHit'sCEO Bang Shin-Hyuk  often referred to as BangHitmanthought it was impossible for Global Super Group and popularKpop stars youngest member Jeon Jungkook to make hisdebut. In this online vlog the popular site refers to a interviewconversation in which Bang PDnim (formal speech short forpresident in Korean, which is used by to address him by hiscolleagues and underlings) talks about how Shy Jungkook wasand how even though he was talented he was so shy he couldbarely sing in front of him, let alone train properly. Thankfullyover time Jungkook came out of his shell, and began tobecome more comfortable and playful throughout his trainingprocess. Jungkook is know by his fans to be the shyestmember of the group, however he has not let that stand in hisway. Jungkook now 4 years into his career and a seasonedartist and entertainer has come into himself over the years andso even though he can still be kind of shy at moments he hasreally done a good job at overcoming this weakness and grownas an entertainer. As I have previously stated in regards to thearticle about Jimin, I truly believe BTS would not be assuccessful without all of its current members. So I like manyARMYs (the name of the BTS boys fandom) am happy thatJungkook could get over his shyness and make his Debut,because BTS would just not be BTS with out him. Now before Imove on to the next video I want to share with you what I foundto be the most striking part of this video, because it wasn't thatJungkook was shy, I already knew that. No I chose this videobecause it showed that Bang Shin-Hyuk CEO was not only justanother CEO of an entertainment company out to make afortune off this winning group, but rather it showed hishumane/fatherly side in which you could really see the careand concern he has for the boys as his artists, and as people,as well as his family. (Sidenote: for those of you who don'tknow Bang PDnim often refers to the boys as his sons andthey referred to him as father. So you can see how close theyare and how they really treat each other like a family, which isvery different from most entertainment companies particularlyin South Korea)

3)BigHit Entertainment holding open Auditions in LA to findnext global Super Star -VIP News -I chose this video because Ithink it is important to recognize how much BigHit as anEntertainment company has grown over the last few years. Inthe past only in the big three entertainment companies in SouthKorea would have held the global auditions this being SM, YG,and JYP, but as it has become a recent trend to allow otherartists from different countries in Asia to come over to SouthKorea and train to debut as kpop artists in a group as seen invarious idol Groups such as EXO (Whom are signed to SM(one of the big 3) and had three Chinese members, one beingchecked Canadian/Chinese) Cross Gene (who had membersfrom Japan and China, as well as South Korea) Got7 which isanother 7 member group signed under JYP ( one of the big 3)an they have a member who is From Thailand, a member who is from China, and a member who is from America, in additionto the 4 other members who are Korean. Pentagon a newergroup from a smaller company who made their debut last yearhave 10 members and out of those 10, 2 are from over seas one is Chinese and theother Japanese. Even SM newest group NCT is composed of several members put into multiple subunits has 6 members from China, one fromJapan, one from Thailand, one from Canada, and one from the United States, making nearly half ofthe current 24 members group which is broken down into 3 subunits(currently) overseas members from other countries who migrated to South Korea to train in hopes ofbecoming Kpop idols, in fact their are tons of companies debut mixed groups these days so I think that it is important that BigHit a company whose Artists up till now have all been Korean, jump on this newest trend and start searching for new up and coming artists globally, as this will help bridge thegap between countries and make kpop as a whole more accessible globally, which in turn can equalmore album sales, CF adds, and world tours all can add up to one thing. Chu- Ching, that right cashmoney y'all... The more successful K pop is globally and in big hits case the more successful theirartist are globally the more money they will take and in return. So in the grand scheme of things it onlymakes sense to have K pop as accessible to as many countries in the world as possible. 

4) DNA official M/V -BigHit

This is the newest MV produced by BigHit and I found it on their official YouTube site, whichcoincidentally has 3,316,697 subscribers, and the MV itself has had over 82 million views in a little over2 weeks (which is when the video was first released) This is significant as it has quickly become themost viewed Kpop video in the fastest amount of time in YouTube history, and it is breaking recordsall over the place as is the song itself which is quickly sweeping the charts and is even featured onThe billboard top 100, a feat that has not been accomplished by another kpop artist for quite sometime. There is no doubt that BTS big hits original group has been a huge success not only in Koreabut globally. I believe this is because BigHit has come up with a winning team and a winningcombination of killer music videos and study use of social media platforms to promote their video andtheir groups activities. One of the things that make this video so unique is that it's has a minimal focuson the background with bright colors so that there is still the elements of a typical K pop video typefeel without all the extras. That way the main focus will be on the members dancing (which is willsynchronized) as well as the smooth vocals and energized rap style used to enhance this Kacielectronic/ EDM styled dance song with it energizing and refreshing beat. Also this video had tosubtitles added automatically which I believe was a good move given that huge overseas market aswell as the BTS boys ever growing Fanbase. Not having to wait for subtitles definitely played a part inthis m/v achieving so many views so quickly. This music video is similar in style to their previousMusic Video for their hit song 'Not Today' another very popular video on BigHit's channel with awhopping 144 million videos.

5)Blood, Sweat, and Tears -BigHit

This another very popular video from BigHit's channel with a very different feel. The other song hasthis a similar hip-hop feel in style the video itself is completely different from previously mentionedminimal set designed them video. This video has multiple set designs and costume changes, andmuch more closely relates to what a typical Kpop video would be expectation wise.  This Video withits brightly colored set pieces, and unique story line has a whooping 188 million views and is anothersuccessful m/v for a impressive song with a good Dance Beat and multiple Vocal breakdowns thatallow each members unique talent to shine. However unlike the previous MVs that I have mentioned,it has a very elaborate set with most multiple costume changes and is very close to what the usualtrend for typical Kpop style MVs, however in spite of it's similarities to other videos done by groups likeVixx and MonsterX with their similar themes. This video has far surpassed those videos based on itssheer popularity. Whatever the reason it is it is clear that nothing is stopping this company from risingto the top of the Korean music market and making a name for it self globally.