Text
whatever I'll post my addendum to it anyway
71K notes
·
View notes
Photo
34K notes
·
View notes
Text
"Well hello, my hollow Holofernes"
What the hell does this line from That Unwanted Animal mean? Two possibilities I've been toying with, one a popular fandom theory while the other is rather rarely mentioned:
1. The Assyrian general from the story of Judith and Holofernes. The tale (from the deuterocanonical Book of Judith) was that this man who was leading a siege against a beautiful Hebrew widow's hometown was so struck by her loveliness that Judith was able to get him drunk and then behead him in his own tent, thus saving her people. Artists, writers, and musicians from the Renaissance and the Baroque eras up to today have taken this narrative and run with it, using it to represent things such as virtue vs vice, the folly of pride, the Catholic Church vs Protestant heresy and the Ottoman Turks, you name it. Judith has been portrayed as everything from chaste heroine to depraved seductress, and Holofernes has been, well, dead. Lots of inspiration to mine there when interpreting the song, particularly in the theme of sexually charged violence.
(Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes, 1620-21)
2. The learned man from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Holofernes is a schoolteacher who is a rather insufferable pedant, priding himself on his intelligence and command of languages. He mocks others for their ignorance, but he himself is a ridiculous caricature of scholarly affectation and is walking, talking proof that education does not necessarily mean wisdom.
Of course the name is a reference to the Assyrian general (and all the cultural weight that comes with the story), but this specific character is interesting to me because of these lyrics:
And you, you follow philosophies But me, I laugh, I choke ‘Well hello, my hollow Holofernes’ I wink but you don’t get the joke
It's like she's mockingly saying, "You think yourself a philosopher, but all of your knowledge is empty" just like the play's foolish scholar.
(From the Folger Shakespeare Library. Holofernes is in blue.)
So.
We have at least two different interpretations to play with. Go wild!
276 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’ve been obsessed with that unwanted animal for like a week now
4K notes
·
View notes
Text
it all began when i was the only girl who could not do the cup song.
26K notes
·
View notes
Text
"damn bitch you live like this?" but its a full white minimalistic clean bedroom
75K notes
·
View notes
Text
70K notes
·
View notes
Text
The modern Original Character Creator experience.
Denizens of tumblr, the answers you seek often lay in the tags or the image descriptions…
47K notes
·
View notes
Text
The less human a robot is the more attractive they are fun fact
8K notes
·
View notes
Text
91K notes
·
View notes
Text
Wait. Wait wait wait... what do you mean you aren't in love with me????
7 notes
·
View notes
Link
Finished my first book!
1 note
·
View note
Text
me: these are my friends!!! them: yeah! you're my friend :) me, every time: huh whuh??? your FRieedn??? Friend with me????? likes me????
74K notes
·
View notes