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Iceberg in blood red sea, Lemaire Channel, Antarctica, 2016 - by Camille Seaman (1969), American

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These metaphysics of magicians, And necromantic books are heavenly; Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters; Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires. O, what a world of profit and delight, Of power, of honour, and omnipotence, Is promis’d to the studious artizan! All things that move between the quiet poles Shall be at my command: emperors and kings Are but obeyed in their several provinces; But his dominion that exceeds in this, Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man; A sound magician is a demigod: Here tire, my brains, to gain a deity.

The "studious artisan" who moves things at his command, who can raise the wind and rend the clouds—this is an ability of the artist able to envision alternative worlds and to create them in pure thought, who can compel men called actors to perform those words. In describing those "necromantic books," Marlowe is also simply describing literature. If magic books are composed of "Lines … scenes, letters, and characters," so are all books. Faust's paean to books seems to particularly describe dramatic works, for what is the play in which he's a character other that a work composed of poetic lines, organized into scenes, and performed by characters. If the enchantments of the wizard stretch as far as the mind of man, than the only limiting factor to his omnipotence would be the extent of his creative brilliance. God may have created man, but Marlowe reminds us that writers can also create gods. If a sound magician is a mighty god, how much more so the writer? Emperors and kings may have profane authority on earth, but he who crafted the Emperor Tamburlaine and King Edward Il reminds us through his other creation that it is writers and artists who hold sacred abilities. What the playwright admits to us in this monologue is that writers are themselves magicians, and that Faustus is Marlowe. After Faust has rejected knowledge and faith, there is but one thing left, the most transcendent and sacred of things—imagination.

Ed Simon, Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain

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Winter (January, Cycle of the Months), c.1404-07 by Master Wenceslas 

Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Torre d’Aquilla (The Eagle’s Tower)

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Anna and Elena Balbusso’s illustrations for E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker.

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famously, any guy can just go to antarctica. so why not me

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santa deniers on science-mas eve hearing charles darwin evolving down the chimney

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I just need to never have kids so I can have money to buy a boat and bag a bad bitch of some kind

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Are you seeing this

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I will succeed because I’m crazy

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why is this mangione official court sketch kind of giving tumblr fandom check my carrd before interacting

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google search how not to die in poverty while making your life's work in conjunction with your values

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White boy shocks everyone at the restaurant by emitting a massive electromagnetic pulse

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Keats’ copy of Paradise Lost

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Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman American Psycho (2000) dir. Mary Harron