#Clare Bell

[3liza]

I'm reading Greek and Roman Necromancy by Daniel Ogden and once again encountered the trope of oracular locations and temples keeping snakes for various ritual purposes and "feeding them" on a kind of honey cake, which as far as I know would not be interesting whatsoever to a snake and even if a snake ate a baked good it would probably have trouble digesting it (I assume). so I was mulling this over, and naturally Ogden doesn't address it, I've actually never read any writer on these subjects address the animal husbandry involved with ancient rituals, which is always frustrating , and it occurred to me that snakes wouldn't eat a Twinkie but rodents and insects absolutely would.

if your ritual snakes are just being kept in some sort of enclosure, especially something like a pit or a katabasis (the Greeks were really big on a Amigara Fault-type procedure where people would go into holes in the earth in various ways and then come out of the holes in various ways and during this process be understood to have visited the underworld or received a vision from an oracular ghost such as Trophonius, the mechanical details of the process aren't clear), you probably aren't directly observing them very often except for any part of the rituals that involve handling, during which the snakes wouldn't be eating anyway. but alone in their enclosures with a bunch of bakery snacks, the rodents and bugs could sneak out of hiding and get grabbed by the snakes.

also I imagine a lot of the smoke and mirrors of the staff at these temples involved managing the various sacred animals somewhat like a petting zoo or a feeder goldfish tank at PetSmart, and just disappearing any of them that died so the clients wouldn't see them. it's likely the staff were cleaning, feeding, and taking care of the snakes at various locations and the dogs at the Asclepias temple and so on.

one has to imagine that most temple priesthood were probably just people who had gotten that particular job somehow, and not the ecstatic true believers that are depicted in every classicist romantic painting and most mythological or fictional imaginings of such places. of course there are tons of modern fiction books that imagine the same thing I do, I read The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell when I was about 13 and loved the plain and practical descriptions of Aztec temple life, the process of creating art, and the anatomical approach to the idea of a were-jaguar (i have no idea if this book stands up, probably not), I think it permanently contextualized my thinking about ancient ritual as practical and pedestrian for the people who worked in that field. it's fun to imagine the blood-soaked ancient temples in any part of the history of humanity being as ho-hum as an Anglican church service, but they probably were for most people.

[alatoartsalot]

The Rathra Cubs! In order- False Bone-Chewer, Thistle-chaser, unnamed cub, and Night-That-Eats-Stars.

[revaligender]

misc early 2023 ratha art

[magismagisque]

E poi capì. Capì perché la gente si teneva per mano. Aveva sempre pensato che fosse questione di possessività, un modo per dire: 'Questa è la mia proprietà.' Invece era un modo per mantenere il contatto. Un modo di comunicare senza parole. Un modo per dire 'Ti voglio con me e non te ne andare.'

-Città di Ossa

[noahsbookhoard]

📚November 2024 Book Review📚

November was a bit less busy that October and varies from jawdropping to very meh.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson

That one is definitely in the jawdropping category. A great murder mystery in which you have all the keys and the author is right there telling you to "go ahead and solve it". I didn't. I had fun anyway. Just as darkly funny as the title announces.

Wintersmith (Discworld #34) by Terry Pratchett

I think sofar it is my favorite Tifanny Aching story: she is growing up and that shows, she is more responsible, she owns up to what she does wrong, she is still whip smart and I never get tired of the Nac Mac Feegle.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This count as a novel read since I completed Dracula Daily like everyone on nov 8. The audio drama version by Bloody FM production is so good and a great plus because some of Van Helsing lecture at John are really just too long.

Une belle vie by Virginie Grimaldi

I don't know why but I ended up reading 3 Grimaldi in as many months, maybe because they are rather easy to read, funny and generally have a hopeful vives even when dealing with heavy themes. This one is the story of two estranged sister who reconnect by coming for one last vacation in their grand mother house before they sell it. They rebuilt their relationship and draw back childhood memories, some good and some bad. The part where I got confused is that the author tries to tackle a lot of subjects (bipolarity, depression, domestic violence and cancer are the ones I remember but there are many) instead of just one are two. It was a lot to handle at times but a good read nonetheless.

The Restaurang at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2) by Douglas Adams

Book 2 is just as crazy as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I found it a little more coherent, as in I knew approximately where we were going (a restaurant) and the convoluted adventure that leads to and from it made more sense to me than in book 1. I'm really excited for the rest of the series.

L'amant by Marguerite Duras

I admit, I don't see the appeal. The writing is good but not incredibly so. The story itself is rambling, I guess it was intentional but it makes it harder to follow. The relationship between the author as a girl and her lover at least 10 years older is very disturbing when judge by modern standards and I was a little put off by the casual way she talks about her brother's death. I must have missed the literary qualities here but I might try another of her novel later on.

La Dame du manoir de Wildfell Hall (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) by Anne Brontë

I felt so much fucking rage reading this novel! It has some of the most heinous male characters I have ever read and even the main love interest has a hell of a journey to stop being an entitled jealous violent piece of shit. That said it is very well written otherwise I would have either given up or thrown the whole thing through the window. Helen, the main character is strong minded and brave, I loved her from the start and grew even warmer. I strongly recommend it.

Tw for domestic abuse and alcoholism.

The Sword Catcher (Chronicles of Castelane #1) by Cassandra Clare

This was an indulgence: I said I wanted to read less traditional medieval heroic fantasy and it falls right into it. It is good tho! I liked the concept of the Sword Catcher and the Ragpicker King amd especially how the two characters interact. I really hope the relationship between Connor and Kel is explored more too in the future books because the homoerotic subtext deserve to be more text than that!

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean #2) T J Klune

I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea so I was excited for the sequel, but a little weary too. I was afraid not to find what made book 1 so dear to me. But there it was! The kids and their shenanigans, Arthur and Linus being their lovey dovey selves, Zoey and Helen are all the village had kept its newly opened mind from the end of book 1 and that was very comforting. The story is hard, the hate and fear they face hits a little too close. But they overcome it and everything ends well which is just what I wanted to read.

The kids calling Arthur and Linus Dad and Papa was extremely cute. I really loved David and how he bonded with Lucy. Not a comfort book as much as the first one but I had a great time reading it

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

I stumbled upon this one because I watched this video of a person who read all the Rylo fanfic turned novels out of morbid curiosity and this one seemed intriguing enough for me to try, open mind and all that. I was promised some whimsy, a shopping montage and a heist.

Well there's comedy (an kumquats for some reason) The shopping montage wasn't much of a montage, they just went and tried t-shirts on. But the end was just stupid: female lead went ahead with a plan she deems stupid and unlikely to work, us reader with even the tiniest bit of social media experience know that the plan is stupid and can't possibly work. And it works. Just genuinely first degree work. When you go with that in a comedy setting at least make your stupid plan work in a funny way, WWDITS style! Some bits are tedious, I understand your 400 year old don't know how to use Instagram but I do and I don't need a full chapter of tutorial (same chapter as my newest fight with my nemesis, the possessiveness trope, you don't get to storm off and brood just cause she posted bikini pics dude!)

Overall it was quite fun if you don't think to much about it.

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

I listen to the audio book and the accents were *chef kiss*: it is a novella with slavic folklore creatures in an modern setting and I wasn't expecting to love it so much!! It's a story about monsters and family and duty. Angsty, a bit gay, the characters relationship work very well. It will be a reread in the future.Greatest of news for me today! I discovered by googling the spelling of characters names that a second book is coming this year!

[scenesandscreens]

Bring It On (2000)

Director - Peyton Reed, Cinematography - Shawn Maurer

"I define being the best as competing against the best there is out there and beating them. They have to go."

[zayadriancas]

Give Me One Reason

“As long as we’re together, what could possibly go wrong?”

[marlenedietrichuneenfantdusiecle]

Bruce Cabot and Marlene in The flame of New Orleans.

[denimbex1986]

'All of Us Strangers movie from Searchlight Pictures, directed by Andrew Haigh, will be available in Romania from April 24, only on Disney+.

The cast includes: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy.

One night, Adam unexpectedly meets his mysterious neighbor Harry in his flat in London, and this occurrence completely changes their everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam becomes preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn to the suburban town where he grew up and the childhood home where his parents seem to live, just as they did the day they died 30 years ago.

All of Us Strangers, produced by Searchlight Pictures in association with Film4 and TSG Entertainmen, is a Blueprint Pictures production produced by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Sarah Harvey.

Written and directed by Andrew Haigh and based on the novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, the film stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, cinematography by Jamie D. Ramsay, SASC, production design by Sarah Finlay, design costumes by Sarah Blenkinsop, hair and makeup by Zoe Clare Brown, editor by Jonathan Alberts, ACE, and music by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch...'

[claresedwards]

Oh god, this hurts in the first one

S14 Music Video Foreshadow

[mewhenifreakit]

Just saw All of us Strangers

[alatoartsalot]

A mock cover for a xenofiction book that deserves more love. Process stuff under the cut.

[fandom]

Books

In which the demigods and a conniving triangle knock the necromancers and their cavaliers from their celestial heights!

This list is brought to you by Tor Publishing Group (@torpublishinggroup), which you’re probably familiar with, given that this is tumblr dot com.

Percy Jackson +1 by Rick Riordan

The Book Of Bill by Alex Hirsch

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

The Locked Tomb series -3 by Tamsyn Muir

The All for the Game series +3 by Nora Sakavic

The Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

A Court of Thorns and Roses series +2 by Sarah J. Maas

Dracula -4 by Bram Stoker

The Trials of Apollo series +9 by Rick Riordan

The Odyssey +10 by Homer

Wings of Fire series +5 by Tui T. Sutherland

Six of Crows duology -9 by Leigh Bardugo

Discworld -5 by Terry Pratchett

The Silmarillion -4 by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Pride and Prejudice -5 by Jane Austen

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Raven Cycle series -5 by Maggie Stiefvater

Frankenstein -7 by Mary Shelley

The Iliad -1 by Homer

Stormlight Archive +2 by Brandon Sanderson

1984 +4 by George Orwell

The Folk of the Air series -2 by Holly Black

Romeo and Juliet +20 by William Shakespeare

The Simon Snow series -6 by Rainbow Rowell

The Secret History -9 by Donna Tartt

Captive Prince series +13 by C. S. Pacat

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Good Omens +20 by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

The Picture of Dorian Gray +18 by Oscar Wilde

The Sun and the Star -17 by Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

The Far Side +11 by Gary Larson

The Animorphs series -13 by K. A. Applegate

Throne of Glass series -4 by Sarah J. Maas

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series -3 by Rick Riordan

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde +8 by Robert Louis Stevenson

Mistborn -1 by Brandon Sanderson

Diary of a Wimpy Kid -16 by Jeff Kinney

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Song Of Achilles -13 by Madeline Miller

Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas

The Twilight Saga -3 by Stephenie Meyer

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare

The Bell Jar -12 by Sylvia Plath

The Wicked Powers series by Cassandra Clare

The Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare

The number in italics indicates how many spots a title moved up or down from the previous year. Bolded titles weren’t on the list last year.

So many books, so little time. Come find your online Community for all things books and reading. Right this way.

[perfettamentechic]

1 agosto … ricordiamo

1 agosto … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2022: Reni Santoni, attore e doppiatore statunitense. Reni è l’abbreviazione di Renaldo. Di origini córse e spagnole, Santoni iniziò la carriera artistica nei teatri Off Broadway e debuttò sul grande schermo nel 1964. Santoni apparve anche in numerose serie televisive fin dagli anni settanta, oltre i film. Reni era sposato con Lisa James. Ha poi avuto una relazione a lungo termine con l’attrice e…

[schlock-luster-video]

Happy birthday film icon Kim Novak! Here's some art inspired by Vertigo and The Legend of Lylah Clare to celebrate!

[transastronautistic]

When people stumble over their pronouns, stammer, blush, or apologize in embarrassment, I often think of Riki Anne Wilchins' description of her friend Holly Boswell: "Holly is a delicate Southern belle of long acquaintance ....S/he has tender features, long, wavy blonde hair, a soft Carolina accent, a delicate feminine bosom, and no interest in surgery. Holly lives as an open transgendered mother of two in Asheville, North Carolina. Her comforting advice to confused citizens struggling with whether to use Sir or Madam is, 'Don't give it a second thought. You don't have a pronoun yet for me.’” ... ...[T]o answer the homophobes becomes easy, those folks who want to dehumanize, erase, make invisible the lives of butch dykes and nellie fags. We shrug. We laugh. We tell them: your definitions of woman and man suck. We tell them: your binary stinks. We say: here we are in all our glory — male, female, intersex, trans, butch, nellie, studly, femme, king, androgynous, queen, some of us carving out new ways of being women, others of us new ways of being men, and still others new ways of being something else entirely. You don't have pronouns yet for us.

- Eli Clare in Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation (1999)