#Cultural contrasts

[blueheartbooks]

"A Breath of Fresh Air: E. M. Forster's 'A Room with a View'"

E. M. Forster's "A Room with a View" is a delightful exploration of love, freedom, and self-discovery set against the backdrop of Edwardian England and Italy. Published in 1908, the novel follows the journey of Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman torn between societal expectations and her own desires for independence and fulfillment.

At its heart, "A Room with a View" is a coming-of-age story that resonates with timeless themes of identity and personal growth. From the picturesque hills of Florence to the genteel drawing rooms of England, Forster paints a vivid portrait of a young woman's awakening to the possibilities of life and love. Lucy's journey towards self-realization is both poignant and humorous, as she navigates the complexities of societal norms and her own inner turmoil.

Forster's prose is both elegant and accessible, imbuing the narrative with a sense of warmth and intimacy. The novel is filled with memorable characters, from the eccentric Emersons to the prim and proper Charlotte Bartlett. Through their interactions, Forster explores themes of class, gender, and cultural differences, challenging readers to question the arbitrary boundaries that divide society.

Central to the narrative is Lucy's evolving relationship with George Emerson, a free-spirited young man whose unconventional views on love and life challenge Lucy's preconceived notions. Their burgeoning romance unfolds with a delicate blend of humor and tenderness, as Lucy grapples with her feelings of attraction and the expectations placed upon her by society.

The novel's title itself serves as a metaphor for the dichotomy between convention and liberation. A "room with a view" symbolizes the desire for openness and freedom, a longing to break free from the constraints of societal expectations and embrace life's possibilities. For Lucy, it represents not only physical space but also the emotional and spiritual freedom she seeks to attain.

Throughout the novel, Forster skillfully juxtaposes the idyllic landscapes of Italy with the stifling propriety of Edwardian England, highlighting the contrast between spontaneity and restraint, passion and repression. Italy, with its vibrant culture and sense of vitality, serves as a catalyst for Lucy's transformation, while England represents the suffocating conformity of bourgeois society.

At its core, "A Room with a View" is a celebration of the human spirit and the power of love to transcend social barriers. Forster's timeless tale reminds us of the importance of staying true to ourselves and following our hearts, even in the face of societal pressure and expectations. With its charming characters, evocative settings, and poignant themes, "A Room with a View" remains a captivating and resonant work that continues to enchant readers more than a century after its publication.

E. M. Forster's "A Room with a View" is available in Amazon in paperback 18.99$ and hardcover 25.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 494

Language: English

Rating: 9/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

[blueheartbookclub]

"A Breath of Fresh Air: E. M. Forster's 'A Room with a View'"

E. M. Forster's "A Room with a View" is a delightful exploration of love, freedom, and self-discovery set against the backdrop of Edwardian England and Italy. Published in 1908, the novel follows the journey of Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman torn between societal expectations and her own desires for independence and fulfillment.

At its heart, "A Room with a View" is a coming-of-age story that resonates with timeless themes of identity and personal growth. From the picturesque hills of Florence to the genteel drawing rooms of England, Forster paints a vivid portrait of a young woman's awakening to the possibilities of life and love. Lucy's journey towards self-realization is both poignant and humorous, as she navigates the complexities of societal norms and her own inner turmoil.

Forster's prose is both elegant and accessible, imbuing the narrative with a sense of warmth and intimacy. The novel is filled with memorable characters, from the eccentric Emersons to the prim and proper Charlotte Bartlett. Through their interactions, Forster explores themes of class, gender, and cultural differences, challenging readers to question the arbitrary boundaries that divide society.

Central to the narrative is Lucy's evolving relationship with George Emerson, a free-spirited young man whose unconventional views on love and life challenge Lucy's preconceived notions. Their burgeoning romance unfolds with a delicate blend of humor and tenderness, as Lucy grapples with her feelings of attraction and the expectations placed upon her by society.

The novel's title itself serves as a metaphor for the dichotomy between convention and liberation. A "room with a view" symbolizes the desire for openness and freedom, a longing to break free from the constraints of societal expectations and embrace life's possibilities. For Lucy, it represents not only physical space but also the emotional and spiritual freedom she seeks to attain.

Throughout the novel, Forster skillfully juxtaposes the idyllic landscapes of Italy with the stifling propriety of Edwardian England, highlighting the contrast between spontaneity and restraint, passion and repression. Italy, with its vibrant culture and sense of vitality, serves as a catalyst for Lucy's transformation, while England represents the suffocating conformity of bourgeois society.

At its core, "A Room with a View" is a celebration of the human spirit and the power of love to transcend social barriers. Forster's timeless tale reminds us of the importance of staying true to ourselves and following our hearts, even in the face of societal pressure and expectations. With its charming characters, evocative settings, and poignant themes, "A Room with a View" remains a captivating and resonant work that continues to enchant readers more than a century after its publication.

E. M. Forster's "A Room with a View" is available in Amazon in paperback 18.99$ and hardcover 25.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 494

Language: English

Rating: 9/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Hate (affectionate) how it's made so clear from the very beginning of part 1 just how loved Paul is by his family and household. Both his parents, Duncan, Gurney, Thufir, even Dr Yueh all clearly care so deeply for this kid, and we're shown that time and time again.

Cut to the end of part two, and almost every one of those people is gone. The only ones who remain are a weird, came-back-wrong version of Jessica, and Gurney who has gone from mentor to worshipper. Paul goes from someone deeply loved and valued for who he is by a small but caring group of people - to someone followed and worshipped and feared by thousands. They're obsessed with him in a way, as a leader and "messiah", but nobody loves him.

The only one remaining who loves him for who he is is Chani, who leaves him because in the end that love isn't enough to bring who he is back.

[divineandmajesticinone]

4 MINUTES (2024) I 1.04

The first time.

[papalouche]

Devine Feminine.

Lifestyle || Historian.

Louche-ism*

© 2024.

[stormingfrost]

Kinda obsessed with the historical context of Rise of the Guardians. Pitch wanting the Dark Ages to come back, which historically was the decline of culture and records. The Guardians rose at the same time as the Renaissance with the rise of culture, knowledge, and science. (Tooth in particular mentions that she hasn’t been out in the field for 440 years, give or take, which would put that smack dab in the middle of the Renaissance) 

The way Pitch doesn’t want the world to change, the way the Guardians change in tune with the world. The way Jack, who lived in has a human in the 17th or 18th century, who lived in the time after the Renaissance and lived witnessing the world all the way to the modern era, is there to show the Guardians how much they missed and how they can further change and improve for the more modern world. These characters are immortal beings who have so much power over the world, it makes so much sense that when they fall and rise in power it impacts the world that they want to influence, for better or for worse. 

[bonefall]

Bones, I can only ever support you when you decide to kill off a character. Kill Leafstar! Make it dramatic!!! Poison her!!!!

Wasp says: you want Skyclan to be like the forest4? Alright bet!!

my ggoddddd I had an IDEA

Waspstar receives xeir nine lives the way the Forest Four show xem to, in their new pool, by their new rules. While there, Heartstar assures xem that Juniperclaw has been removed as deputy, will never serve in a position of power again, has gone into exile.

...and Waspstar doesn't respond to that very quickly. Xe has a polite, pungent pause. "Is that the punishment for taking a life? By your code?"

"Our code," Heartstar corrects boldly, in a tone that suggests she sees this as reason and fairness. Our Code-- it protects you too, a gesture of sharing. It makes Waspstar's belly twist. "I've made his punishment VERY severe."

Severe. What a word to describe a vacation.

"He regrets what he's done?"

"Yes, very much."

Waspstar's ear flicks. No. Juniperclaw hasn't even begun to regret what he's done to SkyClan.

"SkyClan will be having a ceremony for Leafstar, to say our goodbyes and welcome in a new era," Xey offer in an even tone, "Spread the word that is is a time of forgiveness. All honored guests may come-- if they want to pay."

Heartstar waits for a beat. Then chuckles incredulously, "Your Clanmew skills could use a brush up. You mean pay their respects, yes? To honor the dead?"

"Oh my, how embarassing," Waspstar smiles back, "I'm so very sorry if I was unclear."

Clear as the sky on a cloudless day. Juniperclaw didn't make it out of that funeral alive. If a true warrior does not need to kill to win their battles, then he was no warrior under the Code at all.

[fjordfolk]

when social media ppl say of their dogs that they 'just don't like to exercise, they're healthy and there's nothing wrong with them they're just built for the couch' and then pans to a dog that's at least 50% overweight

[cinnamonsikwate]

"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White

[kafkasapartment]

Edward Hopper en el museo, Washington DC, 2007. Yolanda Andrade. Archival pigment print.

The original Nighthawks painting is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

[marzipanandminutiae]

honestly thank fuck for Mercedes Lackey's novel Jolene

it's not perfect, but rather than the wildly ahistorical Character Lets Her Hair Down To Represent Being Less Repressed, we have Character Starts Putting Her Hair UP To Represent Healing From Her Past (namely being in a severely impoverished, abusive family that couldn't even afford hairpins, and having her growth stunted by the coal-dust-poisoned air in her 1890s Appalachian town)

(the narration repeatedly expresses her embarrassment and frustration at having to wear her hair down like a child when, at age 16, she should have started wearing it up by now- a sign of adulthood in Victorian-era culture, normally adopted around that age. and when she's gifted a dozen pins, she's practically in transports of delight)

(A+ cultural awareness)

[fictionadventurer]

I have a germ of a theory that good Christian fiction has stories that are less about shaving down your personality to meet some specific mold of what a good Christian looks like, and more about "how gloriously different are all the saints."

Not that the Christian life doesn't involve fighting against our own sinful nature and conforming ourselves to Christ-like behavior, but I think it makes for better, more realistic, and more universal stories when you also recognize that people have different gifts and flaws and they're going to be called to use their unique personalities to serve the kingdom of God in their own unique way, instead of assuming everyone has to conform themselves to a very specific (often secular-culturally based) image of good behavior. It makes for a much more vibrant story.

[fusionfanatic]

Research for an au fic I’m working on: how would Azula act and behave in a modern setting? And I don’t mean re-imagine her character within a modern context and stories. This isn’t Azula, but she’s an overachieving American high schooler with strict and overbearing parents, or Azula, but she’s the soon-to-be CEO of her father’s multinational conglomerate based in Japan or something. No, I mean how would Azula as she is in canon, Fire nation princess and all, act and behave if you simply just took her from her world and plopped her into [insert current year you’re reading this]?

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[justacynicalromantic]

100 paintings by Maria Prymachenko will be restored in Lithuania.

Currently, paintings from the Ukrainian Khanenko Museum are undergoing restoration in Lithuania. Additionally, the Lithuanians are restoring a traditional Ukrainian carpet from Mariupol.

🥹🥹🥹

Lithuanians are❤️

[odo-apologist]

I have things I should be working on but I'm too busy wondering what a Low or High Kochanski would be like