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tsaritiz · 2 years ago

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All Identity V references (or easter eggs) to popular culture found.

Some are taken from theories of fandom others are found by me.

Martha Remington as the surname taken from the typewriter brand "remington" (also curious beacause in the game you have to decode typewriters)

Doctor, Emily Dyer is inspired by Amelia Dyer a british serial killer who killed lots of young children while beyond her cares.

Helena Adams references to Helen keller, a blind def woman who were a full-time activist.

Priestress (Fiona Gilman) references to HP Lovecraft's story "The dream in the witch's house."

The Magician references to Servais le roy, the creator of the illusion technic of levitation.

Naib Subedar, in his backstory makes reference to the british invasion of india.

Thief, Kreacher Pierson references George Müller, a Christian evangelist and the director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren movement. His surname is named after Arthur Tappan Pierson, a friend of George Müller who wrote his biography.

The explorer references to Gulliver's Travels.

William Ellis references William Webb Ellis, the alleged inventor of rugby. He also shares the exact same name as him

Norton Campbell's background story references the author H.P Lovecraft's short story titled The Transition of Juan Romero.

Enchantress, Patricia Dorval's adoptive mother references Marie Laveau a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Vodou, herbalist and midwife who was renowned in New Orleans.

Wilding, Murro's Deductions mentions Kasper Hauser, a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell.

Female Dancer, Margaretha Zelle references both Mata Hari, a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I and Natalia from The Last Circus.

Acrobat, Mike Morton's appearance references both Arlecchino from Commedia dell'arte and Vander Clyde Broadway an American female impersonator, high-wire performer, and trapeze artist born in Texas.

"Prisoner", Luca Balsa references Nikola Tesla a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Entomologist, Melly Plinius references Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) the Roman author/naturalist/natural philosopher.

Batter, Ganji Gupta's background story references the British Colonization of Indian Subcontinent (1858-1947).

"Psychologist", Ada Mesmer's Surname references Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician who developed the theory of animal magnetism. She may also be inspired in Ada Lovelace the matematician

Soul Weaver, Violetta references Aloisia 'Violetta' Wagner, a famous German freak show performer from the early 20th century. She was renowned for having tetra-amelia syndrome.

The Ripper, Jack references Jack the Ripper an unidentified serial killer active in the impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel in the East End of London in 1888. His background story references Walter Sickert, a German-born British painter and print maker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London and was suspected of being Jack the Ripper.

Geisha, Michiko references Chōchō-San from Madame Butterfly. She may also reference Yosano Akiko or Higuchi Ichiyo, both famous writers and geishas. But not only, she may reference the play of Fukuchi Ochi "Mirror Lion" .

Hastur is based on The King in Yellow from H.P. Lovecraft novels (Cthulhu Mythos Franchise).

Wu Chang, Xie Bi'an and Fan Wujiu references Heibai Wuchang (黑白无常, Black and White Impermanence) the two Deities in Chinese folk religion in charge of escorting the spirits of the dead to the underworld.

Photographer, Joseph Desaulniers references both Nicéphore Niépce a French inventor, usually credited as the inventor of photography and a pioneer in that field and Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray. His background story also mentions the French Revolution.

Mad Eyes, Burke Lapadura references Edmund Burke, a highly regarded Canadian architect best known for building Toronto's Prince Edward Viaduct or "Bloor Street Viaduct" and Toronto's Robert Simpson store.

Dream Witch, Yidhra references Yidhra from the H.P. Lovecraft novels (Cthulhu Mythos Franchise).

Bloody Queen, Mary references both Marie Antoinette the last queen of France and a controversal figure during the French Revolution and the abilities based on Bloody Mary.

"Disciple", Ann's background story references the Salem witch trials.

Violinist, Antonio references Niccolò Paganini an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.

Sculptor, Galatea Claude possibly references Camille Claudel a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble and her name references to the statue carved of ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus of the same name from Greek Mythology.

"Undead", Percy references Victor Frankenstein from the author Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.

The Breaking Wheel, Will Brothers references the Breaking wheel with their trailer also referencing the Execution of St Catherine.

Naiad, Grace references Naiads, fresh water nymphs presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water from Greek Mythology. She also appears to reference H.P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Wax Artist, Philippe is based on Philippe Curtius a Swiss physician and wax modeller who taught Marie Tussaud the art of wax modelling.

Hermit, Alva Lorenz references Thomas Edison, a famous inventor.

Night Watch, Ithaqua is based on Ithaqua from H.P. Lovecraft novels (Cthulhu Mythos Franchise).

"Big Daddy" is likely a reference to "Big Brother" from 1984 by George Orwell, the leader who keeps all citizens under constant surveillance and controls them.

Allen, while little is currently known about him, is likely based off Zadok Allen from The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Andrea may be based on Antonia Bianchi, a singer and the long term lover of Niccolo Paganini.

Arthur Byers is likely based on Ambrose Bierce, the author of “Haïta the Shepherd” in which Hastur first appeared.[1]

Catherine is based on St. Catherine of Alexandria who was executed using a breaking wheel.

Christina's death scene in Philipe's character trailer is an allusion to The Death of Marat by French painter Jacques-Louis David.

Claude Desaulniers is based on Claude Niépce, the older brother of French inventor Nicéphore Niépce.

Damballa is based on the benevolent spiritual intermediary in Haitian Voodoo of the same name.

James Reichenbach's last name is a reference to Reichenbach Falls, the name of the location where Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes had his fight to the death with his greatest foe Professor Moriarty.

James Whistler is based on the real life painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler who was the mentor of Walter Sickert.

Papa Legba is based on trickster spiritual intermediary in Haitian Vodou of the same name.

Princess Lamballe is based on Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy (Princesse de Lamballe) who was one of Marie Antoinette's closest friends.

Robert is likely based off Robert Olmstead, the main character and narrator of The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Sullivan is based on Anne Sullivan Macy, an American teacher and lifelong friend of Helen Keller.

The currently Unnamed Cat God is likely based on the short stories Nyarlathotep and Cats of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft.

Blue Aladdin references to Aladdin from Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.

Violet Peacock's Chinese description references to The Peacocks Fly Southeast.

Both Poseidon's Crown and Poseidon references to Poseidon the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses from Greek Mythology.

Caged Butterfly's description mentions Madame Butterfly.

The 1st Essence of Season 2 is based on several Fairy Tale Stories on each Costumes.

King's Tailor references to one of the Swindler from The Emperor's New Clothes.

Both Lazy Mr. Bunny and Mr. Turtle references to The Hare and The Tortoise from The Tortoise and the Hare.

King Arthur references to the character of the same name

Merlin references to the character of the same name.

Black Swan is based on Odile (The Black Swan) from Swan Lake.

Anubis is based on the god of the same name who is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld in Egyptian Mythology.

Ancient Soul references to the Ankh an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used in Egyptian art and writing to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself.

Soul Catcher references to Day of the Dead a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6 from Mexica.

Golden Touch is based on King Midas a king of Phrygia who is known to turn everything he touched into gold from Greek Mythology.

The 1st Essence of Season 6 has several references to Greek Mythology.

Icarus is named after and based on the hero of the same name who is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth on Greek Mythology.

Apollo is named after and based on the God of the same name who is the god of oracles, healing, archery, music and arts, sunlight, knowledge, herds and flocks, protection of the young and the Member of Twelve Olympians.

Leonidas is named after Leonidas I a king of the Greek city-state of Sparta.

Pam possibly is based on Pan the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs.

Captain Hook is based on Captain James Hook.

Eversleeping Girl is based on Wendy Darling.

Forgotten Boy is possibly based on Peter Pan or one of the Lost Boys.

Siren is possibly based on the Mermaids from Mermaids' Lagoon.

March Hare is based on the Character of the Same Name.

Alice is based on the Protagonist of the Same Name.

Mr. Bunny is based on The White Rabbit.

Bill is based on Bill The Lizard.

Caterpillar is based on Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar.

Knave of Hearts is based on the character of the same name.

Executioner is based on one of the Queen of Hearts' Card Soldiers.

The Mad Hatter is based on the character of the same name.

Queen of Hearts is based on the character of the same name.

Serpent is based on Quetzalcoatl the god of life, light and wisdom, lord of the day and the winds from Aztec Mythology.

Lady Thirteen is based on Yu Mo from The Flowers of War, portrayed by the actress Ni Ni.

Sophia is based on Sophia Palaiologina a Byzantine princess, member of the Imperial Palaiologos family, Grand Princess of Moscow as the second wife of Grand Prince Ivan III.

Ivan is possibly based on Ivan III of Russia a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'.

Maroon Crystal is based on Dorothy Gale.

Princess Ozma is based on the character of the same name.

The Wicked Witch is based on both Wicked Witch of the West and Dorothy Gale.

Emerald City Coachman is based on the Coachman.

Oz, the Wizard is based on Wizard of Oz.

The Tin Man is based on Tin Woodman.

The Spookcrow is based on Scarecrow.

The Toothless Lion is based on Cowardly Lion.

Golden Ratio references to the Philosopher's Stone a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold.

Electrolysis references to the technique of the same name that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction.

Ouroboros references to the ancient symbol of the same name that depicts a snake or dragon eating it's own tail.

Choir Boy has a The squared circle symbol an alchemical symbol (17th century) illustrating the interplay of the four elements of matter symbolising the philosopher's stone on his back.

Mutation represents Chrysopoeia an artificial production of gold, most commonly by the alleged transmutation of base metals such as lead.

Sulfuric Acid has a tattoo on chest resembling the symbol of the same name based on Dalton's Law of Atomic Weights.

Vine references to the Elixir of life a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth.

Philofelist possibly references to Necromancy a practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead – either by summoning their spirits as apparitions, visions or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events, discover hidden knowledge, to bring someone back from the dead, or to use the dead as a weapon.

Judge represents Pride.

Deputy represents Greed.

Clerk represents Envy.

Court 3 Commissioner represents Wrath.

Court 5 Commissioner represents Sloth.

Court 6 Commissioner represents Gluttony.

Court 7 Commissioner represents Lust.

Narcissus is named after the character of the same name who rejected all romantic advances, eventually falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, staring at it for the remainder of his life, his name is the origin of Narcissism.

Clio is named after the goddess of the same name who is the goddess of history, lyre playing and a member of the Muses.

Talia is named after Thalia who is the goddess of comedy and a member of the Muses.

Hebe is named after the goddess of the same name who is the goddess of eternal youth, prime of life, forgiveness

"Succubus" is named after a demon of the same name they are female demons that appears in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity.

Rainmaker's Beauty Form is based on both Lady Shizuka, one of the most famous women in Japanese history and literature and Ameonna, a yōkai thought to call forth rain while the Prajna Form is based on Kuchisake-onna, that appears as a malicious spirit, or onryō, of a woman, that partially covers her face with a mask or other item and carries some sort of sharp object.

"The Prince" is based on the titular character of the The Happy Prince.

Feathered Cloak is based on Freyja, a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future) from Norse Mythology.

The 3rd Essence of Season 17 is based on The Masque of the Red Death.

Man in Red is based on The Red Death.

Runaway is based on Prince Prospero.

The 1st Essence of Season 18 is based on The Marriage of Figaro.

Fury is based on both Count Almaviva (Philippe) and Countess Rosina (Christina).

"Susanna" is based on the character of the same name.

The 1st Essence of Season 20 is based on And Then There Were None.

The 2nd Essence of Season 20 takes place on The Crystal Palace on a fictional setting.

Lockheart is shown to be a fictional daughter of the in real life historical figure Joseph Paxton an English gardener, architect, engineer and Member of Parliament, best known for designing the Crystal Palace.

The 1st Essence of Season 21 is based on Bacchanalia, an unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia.

Spring Heated Wine is based on Dionysus, the god of the grape-harvest, wine making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre and a Member of the Twelve Olympians from Greek Mythology.

Bai Ze is based on Bai Ze itself, a mystical Chinese beast connected with spirits.

The 3rd Essence of Season 22 is based on insects and also the seven virtues.

Winter Cicada represents Humility.

Frozen Butterfly represents Chastity.

Ant represents Charity.

Scorpion represents Kindness.

Mayfly represents Diligence.

Centipede represents Temperance.

Worker Bee represents Patience.

Boudoir Dream is based on Child Jane Hudson from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane which is a film adaptation of a novel of the same name, portrayed by the child actress Julie Allred

Iron Lady is based on Harriet Craig from the film of the same name which is a film adaptation of Craig's Wife, portrayed by the actress Joan Crawford.

Samara is based on Samarra from The Prodigal which is a film adaptation of Parable of the Prodigal Son, portrayed by the actress Lana Turner.

Rhythm of the Rain is based on Kathy Selden from Singin' in the Rain, portrayed by the actress Debbie Reynolds.

Recluse is based on Jef Costello from Le Samouraï, portrayed by the actor and filmmaker Alain Delon.

Hamlet is based on the titular character of the 1948 film which is the film adaptation of the play of the same name, portrayed by the actor and director Laurence Olivier.

Colonel Dax is based on the character of the same name from Paths of Glory which is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, portrayed by the actor and filmmaker Kirk Douglas.

The Red Shoes is based on Victoria Page from The Red Shoes which is a film adaptation of a fairy tale of the same name, portrayed by the actress ballet dancer and actress Moira Shearer.

The Black Tulip is based on both Guillaume de Saint Preux and Julien de Saint Preux from The Black Tulip which is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, both portrayed by the actor and filmmaker Alain Delon.

Just Around the Corner is based on Penny Hale from Just Around the Corner which is a film adaptation of Lucky Penny, portrayed by former child actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat and diplomat Shirley Temple.

Zouzou is based on the titular character of the 1934 film, portrayed by actress, French Resistance agent, and Civil Rights Activist Josephine Baker.

Ben-Hur is based on Judah Ben-Hur from Ben-Hur which is a film adaptation of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, portrayed by the actor and political activist Charlton Heston.

Dorothy is based on Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz which is a film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, portrayed by actress and singer Judy Garland.

Salome is based on the titular character from the movie of the same name, portrayed by actress, dancer, and producer Rita Hayworth.

Da Vinci is based on Leonardo da Vinci from The Life of Leonardo da Vinci which is a miniseries about the real life artist, portrayed by actor Philippe Leroy.

Svengali is based on the titular character of the 1931 film which is a film adaptation of Trilby, portrayed by the actor on radio, stage and radio John Barrymore.

Rashomon is based on the Samurai's wife from Rashomon which is a film adaptation of two Ryūnosuke Akutagawa novels "In a Grove" and "Rashōmon", portrayed by the actress Machiko Kyō.

Broken Blossoms are based on Cheng Huan from Broken Blossoms which is a film adaptation of The C**** and the Child, portrayed by the actor Richard Barthelmess.

Scarlet is based on Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind which is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, portrayed by the actress Vivien Leigh.

Faust is based on the titular character of the 1927 film which is a film adaptation of the play of the same name, portrayed by the actor, director and singer Gösta Ekman.

Million Dollar Mermaid is based on Annette Kellerman from the film of the same name which is a biography about the real life swimmer, portrayed by swimmer and actress Esther Williams.

#identity v #idv embalmer #idv #idv shitpost #easter eggs #so many references #idv easter eggs #identityv gameplay #identityv #idv gamekeeper #idv yidhra #idv geisha #idv fanart

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focr · 1 year ago

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youtube

Robber of the Cruel Streets: The Story of George Muller

George Müller (1805-1898) was a German playboy who found Christ and then gave his life to serve Christ unreservedly. His mission was to rescue orphans from the wretched street life that enslaved so many children in England during the time of Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist. Müller did rescue, care for, feed, and educate such children by the thousands. The costs were enormous for such a great work. Yet, amazingly, he never asked anyone for money. Instead he prayed, and his children never missed a meal. This docu-drama presents his life story and shows how God answered prayer and met their needs. It is a story that raises foundational questions regarding faith and finances. Also included are two special documentaries on Müller and some of the lives affected by his work.

#focr #focr 48 #sharp #george muller #documentary #Youtube

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sofiawr1tes · 2 years ago

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BIASED REPORTING

Over the past few years, concerns about media manipulation have been growing. One technique used in the media is biased reporting. According to the Catalog of Bias (2019), reporting bias is “a systematic distortion resulting from the selective disclosure or concealment of information by those involved in the design, conduct, analysis, or are divided into”. Selective reporting, editorial bias, and emotion are one of the few examples of how media reporting can be manipulated. Coverage of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests taking place across America in 2020 is a recent example of bias-related issues. Although most media outlets reported the protests as peaceful, a few conservative organizations portrayed them as violent. The events resulting from this selective reporting may have been biased. Besides selective reporting, editorial bias is another way journalists create and hand out news. Editorial bias refers to situations in which decisions are influenced by factors related to authors or their environment (Matías-Guiu & García-Ramos, 2011). For example, in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, many news outlets focused more on debates about Democratic candidate Joe Biden than debates about Republican candidate Donald Trump. For some people, such editorial biases can affect their opinions about the current elections taking place. Another example of biased reporting is sensationalism- which is when news organizations exaggerate a story to attract viewers. For example, during the 2020 pandemic (COVID-19), some media outlets exaggerated the number of cases and deaths, creating fear and panic among the population. Biased reporting can have a big impact on people. By spreading fake news and creating a manipulated view of events, biased reporting could end up dividing a society. People would then find it difficult to accept ideas because this can reinforce their existing thoughts and ideas. In conclusion, there is a major problem of reporting bias in the media that needs attention. Selective reporting, editorial bias, and sensationalism are just a few examples of biased reporting that can significantly affect how readers view events. In order to have a better understanding of events, it is important that we, as users of social media, recognize the manipulative ways in which news media can deliver information. References:

Buchanan, L., Bui, Q., & Patel, J. K. (2020, July 3). Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowdsize.html

Chenoweth, E., & Pressman, J. (2020). Black Lives Matter protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, our research finds. The Spokesman Review. https://carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu/publications/black-lives-matter-protesters-were -overwhelmingly-peaceful-our-research-finds#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20 Black%20Lives

Fujiwara, T., Müller, K., & Schwarz, C. (2022). The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from the United States. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3719998

Keeter, S., Hatley, N., Lau, A., & Kennedy, C. (2021, March 2). What 2020’s Election Poll Errors Tell Us About the Accuracy of Issue Polling. Pew Research Center Methods. https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/2021/03/02/what-2020s-election-poll-error s-tell-us-about-the-accuracy-of-issue-polling/

Matías-Guiu, J., & García-Ramos, R. (2011). Sesgos en la edición de las publicaciones científicas. Neurología, 26(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nrl.2010.11.001

Reporting biases. (2019). Catalog of Bias. https://catalogofbias.org/biases/reporting-biases/#:~:text=Researchers%20have %20previously%20described%20seven

Vanacore, R. (2021, November 12). Sensationalism in Media. Reporter. https://reporter.rit.edu/news/sensationalism-media

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etheraltimelessbeautybouquet · 2 years ago

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hi can you actually provide a reading list

omg thank you SO much for asking i went through an old syllabus of mine just to answer this!! so anyway this is gonna be a long post.

the ask is referring to a post i made talking shit about george orwell's 1984. a lot of people in the notes for the post were saying things like "sure george orwell was a bad person but the book is very important it makes valid points blah blah blah"

my problem with this is: (1) it's only a Very Important book because high school english teachers have decided to teach it in class. it doesn't hold some secret wisdom or answers that you can't find in other books. (2) orwell himself participated in british colonialism (served as an imperial policeman in then-Burma) and the book is clearly from an imperialist perspective. the ideas of giant conglomerations of countries are just... imperialistic, unrealistic, and the implications aren't really explored in the plot. i wouldn't criticize it just on the basis of being unrealistic, except for that a lot of readers say that the point of the book is that "it could totally happen!". so therefore i am criticizing it. (3) a key part of the world-building is that these three countries are perpetually at war. but the implications of such a large-scale, never-ending war aren't really... explained much. again, wouldn't have a problem with this if it wasn't for the whole literalism crowd. (4) then there's all the rape-y parts, which are apparently based on his own experiences with a certain woman?!

so yeah. anyway, i'm going to somewhat divide up this list based on why i recommend them. the categories do overlap but there are specific reasons they are recommended.

for a view of the experience of the individual against a totalitarian system:

Franz Kafka, The Trial -- all Kafka books and stories are good, but this is my main rec. all Kafka stories can be read for free online at kafka-online.info

Imre Kertész, Kaddish for an Unborn Child -- Kertész won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002 "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". this doesn't have as much to do with totalitarianism per se, but it delves into his experiences as a concentration camp survivor and really explores the effects that such things have on a person.

Ladislav Fuks, Of Mice and Mooshaber -- this is kind of a deep cut so idk if you'll be able to find it but i wrote my thesis on this guy and this book is 1 of 3 to be translated into english. it deals with the day-to-day realities and cognitive dissonance of living in a (fictional) totalitarian society, which Fuks based on his own experiences under the Normalization era in Czechoslovakia and under Nazi rule. it's frustrating and somewhat boring to read, but that's part of the point he's trying to make.

Herta Müller, The Appointment -- a bit of a controversial take since Müller's parents were Nazis and she's a prominent anti-Communist. i think if you keep this context in mind, though, and remember that it is a fictional novel, it's well-written and it is similar to 1984 in terms of the police/interrogation system. but, it's based on a real-life police state (the Securitate in Romania). she also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009 for depicting "the landscape of the dispossessed". and it's written a million times better than the orwell book, if you read it you will see why.

for an exploration on the failures of imperialism:

Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities -- this is an unfinished modernist novel about the last days of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and satirizes the idea that empires are bastions of peace and progress by showing how they all inevitably turn to war and collapse. it's a bit difficult to read as well...

Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March -- this is more about personal and national identity, but it's also set at the tail end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and you see how it's a system on the brink of collapse. this doesn't necessarily have much to do with 1984 specifically but i like recommending it along with Musil because some of the themes are similar and it's much easier to read.

Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Švejk -- also about the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire!! there is a theme here, and that theme is because my degree is in a very specific region. this is a satire, it's hilarious, and it delves into the idea that there is no such thing as a "perfect imperialist subject", i.e., if one were to follow the law completely and willingly, that person would appear insane or stupid. i highly recommend this because it's funny but still grapples with important questions about what it means to be an imperial subject.

additional recs:

Ladislav Fuks, Mr. Theodore Mundstock and The Cremator -- both of these are specifically about Nazism but Mundstock deals a lot with the individual under such a state (and it's probably the easiest of his novels to read). it's about a Jewish man living in Prague in 1943. The Cremator is more about how individual people succumb to Nazi ideology and become Nazis. it's not really related to the other things on this list, but it's the most famous of his works and there is also a movie which is very creepy.

Anna Akhmatova, Requiem -- this is a cycle of poems about Akhmatova's grief when her son was arrested during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. there's a real heartwrenching grief -- many of her friends had committed suicide or been sent to the Gulag, her son had been arrested, her ex-husband shot, her common-law husband sent to the Gulag where he died, and she had little food or money and was under constant police surveillance. it's a very powerful emotional testament to this kind of real-life horror that not only "could" happen but did happen.

so -- this list is entirely writers from eastern europe, because that's what my degree is in. i would also recommend looking into some good science fiction novels, like Octavia Butler or Ursula K. Le Guin. i couldn't think of an example that specifically reminded me of 1984, so i left them off. honestly, i think even the hunger games is better than 1984, but i'm pretty sure that was required reading for everyone with a tumblr account back in 2012.

i haven't included much "holocaust literature", so to speak, because there's a lot of it and i'm not sure someone reading 1984 is looking for first-hand accounts of concentration camps. but i do think it's something everyone should be required to read at some point. and it speaks to the horrors of a system of complete control far more than any work of fiction. my recommendation is This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski.

thanks for letting me info dump :-) let me know if you do end up reading any of these!

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mybeautifulchristianjourney · 2 years ago

Video

youtube

The Torchlighters: The George Müller Story (2019) Christian Animated Feature | Runtime: 30mins

#Vision Video (channel)#The Torchlighters: The George Müller Story #Christian animation #Youtube #video

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softschofield · 5 years ago

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a guide to the secondary characters of 1917

inspired by @a-beautiful-struggle-of-life because saying “i wanna fall in love with all these characters too omg” is just such an open invitation and i couldn’t resist ♡♡♡

sergeant sanders: “yes, well, sorry to disrupt your crowded schedule, blake, but the brass hats didn’t fancy it in the snow.” the sergeant of blake and scho’s platoon. the one to first introduce us to our boys so we have to love him for it

lieutenant gordon: “a couple of little treats.” he’s soft. i love him. he’s just the hype man of erinmore, like does he want to agree with another one of his proverbs? another one of his quotes? another one of his shakespearean monologues that he learned off by heart at eton? no. he’s so tired. he doesn’t want to hear another fancy sentence in his life. “wouldn’t you say, lieutenant?” he wants to say i could not possibly give a smaller fuck, sir, but can he? no. let him sleep

sergeant: “YOU’RE GOING UP A DOWN TRENCH YOU BLOODY IDIOTS” he doesn’t have a name but MAN did he have a cultural impact. like he changed my world with that line. the delivery? the poise? the hint of a snarl? no one else could ever and i’m afraid that’s just the facts. he was probably mad because he just had a tiff with leslie and he got the day of the week wrong. he thought he had it this time. he didn’t. he never does

private kilgour: a bloody waste of space. THE softest boy. somehow managed a perfect :o in real life. how did he do it? no one knows. dermatologists HATE him. owns a cute scarf that he's managed to actually keep clean. probably has a blanket stashed somewhere. he’s just so, so gentle, he deserves nothing but good

lieutenant leslie: “for any sins thou hast committed.” you already know. you already KNOW. every time i saw this film there was someone who whispered “moriarty!” the first time it was me. he’s just so tired. a lieutenant shouldn’t be in command of a company. everyone is dead. his only friends are the orderlies he forces to hang out with him in his smelly dugout because all the other officers are in bits and pieces. the orderlies are trapped. they can’t escape him. gallows humour. he just needs a rest. we love him. was absolutely checking schofield out for the majority of their scene together. i've written about how they absolutely seem to have history and i'll say it again: they do. gay

the idiot who thought it was tuesday: one of the orderlies that leslie is holding prisoner solely to bully. when no one else is around they probably cuddle while leslie has a cry and the idiot who thought it was tuesday (TIWTIWT) comforts him and tells him he can do it

private atkins: “hey, it’s alright, it’s okay.” one of the two to find scho trying to haul blake’s body along. the gentlest giant. parry’s back-up, like he looks like he’d be in charge because he’s all big and tough-looking but then weedy, hot-headed little parry is the one doing the talking and atkins is just hovering behind him being soft. loves and supports his friends. they remind me so much of an iconic cartoon duo but i just can’t put my finger on it, but you just know they’d get into mischief because of parry and atkins is just “i don’t know about this” but of course he goes along with it

private parry: “you alright, mate?” he single-handedly made everyone in the cinema jump when some random english guy suddenly spoke when no one else was supposed to be around. he’s tiny but in charge and we truly do love to see it. lowkey feral vibes. you just know he’s a little bit chaotic and snarky and he’d challenge anyone twice his size to a fight, but he’s also gentle and worries about schofield so much when he doesn’t know him at all and i Love him the very most

captain smith: “it doesn’t do to dwell on it.” the dad. the warmest, most calming dad. gives great hugs. he’s tired because he has to spend all his time trying to keep parry and cooke apart because if they ever met and conspired all hell would quite literally break out, like they’d be too powerful together and he knows it. has a cane for the aesthetic. he’s completely traumatised but he has to keep it together for personal pride and for his boys

colonel collins: “they at least could have retreated with a bit of grace, BASTARDS.” i quote him daily. he truly is just the stuff of legends. we love to see it

colonel collins’ driver: “no, sir.” if he and lieutenant gordon ever met they wouldn’t even speak, they’d just fall asleep on each other. they’re both so exhausted by their superiors. when will they be free

private rossi: “welcome aboard the night bus to fuck knows where.” we love him!!!!!! we really do love him!!!!!!! scottish. soft. he and jondalar are best friends and jondalar teases him constantly. genuinely lovely, observant, empathetic. he talks about the pointlessness and bleakness of what they’re doing when no one else dares think on it too much in case they break down and i love him for it. probably goes home to become a war poet

private cooke: “HERE, DRIVER, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY TO KEEP IT ON THE BLOODY ROAD FOR A CHANGE” ABSOLUTE feral vibes. he’s just a public menace and we love him

private butler: “alright, alright, keep your ‘air on.” i really do just love him. he’s the one who tells the story about scott and beaufoy and eventually rallies everyone together to help scho push the truck, but to me he’s better known for being the scrawny little icon with the especially prominent red x on his sleeve and the moustache who’s just so GRUMPY all the time. like why is he so GRUMPY? i love him

sepoy jondalar: “i hope you get there.” it’s recognised in the script that he did the best impersonation of beaufoy, we love to see him excelling. gentle. loves schofield with his entire heart and he’s only just met him. there are a few iconic duos in this film - scho and blake, parry and atkins, bäumer and deserving more - and jondalar and rossi are one of them

private malky: “you could do with a new set.” my FAVOURITE!!!! the script says rossi says that line but i am CONVINCED it’s malky and i will stand by that. sounds like george harrison from the beatles. a soft lad who quietly teases cooke TWICE in one and a half pages with the most bashful kinda voice. he and cooke are another iconic duo. i love him so, so much. gay. they all are but malky especially. all the gays ride in that truck, that’s why smith, The Gay Dad, chose to put scho in with them

driver: “oh, piss off.” he and cooke have an iconic dynamic and it’s only one line long. you just know cooke is always giving him shit, it’s a running gag that’s famous throughout the whole company

lauri: “chil-dren? you?” the queen of deserving more. she’s only something like 17 and she’s probably an orphan raising another orphan. if you’ve seen 1917 and don’t love her with your whole entire soul then you get shot on sight, like i literally do not make the rules. the softest, strongest girl. a lesbian

private bäumer: “ENGLÄNDER!” the king of not keeping his goddamn mouth shut. at least two people in this fandom ship him with kilgour and i am one of them. a soft twink. i love him. if he weren’t dying he would have loved being straddled by scho and i can’t blame him for that

private müller: “bäumer? BÄUMER!” the one who was throwing up. he’s like kat from all quiet on the western front, the older veteran who takes the fresh recruits under his wing. he did not deserve to lose bäumer like that and honestly the grief in his voice when he realises what’s happened HAUNTS me. i really do love him so much. he felt guilty about deserting. he had so much depth like every other character who was barely on screen for half a scene and i hope he made it out of the war and did okay

private seymour: “well he’s not one of ours.” i just love his accent, i’m sorry this one is purely selfish. but i do love him so much, he was instantly ready to LITERALLY pick scho up and just take him with them and that’s pretty iconic. like he was just going to adopt this random, half-drowned soldier who showed up out of nowhere with no rifle or helmet or pack. his now

lieutenant richards: “what the HELL are you doing, lance corporal?” my FAVOURITE secondary character. like i say that about all of them, but i love him, lauri, malky, rossi, and parry THE most. honestly has some of the most iconic moments in the whole film. that squint he does at scho after “what?”? the stuff of oscars. he loved scho so much. the fact that he so desperately wanted to believe that what he was saying was true breaks my heart. genuinely such a good person. i love him. he and captain smith are husbands and dads with a bunch of idiot children

major hepburn: “well done, lad.” he’s like, an actual disney character. like his face, his voice, they just scream disney side character. like a good version of the guy from the princess and the frog. i love him so much. he’s so kind

medical officer: “i have NO idea. move along, lance corporal” I JUST LOVE HIM!!!!! he’s so cranky!!!!! get him some scissors!!!!

#1917 #mine #nothing but love for MY secondary characters ♡♡♡♡♡

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marias-studyblr · 5 years ago

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hey, in your classic books masterpost you mentioned in the tags that you could go on - i dare you to do so ;) seriously, would you be willing to type out a more fleshed out list for this anon or direct me to a site with an extensive classic lit list?

hello friend, oh my gosh for sure i can try to :’)) here are some more, I wouldn’t say fleshed out !!! but i hope you enjoy! a tip is to check the winning writers of several awards: Nobel Prize For Literature, The Pulitzer’s, Hugo’s, Warwick Prize for Writing, etc.!

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

July’s People - Nadine Gordimer

Blindness - José Saramago

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Who do you think you are? - Alice Munro

The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

East Wind: West Wind - Pearl Buck

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

Dance of The Happy Shades - Alice Munro

War's Unwomanly Face - Svetlana Alexievich

My Son’s Story - Nadine Gordimer

Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

House of Day, House of Night - Olga Tokarczuk

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Death With Interruptions - José Saramago

A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

The Hunger Angel - Herta Müller

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Miller Hemingway

The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing

A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro

Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro

#bookblr #book masterlist

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teriwrites · 4 years ago

Text

the big manuscript search tag

I’m compiling a bunch of different tags from @cecilsstorycorner and @akindofmagictoo so this might be a long one!

My words to find: lonely, cup, drown, routine, deep, feather, rich, contact, kick, sun, pair, whisper, king, chord, chip, prove, mix, spin, water, color, need, fade, everyday

...yeah, that’s really long, so I’m going to throw the results in a read more to spare all your feeds from a wall of text

There’s a few words that don’t appear in one project or another, so I’m going to use both Castle on the Hill and Beneath Alder Creek! Because of that, the order won’t be quite the same

Castle on the Hill:

Lonely:

For the first day of break, Hans spent the entire day lounging around his house. His mother said nothing about it, except to suggest moving to a new spot every few hours so that he wouldn’t cramp up. She was in and out of the house a lot, which Hans took as a good sign. The harder days were those in which his mother spent most of it upstairs, locked away in her room. Hans had been allowed to join her, if he wished, but he’d preferred not to see her in such a state. Still, it had led to many a lonely afternoon.

Cup:

The following morning, Peter made the short trek over to the familiar cafe for his second date with Ursula. Despite having left five minutes early, Peter arrived to find Ursula already waiting at a table, with a cup of coffee in hand. He beelined for the table and tossed his blazer onto the back of the chair across from her. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” “No worries, I enjoyed the walk,” Ursula said brightly.

Drown:

“You seemed pretty smitten with this tutor girl,” Peter mused. The sounds of a dramatic breakup on the television nearly drowned him out. He fished the remote from the coffee table and muted the television. Klaus looked between Peter and Georg, who were both sending him matching smug expressions. Georg dramatically batted his eyes at Klaus, who shoved him in the shoulder and nearly sent him toppling over the side of the couch. “Come off it,” he dismissed with a snort. “I barely know her. She’s a fox, sure, but I’m not going to lose my head over a girl I’ve met once. Klaus Müller is always on the make.” Georg leaned forwards to look at Peter. “He’s speaking in the third person again.”

Routine:

“Alrighty, now that that’s out of the way, who wants to tell me what year the European Economic Community was established?” Prof. Dietrich asked brightly, shifting back into his regular routine of starting a lecture with an oral quiz. Josef avoided the man’s eye contact, choosing instead to pretend to be desperately jotting down notes. “Herr Weber? How about you give it a shot?”

Feather:

The rest of the class shifted their attention back to the lecture, but Josef’s face flushed as he fished out his notebook from his bag. He could practically hear the stories that would be circulating later. Josef Weber, the snobby inheritor to his father’s auto company, got scolded in front of a whole class. Wouldn’t that just put a feather in quite a few caps?

Rich:

“Tell me why I didn’t decide to work as a janitor,” Klaus muttered. “You’d never succeed as a janitor; you never even had to clean your own messes growing up.” One of Klaus’ arms snapped forwards and a smack that was aiming for Georg’s shoulder instead slapped smartly against the wooden back of his chair. With a sharp intake of breath, Klaus straightened in his seat. As he rubbed at his knuckles, Klaus shot back, “That’s rich, coming from a lawyer’s son.”

Chord:

“It’s a little complicated right now,” Hans said calmly. “Look, I’ve talked it all over with my mother, and she agreed that it would be best for me to stay here. It’s not that long, Josef, don’t look at me like that.” The doubt etched into Josef’s features was enough to warrant the comment, and he shook his head to try clearing it. Nothing in Hans’ demeanor pointed towards it being a lie, but something in the idea struck a false chord in him.

Water:

Though he'd managed to subdue most of his panic, Peter felt it all rushing back. A sudden pain at his hand drew him out of his thoughts, and he realized that he'd been aggressively stirring the pasta, and some of the water had splashed out of the pot.

Fade(d):

As Hans spoke, Professor Abend’s face lit up with recognition, which quickly faded into a solemn mourning. The exam lay on the desk between the two, forgotten. “I knew I had a Faust in one of my classes, but I never thought to make a connection,” Professor Abend said in a low voice.

Beneath Alder Creek:

Deep:

A deep breath, and then Winnie followed through, dragging her other foot into the creek. The water rose halfway up her calf, and continued to rise as she made her way forwards. To her thigh, then her hip, and finally up to her waist. It was the second dress she’d soaked that day, Winnie thought with a wry smile, and, in her distraction, she failed to notice a large rock in the creek bed. It could hardly be considered a fall. Winnie pitched forwards, plunging her face into the creek for only a moment before she caught her balance and straightened up. But she’d opened her mouth as she tripped, and her rise was met with a violent coughing fit. Loose strands of hair clung to her face, making it impossible to see, and Winnie pushed forwards carefully by feeling along the bottom with her foot. The progression was slow, but Alder Creek was by no means wide, and it wasn’t long before Winnie found the water beginning to ebb away. As she pulled herself out of the creek, Winnie brushed the hair from her face and finally opened her eyes. Looking to where she’d seen the fairy ring, she froze.

Contact(ing):

Contacting the fae was no easy feat; they only made appearances of their own volition, not subscribing to any convenient timetable. While it was said that certain holidays brought the mortal world closer to their realm, years had passed before any signs revealed their presence. By then, the couple had been so eager that they’d wasted no time in seeking out a deal. They were the fourth and fifth victims within the fifteen years. Nobody had been so hasty since.

Kick(ing):

Back into the bog. Winnie no longer worried herself with her skirts, allowing them to drag through the stagnant water. It was a mistake, she soon discovered, as the drenched fabric weighed her down and made the progress even slower. With an exasperated groan, she stomped at the ground, kicking up a spray and lodging her boot into the mud.

Sun:

Time steadily passed as they traveled, though how quickly or slowly it went by, Winnie couldn’t say. She could feel the blisters beginning to form on her feet, the slight ache in her shoulders where she’d slung her bag, the warmth that spread across her back as the sun’s ceaseless rays washed over them. When she fell slightly behind Taliesin, he was shining so brightly that her eyes began to burn, and she had to quicken her pace to keep in step with him.

Pair:

The first thing Winnie noticed was the boat they were standing in. It was like a skiff, sitting low in the water and directed by a pair of oars. The figure rowing seemed to be wearing some type of headgear, a hazy and elongated shape still a little too far to make out. Taliesin moved back from the shore, forcing Winnie to do the same to provide space for the skiff to breach.

Whisper:

“Don’t stare,” Taliesin reminded her in a whisper. He raised a hand in greeting, and the figure dipped their head slightly, though how they could’ve seen it without eyes, Winnie couldn’t say. “Hail, Ferryman!”

Prove(n):

Turning away from the Llion, the group soon found themselves returning once more to the thick fog of the wetlands. Winnie took the middle, knowing better than to have Taliesin and Enid side-by-side. In one hand, she took the long sleeve of Enid’s robes, and in the other, Taliesin’s cloak. He dragged his feet the whole time, still sulking, and it took all of Winnie’s self-restraint not to let go and leave him behind as punishment for his pettiness. Being proven wrong did not suit the golden man.

Mix(ed):

It was nearly a week later when Winnie found herself back at Alder Creek. The water level had dipped back to its usual shallows, which lazily drifted by. Winnie could see her face reflected as she stared down, features blurred in its [flowing surface]. The hem of her skirt had dipped into the water, which lapped at Winnie’s bare feet. Her shoes were somewhere behind her, abandoned, a sign of her troubled mind. For the most part, Winnie had abandoned the practice of walking about barefoot - how her mother would’ve shouted if she’d seen her. The thought of her mother brought a fresh wave of mixed humiliation and frustration as the events of the day replayed through her mind.

Spin:

A light flickered in the trees. When Winnie looked up, she stared at the sight. Taliesin was crouching on a branch, catlike, with his hands holding the branch between his feet. Somehow, he did not sway but remained perfectly still, patiently watching Winnie spin in circles to look for him, all with an amused half-smile.

Color(s):

The opening of the cavern shifted through several colors, like an ever-changing kaleidoscope of light through a prism.

Need:

She offered Enid no response, so after a stretch of silence, the statuesque woman continued. “This is out of some attachment to the Dusk fellow, then.” Winnie bristled at her tone. “Of course it’s not. I merely need him to ensure that my brother and I are able to depart the Fae safely.”

Not found:

King (Apparently my writing does not support monarchies lol)

Chip

Everyday

This was excessively long, so I’m going to leave it an open tag. The words for anyone who feels like it are king, chip, and everyday because I’m sure somebody out there has them, even if I don’t.

#tag game

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weirdletter · 4 years ago

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Nineteenth-Century Southern Gothic Short Fiction: Haunted by the Dark (Anthem Studies in Gothic Literature), edited by by Charles L. Crow and Susan Castillo Street, Anthem Press, 2020. Cover image by JayGee2017/Shutterstock, info: anthempress.com.

The gothic is a dark mirror of the fears and taboos of a culture. This collection brings together a dozen chilling tales of the nineteenth-century American South with non-fiction texts that illuminate them and ground them in their historical context. The tales are from writers with enduring, world-wide reputations (Edgar Allan Poe), and others whose work will be unknown to most readers. Indeed, one of the stories has not been reprinted for nearly a hundred years, and little is known about its author, E. Levi Brown. Similarly, the historical selections are from a range of authors, some canonical, others not, ranging from Thomas Jefferson and the great historian and sociologist W.E.B. DuBois to the relatively obscure Leona Sansay. Some of these readings are themselves as disturbingly gothic as any of the tales. Indeed, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction are tenuous in the gothic South. It is our contention that southern gothic fiction is in many ways realistic fiction, and, even at its most grotesque and haunting, is closely linked to the realities of southern life. In America, and in the American South especially, the great fears, taboos, and boundaries often concern race. Even in stories where black people are not present, as in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The System of Professor Tarr and Dr. Fether,” slavery hangs in the background as a ghostly metaphor. Our background readings place the fiction in the context of the South and the Caribbean: the revolution in Haiti, Nat Turner’s rebellion, the realities of slavery and the myths spun by its apologists, the aftermath of the Civil War, and the brutalities of Jim Crow laws.

Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction I. The Tales Chapter One. Victor Séjour, “The Mulatto” (1837, new English translation by Susan Castillo Street) Chapter Two. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) Chapter Three. Edgar Allan Poe, “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” (1844) Chapter Four. Henry Clay Lewis, “A Struggle for Life” (1850) Chapter Five. George Washington Cable, “Belles Demoiselles Plantation” (1879) Chapter Six. Lafcadio Hearn, “The Ghostly Kiss” (1880) Chapter Seven. Thomas Nelson Page, “No Haid Pawn” (1887) Chapter Eight. Charles Chesnutt, “Po’ Sandy” (1888) Chapter Nine. Grace King, “The Little Convent Girl” (1893) Chapter Ten. E. Levi Brown, “At the Hermitage” (1893) Chapter Eleven. Kate Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby” (1893) Chapter Twelve. M. E.M. Davis, “At La Glorieuse” (1897) II. Background Chapter Thirteen. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer: Letter IX (1782) Chapter Fourteen. Thomas Jefferson, from Notes on the State of Virginia: Query XVIII (1785) Chapter Fifteen. Jean- Jacques Dessalines, “Liberty or Death: Proclamation, 28 April 1804” Chapter Sixteen. Charles Brockden Brown, “On the Consequences of Abolishing the Slave Trade to the West Indian Colonies” (1805) Chapter Seventeen. Leonora Sansay, from Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo: Letter II, Letter XXI (1808) Chapter Eighteen. Thomas Ruffin Gray, from “The Confessions of Nat Turner” (1831) Chapter Nineteen. Lafcadio Hearn, “St. Johns Eve—Voudouism” (1875) Chapter Twenty. George Washington Cable, from “Salome Müller: The White Slave” (from Strange True Stories of Louisiana, 1890) Chapter Twenty-One. George Washington Cable, from “The Haunted House in Royal Street” (from Strange True Stories of Louisiana, 1890) Chapter Twenty-Two. Charles W. Chesnutt, “Superstitions and Folk-Lore of the South” (1901) Chapter Twenty- Three. W.E.B. Du Bois, selection from “Of the Black Belt” (from The Souls of Black Folk , 1903) Index

#book #anthology #essay #gothic studies #american gothic #nineteenth-century gothic #southern gothic #weird studies

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barbarians-s1e6 · 4 years ago

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▷ Barbarians; Season 1 Episode 6 - (S1E6) - HD 720p

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Genre : Action & Adventure, Drama Air Date : 2020-10-23 Network : Netflix Casts : Jeanne Goursaud, Bence Ferenczi, David Schütter, Laurence Rupp, Jeremy Miliker, Florian Schmidtke, Tibor Milos Krisko, Sergej Onopko, Gaetano Aronica, Bernhard Schütz, Eva Verena Müller

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Television Show

A television show might also be called a television program (British English: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A television series is usually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and are usually divided into seasons (US and Canada) or series (UK) — yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries, serial, or limited series. A one-time show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “television movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.

History

The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 1910s. Televised events such as the 1911 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 1916 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 1919 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 1916 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 1918, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 1, 19161 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.[1][1][1] The first national color broadcast (the 19161 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on January 1, 19161. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 19116, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 1961, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completely all-color network season.

Development

When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the show’s elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew, and cast. Then they often “pitch” it to the various networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series, known as a pilot.[citation needed] Eric Coleman, an animation executive at Disney, told an interviewer, “One misconception is that it’s very difficult to get in and pitch your show, when the truth is that development executives at networks want very much to hear ideas. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for.

To create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If audiences respond well to the pilot, the network will pick up the show to air it the next season (usually Fall).[citation needed] Sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and additional review (known in the industry as development hell).[citation needed] Other times, they pass entirely, forcing the show’s creator to “shop it around” to other networks. Many shows never make it past the pilot stage.[citation needed]

The show hires a stable of writers, who usually work in parallel: the first writer works on the first episode, the second on the second episode, etc.[citation needed] When all the writers have been used, episode assignment starts again with the first writer.[citation needed] On other shows, however, the writers work as a team. Sometimes they develop story ideas individually, and pitch them to the show’s creator, who folds them together into a script and rewrites them.[citation needed]

If the show is picked up, the network orders a “run” of episodes — usually only six or 11 episodes at first, though a season typically consists of at least 11 episodes.[citation needed] The midseason seven and last nine episodes are sometimes called the “mid-seven” and “back nine” — borrowing the colloquial terms from bowling and golf.

#Barbarians #Barbarians Season 1 #Barbarians Season 1 Episode 6 #Series

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gotham-ruaidh · 5 years ago

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Truth to Triumph

Previously…

Chapter 17: Dawn

October 1, 1904

Extract from the Report of the United States Commission of Investigation Upon The Disaster to the Steamer “General Slocum,” published on October 8, 1904 by the United States Department of Commerce. The report included a letter by President Theodore Roosevelt - a native New Yorker - to the Secretary of Commerce, imploring him to file criminal charges to punish those responsible for the Slocum tragedy.

Sunrise.

Jamie wearily climbed the stairs, yawning as he reached the landing outside Claire’s rooms. The door to the spare room where he normally slept was closed – fervently he hoped that Mary had finally found some rest.

So he removed his shoes, stepped into the sitting room, looked in on Henry – curled tightly around George, his favorite toy bunny – and padded into Claire’s bedroom.

For a moment he just watched her – dark curls exploding on the pillow, the quilt all the way up to her chin. Then she opened her eyes, smiled sleepily, and opened her arms to him.

Gratefully he dropped his jacket and lay down next to her, on top of the quilt. Wrapped an arm around her. Pressed his forehead to hers.

She rubbed her nose against his. “All done?”

He nodded. “Mr. Pulitzer and I decided to sit on it for a few days. He’s dispatched some guys to do more research – to dig into the leads Mary gave us. Corroborate her story. But it’s just a formality at this point. We’ll publish it the day Joe files his lawsuit.”

“Do you think we can ask some of our friends who lost family on the Slocum to serve as plaintiffs?”

Jamie smiled. “I already called around last night. Mr. Pulitzer has sent messengers to Herr Müller up in Yorkville, and the head of the organization that hosted the party at the beer garden. Between them we’ll find enough people.”

“That’s so great. You know, Joe has been a true friend to Papa for many years. I forget how they met – but Papa hired him right out of law school to be his firm’s attorney. So many other firms wouldn’t hire him, just because of his color.” She sighed. “He’s been crucial to Papa’s success. And he and his wife and family are dear friends of ours. They have a son close to Henry’s age.”

“Your family has a knack for supporting people that most of society wouldn’t, hmm?”

She kissed his cheek. “He can file the paperwork so that you can adopt Henry.”

He kissed her on the mouth. Wanting more.

But she pulled away. “I need to tell you something.”

“Anything,” he breathed.

She pulled back a bit on the pillow, and raised her hand to smooth the hair back from his forehead. “It took a long time for Mama and I to calm Mary. It’s so hard for her, knowing she’ll be losing everything by doing this.”

Jamie kissed her forehead.

“Jack charmed her. I know exactly what that feels like. And her family really pushed for the marriage, to unite their business dealings. Mary really did love him for a while, poor thing.”

“But?”

“But he’s been seeing other women – multiple women – since before they married. He’s barely home. She’s bored out of her mind, because he won’t let her work.”

“Stupid man.”

“When your articles came out – there was panic. Her father and Jack’s father came over to their townhouse. They drank a lot, and argued a lot. They hate you something fierce.”

“No big surprise there. But they’re in Newport, right? Far away from here?”

“Yes – they had to leave town. Because now they’re being shunned by their society friends.”

He held her tighter. “My God – that’s why they left? For fear of what their friends thought of them – not because of the thousand bodies in the river? Have they no consciences at all?”

“Mary was right, Jamie. These are bad people.” She swallowed. “And after everyone left that night, Jamie – Jack…he…” She swallowed. “Mary said – ”

“Sshh.” He kissed her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids. “You don’t need to tell me.”

“Then he left her alone, and went straight to his downtown mistress. Mary, God bless her, gathered up all the papers that were left behind. And then went into their offices the next day for more – because why would anyone suspect her?”

“But why did she come here?”

“Mama said it herself – we had lost contact with her after her mother died. Like you said earlier – my parents have a reputation of supporting those who many wouldn’t.”

“And now Mary wants a divorce?”

“It’s the best thing for her. She’ll have enough money – her mother left her a sizable sum, which Jack can never get his hands on. But she’ll need to find a way to support herself. And a place to live – going back to her father is out of the question.”

“Not if he goes to prison. She’d have the house all to herself.”

Claire pulled herself from his arms and rolled flat on her back, rubbing her tired eyes.

“Claire – Claire. I’m sorry. I know it’s not appropriate to joke around.”

She sighed. “It’s been a long two days, hasn’t it?”

“It has.” Now Jamie turned to lay flat on his back as well. “Do you think it will be too cramped for us in here, after we marry?”

“I don’t see why – unless you have rooms and rooms full of possessions that I don’t know about?”

“Ah.” He smiled. “Just some clothes and books and mementos. Can easily fit in the spare room.”

Silence for a long moment. Somewhere down in the street, glass bottles clinked – the milkman, on his morning delivery route.

“What Henry asked you last night – if we’re going to continue living here…”

“We’ll decide it together. I’d love to have a place of our own – but I don’t want Henry to feel removed from his grandparents. And what about Nanny Fitz?”

“She doesn’t live with us now – but that’s a good point. We’d have to make sure it wouldn’t be too inconvenient for her.”

Jamie edged up on his elbow and looked down at her. “Would – would you consider us having more children, Claire? I don’t mean right away, of course – it’s completely up to you.”

She sat up. The quilt fell away from her shoulders; she was wearing one of his button-up shirts. With the top two buttons undone. He swallowed.

She took his free hand. “Yes. I want that. I want everything with you, Jamie. My only…experience was the act that produced Henry. I want you to erase all those memories.”

“I will,” he vowed, voice low.

Her smile was so beautiful.

“Can you bolt the door?”

His brow furrowed. “Why?”

She released his hand, and undid another button.

“Holy God.”

#outlander #outlander fanfic #truth to triumph #jamie and claire

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chiseler · 5 years ago

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The Head -- It Just Won’t Stay Dead

In the early 1960s, the overwhelming majority of European horror films imported to the United States were either British or Italian, the British films being easily understood and the Italian ones frequently pretending to be of British origin. Examples of French horror were rare (odd for a country whose cinema was so rooted in the fantastique), reaching an early apex with Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960), which came to the US in a well-done English dub called The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus during the Halloween season of 1962.

Seldom paid much attention in retrospectives of this fertile period in continental horror cinema is a rare German example, Die Nackte und der Satan (“The Naked and the Devil,” 1959), which came to the US retitled The Head almost exactly one year before the arrival of the Franju masterpiece. Critics like to refer to The Head as “odd” and “atmospheric,” words that seem to disregard deeper consideration, never really coming to terms with it as anything but a sleazy shock trifle. However, it was in fact the product of a remarkable and rarely equaled concentration of accomplished patrimonies.

Consider this: The Head starred the great Swiss actor Michel Simon, renowned for his roles in Jean Renoir’s La Chienne and Boudu Saved From Drowning; it was directed by the Russian-born Victor Trivas, returning to his adopted homeland for the first time since directing Niemandsland (1932, aka No Man’s Land or Hell On Earth), a potent anti-war statement that was all but obliterated off the face of the earth by the Nazis when he fled the country, and who furthermore had written the story upon which Orson Welles’ The Stranger (1946) was based; it was photographed by Georg Krause, whose numerous international credits include Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957); its sets were designed by Hermann Warm, the genius responsible for such German Expressionist masterpieces as Robert Weine’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), Fritz Lang’s Destiny (1921), as well as Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Vampyr (1932), and its score is a wild patchwork of library tracks by Willy Mattes, the Erwin Lehn Orchestra, and a group of avant garde musicians known as Lasry-Baschet, who would subsequently lend their eerie, ethereal music to Jean Cocteau’s The Testament of Orpheus (1960). If all this were not enough, The Head was also filmed at the Munich studios of Arnold Richter, the co-founder of the Arri Group, innovators of the famous Arriflex cameras and lenses.

Though made after the 1957 horror breakthroughs made in Britain and Italy (Terence Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein, and I vampiri, co-directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava), The Head represented a virtual revolutionary act in postwar Germany, where horror was then considered a genre to avoid. The project was proposed to Trivas by a young film producer named Wolfgang C. Hartwig, head of Munich’s Rapid-Film, whose claim to fame was initiating a niche of exploitation cinema known as Sittenfilme – literally “moral movies” – which, like many American exploitation films of the 1930s, maintained a higher, judgmental moral tone while telling the stories of people who slipped into lives of vice (prostitution, blackmail, drug addiction), their sordid experiences always leading them to a happy or at least bittersweet outcome. Though it goes quite a bit further than either Britain or Italy had yet gone in terms of sexualizing horror, The Head nevertheless checked all the boxes required for Sittenfilme and was undertaken by Hartwig in early 1959 as Rapid-Film’s most prestigious production to date.

After the main titles are spelled out over an undulating nocturnal fog, the story begins with a lurker’s shadow passing along outside the gated property of Prof. Dr. Abel. With its round head and wide-brimmed hat, it looks like the planet Saturn from the neck up. When this marauder pauses to pay some gentle attention to a passing tortoise, we get our first look at the film’s real star - Horst Frank, just thirty at the time, his clammy asexual aura topped off with prematurely graying hair and large triangular eyebrows that seem carried over from the days of German Expressionism. More bizarre still, he later gives his name as Dr. Ood, whose explanation is still more bizarre: at the age of three months old, he was orphaned, the sole survivor of a cataclysmic shipwreck .

“That was the name of the wrecked ship,” he explains. “S.S. Ood.”

The ambiguous Ood takes cover as another late night visitor comes calling: a hunchbacked woman wearing a nurse’s habit as outsized as an oxygen tent. This is Sister Irene Sanders (the screen debut of Karin Kernke, later seen in the Edgar Wallace krimi The Terrible People, 1960). Though Irene cuts a figure as ambiguous and unusual as any Franju ever filmed, she owes her greatest debt to Jane Adams’ hunchbacked Nina in Erle C. Kenton’s House of Dracula (1945). As with Nina, Irene lives in the hope that her deformity can be eradicated by the skill of a brilliant surgeon.

When Irene leaves after meeting with Dr. Abel, Ood presents himself with the written recommendation of a colleague he previously, supposedly, assisted. A burly old walrus of a man, Abel (Michel Simon) already has two younger associates, Dr. Walter Burke (Kurt Müller-Graf, “a first class surgeon”) and the handsome, muscular Burt Jaeger (Helmut Schmid), who hasn’t been quite the same since an unexplained brain operation. Both associates share a creative streak; Burke is also “an excellent architect, [who] designed this house,” while Jaeger “designed my special operating table; it allows me to work without assistants.” (So why does he have two of them? With names that sound the same, no less!) Given the high caliber of Hermann Warm’s talent as a production designer, Burke and Burt together are every bit as skilled in architecture as was Boris Karloff’s Hjalmar Poelzig in Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934). The main floor of Abel’s sprawling house is dominated by a vast spiral stairwell, striking low-backed furniture, a mobile of dancing palette shapes, and an overpowering wall reproducing Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Virtuvian Man.” Down in the lab, Burt’s robotic surgical assistant looks as if it might have been conceived by the brain responsible for the Sadean mind control device in Jess Franco’s The Diabolical Dr. Z (1965) - a film that, along with Franco’s earlier The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962), seems considerably more indebted to Trivas on renewed acquaintance than to Franju. The film was shot in black-and-white and at no point inside Abel’s abode do the silvery, ivory surfaces admit even the possibility of pigment.

Adding to its effect, the music heard whenever the film cuts back to Abel’s place is anything but homey. It consists of a single, sustained electric keyboard chord played in a nightmarish loop that seems to chill and vibrate, its predictable arc punctuated now and again with icy spikes of cornet. Though I don’t recall reading any extensive discussion of the film’s music, The Head represents what is surely the most important advance in electronic music in the wake of Louis & Bebe Barron’s work on Forbidden Planet (1956). Though the film’s music credits list bandleader Willy Mattes, Jacques Lasry and the Edwin Lehr Orchestra with its music, the most important musical credit is displaced. Further down the screen is the unexplained “Sound Structure, Lasry-Baschet.”

Lasry-Baschet was a musical combination of two partnerships – that of brothers Francois and Bernard Baschet, and the husband-and-wife team of Jacques and Yvonne Lasry. The two brothers were musicians who played astonishing instruments of their own invention, like the Crystal Baschet (played with moistened fingers on glass rods), the Aluminum Piano, the Inflatable Guitar, the Rotating Whistler, and the Polytonal Percussion. The Lasry couple, originally a pianist and organist, began performing with the Baschets on their unique devices in the mid 1950s. Some of the music they produced during this period is collected on the albums Sonata Exotique (credited to Structures for Sound, covering the years 1957-1959) and Structures For Sound (credited to the Baschet Brothers alone, 1963), a vinyl release by the Museum of Modern Art. These and other recorded works can be found on YouTube, as well; they are deeply moving ambient journeys but I cannot say with certainty that they include any of the music from The Head. That said, the music they do collect is very much in its macabre character and would have also fit very well into Last Year At Marienbad (1961) or any of Franju’s remarkable films.

When Ood meets with Abel and expresses his keen interest in experimental research, the good doctor mentions that he has had success copying “the recent Russian surgery” that succeeded in keeping the severed head of a dog alive – however, his moral code prevents him from taking such experimentation still further. After leaving Abel, Ood finds his way to the Tam-Tam Club, a nightspot where a life-sized placard promotes the nightly performances of “Tam-Tam Super Sex Star Lilly.” This visit initiates a parallel storyline involving Lilly (Christiane Maybach), who supplements her striptease work as an artist’s model, and is the particular muse of the brooding Paul Lerner (Dieter Eppler), a man of only artistic ambition, much to the annoyance of his father, a prominent judge who wants him to study law. Maybach reportedly won her role the day before she began filming. According to news reports of the day, the actress originally cast – the voluptuous redhead Kai Fischer – had signed on to play the part, after which producer Hartwig decided she must also appear nude. Fisher sued Hartwig for breach of contract in March 1959 and he was sentenced to pay out a compensatory fee of DM 4,000 – in currency today, the equivalent of about $35,000. As it happens, Christiane Maybach doesn’t appear nude in the film’s final cut either.

The English version of The Head opens with a credit sequence played out over a shot of the full moon taken from near the climax of the picture. Unusually, the German Die Nackte und der Satan doesn’t present its title onscreen until Lilly is ready to go on. It’s superimposed with inverted commas on pleated velvet curtains that suddenly rise, revealing a stage adorned by a single suit of armor. Lilly dances out, stage right, garbed in a medieval conical hat, scarves, a bikini and a black mask, performing her dance of the seven veils around the impervious man of metal. She only strips down to her bikini but her dance ends with her in the arms of the armor we assumed empty, which tightly embraces her as its visor pops open, revealing a man’s face wearing skull makeup. Lilly screams, the lights go out, and the house goes wild with applause – a veritable blueprint for the striptease of Estella Blain’s Miss Death in Franco’s The Diabolical Dr. Z (1965).

The music heard during the film’s Tam-Tam Club sequences was recorded by the Erwin Lehn Orchestra, evidently with Jacques Lasry on piano, though its emphasis on brass is its outstanding characteristic. Erwin Lehn was a German jazz musician and composer who established the first German Big Band Orchestra for South German Radio. Brass was a major component of his sound – indeed, he made pop instrumental recordings credited to The Erwin Lehn Beat-Brass. You can find their album Beat Flames on YouTube, as well.

Backstage, the beautiful Lilly is a nagging brat, drinking and flirting with patrons while berating Paul’s lax ambitions on the side. Dieter Eppler, a frequent player in the Edgar Wallace krimis and also the lead bloodsucker in Roberto Mauri’s Italian Slaughter of the Vampires (1964), makes for inspired casting; he looks like a beefier, if less dynamic Kirk Douglas at a time when Vincente Minnelli’s Lust For Life (1956) would have still been in the minds of audiences.

Once Ood joins the payroll, Dr. Abel confesses that his heart is failing rapidly. The only means of saving himself and perpetuating his brilliant research is by doing the impossible – that is, transplanting the heart from a donor’s body into his own, which he insists is possible given his innovation of “Serum X.” What Abel could not foresee was that his own body would die during the procedure. Ood tells Burke that the only way to save Abel’s genius is to keep his head artificially alive, which his associate rejects uncatagorically, pushing Ood over the edge into murder. Then Ood proceeds with the operation, working solo with Jaeger’s robo-assistant passing along surgical tools as he needs them. When Abel revives, Ood breaks his news of the procedure gently by holding up a mirror and exclaiming that he’d had “one last chance – to perform the dog operation on your head!” Abel screams in revulsion of what he has become. The conciliatory Ood gently cautions him, “Too much emotion can be extremely dangerous now.”

The severed head apparatus is a simple yet ingenious effect, shot entirely in-camera and credited to Theo Nischwitz. It utilizes what is generally known as a Schufftan shot, a technique made famous by spfx shots achieved by Eugen Schufftan for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1926). Essentially, Michel Simon was seated behind a pane of mirrored glass with all the apparatus seen from his neck up. The silvering on the reverse portion of the mirror was scraped away, allowing the camera to see through to Simon and the apparatus while reflecting the apparatus arrayed below his neck, in position for the camera to capture its reflection simultaneously. In at least one promotional photo issued for the film, Simon’s shoulders can be transparently glimpsed where they should not be.

Irene returns to meet with Dr. Abel and is surprised to find new employee Ood now alone and ruling the roost. When he offers to perform her operation himself, she instinctively distrusts and fears him – but is reassured after hearing Abel’s disembodied voice on the house’s sophisticated intercom.

After the killing and burial of Burke, whose body Bert Jaeger later finds thanks to the barking of Dr. Abel’s kenneled hounds (a detail that one imagines inspired Franju’s use of a kennel in Eyes Without a Face), the film introduces the dull but nevertheless compulsory police investigation, headed by Paul Dahlke as Police Commissioner Sturm. Sagging interest is buoyed by a surprise twist: when Dr. Ood returns to the Tam-Tam Club and asks the perpetually pissy Lilly to dance, he refers to her in passing as “Stella,” prompting her to recognize him as “Dr. Brandt” (the scorecard now reads Burke, Bert and Brandt), who has inside knowledge pertaining to her poisoning of her husband! Given that his earlier writing projects include Orson Welles’ The Stranger and the bizarre Mexican-made Buster Keaton item Boom In the Moon (also 1946), in which an innocent shipwrecked sailor is rescued from his castaway existence only to find himself confused with a serial killer, Victor Trivas would seem partial to characters who live double lives.

Though Ood/Brandt’s aura is basically asexual through the first half of the film, the second half requires him to take an earthier interest in the female bodies finding their way into his hands. He takes the already tipsy Lilly/Stella home for a drink and some mischief.

“What’s in the glass?”

“Drink it and find out.”

“I hope it’s not poisoned.”

“That’s not my specialty, is it?”

Lilly/Stella becomes the necessary auto parts for Irene’s pending operation. In a nicely done montage, the film dissolves from Lilly’s unconscious body to a glint of light off the edge of Ood’s poised scalpel. It cuts to a curt zoom into Abel’s scream at being forced to watch a procedure he abhors, then a dissolve from his mouth to the spinning dials of a wall clock, followed by some time-lapse photography of cumulous clouds unfurling from an open sky, before Irene awakens in her recovery room with a decorative choker around her throat. She is able to gain her feet and covers her nude body in a sheet. She finds Ood lounging in Abel’s old office. He walks toward her as the sheet tumbles off her bare shoulders.

“How do you feel?” he asks.

“Well, I… I’ve a strange kind of feeling, as if my whole body were changed, as if my body didn’t want to do what I wished.”

Therefore, Ood has not only taken away her deformity but her responsibility for her actions, as well. Though she has never smoked before, she craves a cigarette. As Ood lights one for her, her wrap falls further, undraping her entire bare back and thus exposing a birthmark on her left shoulder blade that becomes an important plot point. Ood confesses she’s been unconscious for 117 days, during which time he has passed the time by performing numerous enhancing procedures on her inert body. When he compliments her superb figure, she self-consciously covers her legs and recoils from him.

“Why run from everything you desire?” he asks. “You can’t run from yourself.”

He draws Irene into a surprising deep kiss, which – to her own apparent horror - she returns. Ood then tries to take things further but she refuses. After a brief (and surprisingly curtailed) attempt at abduction, he releases Irene, who dresses in a black cocktail dress and heels left behind by Lilly and returns to the humble apartment she kept in her previous life, where a full-length mirror stands covered. In a scene considerably shortened by the US version, she rips the cover away in a movement evocative of a symbolic self-rape, and glories in her new reflection. The score turns torrid, brassy, and trashy as she admires her shapely terrain, fondling the curves of her breasts and hips in a prelude to a gratifying personal striptease. She then goes to her bed, where she tries on an old pair of slippers; she laughs and kicks them away, delighted at how small her feet now are. When she wakes the next morning, she finds a pamphlet for the Tam-Tam Club in Lilly’s old purse, which leads her body back to its former place of employ. When she arrives, another striptease artist is working onstage with a bed. This performance appears to burlesque Irene’s own motions from the night before; she kicks off one of her shoes as Irene had done.

From the moment she walks into the club, still wearing Lilly’s clinging black dress, Irene evokes a black widow, a kind of Alraune – the femme fatale of Hanns Heinz Ewers’ novel, filmed in 1930 with Brigitte Helm and in 1952 by Hildegarde Knef. Like Alraune, she’s the beautiful creation of a mad scientist’s laboratory, but unnatural. In this case, she’s not really a soulless artificial being out to destroy men; on the contrary, she is soulful, starving for some insight into who she is, what she is. In this way, she particularly foreshadows Christina, the schizophrenic subject of Baron Frankenstein’s “soul transplant” played by Susan Denberg in Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman (1966).

She quickly attracts Paul’s artist’s eye, just as the now-topless dancer onstage swirls into a swoon on a prop bed – unconsciously mimicking Lilly at the only time she ever saw her, when Ood gave her a sneak peek at the unconscious woman on his living room couch. She asks about Lilly, whom Paul mentions has been dead now for three months, her body (in fact, Irene’s former body) found maimed beyond recognition on some railroad tracks. He asks her to dance, but Irene refuses, as she has never danced, never been asked to dance before. But he insists and they both discover that she can: “You must be a born dancer!”

Beautiful and irresponsible, she allows herself to follow Paul back to his studio, where drawings of Lilly are displayed. Paul asks to draw her, and when she turns her back to bare her shoulders, he recognizes Lilly’s beauty mark. She flees from the apartment and confronts the unflappable Ood.

“You must have grafted her skin on my body!”

In the movie’s most hilarious line, he fires back, “You have a poor imagination!”

She rejects his true account of the procedure and demands to see Dr. Abel, so Ood takes her down to the lab for a personal confirmation from the man himself. Ashamed to be seen this way, Abel pleads with Irene to disconnect him from the apparatus. She is driven away before she can accomplish this, and tries to shut away the horror of the truth that’s been revealed by losing herself in her new relationship with Paul – but the old question arises: Does he love her for her body or her mind? There seems to be one answer when he first kisses her, and another and his lips venture further down her front.

I should leave some things to be discovered by your own viewing of the film, but it demands to be mentioned that Irene – the triumphant climax of Ood’s genius, so to speak – actually survives at the end of the film to live happily ever after. Think about this. This is something that would have been considered unacceptable in any of Hammer’s Frankenstein films at the time – indeed, through the following decade. So, although Ood is ultimately destroyed (you’ll need to see it to find out how), the mad science he propounds is actually borne out. It’s left up to Paul and Irene, as they walk off together toward a new tomorrow, how they will manage to live with the fact that the two of them are in fact a ménage à trois. Will they keep the details of her existence a secret? Will medical science remain ignorant? Should they ever have any, what will they tell their kids?

The Head was hardly the first word on severed heads in horror entertainment. In his own admiring coverage of the film, Euro Gothic author Jonathan Rigby likens the film to the story of Rene Berton’s 1928 Grand Guignol play L’Homme qui à tue la mort (“The Man Who Killed Death”): “There, Professor Fargus revived the guillotined head of a supposed murderer and the prosecutor lost his mind when the head continued to plead his innocence.” Earlier such films would include Universal’s Inner Sanctum thriller Strange Confession (1945, in which a never-seen severed head is a main plot point), The Man Without a Body (1957) and The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958), the latter two proving that the concept was actually trending at the time The Head was made. Also parenthetically relevant would be She Demons (1958), which involves the nasty experiments of a renegade Nazi scientist living on an uncharted tropical island, who removes the “beauty glands” of native girls to periodically restore his wife’s good looks. Though The Head wasn’t the first of its kind, many of the traits it introduced would surface in similar films that followed – not only in Franju’s Eyes Without A Face or Franco’s The Awful Dr. Orlof and The Diabolical Dr. Z, but also in Anton Giulio Majano’s Italian Atom Age Vampire (1960), Chano Urueta’s The Living Head (1963), and most conspicuously in Joseph Green’s The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, not released until 1962 though filmed in 1959, some six months after The Head.

It must be mentioned that the film’s unusual quality did not go unrecognized by its American distributor. Trans-Lux Distributing Corporation advertised the film that took a most unusual approach to selling a horror picture. The ads did not promise blood, or that your companion would jump into your lap, or shock after shock after shock. Instead, Trans-Lux promised that “At The Head of All Masterpieces of Horror [my italics] That You’ve Ever Seen… You Must Place… The Head.”

Of course it was an overstatement, but the size of its overstatement would seem to have narrowed appreciably with time.

So why has The Head, with its rich pooling of so much European talent, been so neglected?

A key reason may be that horror fans like their actors and directors to maintain a certain consistency, a certain fidelity to the genre. Horst Frank (who died in 1999) would appear in other horror films, but never again played a lead; he pursued his career as a character actor and singer, maintaining a career on the stage and keeping close to home, never making films off the continent or appearing in productions originating from England or America. After The Head, Victor Trivas made no more horror films. The other four features he made had been produced a quarter century earlier and the majority are impossible to see in English countries. Those who remembered him for Niemandsland would have considered The Head an embarrassment, an unfortunate last act. It wasn’t quite a last act, however. The following year, he returned to America, where he sold his final script to the Warner Bros. television series The Roaring 20s, starring Dorothy Provine. Though the show avoided fantasy subjects, it was a voodoo-themed episode entitled “The Fifth Pin,” directed by Robert Spaar and televised during the series’ first season on April 8, 1961. The guest stars included John Dehner, Rex Reason, Patricia O’Neal and, surprisingly, beloved Roger Corman repertory player Dick Miller. Trivas died in New York City in 1970, at the age of 73.

The English version of The Head is considered to be a public domain title and has been available from Alpha Video, Sinister Cinema and other PD sources. This version was modestly recut to create a new main title sequence and to remove certain erotic elements unwelcome to its target audience in 1961. Happily, a hybrid edition – which, in a fitting fate, grafts the English dub onto the original uncut version from Germany – was recently made available for viewing on YouTube.

In the immediate wake of The Head, producer Wolf C. Hartwig pushed another erotic horror film into production, Ein Töter hing in Netz (“A Corpse Hangs in the Web,” 1960). Scripted and directed by Fritz Böttger, the film (Böttger’s last as a director) was first released in America as It’s Hot In Paradise (1962), sold as a girlie picture with absolutely no indication of its horror content. It was later reissued in 1965 as Horrors of Spider Island (1965). Under any of its titles, the film is notably lacking all of the artistic and aesthetic pedigree that made its predecessor so special and, indeed, influential.

Sixty years further on, The Head warrants fuller recognition as a spearhead of that magic moment on the threshold of the 1960s when so-called “art cinema” began to be fused with so-called “trash cinema,” leading to a broader, wilder, more adult fantastique.

by Tim Lucas

[1] Victor Trivas’ Niemandsland may be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-4XhNMWoyw

[2] Rapid-Film’s later successes would include the German film that was subsequently converted into Francis Ford Coppola’s directorial debut (The Bellboy and the Playgirls, 1962), Ernst Hofbauer’s Schoolgirl Report film series (1970-80), and Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron (1977).

[3] You can see Lasry-Baschet perform and be interviewed in a French newsreel from January 1961 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awaFd6gArLg&t=46s.

[4] Well, as “recent” as 1940, when footage of a supposedly successful Soviet resuscitation of a dog’s severed head was included in the grisly 20m documentary Experiments In the Revival of Organisms. The operation was performed (and repeated) by Doctors Sergei Brukhonenko and Boris Levinskovsky, making use of their “autojektor,” an artificial heart/lung machine not unlike the contraption seen in The Head. A close look at Experiments reveals that it really shows nothing that could not have been faked through means of special effects. (When George Bernard Shaw learned of the Soviet experiment, he’s said to have remarked, “"I am tempted to have my own head cut off so that I can continue to dictate plays and books without being bothered by illness, without having to dress and undress, without having to eat, without having anything else to do other than to produce masterpieces of dramatic art and literature.") Experiments In The Revival of Organisms has been uploaded to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap1co5ZZHYE.

[5] Rigby, Jonathan. Euro Horror: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema (London: Signum Books, 2017), p. 79.

[6] Joseph Green also worked in motion picture distribution and later formed Joseph Green Pictures, which specialized in spicy imported pictures, some from Germany. It’s possible that he saw the Trivas picture when it was still seeking distribution in the States. When Ostalgica Film released The Head on DVD in Germany under its Belgian reissue title Des Satans nackte Sklavin (“The Devil’s Naked Slave”), the disc included The Brain That Wouldn’t Die as a bonus co-feature.

[7] A fine quality homemade experiment, it runs 91 minutes 47 seconds and can be found at: The Head (Die Nackte und der Satan) 1959 Sci-Fi / Horror HQ version!.

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caveartfair · 5 years ago

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The Eccentric Cabinets of Curiosity That Captivated Renaissance Europe

Frans Francken the Younger, Chamber of Art and Curiosities, 1636. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Unicorn horns, mermaid skeletons, taxidermied animals, preserved plants, clocks, scientific instruments, celestial globes: These were the contents of the Wunderkammer, or cabinets of curiosities, that became fashionable throughout royal and aristocratic homes across Europe in the Renaissance and Baroque periods—a time in history when man aspired to know everything as the effects of worldwide exploration and scientific experimentation became more accessible.

Today, we use the term loosely to describe any fascinating or idiosyncratic accumulation of objects secreted away in boxes or behind closed doors. The Wunderkammer’s original definition in the Renaissance was more specific. It signified a diverse, carefully constructed collection of both art and natural and man-made oddities that embodied the era’s thirst for exploration and knowledge, and laid the groundwork for museums as we know them today.

Domenico Remps, Cabinet of Curiosities, ca. 1690. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Directly translated as “wonder chamber,” the word “Wunderkammer” first appeared in the mid-1500s, when Johannes Müller and Count Froben Christoph included it in their 1564–66 tome chronicling the lives of the noble Zimmern family. Simultaneously, in 1565, Samuel Van Quiccheberg penned what’s considered to be the inaugural guide to collecting, preservation, and display; he based the text on his experience as the scientific and artistic adviser to the Duke of Bavaria, whose Wunderkammer he helped amass.

According to Quiccheberg, their contents fell under a variety categories like artificialia, man-made antiquities and artworks; naturalia, plants, animals, and other items from nature; scientifica, scientific instruments; exotica, objects from distant lands; and mirabilia, a bucket term for other marvels that spark wonder.

Plucked from many corners of the globe, these objectsrepresented a vast swath of art, science, and mysticism—what Quiccheberg called a “theater of the world.” In the words of contemporary scholar Patrick Mauriès, the Wunderkammer attempted to capture “all knowledge, the whole cosmos arranged on shelves.” Some were as small as cabinet, others as vast as labyrinth of large rooms.

A Collection, 1619. Frans Francken the Younger "The Golden Cabinet. Royal Museum at the Rockox House" at KMSKA at the Museum Rockox House, Antwerp (2015)

While ferreting away strange and wondrous objects “had been part of human evolution since time immeasurable,” as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Wolfram Koeppe has pointed out, this process of collecting flourished during the Renaissance. The 13th-century invention of the compass and subsequent enhancements in cartography sparked an explosive period of exploration and global trade in the 1500s and 1600s. In this “Age of Exploration,” leaders across Italy, Spain, and England sent explorers around the globe to search for new territories and a deeper knowledge of the world.

At the same time, science became a defined discipline that sought to answer big questions about the earth, the heavens, and the human body. While the Catholic Church attempted to prohibit scientific research—a threat to the theories put forth in biblical texts—volumes detailing medical discoveries and the structure of the cosmos were being published in droves. Similarly, artists like Leonardo da Vinci eschewed religious subject matter in favor of representing the natural world and accurate human anatomy.

Engraving frm Ferrante Imperato, Dell’Historia Naturale, 1599. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Wunderkammer resulted from this voracious period of travel, colonization, and scientific and artistic development as a tool to explore and contemplate this growing cache of knowledge from the comfort of one’s own home. In his Naples abode, Italian aristocrat and apothecarian Ferrante Imperato assembled a dense, legendary Wunderkammer said to have boasted as many as 35,000 plant, animal, and mineral specimens.

Ferrante was also one of the first to depict a cabinet of curiosities, in the frontispiece of the 1599 catalogue of his collection, Dell’historia natural. The woodcut shows four pantalooned men surrounded by all manner of curiosities, carefully arranged in an intricate honeycomb of drawers, shelves, and display cases. The contents spill onto the ceiling, where a menagerie of stuffed fish, salamanders, and seashells are pinned strategically around what looks like his prized possession: a massive taxidermied alligator.

Renaissance Mortar, North Italian, probably Turin, ca 1560. Unknown Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Collections like these operated as an ordered microcosm of the wider world, as well as a platform for people of the Renaissance to satisfy their craving for wonder-inducing experiences. The Wunderkammer was not “an end in itself so much as a source of endless beginnings,” historian Earle Havens wrote, “a cabinet-sized microcosm of the endless, divinely created macrocosm whose wonders never cease.”

Most Wunderkammer, though, weren’t meant to be purely scientific—they were also places to explore personal tastes, indulge mysticism, and demonstrate power. Beyond objects extracted directly from nature, typical cabinets of curiosity contained sculptures, paintings, books, coins, medallions, precious gems, maps, and scientific instruments.

They also housed objects representing mysticism and the occult: stones said to be magical; horns supposedly belonging to unicorns; enchanted creatures meant to be mandrakes and mermaids (made by sewing together the torso of a monkey and the tail of a fish). “Every object offered an opportunity to tell a story about an epic adventure or, more often, to fabricate one,” wrote art historian Giovanni Aloi.

Wunderkammer II, 1998. Erik Desmazières Childs Gallery

The flexibility of the Wunderkammer to toggle between nature and art, between the real and the imagined, allowed collectors to present their own versions of the world, sometimes to their political advantage. Royal cabinets of curiosity were often situated near parade rooms, where they could be flaunted when important visitors—and rivals—came to call.

The breadth of a collection signified its owner’s intelligence, wealth, taste, and business prowess. “Standing at the center of this mini-universe and pointing at the objects to disclose their deepest secrets, collectors felt a sense of ease and mastery over a world that most often appeared too big, too confusing, and too inhospitable,” Aloi continued.

Emperor Rudolf II was known to possess eclectic collecting tastes, to say the least. If you had secured an invitation to his opulent Prague Castle in the late 1500s, you might have been treated to a tour of his cache of treasures, which contained everything from magical stones, celestial globes, and astrolabes to masterpieces by the likes of Albrecht Dürer, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and Titian. Rudolf II’s trove was renowned throughout Europe, hailed as the era’s most comprehensive and wondrous Wunderkammer.

Memento Mori Painting, Nuremberg-ca 1650. Daniel Preisler Kunstkammer Georg Laue

Gerhard Emmoser, Celestial globe with clockwork, 1579. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rudolf II showed off his treasures on a regular basis as a means of exercising soft power, but he also spent countless hours within it, poring over the world and its wonders. His multi-room cabinet of wonders, containing both natural oddities and artistic masterpieces, not only represented his own passions and power, but also “the broader scientific and artistic interests of the court,” as scholar Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann has noted.

The emperor’s heaping—albeit organized—Wunderkammer harnessed the tastes and cultural proclivities of his time. Based on personal tastes and the desire to harness and concentrate knowledge, this collection and other Wunderkammer went on to influence how both private and public collections would be organized in the future. But while the Wunderkammer made way for the encyclopedic collections of institutions like the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, they also emphasized a myopic European, moneyed perspective, which has only begun to be reassessed in the last several decades.

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