#Jay de Jesus

[jaywritesrps]

[until-i-set-him-free]

Jesus is queer and lives in Los Angeles

Footnote to Howl by Allen Ginsberg / Christ Displaying His Wounds by Giacomo Galli / 9-1-1 s2e16 "Bobby Begins Again" / 'stigmata' definition from Britannica / rumors about jesus by Keaton St. James

9-1-1 s2e12 "Chimney Begins" / The Entombment by Peter Paul Rubens (fragment) / trans jesus by Keaton St. James

9-1-1 s8e03 "Capsized" / a sticker I got with socio-cultural queer magazine in Poland / Bible / The Passion of the Christ (2004)

9-1-1 s7e03 "Capsized" / Jesus at the Gay Bar by Jay Humle

Hannibal s3e03 "Secondo" script / 9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / The Light of the World (St Paul's Cathedral version) by William Holman Hunt (fragment) + its Wikipedia

9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / the cover of Berek by Marcin Szczygielski / Angels in America by Tony Kushner / Most Sacred Heart of Jesus / Oh My Heart by R.E.M. / Pygmy Love Song by Francis Bebey

Christ in Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann / Goodtime Jesus by James Tate / 9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / Gethsemane by Dry the River

9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace) in Cochabamba, Bolivia / Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode / 9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" + Christ the Comforter by Carl Heinrich Bloch / God in Jeans by Ryan Beatty

9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" / Christ the Consoler by Kateryna Kariukova / Deathbed by Relient K

Hammer by Dry the River / 9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / Bible / 9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" / November by Keaton St. James

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg / 9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / 9-1-1 s7e10 "All Fall Down" / Making Pies by Patty Griffin / Touch Me from Spring Awakening (with a comment from Genius.com) / Footnote to Howl by Allen Ginsberg

[naxalite1967]

Some of my favorite quotes:

"While the state exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state." — Vladimir Lenin

"We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror." — Karl Marx

"When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." — Dom Hélder Câmara

"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." — Stephen Jay Gould

"They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?" — Fidel Castro

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another." — Mao Zedong

"Those who come with wheat, millet, corn or milk they are not helping us. Those who really want to help us can give us ploughs, tractors, fertilizer, insecticide, watering cans, drills, dams. That is how we would define food aid." — Thomas Sankara

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell." — Edward Abbey

"Colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is naked violence. And it only gives in when confronted with greater violence." — Frantz Fanon

"The reason Socialism never took root in America is because the oppressed masses don't see themselves as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." — John Steinbeck

"The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on earth." — Che Guevara

"No altar, no belief, no holy book... have ever been able to reconcile the rich and the poor, the exploiter and the exploited. And if Jesus himself had to take the whip to chase them from his temple, it is indeed because that is the only language they hear." — James Connolly

"We will turn our hearts into steel, which we will temper in the fire of suffering and the blood of fighters for freedom. We will make our hearts cruel, hard, and immovable, so that no mercy will enter them, and so that they will not quiver at the sight of a sea of enemy blood. We will let loose the floodgates of that sea." — Luis Felipe de la Fuente

"So I decided to become a midwife… I wanted to deliver a thousand babies. And as each one arrives, especially the little girls, I’ll be there first to whisper into her tender little ear: REBEL! REBEL!" — Emma Goldman

"All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self-justifying -- a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings, if only for an hour." — Howard Zinn

"The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them." — Carlos Fuentes

"Without authorities and specialists, everyone would be a hundred ways wiser. Without benevolence and righteousness, people would rediscover caring, the familial bond. Without power-schemes and profiteering there'd be no thugs and thieves." — Mikhail Bakunin

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now for you will be filled ... But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep." — Jesus Christ (from the Gospel of Luke)

"I dream of a society where I would be guillotined as a conservative." — Mikhail Bakunin

"To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt." — Peter Kropotkin

"We Live in Capitalism, it’s power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings." — Arundhati Roy

"Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God. Try it, if you don't believe it. Seek through the legislative halls of America and find, if you can, the Government. In the end you will be doomed to confer with the agent, as before." — William S. Burroughs

"With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." — Oscar Wilde

"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" — Martin Luther King Jr.

"You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere." — Ursula K. Le Guin

"Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread." — Louis Blanc

[sithwitch13]

In honor of Forbidden Door, I took some scans from the New Japan Academy manga to share with the class.

(What is New Japan Academy? It's a high school AU with Tetsuya Naito as the main character, but also focuses on his interactions with Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, and how the three of them refine their philosophies about pro-wrestling.)

Here's Naito, our POV Special Boy.

There are interviews in the back of both volumes, and in one the writer/artist, HIROKU, admits that he drew him as a shounen protagonist on purpose. Let's admire the insoucient swagger.

Next is Tanahashi, who acts as inspiration and a measuring stick for Naito.

He's always pretty, but he doesn't quite breast boobily enough. Except for maybe this panel. Here he is being flirted with by Okada, who is always portrayed as a pretty little shit with an oral fixation.

Except when he's being malicious and evil, like so:

Aww, look at him. So pretty and evil. This is why he and the Young Bucks are friends.

While the Bucks don't appear, guess who does? Kenny Omega shows up in volume 2!

He's only tangentially involved with Okada's story. But look how pretty he is! His hair has never looked so good.

And of course, we can't have Kenny without his precious: Kota Ibushi!

I feel like this manga captures the himbo essence very well. And of course, we get some relationship drama:

Yes, Kenny does call him "Ibu-tan" at one point.

No story about Naito can ignore Los Ingobernables de Japon. This lineup, which HIROKU laments has changed by the time of publication of volume 2, is EVIL, SANADA, Bushi, and Hiromu Takahashi.

They're just a bunch of little guys, especially Hiromu, who looks up to Naito and is the sweetest most chaotic little guy. In a back of volume interview, Naito compliments how adorable Hiromu was drawn and says his essence was really captures. I happen to agree.

And then, some familiar faces we'll see tonight (or have seen recently:)

Katsuyori Shibata, who looks like the coolest motherfucker! Tomohiro Ishii, who looks like he means business because he does! Shingo Takagi, who is just sort of like, "And I'm here, too!" And Jay White, who looks distinctly un-ferret-like and more resembles Angry Jesus, but he only shows up here so it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, it's a cute series and I don't think any more are planned, but I'd love to see a continuation once we have a few more years of story to cover.

Happy Forbidden Door!

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 29 June 1936, 100 Chicano mineworkers, including Jesus Pallares, were deported as "undesirable aliens" following a strike in Gallup, New Mexico. Pallares had helped organise 8,000 miners into the Liga Obrera de Habla Espanola (League of Spanish-Speaking Workers). In 1935, miners in Gallup, including League members, went on strike. To break the strike, martial law was declared for six months. Hundreds of miners and their families were evicted from their homes, two miners were killed by police and many others arrested, including Pallares, dozens of people were later deported from the United States. Read this and hundreds of other stories in our book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/working-class-history-everyday-acts-resistance-rebellion-book Pictured: Mural depicting the strike by Andrew Butler, photo by Jay Galvin https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=652721136901105&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[gayest-classiclit]

a list of people in the classic literature sexyperson bracket

the following are already on the sexypedia and automatically in:

hamlet, hamlet

atticus finch, to kill a mockingbird

rodion raskolnikov, crime and punishment

sherlock holmes, the sherlock holmes books

arsene lupin, the arsene lupin books

frankenstein's monster/adam, frankenstein

jonathan harker, dracula. (his wife mina is tagteaming w/ him)

gerald croft, an inspector calls

big brother, 1984

erik/the phantom, phantom of the opera

mercutio, romeo and juliet

and the following have been submitted:

inspector goole, an inspector calls

benedetto, the count of monte cristo

edmond dantes, the count of monte cristo

gaspard caderousse, the count of monte cristo

quincey morris, dracula

ivan karamazov, the brothers karamazov

anatole kuragin and helene bezukhova, war and peace

dmitri razumikhin, crime and punishment

nastasya filippovna, the idiot

jean valjean, les miserables

captain hook, peter pan

dorian gray and basil hallward, the picture of dorian gray

charles bingley, pride and prejudice

carmilla, carmilla

helen of troy, greek mythology

benedick and beatrice, much ado about nothing

irene adler, the sherlock holmes books

annabel lee, annabel lee

violacesario, twelfth night

clopin trouillefrou, the hunchback of notre dame

lady macbeth, macbeth

therem harth ir em estraven, the left hand of darkness

eugene onegin, eugene onegin

alyosha karamazov, the brothers karamazov

count dracula, dracula

jesus christ and judas iscariot, the bible

henry jekyll, the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde

cathy ames, east of eden

enjolras, les miserables

hotspur, henry iv part 1

balladyna, balladyna

jay gatsby and daisy buchanan, the great gatsby

ruy blas, ruy blas

grendel's mother, beowulf

gregor samsa, the metamorphosis (by proxy)

eugene de rastignac, the human comedy

chloe, froth on the daydream

the duke de nemours, la princess de cleves

emma bovary, madame bovary

behemoth, the master and margarita

grantaire, les miserables

jane bennet, pride and prejudice

catherine, wuthering heights

milady de winter, the three musketeers

mephistopheles, faust

woland, the master and margarita

medea, greek mythology

prince hal from the henriad

fitzwilliam darcy from pride and prejudice

the woman behind the wallpaper from the yellow wallpaper

don rodrigue from the folktales

robin hood from the folktales this brings us to 63 entries so far! :)

[burningexeter]

In the Where The Magic Happens Trilogy, there will be an entire collection that Charmcaster has hidden within her own lair of hundreds if not THOUSANDS of numerous objects and items from over multiple different kinds of media, all of this has been "collected" and hid away by Charmcaster herself and heavily implies a retroactive shared universe to show that there's WAY more to this world than what's going on in Bellwood.

Here's a fairly solid amount of all the aforementioned objects/items that will pop up in Charmcaster's collection which will be first discovered in the first show obviously by in this case Gwen who in sneaking into and through Charmcaster's lair, she accidentally stumbles upon it through its entrance by a macabre grandfather clock activated:

• Six keys that are filled with the blood of Jesus Christ during his crucifixion (Tales From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight)

• The frozen skeletal remains of a dragon discovered in the Carpathian Mountains (Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real)

• The Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra (The Mummy)

• The Peacock's Eye, the last two remaining Sankara Stones, the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol, the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, a wooden crate, on the side of which is stenciled, "Top Secret Army Intel 9906753 DO NOT OPEN!"; a corner of the crate appears to have been smashed and repaired, the Cross of Coronado, the False Grail, the Holy Grail, Francisco de Orellana's Death Mask and the Crystal Skull of Akator (Indiana Jones 1 - 4)

• A chunk of pure smoking hot evil (Time Bandits)

• A suit created by now deceased CEO Adrian Griffin that is comprised of several small cameras that make the wearer invisible (The Invisible Man)

• The remaining syringes filled with red serum (Overlord)

• A manuscript titled "Departure" written by a certain famous author (Alan Wake)

• Some of the treasure Sir Francis recovered and the three scrolls leading to them (The Adventures Of Tintin)

• The helmet and rocket pack of Cliff Secord (The Rocketeer)

• The Orb (The Venture Bros.)

• Several tapes belonging to Jay Merrick (Marble Hornets)

• A bauble with "Krampus" written on it and a couple of magical surveillance snow globes (Krampus)

• Hiccup Haddock's prosthetic leg and Valka Haddock's staff (How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy)

• The piano of Allerdale Hall (Crimson Peak)

• The Stone (The Secret Of NIMH)

• A book titled "The NeverEnding Story" (The NeverEnding Story)

• A VHS tape; the label reads only, "Copy" (The Ring)

• The control key (GoldenEye)

• A super awesome axe known as the Seperator (Brutal Legend)

• The shield of Perseus (Clash Of The Titans)

• The Witchblade (Witchblade)

• The Hogyoku (Bleach)

• A hunk of Australium (Team Fortress 2)

&

• The oscillation overthruster (The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension)

Just to name a mere few.

[mthguy]

“Empire State of Mind” - Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys

Yeah, I'm out that Brooklyn, now I'm down in Tribeca Right next to De Niro, but I'll be hood forever I'm the new Sinatra, and since I made it here I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere I used to cop in Harlem – hola, my Dominicanos (Dinero!) Right there up on Broadway, brought me back to that McDonald's Took it to my stash spot, 560 State Street Catch me in the kitchen, like a Simmons whipping pastry Cruising down 8th Street, off-white Lexus Driving so slow, but BK is from Texas Me? I'm out that Bed-Stuy, home of that boy Biggie Now I live on Billboard and I brought my boys with me Say what up to Ty Ty, still sipping Mai Tais Sitting courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high fives Nigga, I be spiked out, I could trip a referee Tell by my attitude that I'm most definitely from In New York (Ay, aha) (Uh, yeah) Concrete jungle (Yeah) where dreams are made of There's nothing you can't do (Yeah) (OK) Now you're in New York (Aha, aha, aha) (Uh, yeah) These streets will make you feel brand-new (New) Big lights will inspire you (Come on) (OK) Let's hear it for New York (You welcome, OG) (Uh) New York (Yeah), New York (Uh) (I made you hot, nigga) Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can You should know I bleed blue, but I ain't a Crip though But I got a gang of niggas walking with my clique though Welcome to the melting pot, corners where we're selling rock Africa Bambaataa shit, home of the hip-hop Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holler back For foreigners, it ain't fair, they act like they forgot how to add Eight million stories out there in the naked City, it's a pity half of y'all won't make it Me? I gotta plug Special Ed, "I Got It Made" If Jeezy's paying LeBron, I'm paying Dwyane Wade Three dice cee-lo, three-card Marley Labor Day Parade—rest in peace, Bob Marley Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade Long live the king, yo—I'm from the Empire State, that's In New York (Ay) (Uh, yeah) Concrete jungle where dreams are made of There's nothing you can't do (That boy good) (OK) Now you're in New York (Welcome to the bright lights, baby) (Uh, yeah) These streets will make you feel brand-new Big lights will inspire you (OK) Let's hear it for New York (Uh) New York (Yeah), New York (Uh) Lights is blinding, girls need blinders So they can step out of bounds quick, the side lines is Lined with casualties who sip the life casually Then gradually become worse – don't bite the apple, Eve! Caught up in the in-crowd, now you're in-style Into the winter gets cold, en vogue with your skin out City of sin is a pity on a whim Good girls gone bad, the city's filled with them Mami, took a bus trip, now she got her bust out Everybody ride her, just like a bus route "Hail Mary" to the city, you're a virgin And Jesus can't save you, life starts when the church end Came here for school, graduated to the high life Ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight MDMA got you feeling like a champion The city never sleeps, better slip you're a Ambien In New York (Ay, ow) (Uh, yeah) Concrete jungle where dreams are made of There's nothing you can't do (OK) Now you're in New York (Uh, yeah) These streets will make you feel brand-new Big lights will inspire you (OK) Let's hear it for New York (Uh) New York (Yeah), New York (Uh) One hand in the air for the big city (Oh) Street lights, big dreams, all looking pretty (Oh) No place in the world that could compare (Nah) Put your lighters in the air, everybody say "Yeah, yeah" (Come on, come on) "Yeah, yeah" (Come on) In New York (Uh, yeah) Concrete jungle where dreams are made of There's nothing you can't do (OK) Now you're in New York (Uh, yeah) These streets will make you feel brand-new Big lights will inspire you (OK) Let's hear it for New York (Uh) New York (Yeah), New York (Uh)

[frenchiefitzhere]

Do you have a favourite piece of art? What about it attracts your eyes to it?

There are a few that came to mind. One is The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and John the Baptist by Leonardo DaVinci. (I have a print of it hanging in my living room that I picked up at the National Gallery in London.) I don't talk about it much on Tumblr, but I'm pretty religious, so it means something to me in that respect, and I've always been drawn to images that refer to Jesus's humanity. I also love Auguste Rodin. The Gates of Hell will always be impressive to me just for the sheer amount of work that went into it, but I really, really love La Cathédrale because it's the kind of smaller piece that can just grab you as you're passing by in a museum. And the Musée Rodin in Paris is one of my favorite museums. Other sculptures I like include Apollo and Daphne by Bernini at the Galleria Borghese because the movement in it is just breathtaking. And Jean de La Fontaine in the Louvre is quirky and adorable and I think it's fun how many animals were worked into the sculpture. There's also a piece by Jay DeFeo that I won't list specifically by name because it would pretty much dox me, but I will always go out of my way to look at it again given the chance. My actual favorite piece is also one that I can't share for fearing of doxing myself because it's by my cousin who passed away. It's a black and white etching that I will always love because it's beautiful and grotesque, which is something he always balanced so well in his art. My printmaker cousin actually inspired my purchase of this piece (painted woodcut) from a little gallery in Ketchikan, Alaska: Owl Looking Out Over the Land by Karen Olanna , which I wanted because I've gotten to the point in my life that when I travel, I don't want to buy a bunch of dumb shit souvenirs that will end up in the trash someday: I'd rather invest in one thing that's truly unique. I love how the animals form the coast of the Pacific Northwest and, again, it's amazing to me how so much movement happens in a static piece of art. And the colors are doing their thing, too.

P.S. Also: everything anyone has ever made me as a commission or a gift or as fanart 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[jaywritesrps]

[sunshyni]

engraçado que eu sinto que tenho tanto pra falar do sunwoo, mas acabo não sabendo o que falar só sentir jhjhaskdlka

mas assim, pra mim o sunwoo eh um cara apaixonante. o que eu mais gosto dele é que ele é muito seguro de si e sabe muito claramente o que quer e pra qual caminho quer ir, o que atura e o que não atura de jeito nenhum. muito assertivo nas decisões e sinto que ele passa esse ensinamento para as deobis nas palavras. ele eh um mel com as fãs, sério, a coisa mais fofa, muito direto sobre os sentimentos dele tbm, sempre agradecendo e dizendo coisas lindas e mto sábias. (eu acho ele muito cabeça pra idade dele serio é admirável).

pra mim ele nasceu pra ser admirado, ele tem muito uma aura muito magnética.

um rapper e um idol no geral super versátil e carismático. compõe mto bem, dança mto bem, expressões maravilhosas, as vezes canta tb...

eh >muito< engraçado, >muito< chavequeiro, ele flerta MUITO com o fandom e ele SABE o que tá fazendo. tem aquela energia de moleque arteiro do fundão mas que eh genuinamente legal e engraçado e não forçado sabe? ele ama pentelhar os meninos do grupo inclusive kkk (bem energia de gabriel que na minha mente eh o nome perfeito pra persona brasileira dele hehehe).

falando em brasileiro, ele gosta de futebol, jogava na escola e tal e tem um meme no fandom mto bom que eu racho de rir que eh um gif dele se transformando no gabriel jesus pq eles estranhamente se parecem fisicamente kjhkjahjahja

eu amo o fato de que ele lembra tudo que eh redondinho por causa dos olhos grandões dele e do formato do rosto (amo que tem gente no fandom que chama ele de brigadeiro😭) . e mta gente fala que ele parece um guaxinim tb kajdddjk

enfim, um asiático doce de respeito ele, amo demais da conta.

Começando com: ELE É O CARINHA DO HI!!! 👋 MY NAME IS WHAT U WANT IT TO 😳😳

São 6 da matina e já fazem meia hora que estou aqui assistindo vídeos no tkk deste homem KKKKKKKKKK

Ele me lembra mtas músicas do khh, masss vi um edit dele com limousine do Jay Park e achei tãooo eleee 🤭🤭

REALMENTE, MTO XAVEQUEIRO E SEGURO DE SI!!! EU AMEIII ISSOOO 🤭🤭 Geralmente eu me atraio por idol, sla deve ser algo que falta em mim, daí eu procuro neles KKKKKKKKKKK

Enfim, o meme do Gabriel Jesus KKKKKKKKKKK Me rachei, slkkk KKKKKKKK

Obrigada por toda essa descrição, eu amei ele 😭😭

[theveriest]

A couple of weeks ago I asked about people’s favorite book or books they read this year. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and discord, I have a list of 123 books in no particular order that my friends and family loved this year. If it was a series then I listed the first book. Each star is an additional recommendation. I haven’t read all of these, they may or may not reflect my personal opinions, though my favorite books are on the list too. The most recommended books were How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler, one or all of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells, and Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, because if there’s one thing my friends have in common across platforms, it’s that you’re all nerds (affectionate). Enjoy, and I hope you find your new favorite book!

Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming

Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes de Mez

The Soul Of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder

The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

My Hijacking by Martha Hodes

Longhand by Andy Hamilton

Babel by RF Kuang*

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff*

Lies We Sing To The Sea by Sarah Underwood

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone

I Lost My Tooth! by Mo Willems

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler**

Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora

The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett*

I’m Stuck by Julia Mills

Entangled Life by Martin Sheldrake

Iris by Eden Finley

Hot Vampire Next Door by Nikki St. Crowe

Devil of Dublin by BB Easton

Tied by Carian Cole

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld*

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

From Blood And Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Where I End by Sophie White

Wool by Hugh Howey

The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

Yellowface by RF Kuang

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

North Woods by Daniel Mason

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin*

The Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera

The English Understand Wool by Helen Dewitt

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Love In The Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa*

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Prophet by Sin Blache and Helen MacDonald*

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki**

System Collapse by Martha Wells***

The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine*

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

A Psalm For The Wild Built by Becky Chambers*

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

The Lazarus Heist by Geoff White

The September House by Carissa Orlando*

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Mistletoe and Mishigas by MA Wardell

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

The Last Smile In Sunder City by Luke Arnold

The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoe Playden

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Manywhere by Morgan Thomas

Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

Loot by Tania James

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

All Systems Read by Martha Wells

The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner*

The Door by Magda Szabo

Fluids by May Leitz

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Lieut. John Irving, R.N. of H.M.S. "Terror" in Sir John Franklin's last expedition to the Arctic regions a memorial sketch with letters

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Raven the Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Slewfoot by Brom

The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr

500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

The Secret Lives of Country Gentleman by KJ Charles

A Line In The World by Dorthe Nors

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Glitter and Concrete by Elyssa Maxx Goodman

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

The Tragic Menagerie by Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal (translated by Jane Costlow)

The 100 Years Of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Precise Oaths by Paige E. Ewing

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

A Dead Djinn In Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

[xpuigc-bloc]

Carla Jay Harris

The Wata

2023

Courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Murder is Immoral,

God or No God

Stephen Jay Morris

6/15/2024

©Scientific Morality

Laws are made either by authoritarian dictates or democratic consensus. If anybody tells you that the only legitimate law maker is God, they are suffering from some mental disorder, like covert narcissistic personality disorder. Most dictators will tell you they know what is best for everyone. Do they? Fuck no, they don’t! Like for many people, their egos lie to them.

Nowadays, you hear the phrase, “strong man.” Being insensitive is the zenith of manhood. Being authoritarian will get things done. Those who are intransigent to that fallacy always find out, sooner or later, that the emperor has no clothes. That’s right! Americans found out that Donald Trump, who was president of the U.S. for four years, was not a macho man, but a pussy! I might remind you that God would never send an obnoxious asshole to earth to redeem the sins of man. If so, he would have sent Don Rickles instead of Jesus to save humanity.

Most Americans have fantasies of a superhero saving the world. Trump is so fat that he could never get into a Superman outfit! I’ve got sad news for you: no hero or God is going to save you. The only thing that can save the world is solidarity of its people. No matter what that hag, Ayn Rand said, humans helping humans is a virtue. Attempting to help yourself while you are having a heart attack is not noble, but outright stupid. Get some help! Call 911, knucklehead! 

When I was 13 years old, that was an age of discovery for me. I was introduced to all sorts of new things I’d never conceived. Everything was exciting and challenging. I was never judged by a prime minister who was worried that I would join the Communist Party. What do I mean? Imagine, at 13, you were killed by an Israeli soldier because the Likud Party saw you as a rodent that must be exterminated. You were only 13 years old! You were killed because of the fears of a superstitious nationalist! Were you later proven to be a potential terrorist who would join Hamas?  There was no evidence to support that! Or, BAM! A building falls on your head. It’s all over for you! Is it righteous to kill anyone in your way for the reason of self-defense? That’s not being strong. That is being an obnoxious bully! What about shooting a gun, or punching someone in the mouth? No, no, a million times no! You want to know what being strong is? During the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, non-violent protestors were instructed not to physically resist. Even if a cop was beating you with a Billy club, you were to let the blood flow. Are you strong enough to do that? Only cowards use guns and other weapons.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to end up like the Afrikaner president F.W. de Klerk, a disgraced leader who is now forgotten. South Africa was Israel’s biggest ally. They learned about Apartheid from White South Africans. Never befriend a devil or you will burn like him in hell!

Is it all right to kill someone because God told you to do it? Is that moral? First, no one has established the fact that God exists. Did God give you a permission notice? Why would God do that anyway, since he is, allegedly, the all-powerful being in the universe? What?! God is testing your loyalty to him? I thought God could read your mind. I don’t know if God is allowed to kill, but murder is grand theft. Wasn’t it God who said, ���Thou shalt not steal”? What Israel is doing to the people of Gaza is immoral!

Funny, you never see the word, “moral” in the Bible. As far as the etymonline of the word “moral” goes, it didn’t appear until 1752 in France. So, there is no such thing as morality in the Bible.

In the final analysis, Netanyahu can reference the Bible all he wants, but what he is doing is illegal and evil.

[dweemeister]

The Robe (1953)

Henry Koster’s The Robe, distributed by 20th Century Fox, appeared near the beginning of an era where religious epics and sword-and-sandal films became massive box office draws worldwide. Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) and Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo Vadis (1951) had already laid the foundation on which Koster’s film, adapting Lloyd C. Douglas’ novel of the same name, would find its success. Despite The Robe being highly influential in Hollywood and becoming the highest-grossing film of 1953, the likes of DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956) and William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) overtook it artistically and financially – no shame there, as those are two far superior films.

So what is The Robe’s claim to movie history beyond its initial theatrical earnings? When The Robe first came to theaters, 20th Century Fox advertised it as the first film ever made in CinemaScope. Created by Fox’s president, Spyros P. Skouras, CinemaScope was a format in which a widescreen camera lens contracted its widescreen shots onto regular 35mm film and, during theatrical projection, another lens would de-contract the image from the 35mm film in order to project a widescreen format. Theaters would only need to make minor, inexpensive modifications to their projectors in order to show a film in true CinemaScope, a 2:55:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Almost all other films were shot in the Academy ratio at the time (1.37:1, close to the 4:3 ratio – think: black bars on the left- and right-hand sides of a widescreen monitor – seen on many older standard computer monitors and televisions). With increasing competition from television, Fox executives believed CinemaScope could be a way to lure audiences back into theaters. Despite this overreaction from Fox’s executives (as well as the other major Hollywood studios), the legacy of CinemaScope’s innovation is still apparent today. Seven decades later, widescreen formats, not the Academy ratio, are the default in film and television.

Walking through the markets of Rome, returning Roman Empire tribune Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) reunites with his childhood sweetheart, Diana (Jean Simmons), who is now promised to Marcellus’ rival, Caligula (an always-sneering Jay Robison). Not long after, Marcellus – out of pettiness rather than financial sense – outbids Caligula for the Greek slave, Demetrius (Victor Mature). Marcellus immediately frees Demetrius, but Demetrius thinks of himself as honor-bound to stay by Marcellus. Elsewhere, an incensed Caligula reassigns Marcellus to Palestine – which, to the film’s Roman characters, might as well be the armpit of the Roman Empire. Marcellus and Demetrius go to Jerusalem, where they witness a man named Jesus enter the city, heralded by crowds of Jews greeting him with palms. Several days later, Judean Governor Pontius Pilate (Richard Boone) orders Marcellus to crucify Jesus on Calvary. Marcellus executes the order but, during and after the crucifixion, witnesses and experiences supernatural events. Demetrius, who has become a follower of Jesus during that week, obeys Marcellus when he asks him to fetch Jesus’ robe. The moment Marcellus dons the robe, he suffers something like a seizure. He falls out with Demetrius, and spends the rest of the film reckoning with his conscience over his role in Jesus’ crucifixion.

The film also stars Michael Rennie as Peter, Dean Jagger as Justus, Torin Thatcher as Senator Gallio, and Ernest Thesiger as Emperor Tiberius. Michael Ansara and Donald C. Klune are both uncredited as Judas Iscariot and Jesus, respectively.

The Robe has the misfortune of peaking in the first half. The adapted screenplay from Gina Kaus (1949’s The Red Danube), Albert Maltz (one of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten; 1950’s Broken Arrow), and Philip Dunne (1941’s How Green Was My Valley) is at its most interesting whenever Marcellus and Demetrius find themselves at odds with the other. In the scenes they share together, that happens often. But when Demetrius disappears after their disagreement over Jesus’ robe midway through, the film begins to sag with no foil for Burton to play off of.

For the entirety of this film, Richard Burton’s acting is overwrought. Burton, who had just arrived in Hollywood the year before to star in My Cousin Rachel (1952), is leaning too deeply into his theatrical roots here. His grandiose exclamations, stiff facial acting, and inconsistent line delivery result in a performance that is easily the weakest part of this film (Jean Simmons is also guilty, to a far lesser degree, of these same flaws in her performance). The Robe requires Burton’s Marcellus to undergo a spiritual conversion – becoming an adherent of Jesus despite following orders to crucify him, a developmental arc more dramatic than any other character’s in this film. Burton’s inability to convincingly sell this conversion (the stoic masculine tension, which some will interpret as coded homosexuality, between Burton’s Marcellus and Mature’s Demetrius does not help) weakens the film’s spiritual power.

Instead, it is Mature who is The Robe’s reliable scene-stealer. Mature, at one time likened to a “miniature Johnny Weissmuller”, has the classical Greek physique that, frankly, Burton does not. And in contrast to Burton at this time in their careers, Mature was more capable of a nuanced performance, as evidenced in his roles as Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine (1946) and Nick Bianco in Kiss of Death (1947). As Demetrius, his soul hardened through his enslavement, there remains hope for a life free from the yoke of the Roman Empire and its callous slave masters. One sees it in his face during Holy Week, culminating with seeing Jesus dying on the cross. His faith is there, too, during a torture scene upon his return to Rome and an encounter with Peter. Amid miracles and cruelties, Mature’s Demetrius is simply the most compelling character of The Robe and the viewer – through Mature’s performance, especially in contrast to those of Jean Simmons and Richard Burton’s – can discern his genuine turn of faith. The Robe’s failure to showcase this inner awakening more believably is the fault of its two central actors and its screenplay; Mature’s performance and Demetrius’ characterization are all that saves the narrative.

One aspect of Christianity that The Robe captures confusingly (and oxymoronically) is the insignificance of Judea and the prominence of early Christianity in Rome in the time immediately following Jesus’ crucifixion. Oftentimes in Biblical epics, Judea is a centerpiece of the Roman Empire when, in truth (and in The Robe), it was a relative backwater. By Caligula’s reign between 37 and 41 CE, Christianity almost certainly would not have had a substantial presence in Rome at that time. So while Caligula would probably see Christianity as a threat, the film’s decision to treat the early Christians as a clear and present danger to his rule and the Roman state religion is the film’s glaring historical inaccuracy. The Robe – the book and the film – muddies the timeline from Jesus’ crucifixion to the film’s final scene in Caligula’s court. The relative suddenness of the Roman Empire seeing the early Christians as a very minor cult into becoming an Empire-wide menace is difficult to reconcile.

With few other post-silent film era Biblical epics as a guide, The Robe helps set the aesthetic of its fellow Biblical epics and sword-and-sandals movies going forward through its costumes and production design. The work of costume designers Charles LeMaire (1950’s All About Eve, 1956’s Carousel) and Emile Santiago (1952’s Androcles and the Lion, 1958’s The Big Country) is resplendent, regardless of either the Roman or Judean setting. Art directors Lyle R. Wheeler (1939’s Gone with the Wind, 1956’s The King and I) and George Davis (All About Eve, 1963’s How the West Was Won) and set decorators Walter M. Scott (All About Eve, 1965’s The Sound of Music) and Paul S. Fox (The King and I, 1963’s Cleopatra) all make full use of the CinemaScope format and color to enliven the scenery – a sumptuous visual treat for the viewer, and, to reiterate, setting a standard that the crew of The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur both would study and surpass.

Of all of 20th Century Fox contracted stalwarts behind the camera, composer Alfred Newman was the studio’s most important figure. If Fox’s executives needed a composer to craft a score for what they would consider would be their prestige motion picture of the year, Newman – who composed the original 20th Century Fox fanfare and its CinemaScope extension (the extension, which is now inextricable from the fanfare, was first introduced in 1954’s River of No Return) – was almost always their first choice.

In one of Newman’s finest scores of his career, it is his choral compositions, with incredible help from his longtime choral supervisor Ken Darby, that form the score’s emotive spine. Jesus’ motif, shared between wordless choir and strings, appears almost immediately, in the opening seconds of the “Prelude”. During the many invocations of a Messiah before Jesus’ first physical appearance in The Robe, his motif shifts, changes form, and modulates – imparting not spiritual comfort or devotion, but a mysteriousness and otherworldliness. When Jesus (whose face we never see) first appears in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the cue “Passover/Palm Sunday” represents one of the rare juxtapositions of the brass-heavy martial music representing the Roman presence in Judea and Jesus himself. The modulation to a major key at 1:22 in this cue, with festive percussion, also includes one of the only instances of celebratory choral music in the score. Jesus’ motif in “Passover/Palm Sunday”, appears at 2:26 – cementing his (and Christianity’s) association with the cue, and appearing as the only instance in which one might consider this motif triumphant.

Choruses, which Western viewers so often associate in religious movies as angelic musical devices, become mournful in “The Crucifixion” – arguably the standout cue of Newman’s score. Even though one might be well aware of Jesus’ death and can anticipate a turn in the music (starting moments earlier in “The Carriage of the Cross”), it is startling to hear Newman’s composition change so rapidly. But it is in these several minutes depicting Jesus’ final moments that Newman, with modifications to his harmonies and orchestration, transforms Jesus’ motif to evoke its tragic dimensions. It is magnificent scoring from Newman, and this is not even mentioning his wonderful demarcation of Roman and Judean identities through his score.

In a film about faith – how it comforts, destroys, heals, and vexes – one wishes that the characterization of The Robe’s supposed lead characters in Marcellus and Diana could feel more plausible. The film’s final scene, possibly allegorizing of screenwriter Albert Maltz’s travails as a blacklisted figure in Hollywood, is decently powerful, but it needs far more storytelling support from numerous scenes preceding it.

As it is, the film’s expressive power lies within Demetrius and Victor Mature’s performance. So how fortunate that, because Fox also wanted to make a sequel to The Robe even before it finished production, Mature also signed a contract to appear in a sequel. Nine months after The Robe made its theatrical debut, Victor Mature starred in Demetrius and the Gladiators, directed by Delmer Daves and also seeing Michael Rennie and Jay Robinson reprise their roles as Peter and Caligula, respectively. Though it did not top the box office for that year like The Robe did, Demetrius and the Gladiators was a financial boon for Fox.

With Hollywood’s major studios always ready to respond to the box office successes of their rivals, The Robe helped make possible the decade of Biblical and sword-and-sandals epics to come – and the required viewings for many a Sunday School student in the years hence. These films were Studio System Hollywood in full maximalism, adopting human and tactile scales seldom seen today.

Yet outside of churchgoers, The Robe – for its CinemaScope and genre-specific innovations – has seen its standing slip gradually over the years, no thanks to the reputations of better movies of this tradition and, regrettably, decisions to keep 20th Century Fox’s valuable past under lock and key. 20th Century Fox’s refusal to distribute their classic films more often and more widely – before and after the studio’s 2019 takeover by the Walt Disney Company (and post-takeover, I believe the situation is now worse) – is resulting in films like The Robe slip through the proverbial cracks of film history, sights unseen for younger film buffs. That is unfortunate, especially as The Robe, almost incidentally (and no matter my aforementioned criticisms of the work itself), continues to quietly wield, by virtue of being the first CinemaScope film, a remarkable influence over cinema worldwide.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.