#Periodic Tales

[pageadaytale]

BOOK REVIEW - Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

In secondary school, being the nerd I am, I attempted to memorise the entire Periodic Table in my GCSE year. I managed to get most of the first row (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, nitrogen, Oxygen... uhhhhh, Neon?) before I gave up and contented myself with learning all the lyrics to songs by The Divine Comedy, which was surely a much better use of my time.

I was never accomplished at Chemistry, and in GCSE year especially - when it became about titration and maths, and I didn't and still don't entirely understand what moles are (the chemical unit, not the animal) - I was struggling, so knowing the elements felt like some aspect of the class that I could control. It didn't help, and as noted I didn't get far, but elemental discovery is still an aspect of chemistry and chemical history which fascinates me.

Periodic Tales, then! Of the two books I read last month, it's the heavyweight - nearly 400 pages of chemical elements, science experiments, and wild anecdotes from Hugh Aldersey-Williams, whose love of science extends to his early childhood. And yet it's an easier read, being less an academic text and more a pop-sci book examining the untold stories of the elements. Aldersey-Williams does a great job keeping it entertaining, and keeping it light, although this does have the effect of feeling like he skips over some of the darker tones surrounding, say, Radium, or Phosphorous (we'll hear about Radium more later this year, as I get into The Radium Girls). To his credit, the Radium Girls do get the best part of a paragraph, and Chlorine gets points for having its main story be devoted to the use of Chlorine Gas in the First World War.

So dark stories, not always well told. But his style is affable and readerly, and his focus on the brighter periods makes the early passages more compelling. He takes us on a journey, through the days of alchemy and philosophy as we start with gold and silver, before dipping into Mercury's strange properties and history in the movies; then we voyage into early chemistry as a science with sulphur, phosphorus, and Radium; onto the modern age with Zinc, Copper, and Lead; we detour to the history of gems and the fashion-turned-excess of chrome and neon; before finally stopping in Sweden, where Aldersey-Williams gives us a historical tour of the Rare Earth Metals through one particular mine in Ytterby.

I've left out a lot, naturally, and what I've mentioned is so much more detailed. There's a rich history to each element, and Hugh Aldersey-Williams takes us through each one in entertaining, if rather brisk, style. His sections on the elements are short enough each to be an easy read, though you may feel your eyes glazing over as you realise you're spending the final chapter in one small Swedish town, and for the most part the stories he picks to tell - and the experiments he carries out to secure his own copies of each element - are engaging and edifying. If I have any gripes, it's the length combined with some jumping around in history, which can make tracking names and places confusing. I might have preferred a timeline of elements, rather than the mostly-sensible grouping we get.

But all this is not to discourage you. I found it an excellent commuting book, taking it on the train. There were a couple of areas which were too long by a couple of pages for the journey, but overall it's an engaging read which works well when you can take breaks between chunks to digest what you've learned.

[nordidia]

raphie doodles from a rage filled day

(first one is the only kinda /srs one, u can laugh i promise bc if this wasnt me i'd laugh my ass off /pos) i had to project. also i love my friends sorry i yelled at yall xx

just period thingz... surely it has nothing to do with my genuine anger issues. no its just all hormones i promise guys. trust.

its a little pathetic i was genuinely warm inside and inches away from trashing my desk for ZERO FUCKING REASON. WHY?!?! WHAT THE FUCKAEHNGHJSDAGHAH send me to hell im begging

that second panel is something i actually do irl to iben when i need him to stfu so fucking immediately and he has dubbed it "the jojo stare" and its so fucking funny until i need him to stfu so fucking immediately (he drew this one time when i did it at him)

[periodcostumefantasylover]

Ravenna's white golden dress & circlet in Snow White & The Huntsman in 4k

[sciderman]

the mcrib is back

[duckdodger]

btw I did these mm klunk & mikey doodles . The cure to all my problems .

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

玫瑰的故事 mei gui de gu shi (the tale of rose)

[moliathh]

the scorpion and the frog

[pemberlaey]

if anybody cares my essay on may welland / the systemic infantilization of young women in old new york high society was finally published <3

[thosetrollkids]

MONSTOBER: DESIGNS

Part 1: Teen Cast!

HELLOOOOO everybody! Welcome to my project, Monstober! A series of several posts with large, in depth looks at different aspects of my AU, Monster Kids, that I wrote during October this year. Special thanks to @eurazba for listening to me ramble over all this and helping with the AU over the years <3

This post will be going over the general monster designs for notable teen characters, as well as some thoughts as to why I chose said designs :D

There will be a second post for the main adult cast, and once posted, you can find it linked here :)

Jim / Toby / Claire

Jim Lake Jr (Sphinx): It's him! The poster boy! Wahoo! Honestly, I don't have many notes for his design process, because his design has stayed relatively similar since the early drafts. His was the very first design, and other than being a typical lion/eagle sphinx for like. two drawings, and then a panther/blackbird for two more, once the snow leopard/blue jay combo was struck, he's only really changed in small ways. I chose a blue jay, because they're one of my favorite birds, they're blue, and I'd used them to be an accent to Jim in a previous drawing. Snow leopards are also my favorite big cat! So similar reasoning for that particular aspect. If I were to design him today, blank slate, I miiiight have changed his cat species, but I still am way too attached to the leopard/jay combo.

Toby Domzalski (Gargoyle): Toby's design also hasn't changed much! The main trio haven't, other than minor adjustments. He originally had yellow eyes, but they're back to standard green. He also used to have larger wings, and while I liked the idea of the main three being able to fly together, I decided to go with a different route as I leaned into his design looking more aquatic, and he instead has wing shaped back fins! They fold down and sit under his clothes, as he only really can use them while swimming.

Claire Nuñez (Harpy) Also another design I haven't changed since conception! Harpies were always something cool to me, and I was inspired by an illustration of harpies in a mythology book I had bought at the time. Her design was originally just 'bird' until I tired to find a more specific species that fit. I landed on barn owls, and coincidentally, they are also associated with brujeria/witchcraft in Mexico! Win-win. With her stronger connection to magic overall, she's also the only member of Team Trollhunter that can fly reliably; her magic feeds her energy enough to keep in the air (Jim's wings are too small for anything besides light gliding and cushioning falls).

Steve / Eli / Krel / Aja

Steve Palchuk (Faun): Steve's design was always pretty formed in my head. For the guy that tries so very hard to be an all-American boy, an icon of that is the whitetail deer buck, and it very quickly fell into place! His design is fairly simple, which is why it works so well for him, IMO. Fun fact, he has a set of scars on his cheek from the equivalent of the fight he had with Jim in S1. More to expand on in a later comic, >:3c

Eli Pepperjack (Bat Humanoid): Eli was actually also a sphinx originally, but I wanted Jim to stay fairly unique among the main teens, so my follow up design was something more batlike! I did do plenty of research for monster bats, or hybrid bat monsters, but what research I could do didn't produce much (then again, could always be wrong!), so I went with 'attributes'. He's based on a Little Brown Bat. He little >:) His wings are also not capable of flight, they're basically large hands, all the better to hunt down creepers with, my dear.

Krel & Aja Tarron (Amphibious humanoids): WAHOOOOO!!!! I'm very proud of these, because you have NO IDEA how many months I struggled to find a design I liked for them. They have been (checks notes) spidertaurs, a few other passes of various insectoid tries, I was going to attempt something more seal like, because I knew the main group's designs were already mammal-heavy, and something aquatic or insectoid was what I wanted to balance the group out. Then my beloved @eurazba, listening to me ramble one night, helped me come to the idea of their 'human' transductions looking closer to old monster movies! Creature from Black Lagoon was an easy pick, I did some research about CFBL and Shape of Water (thanks Del Toro), and bada bing, bada boom! My fishy twins! Also Krel is the only one wearing shoes. Just realized this...

Mary / Darci / Shannon

Mary Wang (Dryad): Mary has also gone through a lot of changes (turns out, I was very indecisive outside of the main trio, AJDJSBSJFHB). She was actually a -taur alongside Darci! Specifically a unitaur (saw a lot of alternate Monster Falls art of Mabel Pines as one, and I really liked the idea. The overall AU was inspired by the Gravity Falls AU, now you know!) She stayed that for a while, then also went through some bug-like redesigns, and then a couple months back, I decided on a dryad! Before that point, I was trying to stay strictly to animalistic monster designs, but it became a little too confining, so she exploded into my sketchbook and became real. Her tree is a california redbud, and her 'antlers' are like the branches of the tree, and leaves/flowers bloom in time with the season on them. The hooves were based on a Zelda design from an artist I liked a lot (truffe.art on IG!)

Darci Scott (Praying Mantis-taur): HERE COMES THE BUG PAYOFF. Some of you may remember my design for Darci hasn't changed for quite some time, and while I liked the look of the cervitaur (a centaur, but deer), it didn't feel... as unique as I wanted? And I was still missing my BUG. So, debating over this, I did a few passes of her mixed with a bee, spider, etc etc... and then once again, @eurazba was like "hey! praying mantis." and I fell in LOVE with the concept. (Very quickly sketched her up as I was doing these sheets, actually NDJSNJKJD)

Shannon Longhannon (Gorgon): Last design of the group, another that has hardly changed since conception. Nagas, gorgons, lamias- whatever they're called, I love the visual of a reptilian character slinking around gracefully, and she helped balance out all the mammalian designs as well. She was originally a typical green/yellow snake, but when I inevitably color her, I picture something more ruddy, reddish brown, to match her hair :) She indeed is able to turn someone to stone, but as she was not born a gorgon, this ability is dulled, and only lasts for a few hours, working only if she focuses completely on doing so to someone. She's taken to wearing shades more often to not scare people who don't know this.

[internationalemeteorologie]

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Untitled series of the Kanadehon Chûshingura performed by bats, acts 1 to 6, published ca. 1847 by Ibaya Senzaburo

[periodcostumefantasylover]

Ravenna's black skull dress in 4k

[chthonic-cassandra]

The marvels and prodigies, the seven-league boots and enchanted mirrors, the talking animals [...] the stars on the brow of the good sister and the donkeytail sprouting on the brow of the bad - all the wonders that create the atmosphere of the fairy tale disrupt the apprehensible world in order to open spaces for dreaming alternatives. The verb 'to wonder' communicates the receptive state of marvelling as well as the active desire to know, to inquire, and as such it defines very well at least two characteristics of the traditional fairy tale: pleasure in the fantastic, curiosity about the real. The dimension of wonder creates a huge theatre of possibility in the futures: anything can happen. This very boundlessness serves the moral purpose of the tales, which is precisely to teach where boundaries lie. The dreaming gives pleasure in its own right, but it also represents a practical dimension to the imagination, an aspect of the faculty of thought, and can unlock social and public possibilities. [...] The enchantments also universalize the narrative setting, encipher concerns, beliefs and desires in brilliant, seductive images that are themselves a form of camouflage, making it possible to utter hard truths, to say what you dare. The disregard for logic, all those fairy tale non-sequiturs and improbable reversals, rarely encompasses the emotional conflicts themselves: hatred, jealousy, kindness, cherishing retain an intense integrity throughout. The double vision of the tales, on the one hand charting perennial drives and terrors, both conscious and unconscious, and on the other mapping actual, volatile experience, gives the genre its fascination and power to satisfy. At the same time, uncovering the context of the tales, their relation to society and history, can yield more of a happy resolution than the story itself delivers with its challenge to fate: 'They lived happily ever after' consoles us, but gives scant help compared to, 'Listen, this is how it was before, but this could change - and they might.'

Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

[ashildrofarcadia]

There is absolutely a universe where Douxie and Zoe were temporary supply/substitute teachers at Arcadia Oaks High…

Except it’s AFTER they’ve saved the world with the Arcadia kids.

Zoe: Domzalski is that gum you’re chewing?

Toby: i literally saved your life last week.

Zoe: go to the next classroom. Get out of my sight.

And it’s just Douxie and the kiddos in the next room watching Bohemian Rhapsody. They have a scheme to save them from algebra or whatever dumb shit they’re doing.

[drearygenie]

"should I give him guidance"

@doctorwyvern made the idea

[historical-beauty-lily]

Peau d’âne / Donkey Skin (1970) dir. Jacques Demy

[along-the-meadow-path]

Ophelia (2018) + Pre-Raphaelite Imagery