#almost looks like a kickass dystopian aesthetic

[inhalingwords]

Monthly Wrap Up || October 2017

Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare || Henry V by William Shakespeare || The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare || A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare || Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare || As You Like It by William Shakespeare || Hamlet by William Shakespeare || Instrucciones para salvar el mundo by Rosa Montero || Kudottujen kujien kaupunki by Emmi Itäranta || Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay by Annie Proux, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana || Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë || The Gap of Time: The Winter’s Tale retold by Jeanette Winterson || Puhdistus by Sofi Oksanen

Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare

Disease, darkness, decay. 2 Henry IV is a sequel and it shows tbh. It’s boring, Prince Hal is obnoxious, there is not a thing in this play I much care for. The prologue is alright.

Henry V by William Shakespeare

Henry V continues and -- thankfully -- ends the story in the Henriad. Like 2 Henry IV, I didn’t enjoy this one either. I mean, it’s a fine play (and tetralogy) about war, kingship, honour, patriotism, etc., except that that’s precisely the problem. All of that presented as it is in the play(s) is directly opposite to my own values and morals. I don’t think it’s honourable that king Henry V wants to wage war with France only because of some titles and dukedoms to add to his name/”imperium” (+ to distract the populace with external unrest away from civil unrest) or that he threatens French towns with rape and pillaging if they don’t let them in so he can have them surrender “peacefully”, and that’s all supposed to make him out to be this great, amazing king because “band of brothers! we happy few! he totally gets down with the lowly commoners! wooo”, like, no thanks.

The entire concept of these plays is to bump up English/British nationalism/patriotism and be a reminder of these “”””glorious””” things done in the past “under God’s will”. lmao. It’s jingoistic propaganda and that doesn’t interest me.

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare

Now, The Winter’s Tale is a severely underappreciated Shakespeare play imo. There are not sufficient words to explain how much I loved reading this play!

The Winter’s Tale is a lovely tragedy-that-turns-to-comedy about jealousy, family, time, redemption, rebirth, healing, and hope in the middle of darkness. There are some real kickass female characters (Pauline! what a woman! i love her! and Hermione, who is Great™), one of the most famous stage directions of all time (”Exit, pursued by a bear”), queer subtext, cute romance, and one of the most beautiful scenes in Shakespeare (that last scene with the “statue” Hermione, damn!).

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

This was actually my second reread of this play this year, I already reread it back in March. But because I recently bought the beautiful Arden edition of the play, I just needed to reread it once more. And I’m glad! This is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays (hence why I bought the separate edition). I love the whimsy, the fairies, and the aesthetic, but I also really appreciate the plot, the running away into the woods and all the love-magic shenanigans.

I greatly enjoyed the Third Series Arden edition’s emphasis on the theatrical staging history across the world. It was very interesting to read about (also: wtf I didn’t know there’s a history of female!Oberons, that’s my new favourite interpretations at the mo, so yess, thanks). The entire Introduction was top-notch and I found much to think about; my favourite things is how the play has very much a dreamlike quality with many alarming things bubbling underneath the surface that are never quite brought into focus and problematised.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Holy moral ambiguity and manipulation, y’all! There’s no clear villain in this play, everyone’s a bit sketchy, and the central theme is of political rivalry and machinations. My favourite thing about Julius Caesar (and other plays like this) are the many layers, like when you consider the historical time depicted in the play, the context of Shakespeare’s time when the play was written in, and also the context of present time when I myself am reading this play. 

I ended up liking this play much more than I expected to, and I’m looking forward to reading it again in the future (and seeing some great adaptations in the meantime!).

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

As You Like It is a wonderful pastoral (romantic) comedy that both brings the pastoral to life and parodies/critiques it. It’s absolutely charming and also very queer (thereby claiming it’s place on my list of fave Shakespeare plays pretty much automatically). It’s also the play with the female character who has the most lines out of all Shakespeare’s female characters (woop!). The characters are what really make this play for me: Rosalind, Celia, Orlando, Jaques, I love them so much, and I might even go so far as to say I even enjoy Touchstone.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

I have to admit: this was my first time reading Hamlet, I haven’t seen a movie or stage adaptation of it, and, going into the play, I only had a very general idea what it was about (along the lines of “there’s a Danish prince called Hamlet, it’s a tragedy, people die”) and I knew a handful of quotes out of context.

That said, like for many others, my experience of reading Hamlet was that of recognition. I kept encountering quotes I knew and it proved super interesting to finally get the full context for them. I find Hamlet an intriguing play, (especially philosophically, psychologically and metatheatrically speaking) and I’m looking forward to seeing some stage/movie adaptations of it.

Instrucciones para salvar el mundo by Rosa Montero

Instrucciones para salvar el mundo is a milestone book for me: it’s the first book I’ve ever read in Spanish. Sadly, I can’t whole-heartedly recommend it for others. I like it... I think??

The problem I have with the book isn’t that it’s bad, it’s that I feel like I really love the theme and the central concept of the book so much -- there’s beauty in life, sometimes you don’t even realise how privileged you are and how much you have, how much life in itself is worth until you’re staring death in the face, that these darkness in the world but also so much goodness and beauty and happiness -- BUT something about the execution was just lacking. The characters felt a little bit too much like stereotypes (the two boring white male protags, one of whose wife is death so he’s grieving and the other who is cheating on his wife; the black sex worker who is Good and needs to be helped; the Moroccan suicide bomber, etc.). I did like two of the female characters (Cerebro, an old scientist, and Fatma, the sex worker) but they were more peripheral characters, just passing through the bigger plot of the two dudes, one of whom was so obnoxious I nearly put the book down because of him.

So, yeah. The book is good but not awesome, and I feel a bit let down.

Kudottujen kujien kaupunki by Emmi Itäranta

Kudottujen kujien kaupunki (UK: The City of the Woven Streets, US: The Weaver) is easily my favourite book of the month.

Earlier this year, in April, I read Itäranta’s first book Teemestarin kirja (engl. Memory of Water), which I loved, so I was expecting to like Kudottujen kujien kaupunki, and it honestly still managed to blow me away and even exceed my expectations. Once again, there’s a dystopian setting, environmental themes (this time, water pollution), beautiful writing, and fascinating worldbuilding, but with explicit wlw main pairing this time. My heart soars. Itäranta has definitely landed a spot on the list of my fave authors.

Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay by Annie Proux, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

Proulx’s writing style isn’t necessarily my fave -- it’s quite sparse, unornamented and to the point -- but the story is beautiful and touching in all of its horror and it definitely packs a punch. It’s about rural homophobia, internalised homophobia, love and desires, repression, and life.

This edition also featured three short yet insightful essays about adapting the short story to the big screen.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I…. like Wuthering Heights?? I’m baffled because I was pretty much prepared to dislike it due to so many people talking about how the relationship is really unhealthy and shouldn’t be romanticised, so I was expecting some sort of 1800s version of Twilight/50SoG, but… that’s not what this is?? 

Wuthering Heights is not a love story, it’s not a romance, and it’s not supposed to be. It’s not written as such. The relationship (between Cathy and Heathcliff) is not in any way portrayed as a romantic, healthy pairing you’re supposed to root and strive for (like in Twilight/50SoG) with the expectation that the reader is supposed to be sighing about how romantic and thrilling everything about the romance is. In Wuthering Heights, the abuse is portrayed as abuse, as negative and abusive, and the narrative does not support the reading of Heathcliff as a romantic hero and “Mr. Perfect”.

So, yeah. I like Wuthering Heights. In terms of the locale and characters, the scope of the novel is very small and almost claustrophobic, but the emotional magnitude is astonishing. Some of the characters are vile, selfish, and repugnant much of the time and yet I was so swept up in the story and invested in knowing what was going to happen, that I really enjoyed reading about them and I couldn’t help but symphathise with them because of the masterful storytelling. The portrayals of passion and revenge are so vivid I got chills. And I enjoy the double nature of the book; we have the one half (Catherine and Heathcliff) and the other half (Cathy and Hareton), and I love how it’s one of those hopeful stories about breaking the cycle of abuse, the younger generation doing better than the older.

The novel is also highly atmospheric. The moors, the nature, the wilderness. It all reflects the characters and the fact that the novel is so pointedly not about high society and social niceties.

The Gap of Time: The Winter’s Tale retold by Jeanette Winterson

My first venture into the world of Shakespearean book adaptations -- and I am so glad it was with such a great one!

The Gap of Time is a remix of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (a tragedy-turns-to-comedy that I read for the first time this month and love a lot!), and to me it’s a very successful one. There are so many things brimming with insight (I feel like I marked up at least 2/3 of the book!), some nice winks at the source material and Shakespeare in general, and tbh I gotta love anything that takes the queer subtext in Shakespeare and makes it explicit. I really enjoy the way Winterson modernised the story and dived a bit deeper into themes like time and family, which were already present in the original play.

However, The Gap of Time did feel a bit rough and unpolished at times, although I wonder whether it was intentional and meant to reflect the way reading one of Shakespeare’s (or anyone’s) plays feels like (since obviously they are meant to be seen and not read per se, and consist of nothing but dialogue).

Puhdistus by Sofi Oksanen

In February, I read the first book in Oksanen’s Kvartetti series about Estonia’s recent history and the East/West dichotomy of Europe. This month, I finally picked up the second novel (and the most well-known of the three books that have been published in the series). I was much impressed reading it, and I can see why it became such a sensation.

Puhdistus is a story about shame and sexual violence from the PoV of two women of two different generations set against the backdrop of Estonian history (from 1940s to 1990s, mostly preoccupied with the occupations of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, deportations, the Forest Brothers, and surveillance). The novel is at times brutal and sad, you might even call it a psychological thriller (though I myself wouldn’t go that far), but there’s also a constant thrum of hope of survival persisting throughout an the ending is hopeful. I find Oksanen’s writing a joy to read and I think I’m going to pick up the third book in the series sooner than I picked up this one.

[thegazeofficial-blog]

January 2017, Pt. 2

The Gaze: Ep. 2 - Young Thug’s “Wyclef Jean,” Banks’ “Trainwreck,” & Missy Elliott ft. Lamb’s “I’m Better”

"Hallelujah Money” - Gorillaz

Released: January 19. 2017

Directors: Giorgio Testi & Gorillaz

Hunty: This is supposed to be their anti-Trump video, right? My main problem, is that I’m having a hard time focusing on what he’s saying and correlating that to the imagery behind him.

Kirk: I miss when Gorillaz was a band that was giving us the vibe that it was actual cartoons making this music, and they were the stars of these videos. In recent years these characters are secondary to the music, and it’s primarily other artists that are featured in their videos. 

I love the way he’s lit, though. It’s kind of vintage-looking the way they’re playing with the light and shadows. It goes back and forth between projecting on him and being a background projection.

H: I think we’re both big fans of videos where people use projection screens like this and in Rihanna’s “We Found Love” video, for example. You can do a lot with it because you can include any imagery you want, but also have a performance in front of it. The visuals in the background range from dark dystopian stuff, to cartoons, to psychedelia.

K: The beginning clips were darker so when the cartoons come in, they've been staged with a darker tone too.

H: I’m sure it’s saying something about the way we consume media. All this shit just mixed together. 

With this book that he’s holding, the black outfit, and his hands shaking, it’s almost like he’s a hellfire and brimstone preacher. It’s very ominous.

K: It feels very apocalyptic. This video feels like he’s giving some sort of sermon-y address to the world and this is projecting in people’s homes telling us “The world is ending.” 

H: That’s kind of exactly what’s happening, though.

"Touch” - Little Mix

Released: January 19, 2017

Directors: Director X & Parri$ Goebel

K: I hate it. I think everything about this video is bad. This Lisa Frank folder color scheme of the walls is just killing me. 

I think all the looks are terrible and don’t work well as a group. I understand not matching, but there’s also a way to compliment each other.

The camerawork... it’s a lot at once. 

H: I love the ripped up sweater with the pendants hanging off of it. That’s the only outfit that I like. I particularly hate the nude bodice over the baggy sweater. 

But I agree. Two of them have really dark outfits and the other two are wearing pastels. Meanwhile, the walls have a mix of really bright colors with pastels.

K: Who thought it was a good idea to have nude tones against these bright easter egg colors? I don’t know who did the costume design and art direction for this video, but it just looks strange.

H: It is giving us some sugary-pop spice girls vibes, even if it is a Lisa Frank version.

K:  The Spice Girls were never like this. If you think about the “Wannabe”video, at least it works in the sense that it doesn’t look bad, even if it is simple and people only like it because of nostalgia. It’s a simple setting with them showcasing their personalities, and that’s it. Any other girl group could do that and it could be cute.  

Everyone now is into these CGI constructed worlds. You have access to literally whatever you want, and THIS is the color scheme you’ve chosen... If you’re going to do it, execute it well.

H: We’re not getting anything conceptually innovative. They have the elements of what a girl group tends to be, but nothing’s executed super well. 

I think it maybe says something about the internet generation where if you’re going to drop something, you want to have the most attention-grabbing video. It might be an eye sore, but it has a lot of views. It’s so wrong and extra that it kind of entices you.

K: We’re going to look back in 10 years and be like “Oh, remember when pop groups were all just trying to have the most colorful video, so we’d watch it on Youtube?”

"Pops” - Angel Olsen

Released: January 24, 2017

Directors: Angel Olsen & Jethro Waters

H: After watching “Shut Up Kiss Me” so many times, it’s nice coming back to the OG Angel Olsen aesthetic with these sad slo-mo shots. This obviously isn’t a banger off the album, and we don’t get the in-your-face imagery of the “Shut Up Kiss Me” video, but the song and video are both subdued and pleasing. A decent watch and listen.

K: I like that she’s giving us videos from the rock side and the indie-folk side of the album. She’s like “I can be quiet and introspective and also be a kickass rock chick.” It’s really inspiring coming from a female artist, since people really like to put female artists in a box.

H: This video reminds me of when an artist like Bon Iver or Sufjan Stevens convinces us they are these men from the wilderness when really they’re from Brooklyn or something, but she’s giving us something that is more realistically her world.

K: It’s like she lives in a very normal suburban place that any of us would live in, but the way this video aestheticizes the way she’s experiencing it makes us feel like she’s out in the wilderness by herself, which is a much more honest approach. It’s more of her being isolated in her inner world rather than this actually being the world.

I think it’s very easy to do a video like this and make it seem very trite, but it feels honest and sincere.

It really is a simple marriage between the song and images. It has a maturity to it.

“Kick Jump Twist” - Sylvan Esso

Released: January 24, 2017

Director: Mimi Cave

K: I love that somebody else besides Sia is playing around with modern dance.

H: Right? It’s nice to see a band who’s doing contemporary electronic-pop do something that’s more performance-arty.

I love that it’s a dance video with an unlikely star and in an unlikely setting. This boy is totally killing this dance even though he looks like he was plucked straight off a farm in the backwoods of Kentucky, where guys probably would be shamed for doing something “feminine” like dancing.

K: I like the dance itself. It’s mixing these very feminine and very masculine energies. 

This dusty warehouse place looks like an old theatre that hasn’t been open for like 50 years. 

H: The way the ground is sand that he can kick up and create this smokey look with the lights and then the lights flashing. It’s kind of like a lot of things we liked from the "Company” video: interesting choreography from the get and subtle aesthetic things that keep it interesting along the way. 

K: It reminds me of the “Call Your Girlfriend” video by Robyn, because of the moving camerawork. This has been a long-take up until the cut to the crowd. 

Also, the color palette is so good. The beige pants. The light pink wall. His skin tone and light red hair.

I didn’t care for this song, and now I’m very into it.

“Scuse Me” - Lizzo

Released: January 25, 2017

Directors: Quinn Morrow & Asha Maura

H: Lizzo’s literally taking us to church right now, so let’s listen up. 

K: There are a lot of interesting correlations to be made between the subject material of the song and the setting of the church. The whole idea that she’s praising her body while in church and even the preacher is telling her to feel herself too. It’s giving you a taste of how spiritual it is for women to love their bodies. 

H: And it’s a reversal of what religion normally tells women what to think about their bodies and sexuality. 

Even this jungle waterfall scene has a religious feeling in an ancient goddess type of way. She’s like “I’m a badass queen, no matter where I am or what’s going on around me.”

K: I love songs about women feeling themselves metaphorically... or even not. Female masturbation songs are a powerful thing.

H: Yeah, her confidence is inspiring. Her music is like this weird hybrid of pop/soul/R&B/she’s also kind of an MC, but regardless she is selling it.

“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” - Zayn & Taylor Swift

Released: January 26, 2017

Director: Grant Singer

H: He is so pretty.

K: If he were a gay man, he would be evil.

H: He probably is evil!

K: I think when you’re that rich, good-looking, and successful you have to be evil.

H: He’s smart, though. He’s definitely not the best singer of the group, but he’s found a way to capitalize off of what he’s got, even if it’s mainly his looks, but like that’s what I’d be doing too, girl!

K: You have to be smart to be that famous. Although, I think this video is basic af.

H: It’s got kind of a cool noir-ish vibe to it, but it’s mostly very “We’re sexy people being sad.”

K: They’re too busy trying to be in without pushing forward for anything new. This is basically the stuff underground pop artists have been doing for years now. It’s like a co-opted pop-sheen version of what Sky Ferreira has already done that’s like... no.

H: That’s exactly what this video is. There’s no punch to it. If it’s supposed to be dark and sexy, we’re getting a very light palatable version of that.

(Side note: This video was directed by Grant Singer, who has directed almost all of Sky Ferreira’s music videos.)

“I Love You More Than You Love Yourself” - Austra

Released: January 26, 2017

Director: M Blash

K: It’s got a really 80′s vibe but in a way that’s not super in your face. 

H: It’s reminding me a lot of Stranger Things.

K: There’s something playful and campy about the whole thing like how she’s very obviously wearing a wig. 

We’re out shopping, but it’s very clear that she’s on a very important mission.

H: These very quick, very close-up flashes of everything are doing a good job of keeping us intrigued but also aestheticizing what’s going on, because I still have no idea what’s happening in this video.

This album is called Future Politics, so I’m wondering what this is saying about modern society.

K: If I had to take a whack at it, I’d say it has the levity comparable to going on a mission to space for women to go and find the perfect look in an attempt to be these perfect image of a woman.

H: It could be addressing how the processes for women to maintain their appearance are often written off as frivolous even though they’re necessary to survival. 

Then she doesn’t even use anything in the shopping bags at the dance club, so maybe it’s just trying to destroy this dichotomy between the career-focused female astronaut and the woman who enjoys leisurely shopping.

“Keep Running” - Tei Shi

Released: January 27, 2017

Director: Agostina Gálvez

H: This is giving us Sky’s “Red Lips” meets Madonna’s “Hollywood” meets a Porches video meets Santigold’s “Banshee...”

It’s a perfect representation of the song. It mixes the chill, sexy, sultry R&B vibe with the neon-lit karaoke party vibe that highlights the synthpop sound.

K: It’s so simple, but it’s so well executed. There’s something very effortless about her.

The silk and the shiny floral wallpaper remind me of my grandma’s house, but it’s been sexed up.

H: All of those iridescent materials are super hot right now.

It’s fun that she’s being sexy in a very womanly way, as opposed to a girlish way that’s very prevalent in pop.

K: It’s like “I’m going to be sexy in the way that I want to be.”

H: Literally everything about this is perfect.

"Two Wildly Different Perspectives” - Father John Misty

Released: January 30, 2017

Director: Matthew Daniel SIskin

K: I love that this is shot like a home movie, since a lot of the aesthetics we associate with children on screen are in a home movie style. 

H: You don’t realize the kid in the spider-man outfit is a person of color at first, but then he takes his mask off and the situation means something so different. It’s “Two Wildly Different Perspectives,” so I don’t know what I was expecting, but the contrast is really powerful, especially since the white kids are playing with real guns in some scenes.

K: I love that we’re getting these clips of a first-person shooter video game, and then a similarly styled shot using a camera and gun scope in real life.

This video’s amazing. This idea that we’re conditioning our children, especially boys, so young to think that violence and guns are a game. 

H: It’s a statement about guns and violence are incorporated into how we raise men.  I think it’s powerful to put the visual representation out there of how the typical American boy is socialized, but a lot of people don’t see the negative aspects of it until it’s a person of color, even thought this is how you’re supposed to assimilate to this culture.

K: I think it was really powerful having most of the imagery being of white people playing with guns and then the only imagery of the person of color playing with a gun is isolated to this one scene indoors, and the juxtaposition of those two among our political climate right now. In this video you make associations in ways that aren’t bashing them over your head. It’s subtle and delicate and guides you there.

Also, the music is the perfect backing to it. it adds to what you’re supposed to be watching.

H: There’s a softness to it even though it’s about guns.

K: There’s an innocence to it, and the fact that they do artistic things like the gun flashing in the dark. It hints at kids just having imaginative play and it not having to be about shooting other kids. These kids don’t know what they’re doing with these things.

H: We could just give boys toys that are not guns and not have differing expectations of a person’s relationship to guns based on their race.

“(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano” - Sampha

Released: January 31, 2017

Director: Jamie-James Medina

H: I think this scene of him playing the piano is going to be the whole video. That’s kind of the vibe of the song.

K: You know what this giving me vibes of? Peanuts.

*gasps*

I thought this video was one thing/ Now it’s this whole other thing, and I’m like dying. 

Is she disintegrating?

 I think she’s like his love interest or someone in his life that’s waiting for him, and she’s slowly sort of fading away because he’s so into the piano. That’s why it’s funny that it reminded me of Lucy and Linus from Peanuts. 

H: Either way, it’s clearly this commentary on the isolation of focusing on your art and sacrificing relationships for that. 

F*ck me up.

To see all of the videos we watched during the second half of January, check out our playlist on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5nKqMtDxQyb6S5CibxaWDTbOt3YRa7Aj