#at tanagra no less | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

calder · 3 years ago

Text

ive started making a little modular load screen lore text mod bc im sure that’s something i can finish

it’s mostly ominous misquotes and extrapolated lore. and goofs. lmk if this does something for you

[BASE] █_Mama tried. █_Maybe you could have stopped all this by voting. █_Deathclaws were genetically engineered with the chameleon's trademark invisibility in mind, but natural selection quickly discarded this trait in favor of sheer size and mobility. █_Handy settlers occasionally adorn overpasses with windmills of canvas or sheet metal, usually to harness a small amount of mechanical power, or as an instrument of public execution. █_At the dawn of WWII, Europe stood in awe of the Nazis’ capacity for industry. In reality, the German populace was hooked on candied meth, sold as "pilot's chocolate". Later empires refined this strategy by switching to a more sustainable amphetamine and a less craveable candy. █_The Twin Mothers was a tribe of chemists and engineers who exalted womankind and Mother Earth through their works, devising many new medicines from postwar plants. They were all killed by the Legion. █_Most wastelanders are traumatized by the shrieks of the dying. Others are more well-adjusted. █_To rebuild America is to rebuild its problems. █_In Mexico, radroaches are called "nukaracha". █_There are vaults that will never be opened. █_You never know when a ghoul might go feral. You never know when a dog might go feral. You never know when a substitute teacher might go feral. Don't be a dick. █_A warlike institution cannot comprehend or account for the existence of non-warlike peers. █_The Children of the Cathedral distribute hubflowers to their patients and onlookers. "Every petal is Peace," the adherent recites, "and the stem is Unity." █_During the Spring Solstice, Families of Atom gather to detonate nuclear devices in a solar revival ritual. Each clan must prove itself in His Eyes by striking a holy ember to save the Daylight. █_The Enclave built a field laboratory to study an unnatural monolithic strangler tree called Tanagra. Hysterical with fear, one scientist murdered the others and destroyed their research. The vines quickly buried whatever he might have missed. █_Brotherhood youths who come out as gay tend to find themselves assigned to the surface, a gentle banishment in the name of practical heteronormativity. Oddly, this policy has done little to shore up their birthrate. █_The moth cult have devised a subtle language of hums, buzzes, and palatal clicks to commune with their benefactor. █_Nothing lasts forever. █_And I feel fine. [VOICE OF ATOM] █_This is not a place of honor. █_This is not heaven. █_Visit woe upon the heretic dark-dweller, who groweth marbled and dim wherein is no water of the glow. █_Sharp knife send him to deep temple. █_Revel in yon ignorance while you may. █_You could have stopped it. █_Those who perish in the glow are saved. █_Do not fear what you are becoming. █_The night has eyes. █_Watch the skies. █_Keep your eyes down when you pass that ravine. █_He's lying. █_She's lying. █_You can go home. █_Don't turn around. █_DON'T TURN AROUND. █_They're all against you. █_Liar. █_This has happened before. █_Sing out loud and fill the air with holy hymns and boughs. █_Go back to your hole. █_Coward. █_Why are you here? █_We're all murderers here. What kind of murderer are you? █_Only through the light of the glow can yon wretches be rightly Welcomed Home. █_Atom loves you. █_The Holy Flame is the Unity of all peoples in the Light of Eternal Detonation. █_We put the sun in a jar, and what did we do with it? We broke it all over our gentle little world. █_Close your eyes. Do you see it? █_Give it back. █_I been waiting. █_We been waiting. █_Can you recall the first time you saw this place? █_There is only one with whom the sun resides at night. █_The danger is present in your time as it was in ours. █_The danger is here and below us. █_It will rain for forty nights and nobody will notice. █_Life is old here. Older than the trees. █_Hungry like the mountain. Glowing like the breeze. █_Whispered words impress upon walls like rainwater down the rock. █_Spare yon heretics the sorrow of heat-death. Aim true and bright. █_And each of us has a story coming. █_Your story will be told in front of everyone. █_The devil barely exists and you are nothing. █_Everything is fine. █_I don't care. I don't care. █_Don’t open it. █_Welcome home. █_[scripture]--Division according to Richter █_--Division 1: 1 In the beginning Atom created the first division of light from darkness[1], and the name of the first is Fission[2][3] 2 It is that which compassath the whole kingdom of Atom, wherein there is the glow[4][5] █_Division 1: 3 And the stars cast His glow upon the firmament[6], and through it creatures were divided from the earth and made with eyes to perceive His glory[7][8] 4 And for a time the great division continued and created all manner of creature which tested themselves to be worthy[7] of Atom █_G'yeth. █_--He promised. He promised. He prom █_--It reverberated slightly as I turned it in different directions. I don't quite remember the experience, it’s like I dreamed it, but I know I was holding it, and turning it. █_--A rush of vapor flooded the room, opaque, thick, deliberate, and pleased. Before first aid could be administered, I was visited by shades, servants of our benefactor. I felt my flesh torn from my body by their hands, exalted, glorious. The effects withered quickly, and I found myself standing in the lab unharmed save for the inciting laceration. I want to do it again. █_--Punga understands me. I understand Punga. That is all it needs to be. [ICEBERG] █_The Wise Behemoth paces Eerie Canyon in wait of one who can receive her blessing without going mad. █_Beyond our solar system exists a nexus of peace and understanding, where enlightened civilizations from across time and space cohabitate in harmony. They are not coming. █_The Godfisher cult forbids dying underground, lest one's soul fail to find the sky. █_The Church of Los has been led by the undead priestess Sappho since her father Blake's demise at the hands of the Texas Brotherhood. █_A group of vault dwellers once encountered a talking deathclaw near Sanctuary. She claimed to be a distant relative of Goris, and a new mother. █_Brotherhood scribes have noted that certain mirelurks and postwar plants are flagrantly psykic, moreso than any recorded proto-human. █_Evolutionary biologists have suggested that "ghosts" are an adaptation that causes humans to sense and avoid places of death. Perhaps they are psychosomatic avatars of our intuitive dread, or a desperate omen produced by a panicked spark of expiring neurons. █_Somewhere in Arizona, The Coven of the Crow educate mutants from birth to be powerful ministers of the glow. █_The Midwestern brotherhood encountered what appeared to be an organic version of Vault-Boy in the wilderness. A promising recruit, Pip was ultimately left behind during a skirmish because he did not have knees. █_There exists a root which grows up into the flesh of sleeping creatures, infesting their minds with its primordial will. █_When The Master first encountered the Church of Unity, he found them already worshipping a god of darkness and war. That early postwar society left no mark on history, traceable only trough the cultures in their orbit who suddenly disappeared. █_A chronal parameter was left inverted at Vault 96's quantum research lab. None remain who know what this means. The computer is under protection of an order who endeavor to dismantle it safely. [WILD WASTELAND] █_Vault Boy is gay. █_Ae Kremvh altadoon. █_Who's laughing now? █_The Twin Mothers tribe were meant to be in several cancelled Fallout games before Ulysses finally invokes them as a dead culture at the end of FNV. █_You like putting Fishy Sticks in your mouth? █_Dogmeat has become Catholic. █_A Hegelian Dialectic is a paradigm in which a pragmatist conceptualizes his political arena as a metaphysical chess game and seeks to control both sides, then enslaves as many humans as possible before he dies of head cancer. █_You are being followed by a dog. It is that god damn bad luck dog. This can't be good. █_Talking deathclaws represent hope, and excising them is a gesture of profound cynicism. █_JE Sawyer literally went off and made his own Fallout with blackjack and hookers. █_76 canonizes usenet culture, furries, and kaomoji ^^ in the Fallout setting. █_And we'll do it our way! █_Invoking the Fallout Bible to invalidate someone else makes you look like a jackass, because you are, in that moment. █_Fallout: Revelation and HOI4 mod are better than real Fallout has ever been. █_The Minutemen don't have lore. █_Nuka Break sucks shit, but some of the performances are good. █_They made a series after Nuka Break that was even worse somehow. █_Fallout was created, directed, and programmed by a gay man. █_It's Atom and Greeb, not Atom and Steve. █_Fallout is for everyone. Except you specifically. It's weird when you do it. █_This was a bad experiment. We are bad people.

77 notes · View notes

checkoutmybookshelf · 2 years ago

Text

Hello, I am an English Major and this is a Pedantic Nitpick about terminology. In Star Trek.

I don't think it's a hot take to say that Star Trek: TNG had a weird but omnipresent relationship with English literary didacticism and narratology (although if that does turn out to be a hot take, RIP this post), which is why the egregious misue of the term "metaphor" in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's iconic line, "That's how you communicate, isn't it? By citing example...by metaphor" is so goddamn baffling and infuriating.

Before we dig into this too much, let's start by defining a few things, because I am an English major and if we start shit BEFORE defining terms, we're basically asking the other English majors to filet us like a head chef with a swordfish (that's a simile--a comparison using like or as--for those of you playing along at home). I'm taking my definitions from MH Abrams's A Glossary of Literary Terms.

Metaphor (under "Figurative Language"): "In a metaphor, a word or expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to a distinctly different kind of things, without resorting to a comparison."

Allusion: "A passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historial person place, or event, or to another literary work or passage."

Imagery: "Its applicationa rage all the way from the 'menta pictures' which, it is sometimes claimed, are experienced by the reader of a poem, to the totality of the of the components that make up a poem."

The key difference between an allusion and a metaphor is that an allusion can effectively be skipped over without detracting from the intended literal meaning of a sentence or passage. Allusions, when used properly, do not impede the meaning of a work for readers who do not know the work to which the allusion refers, but rather adds nuance and additional layers of meaning for those who are familiar with the referent. Conversely, a metaphor has two layers of literal, understandable meaning that are juxtaposed to communicate a similarity.

So right off the bat, the Tamarian language is problematic both in terms of in-universe functioning as a language, and as a didactic narratological tool to teach the masses about figurative language.

I don't want to spend a ton of time on the in-universe issues with figurative language as A Language, but I do want to point out that if you are using things like "Temba, his arms wide" and "Shaka, when the walls fell" as complete sentences, then objectively, from the Tamarian perspective, you're not dealing in allusion anymore. You're not even dealing in metaphor, because each phrase becomes a functional unit of linguistic meaning. Rather than translating to the phrase but in English, a more accurate and functional translation of "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" would be "Let's be allies against a common enemy." If you really wanted to get stripped down with the language, simply "allyship request" would do it. Functional structuralism would mean that the mental concept of the sign (signified) would be the original allusion to the story of Darmok and Jalad, with the myriad of nuance and details and specifics that come from that narrative, but the signifier itself would be something like "ally" to complete the sign as a unit of meaning that functions to facilitate comprehensive communication. So while allusion might be the etymological history of Tamarian phrasal units of meaning, the Universal Translator shouldn't have had these issues understanding it if the programmers had any sort of English lit majors to consult. The Universal Translator was holding the "the writers need me to be less capable for plot reasons" ball that episode.

Ok, now let's dig into why literally no character in the entire episode actually uses a metaphor. To keep it simple, let's pick on Deanna Troi's example: "Juliet on her balcony." Dr. Crusher actually makes the point in the episode with this example that in and of itself disqualifies the Tamarian phrases as metaphors. She explicitly states that if she didn't know who Juliet was and what she was doing on the balcony that the phrase would be absolutely meaningless. Which is exactly the kind of "blink and you'll miss it" reference that is an allusion, not a metaphor. It's missing the level of literal meaning that is understandable and understood--which is required in a metaphor but not an allusion. It's also not a complete sentence or even a complete unit of meaning. "Juliet on her balcony" is an allusion. So what the heck is a metaphor?

An example of a metaphor comes in Ana and Hans's opus of a duet. As the pair find themselves in increasingly ridiculous situations, they belt to the skies, "Love is an open DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!" Let's metaphor checklist this:

Literal level of meaning? Check.

Figurative level of meaning? Check.

Implied juxtaposition of significantly different things? Check.

Sensical without referecing a historical or literary figure/event/place/work? Check.

Does NOT use like or as or another form of comparison? Check.

To say that love is an open door is to avoid any reference to any historical or literary narrative that a reader would need to understand the gist of the sentece. We know what love is (yes, even Data knows) and we know what an open door is, and what it means symbolically. There is no inherent story in that metaphor. The door is open. You can go through it if you choose. The love is there. Grab it with both hands if you want (although Ana, honey, don't grab that). This is fundamentally not the case with "Juliet on her balcony."

It is also fundamentally not the case with the allusions that the Tamarians use. Not even "Temba, his arms wide" because while wide arms have some very clear meanings in and of itself, there is no implied juxtaposition there, and knowing exactly who Temba is is required for comprehension. So no, no Trek writers, you didn't do metaphors this episode. You did allusions, and you confused the hell out of everyone, to the point where I once actually had to do a lesson on this episode of TNG to clarify the point and stop my students failing the formal literary elements quiz because they thought metaphors were allusions and had no freaking clue what a metaphor was. A student called "Darmok" out BY NAME.

...Ok, well, I asked for an example of a metaphor and got "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" and then we got derailed for half an hour clarifying this because the sheer number of heads nodding along with that answer terrified me.

#star trek #star trek: the next generation #darmok and jalad at tanagra #darmok #st tng #tng #captain picard #literary analysis #literary criticism #figurative language #allusion #metaphor #elements of literature

14 notes · View notes

ribcager · 3 years ago

Note

I took your wizard quiz months ago and listened to Blind Guardian because of it and loved it! Do you have recommendations for similar bands, especially others that use choral elements? Thanks!

Tbh no one really does Blind Guardian like Blind Guardian does Blind Guardian – they’re the genre definer & ruiner, I think. If they're your first power metal band then most others might seem a bit lacking in comparison, so be prepared for that.

THAT SAID. Some bands that might fit the bill:

Judicator – The best guardian impersonators currently out there imo, and an excellent band in their own right. (Singer from BG also featured on one of their songs so there’s that)

Therion - Less like BG, but choirs & drama out the wazoo. (he’s featured on a song of theirs too)

Avantasia - (Hello again. Everything I list after this, though, is a Hansiless wasteland. -10/10)

Orion’s Reign - Lots of choir, fun as hell, one of my favourite albums ever. These guys caught lightning in a bottle with this album and then never did anything interesting again.

Wuthering Heights - More into prog folk territory. A bit messy sometimes due to how experimental they can get but also incredibly innovative, at least within their genre constraints.

Angra - More into speed territory.

Tanagra - Slower & bit proggier.

Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire - Choirs.

Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody - There’s a ton more rhapsodies if you feel like looking but for now these three should do

Savage Circus - ‘nother BG clone. The vocalist sounds so similar to guardians' at times that it’s actually eerie to realise that it’s not him.

If all of the above fails:

Ayreon - Fun collaborative project. (Hansi is there. And here.)

Orden Ogan

Operus

Fierce Deity - more on the heavy/classic side.

Manticora - Don’t let the horror gimmick put you off, these guys are really solid. I may or may not be including them just ‘cause I wanna tune more ppl in

Domine

Gamma Ray - (4got to mention but hansi is in here too. The question should be what band HASN’T he been in)

Twilight Force - If you can stomach them. jk, I like 'em, but they can be a bit. much.

Witherfall - Darker & Edgier

Forgotten Tales - really underrated, excellent vocals.

Haggard - As far from blind guardian as you can get but chock full of choirs. Just to give you some options.

If all else fails, powerwolf.

#it's 4 am so I might be forgetting someone but #enjoy!#text

10 notes · View notes

vintagegeekculture · 7 years ago

Note

Oh wise vintagegeekculture, might I ask your opinion on Michael Moorcock's essay "Epic Pooh"?

I am American as all-get-out. Stranger Things is practically a documentary about my rural childhood;there were a million little sense memory triggers in that series for me. Sothere is probably a cultural context to that very very English essay thatdiscusses a very very English relationship to lulling sentimentality and class and the countryside that I willfully concede that I am simply not grasping. The English seem tothink entirely in terms of debating sentimental imagery: “Mother London” vs.the “Ploughman’s Lunch” and “Little Britain.” Althought it is a serious issue,listening to British debates on Brexit often felt like hearing to the “Darmokand Jalad at Tanagra” aliens from TNG having a loud argument about who’s Momloves them more.

But…from my perspectiveas an outsider and foreigner, I think the general point Moorcock makes iscorrect: Fantasy was created by men like Tolkien and Lord Dunsany who wereviolently hostile to the modern world and so their work very studiously avoidedtalking about the modern world except in opposition to it (for instance, theonly person to push industrialization and scouring the countryside is anasshole wizard; the only person who talks like T.S. Elliot’s Londoners is the despicableSméagol). Lord Dunsany was a great writer, but seems like a thin-bloodedaristocrat, like a Brit Ashley Wilkes from GoneWith the Wind, who even in the 1970s, wrotehis stories with a quill pen and wore an ascot tie to book readings.

Moorcock is right whenhe says that fantasy often avoids reflecting the world around us, and thatbeing overly sentimental about the past serves the interest of reactionaries(note that he did not call Tolkien and Dunsany and the rest reactionaries…atleast in a way that was visible in their work – he did say that about Adams andLewis though). The most important quote in that essay is “Ideally fiction should offer us escape and force us, at least, to askquestions; it should provide a release from anxiety but give us some insightinto the causes of anxiety.” I mean, fantasy as a genre was so detachedfrom “real world” issues that when someone like Tad Williams started to includesomething as fundamental as economics into his fantasy worlds starting in the1980s, people treated him like a total genius (Which Tad Williams IS,incidentally - these days, people only really know Tad Williams, if they knowhim at all, as the inspiration for George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones).

One of the great themesof Moorcock’s work is the way that authoritarians use sentimental imagery ofthe past to manipulate people. If you read Epic Pooh, also read his other book,“The Dreamthief’s Daughter,” the opening third to half is set in Nazi Germany.It’s actually more helpful to understand the point of this essay to read “Dreamthief’sDaughter,” since, in the words of Francois Truffaut, “the only way to critiquea movie properly is to make another movie.” Dreamthief’s Daughter starts with a“Good German,” von Bek, who is horrified that his Germany was taken over byNazism, how they replace “self respect with a kind of strutting self-esteem.”At one point, our hero has to hide in the German countryside, and he mentionshow sinister the small storybook German towns he passes through seem, romanticized by fascists after Hitlercame to power, as they were pushed front and center as the “true Germany.”

Of all the books everwritten about the Nazis and arch-reactionaries, Moorcock gets it the most rightin “Dreamthief’s Daughter.” They were boring failsons, not supervillains.Rudolf Hess was described as the most irritating person to sit next to on thebus to a con and who believed magic and ghosts were real; von Bek said that “inmy many adventures, I showed true courage only once: in not throwing RudolfHess out of my car.” Von Bek’s comments on Hitler himself: “An evening withHitler was like an evening with an extremely boring maiden aunt.” He was alsothe first person I can think of to point out how reactionary fascists oftenhave really bad taste, too: drawing imagery from bad comic operas and Americanmovies about Rome. That last bit should be all too familiar to people whonotice how many American reactionaries love the hell out of the movie 300 (amovie I really like too, incidentally, but it’s okay to enjoy something if you understand it).

Also, “Dreamthief’sDaughter” had a great finale: imagine a flight of dragons coming out to fight theBattle of Britain.

The point, that fantasycan be infantilizing, is a good point, but Moorcock is the weirdestpossible person on the face of the earth to make it. Moorcock got famous bywriting about brooding angsty albinos who cry all the time for the benefit ofteenage heavy metal fans and dungeon masters in Reeboks. I love his stuff but that’s who he is,that’s the stuff that pays his mortgage, that’s his audience. His stuff is good but it reminds me ofthose White Wolf games in the 1990s that look silly and dated in retrospectbecause they trowel on the angst and transgression and put on airs (White Wolf,incidentally, was named after Moorcock’s greatest hero, Elric the White Wolf…andin the 1990s, White Wolf’s publishing arm dedicated itself to reprinting someof Moorcock’s less widely seen novels, a service for which I thank them verymuch). I am actually legitimately surprised that Moorcock never wrote a “sad sexy vampire” novel. God, can you imagine the kind of satire that the anarchic MAD magazine of the 50s would do of the Elric stuff? Elric screaming his soul is black at the breakfast table, while threatening to kill himself over a hangnail.

235 notes · View notes

phantom-le6 · 4 years ago

Text

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (1 of 6)

Continuing my reviews of the voyages of Picard’s Enterprise, here’s my first round of reviews for season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Episode 1: Redemption (Part 2)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Captain Picard is aware that while he cannot get involved in the Klingon civil war, the Romulans will likely see it as an opportunity to gain an advantage over the Federation. He is put in charge of a fleet of ships to create a blockade between the Klingon and Romulan border. Many of the Enterprise crew are assigned temporary command of severely undermanned ships. Picard initially does not assign Lt. Commander Data command of a ship, but after Data questions him about the omission, he gives him the Sutherland. Data’s command of the Sutherland is made somewhat difficult by Lt. Comm. Hobson, who initially seeks transfer because he doesn’t think an android will make a good captain, and when refused is disruptive and disparaging of Data’s command.

Picard arranges the fleet to form a detection network that should detect any cloaked ships that pass the blockade. Commander Sela, a Romulan resembling the late Natasha Yar, orders her scientists to find a way to disable the network, but also contacts the Enterprise. Sela reveals that she is the daughter of Tasha Yar, who returned to the past on the Enterprise-C 24 years earlier (as seen in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise"). Sela warns that if Starfleet does not break off the blockade in 20 hours, their fleet will be attacked.

Meanwhile, Worf is kidnapped by the Duras sisters, who attempt to seduce him to join their cause by marrying B'Etor. Worf declines, stating that honour would be subverted and that the Klingon Empire would quickly fall to Romulan control. Seeing the cause is defeated, Sela orders Worf to be turned over to the Romulan guard.

Picard urges Gowron to attack the Duras forces, who are running low on supplies; this will force the Romulans to enter the detection network and be caught by Starfleet. Gowron agrees, knowing that association with the Romulans will destroy the Duras family's support and end the civil war. The Duras sisters demand the Romulans bring supplies. Sela's scientists find they can disrupt part of the network by sending out an energy burst. Sela initiates the plan, selecting the Sutherland as the target. When the network destabilizes, Picard orders the fleet to retreat and reform the net, but Data observes that he can trace the source of the disruption. He orders the firing of torpedoes at specific coordinates, revealing Romulan ships. The convoy retreats, and the Duras sisters are forced to end the civil war. Worf breaks free in time to secure Toral, but the Duras sisters escape.

Gowron gives Worf the opportunity to kill Toral by Rite of Vengeance, but he declines to do so because Toral was just a puppet of his aunts. He spares Toral's life and requests Picard to reinstate him into Starfleet.

Review:

This is a decent episode for the season to start off on, and certainly it manages to achieve the main function of the second part in a two-part story, namely bringing the part 1 story to a conclusion. However, it struggles with the weight of additional plots and a certain lack of consistency with part 1. Right out of the gate, Picard is talking about setting up a blockade on the Klingon-Romulan border, and two ideas occur to me. The first is that this is a form of interfering in the affairs of other cultures, highlighting yet again the problem illustrated by part 1 with Trek’s general inconsistency with the prime directive. Secondly, the detection grid set up between the ships can only cover so much space, and there’s nothing to say why the Romulans can’t just fly a circuitous course around the blockade. It’s not like this is Leonidas putting his 300 Spartans at the hot gates to stop Xerxes. This is Trump proposing a wall which boats can sail round and planes can fly over; the Romulans didn’t have to cross through the detection grid at all.

Leaving aside this and the inconsistencies of Trek time-travel that bring about Commander Sela, not to mention the fact that a true daughter of Tasha and anyone would not look like Tasha Yar with a partial Romulan make-up job (they should look like a mix of Yar and whoever the dad was), the episode does do well wrapping things up for Worf, as well as giving Data a great little storyline of his own. In fact, his efforts to deal with the bigoted Hobson while assuming command of the Sutherland is a better story for him than his last solo episode ‘In Theory’. It’s something of a shame it’s mixed in with Picard’s inconsistency on the matter of the prime directive and the Worf plot, which loses a little bit of its impressiveness when you see how anarchic and ill-disciplined the Klingons can be. No wonder events ultimately turn out as they do when Deep Space Nine picked up Worf and all things Klingon after TNG came to an end.

Overall, it’s a decent episode, but as I say, full of quite a few flaws. For me, it only scores 6 out of 10.

Episode 2: Darmok

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise makes contact with a Tamarian ship in orbit around the planet El-Adrel. The Tamarians had been previously contacted by the Federation, but could not be understood; although the universal translator can translate their words, they communicate by using brief allusions to their history and mythology to convey thoughts and intentions. Likewise, the Tamarians cannot understand Picard's straightforward use of language.

The Tamarian captain, Dathon, has himself and Captain Picard transported to the planet's surface. The Tamarians then cast a scattering field that blocks further transporter use. Dathon utters the phrase "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" and tosses Picard a dagger; Picard assumes this is an attempt to engage him in battle and refuses, and each captain makes their own fire as night falls. The next morning, Dathon comes running and Picard realizes there is a hostile predator in the area. Picard begins to understand the Tamarians' jargon when he recognizes one allegory as a tactic to fight the beast. The two captains attempt to battle the beast together, but the Enterprise's unsuccessful attempt to beam up Picard prevents him from participating at a crucial moment. Dathon is severely wounded.

On the Enterprise, Commander Riker and the crew struggle to understand the aliens' language. They make several efforts to rescue the Captain, all foiled by the Tamarians. While tending to Dathon's wounds, Picard slowly deduces that Darmok and Jalad were warriors who met on the island of Tanagra and were forced to unite against a dangerous beast there, becoming friends in the process. Dathon tried to recreate this event with Picard, hoping to forge a friendship through shared adversity. Picard recounts for Dathon the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story that parallels the allegory of Darmok and Jalad. Dathon seems to understand the story but succumbs to his injuries.

The Enterprise fires on the Tamarian ship, disabling the scattering field, and beams up Picard. A battle begins, but just when mutual destruction seems certain, Picard enters the bridge and uses his newfound knowledge to communicate with the Tamarians. The Tamarians joyously perceive that Picard's eyes have been opened. Picard offers them Dathon's diary and dagger. The Tamarians tell him to keep the dagger as a gift, and record the incident as "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel"; a new phrase in their language.

Picard later reads the Homeric Hymns, explaining to Riker that studying their own mythology may help them relate to the Tamarians. He notes that Dathon sacrificed himself in the hope of communication, and wonders if he would have done the same.

Review:

Much like ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’, this is an episode that seems to have wowed the main fanbase and critics alike, and apparently, it’s had a major impact beyond even that. The episode is used by language courses at American universities to illustrate certain aspects about language, and Picard’s citation of the tale of Gilgamesh caused a surge in that tale’s popularity. However, much like ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’, I think the episode is over-rated. As an autistic person, I can’t stand people not being anything less than clear, straight-forward and logical in trying to tell me something, so the idea of a race that communicates exclusively through metaphor and allegory is my idea of a nightmare. As such, this episode is my idea of a terrible story.

Granted, the premise is interesting, but I just feel they could have the idea better. Why not just have Picard stranded with an alien with his comm. badge, and the universal translator therein, shot to hell? That way, you’d still have the language struggle, but minus the idea of a language that was all alien cultural references with no guide to what they referred to. If I was trying to teach an alien English, I sure as hell wouldn’t be using references to Star Trek, Marvel comics, DC Comics or anything else I’m into to teach them. I’d teach them the actual words and their meanings, because only then could they understand those stories, which in turn would allow any references to make sense. It’s no wonder a phaser battle between the two ships broke out; personally, if I’d been in Riker’s shoes, I’d have been going down that route far earlier out of sheer frustration.

For me, the idea that any race would communicate like this is frankly unconvincing, just because there is no logic and common sense to a race communicating solely in metaphor. It would be like if human societies communicated entirely in slang without understanding the proper English language to which all the slang terms actually refer. To my mind, the only logical course for any language is to avoid a total metaphor/allegory/slang base and, in time, to keep the use of such things to a minimum or else eliminate them to avoid unnecessary confusion and understanding. For me, this episode is only worth 4 out of 10 (it loses a lot of points over just how much I can’t stand the idea of a purely metaphorical language).

Episode 3: Ensign Ro

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Solarion IV settlement is destroyed, and the Bajorans supposedly claim responsibility. Their homeworld Bajor was annexed by the Cardassians generations ago, and the Bajorans have been refugees ever since, with some apparently using terrorism to draw attention from the United Federation of Planets. Captain Picard meets with Admiral Kennelly, who tells him that the Bajoran responsible is a terrorist named Orta. Picard's mission is to find Orta, and to send him back to the Bajoran settlement camps where he can do less damage. Kennelly assigns a controversial person to assist Picard: Starfleet Ensign Ro Laren, a Bajoran whose reputation is very poor and who the admiral has had to release from prison following a court martial. Kennelly insists she can help, and she comes aboard the Enterprise.

Despite a difficult attitude, Ro works with the crew to locate Orta. Ultimately, they head to the third moon Vallor I where they believe he is based. Meanwhile, Ro receives a secret communication from Admiral Kennelly and tells him all is going according to plan. The next day, the away team prepares to beam down, but discover Ensign Ro had preempted them by beaming down six hours earlier. They follow her, and are promptly captured by Orta and his people. Orta, who was disfigured by Cardassian torture, tells them that he felt abducting them was necessary, and says that the Bajorans were not responsible for the attack. Picard finds himself inclined to believe Orta, but confines Ro to quarters for her unauthorized beam down. Guinan, who has befriended Ro, goes to see her, and after learning there is more to what is going on that meets the eye, convinces her to talk to Picard. Ro reveals that she is on a secret mission by Kennelly to offer Orta Federation weapons in exchange for returning to the camps. Given her experiences, she no longer knows what to do or whom to trust. Picard decides that the best course might be to actually take Orta back to the camps, and see what occurs.

However, as the Enterprise escorts a Bajoran cruiser to the camp, two Cardassian ships cross the border and demand the Enterprise leave the ship to them. Picard initially refuses, and the Cardassians give him an hour to reconsider. Far from helping, Kennelly insists that the Cardassian treaty is the more important issue and orders Picard to withdraw. Picard withdraws, and the Bajoran cruiser is destroyed. However, suspecting a chain of events like this might occur, Picard had ensured no one was aboard, and had the ship operated remotely. Picard informs Kennelly that the Bajoran ships are so old and obsolete that they were incapable of even reaching the Solarion IV settlement, much less attacking it, and suggests that the Cardassians staged everything, hoping to find someone like Kennelly, naive enough to help them solve their problems. With the mystery solved and the mission accomplished, Ro accepts Picard's offer to remain in Starfleet and join the Enterprise crew.

Review:

After a couple of lack-lustre opening episodes, season 5 really manages to return to the higher quality that TNG, and indeed all of Trek, is capable of on this one. Not only do we get our introduction to the Bajorans, who become a major component in the eventual Deep Space Nine spin-off, and a repeat appearance by the Cardassians (the last wearing their pre-DS9 uniforms, if I understand Memory Alpha’s notes on this episode correctly), but we also get a fresh secondary recurring character. Actress Michelle Forbes, who initially guest-starred in ‘Half a Life’ in TNG’s previous season, takes up the role of Bajoran Ensign Ro Laren, a character whose impact served to inspire the creations of Major Kira in DS9 and B’Elanna Torres in Voyager. Both characters stem from the same character mould as Ro, and largely because Forbes was unavailable to reprise this role in those shows. As a result, she has ended up remaining a dedicated TNG character.

There’s a lot of reasons why Ro is such a great character. First, she is very much not like the rest of the TNG main cast and recurring guest crew in that she is highly assertive and at times confrontational. In other shows, that can backfire (I believe that’s part of why CSI Riley Adams, played by Lauren Lee Smith, only lasted for one season of CSI’s original Vegas-based show), but in Trek it can be a huge asset in breaking away from any sense that Trek is overly, even unrealistically, utopian. She also brings home that even in the 24th century, we’ve not really solved issues of displacement and terrorism; they’ve just migrated out into the stars, especially when we hide behind treaties and non-interference policies.

Next, Ro also brings out a bit more moral courage in Picard, at least in this episode. He’s far more willing to help and do the right thing in the end, and I think that’s in part down to dealing with Ro. However, what really makes you like Ro is she has Guinan’s seal of approval. Whatever you might think of the character before that moment where Guinan tells Picard that Ro is her friend, that statement is a huge endorsement given the unique and mysterious relationship that exists between Picard and Guinan, and from that Ro in turn earns a lot of credibility with the audience.

If I have any quibble with this episode, it’s how harshly Riker acts towards her over Star Fleet dress code just to make a point, considering both the exceptions made for Worf and Troi and the fact we’re given no idea what Ro has actually done in the past. For all we know, Ro did the right thing and got shafted, or did the wrong thing with the best of intentions, but apparently neither this episode nor any others explain what actually happened. It was left to some tie-in comic, and to my mind that’s a stupid error in judgement. Considering how much Ro’s past was impacting her initial treatment by various crew members, it should have been covered in more detail in this episode or a follow-up episode. Tie-in media is for isolated stories of relatively little significance, whereas Ro’s back story is implied to have great significance here. Overall, I give this episode 9 out of 10.

Episode 4: Silicon Avatar

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Commander Riker, Lt. Commander Data, and Dr Crusher are visiting the Melona IV colony when the Crystalline Entity appears and begins tearing up the planetary surface. Although the rapid evacuation into the caves is mostly successful, two of the colonists (including one in whom Riker expressed a possible romantic interest) die in the onslaught. The Enterprise comes to the survivors' aid and frees them after the Entity leaves.

The Enterprise sets out in pursuit of the Entity, with the help of Dr Kila Marr, who is a xenobiologist and expert on the creature. Marr does not trust Data, as she is aware that Data's brother Lore has assisted the Entity in the past. Captain Picard hopes to challenge this perception by having Data work closely with Doctor Marr, in spite of Counsellor Troi's worry that his suggestion will not suffice Doctor Marr's feelings of animosity.

While working around the caves of Melona IV, Marr continues to show animosity towards Data. Slightly confused, Data tries to convince that he is nothing like Lore and has no affiliation with the Entity whatsoever. When he asks her what makes her think he had anything to do with the Entity, Marr reveals the source of her prejudice: her 16-year-old son was killed by the Entity at Omicron Theta, which was also Data's homeworld. She even threatens to have Data dismantled piece by piece if she finds out that he is involved with the Entity as she suspects him to be. Picard tells Marr that he does not intend to kill the Entity without first attempting to communicate with it. Marr is sceptical of this approach, but she and Data work out a method for talking to the Entity.

As Dr Marr works with Data, she comes to understand that Data and Lore are quite different androids, recognizing Data's stoic yet virtuous personality and high intellect. During their research, Marr discovers Data is programmed with the memories and experiences of the Omicron Theta colonists, including those of her dead son, Raymond "Renny". Data tells her about how much her son admired her work as a scientist. At Marr's request, Data reads extracts from her son's journals, in the teenager's voice, causing the emotionally moved woman to cry over hearing the sound of her dead son's voice.

The Enterprise locates the Entity and begins sending a series of graviton pulses toward it. The creature responds, and emits a signal pattern which is a clear sign of intelligence. Picard is elated at a potential first contact, but Marr alters the pulse to emit gravitons with a rapidly increasing amplitude, and locks the program so it cannot be stopped as her desire for vengeance wins out. The amplitude reaches a level of resonance where the Entity is shattered. Marr addresses Data as though he is her son, telling him that she destroyed the entity for him.

Having finally taken her long-awaited revenge, but sacrificing her career in the process, Marr is near collapse. A disgusted Picard has Data escort Marr back to her quarters. In her quarters, Marr asks Data how long will he function, and he replies that he was programmed to function for an eternity. Relieved, Marr tells Data that as long as he functions, her son is alive. Speaking to him as if he were her son, Dr Marr pleads to Data that let "Renny" know that she destroyed the Entity for him, in the hopes that her deed will give her son's spirit a sense of peace. However, Data informs her that her son would not have approved of her destroying the Entity, stating that he loved her work as a scientist, and that in her grief over his death, she destroyed that. He states that he cannot help her, leaving Dr Marr struggling to deal with Data’s response.

Review:

For fans of the Trek films who enjoyed the Moby Dick parallels in TNG’s ‘First Contact’ film, this episode is another example of the Next Gen crew getting to explore that kind of narrative, only with a guest character taking on the role of Captain Ahab against the Crystalline Entity acting as the white whale. It’s an interesting premise to explore, as is Data being able access the memories and writings of the colonists from his home planet. It’s an interesting aspect of Data that is seldom explored, and it’s good to see that getting a look in for once.

However, for me this episode is let down by Picard saying ‘we’re not going out to kill this thing, let’s see if it can be communicated with’. Um, Picard? Lore communicated with the damn thing twice; once to destroy the Omicron Theta colony and once to try and destroy the Enterprise. That means that not only has it been proven by the anti-Data that this thing can be communicated with, but that it is not ‘simply feeding’ as if the damn thing’s a force of nature. Forces of nature don’t communicate with androids, unless this is somehow the Trek equivalent to Marvel’s Galactus and Lore was playing herald (and frankly I doubt that scenario). It’s yet another example of a Trek episode undone by a combination of inattention to continuity and a slavish devotion to the oft-unrealistic idealism of Roddenberry. As a result, I give it only 6 out of 10; if the communication angle had been more about learning how Lore did it and less an attempt to discover the already discovered, it might have earned more.

Episode 5: Disaster

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The crew of the Enterprise are undertaking routine tasks when suddenly the ship is struck by some outside force, rendering much of it inoperable and many of the crew isolated without communication to other sections. Later the crew discovers the collision was with a fragment of a quantum filament, and after effecting basic repairs, set course back to the nearest starbase for a full overhaul.

Several different sub-plots are followed among the various crew members:

The bridge is manned by Counsellor Troi, the most senior officer on the bridge at the time of the incident with the rank of Lt. Commander, accompanied by Chief O'Brien and Ensign Ro. They soon establish that Lt. Monroe died in the incident. They find that the anti-matter containment field in Engineering is rapidly fading. Ro suggests that they split the drive section of the Enterprise off to save those in the saucer section, but O'Brien considers this cold-blooded and Troi rules against it. Instead, she suggests a plan to divert a supply of their minimal power reserves to Engineering to the appropriate panel, hoping that someone there would rectify the situation. This is later done by Commander Riker and Lt. Commander Data. Ro apologizes for considering such a hasty action while Troi acknowledges Ro could have easily been correct.

Riker and Data are in Ten Forward along with Lt Worf and a pregnant Keiko O'Brien at the time of the disaster. With many crewmembers injured, Data assigns Ten Forward as a triage area with Worf and Keiko tending to the wounded. Riker and Data realize that without functioning turbolifts, it would be faster to travel through the Jefferies tubes to reach Engineering in order to regain control of the ship rather than to try to make it to the bridge. In Engineering, they find that the computer remains offline and Data offers to use his own positronic brain to gain basic control of ship systems. Riker discovers the operating panel that indicates the containment field failure, and he and Data quickly set up the proper connections to restore it until regular computer operation is restored.

Captain Picard is giving a guided tour of the ship to three children that won a science fair, a task he has not been looking forward to as he is uncomfortable around children. They are aboard the turbolift when the accident occurs and Picard fractures his ankle from the sudden stop. He calms the children down, and to boost their morale, assigns them honorary command roles. With their spirits renewed, Picard and the children start to climb out of the turbolift and up the shaft until they are able to access the lift doors on another floor and climb out safely. Picard comes to appreciate the children and offers to give them another tour once the situation has been resolved.

Dr Crusher and Lt. Commander La Forge are in a cargo bay taking inventory while Crusher tries to encourage La Forge into performing a song from ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. When the disaster strikes, they are trapped in the bay and find that a plasma fire has erupted in a nearby panel; it is not only letting off potentially lethal radiation affecting them, but also destabilizing some nearby chemical canisters, risking an explosion. They come up with a plan to depressurize the bay to douse the fire due to lack of oxygen and remove the destabilizing chemicals during the depressurization. They safely hold on during this process and reseal the bay with air.

In Ten Forward as they tend to patients, Keiko goes into labour, forcing Worf to help her deliver her child despite having only basic emergency medical training. Though the delivery is tense, Keiko's child, Molly, is delivered safely.

Review:

For me, this episode doesn’t live up to its title in that it’s, well, not a disaster. Out of this homage to the disaster film concept, we get some decent character development for Picard (overcoming his discomfort around children), Troi (her first time assuming command of the Enterprise, though ultimately not her last) and Worf (nothing like making a Klingon play mid-wife to expand him beyond his warrior archetype). DS9 fans would do well to watch this episode just to see the birth of Molly O’Brien and understand Worf’s reaction when he learns of Keiko’s second pregnancy. It’s a fun break from the standard TNG episode as well, its originality and the above instances of character development compensating well for any lack of issues to be explored. All in all, I give the episode top marks; 10 out of 10.

0 notes

thesoundlabyes · 4 years ago

Photo

We have only gone and added a ton of new music to The Sound Lab Radio this week - Winner of Best Radio Air Play & Promotion Platform 2020 UK You can listen in on the website at www.thesoundlabuk.co.uk or www.tiny.cc/TSLlisten and via most streaming sites! Added to the main playlist this week includes: Alfie Templeman - Forever Isnt Long Enough Billie Eilish - Therefore I Am Black Pistol Fire - Black Halo (Peoples Choice) Bonobo & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Heartbreak Callum Beattie - Don’t Walk Alone Celeste - A Little Love Justin Bieber & benny blanco - Lonely Lil Nas X - Holiday Maximo Park Official - Baby, Sleep SG Lewis - Feed The Fire (Feat. Lucky Daye) The Cribs - Never Thought I'd Feel Again The Weeknd - Save Your Tears Travis - Ninas Song Added to our alternate tracks list this week include: Glass Animals - Heat Waves Gorillaz - Valley Of The Pagans (Feat. Beck) Miley Cyrus - Prisoner (feat. Dua Lipa) Tom Grennan - Something Better Josh Groban - Your Face Kara Marni - Close Lee Brice - Go Tell It On The Mountain Less Than Jake - Anytime and Anywhere We The Kings - These Nights We Three - Heaven's Not Too Far Pop Evil - Breathe Again Prince Paris - Ordinary Fools (Feat. Claire Ridgely) SHOTGUN REVOLUTION - Enter the Fire The Dead Daisies - Holy Ground (Shake The Memory) The Nova Hawks - Voodoo MarthaGunn - Nowhere To Run Shades Of Gray - Take Me Higher Stepford Wives - Changing For You voodoo kings - She Dreams Wildstreet - Still Love You Tanagra - Seas of Glass Tara Jam - Motion Sickness The Manatees - Know You Xnilo - Badman (Feat. Modulo) Alae - Frozen In LA Broken Witt Rebels - Birmingham Hatty Keane - Springfield Rd iann dior - Holdin On POESY - Diamonds The Winachi Tribe - Time For Love (Dave Tolan Remix) Bryan "Boom Dice" Wilson - Grammy Nominated Producer/Mixer/Writer - Confidence (feat. Charlotte Hannah) Chris Lane - Big, Big Plans (Acoustic) Colin Clyne - You Can’t Wish a Good Guy Away IDestroy - Petting Zoo Eloise Viola - Tell Me I'm Crazy And you can share all the love on our social media: Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheSoundLabYES Instagram: www.instagram.com/TheSoundLabYES Snapchat: www.snapchat.com/add/TheSoundLab https://www.instagram.com/p/CH8Fyx3nBlF/?igshid=18rvefap8k8l

0 notes

caveartfair · 7 years ago

Text

What You Need to Know about Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt as an attendand of an party in the Primavesi-house, with a house-coat designed by Carl Otto Czeschka. Photo by Imagno/Getty Images.

Most of us know Gustav Klimt as the artist who painted The Kiss, that 1907 masterpiece in which two figures melt into each other in a hungry embrace. He binds their bodies together in the same cloth: a shimmering gold tapestry whose pattern references both intimacy and anatomy. The side covering the man is decorated with erect rectangles, while the woman’s is swathed with concentric circles.

Klimt, the leader of the Vienna Secession movement, was a master of symbolism. He embedded allusions to sexuality and the human psyche in the rich, lavishly decorated figures and patterns that populated his canvases, murals, and mosaics. Often, their messages—of pleasure, sexual liberation, and human suffering—were only thinly veiled. His more risqué pieces, depicting voluptuous nudes and piles of entwined bodies, scandalized the Viennese establishment.

Even so, the city’s elite adored his work and frequently commissioned him to paint their portraits. His artist peers were similarly enthralled with his style, recognizing Klimt’s groundbreaking injection of sexuality, atmosphere, and expression into figurative painting. When Auguste Rodin visited Klimt’s famed Beethoven Frieze (1902), part of the Viennese Secession’s 14th exhibition, he lauded the piece as “so tragic and so divine.” A younger generation of European Expressionists, including Egon Schiele, lionized Klimt and latched onto him as their hero.

Today, Klimt’s work still captivates us. Museums sell more color reproductions of Klimt’s paintings than those of any other artist. But there’s far more to the painter’s life and oeuvre than The Kiss.

Who was Gustav Klimt?

The Virgin, 1913. Gustav Klimt Legion of Honor

Klimt didn’t like to talk about his personal life or work. “I am convinced that I am not particularly interesting as a person. There is nothing special about me,” he once said. “I am a painter who paints day after day from morning until night.” But the details he did leave behind tell a different story. Klimt was an artist who passionately studied his craft and boldly rebelled against the establishment; who was shy but enchanting; who wore caftans when he painted; and who adored his pet cat, and—perhaps most of all—women. (Although Klimt never married, he fathered 14 children and was rumored to have numerous lovers.)

He was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, Austria, not far from Vienna. His father was a gold and silver engraver; like several of his seven siblings, Klimt followed in his father’s footsteps. By age 14, he had enrolled in Vienna’s School of Applied Arts where he studied a range of subjects, including fresco painting and mosaic.

He was a devoted student and spent hours in Vienna’s museums poring over antique vases and other treasures, and copying prize paintings like Titian’s Isabella d’Este (1534–36). He and his brother, Ernst, also showed early entrepreneurial instincts. They sold portraits painted from photographs and made technical drawings for an ear specialist. These projects contributed to Klimt’s early mastery of the human form.

Isabella d'Este, 1534-1536. Titian Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Judith and the Head of Holofernes, 1901. Gustav Klimt Belvedere Museum

Simultaneously, Klimt began to take on decorative commissions, such as elaborate murals and ceiling paintings for theaters and other public buildings. In the late 1880s, he populated them with classical themes and mythological figures executed so deftly that they caught the eye of Emperor Franz Josef, who awarded Klimt the Golden Order of Merit for his frescoes at the city’s Burgtheater.

Over time, a steady stream of decorative and portrait commissions—and his resulting financial independence and recognition—emboldened Klimt to take more creative risks. His erotic drawings of women from the early 1900s reveal a career-long interest in the human form and desire (more recently, these works have also been described at misogynistic, a reading bolstered by Klimt’s reputation as a Casanova). But on canvas, he had to be careful.

In some ways, Vienna was an intensely bohemian city during Klimt’s lifetime, filled with decadence and artistic experimentation. But the city’s government and traditional art establishment railed against this avant-garde cultural movement, which was propelled by young artists and intellectuals including Klimt, architect Otto Wagner, composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg, and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

It was in this paradoxical environment, which pitted Victorian repression against freedom of expression, that Klimt came of age. Soon, he began to channel his reflections on desire, dreams, and mortality through lush, symbol-laden paintings. “Whoever wants to know something about me,” Klimt once said, “ought to look carefully at my pictures and try to see in them what I am and what I want to do.”

What inspired him?

Kiss, 1907. Gustav Klimt Belvedere Museum

Medicine (Detail: Hygieia), 1900/07. Gustav Klimt Belvedere Museum

Early in his career, Klimt was enthralled with his predecessor Hans Makart’s elaborate history paintings. Klimt found that he could safely explore his interest in the human form through classical themes, like the trials and tribulations of Greek gods and mythological figures. In the Burgtheater mural, for instance, his nimble, dancing nudes in Theater in Taormina (1886–87) were palatable to an otherwise uptight society.

But after Klimt left school and entered his late twenties, he became increasingly influenced by the Viennese avant-garde. The decadence and intellectual rebelliousness of his peers enthralled him. The Jung-Wien group of writers reacted against moralistic 19th-century literature by exploring dreams and sexuality in their work, while Freud “saw no upright object without interpreting it as erectile, no orifice without potential penetration,” as historian Gilles Neret has pointed out.

Klimt began to reject more traditional approaches to painting that favored classicism, rationality, and naturalism. He started taking risks as early as 1890, when he was commissioned to paint a grand mural depicting the history of art for the Kunsthistorisches Museum. He chose to represent each stage, from Egypt to the Renaissance, through female figures. But unlike the historical and allegorical paintings made by Klimt’s predecessors, he represented his subjects with human, rather than godly, characteristics. In Ancient Greece II (Girl from Tanagra) (1890–91), Klimt’s subject resembles one of his bohemian peers—a living, breathing woman with a brooding air—rather than a serene, mythical being. She was the first of Klimt’s “femme fatales,” as Neret has called the artist’s female subjects—strong, expressive women capable of both seduction and destruction. This mural gave way to a period of mounting experimentation and rebelliousness in Klimt’s work, as he teetered on the edge of acceptability.

Mäda Primavesi (1903–2000), 1912–1913. Gustav Klimt The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Field of Poppies, 1907. Gustav Klimt Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

By 1897, Klimt and some of his more adventurous artist and designer friends broke from the Vienna Artists’ Association, a more traditional association of painters, to form a radical group called the Secession (named after an ancient Roman term meaning “revolt against ruling powers”). Klimt became the group’s president and its guiding spirit. A drawing he made for the first issue of the movement’s magazine, Ver Sacrum, shows a naked woman holding a mirror up to the audience—“as if to invite new inspiration, a new beginning,” writes historian Dr. Julia Kelly.

Increasingly, Klimt’s inspiration became the psychological inquiry and preoccupation with sexuality that pervaded the Viennese avant-garde. A favorite topic of the salons was the battles of the sexes—in particular, the domination of woman over man. Klimt’s early interest in the female form mingled with these themes, and he began to take more risks in his depictions of women. In works like Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901), he presents a strong, sexualized Judith holding the head of her aggressor.

Women had always been Klimt’s favorite subjects. “I am less interested in myself as a subject for painting than I am in other people, above all women,” he once said. But by the early 1900s, his depictions of women became increasingly expressive of their personalities and desires—and of human emotion in general. Even his portraits of society women were rife with expressive features and gowns that looked as if they’d been woven from flowers newly bursting into bloom. This exemplifies an aspect of Klimt’s work in which “the anatomy of the models becomes ornamentation, and the ornamentation becomes anatomy,” as art historian Alessandra Comini has said.

Music (study), 1895. Gustav Klimt "Klimt and the Ringstrasse" at the Belvedere Museum, Vienna

The Viennese art establishment wasn’t pleased. While Klimt had won a commission for the University’s ceremonial hall, critics immediately objected to the painter’s newly “indefinite forms and ambiguous evocation of human relationships, suggestive of sexual liberation,” writes Kelly. In a sketch for one panel of the mural, Philosophy (1899–1905), naked bodies entangle and rise into the sky next to a whirl of stars.

Eventually, Klimt quit the project, but he wasn’t deterred from continuing in this vein. “Enough of censorship,” he said in response. “I want to get away.…I refuse every form of support from the state, I’ll do without all of it.” From 1901–02, he painted Goldfish, originally titled To My Critics. It shows a naked nymph sticking her rear in the direction of the viewer.

Not long after, Klimt took a trip to Ravenna, Italy, where he saw Byzantine art, shimmering with gilded details. It stuck with him, and his famed Gold Period ensued. For portrait commissions (when he was required to stay within the bounds of propriety), the clothing of his subjects became tapestries of abstract shapes rendered in rich golds, reds, blues, and greens. During this time, even paintings lacking human figures—like his landscapes or abstract friezes—were filled with organic forms: undulating spirals, rushing whirlpools, profusions of flowers.

As Klimt edged closer to his untimely death at age 55 (the result of complications from a stroke), references to the life cycle also appear more frequently in his paintings. The Tree of Life (1905), for instance, becomes a recurring symbol in his late work. As Neret has suggested, the tree brings together a number of the artist’s favorite themes: flowers, women, and ever-changing seasons.

Why does his work matter?

Johanna Staude,, 1917-1917. Gustav Klimt Legion of Honor

Baby (Cradle), 1917/1918. Gustav Klimt National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Klimt’s work boldly broke from artistic convention. He ushered in a new period of figuration that jettisoned rigid tenets of naturalism and classicism. Instead, he favored expressive, virile, human figures who made their desires and emotions known. These inclinations paved the way for the Vienna Secession, of which Klimt was the fearless leader, and went on to influence Viennese Expressionism, a movement spearheaded by his pupil, Schiele. With Klimt as his inspiration, Schiele further unmasked the emotional and psychological inner workings of his sitters.

What’s more, Klimt’s mural work pioneered the union of art and architecture that would later influence the Bauhaus and the Russian Constructivists. With Secessionist allies like architect Josef Hoffmann and designer Koloman Moser, Klimt expanded on the notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or total artwork. He conceived both his Beethoven Frieze and Stoclet Frieze (1905–11) so they would blend seamlessly with the architecture and furniture that surrounded them.

Later in his career, Klimt continued to prove influential: The paintings from his Gold Period, as well as structured landscapes he made just before his death, foreshadowed Art Nouveau and Cubism, respectively.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

1 note · View note