#brandon coffey

[lowcountry-gothic]

Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. Photos by Brandon Coffey.

[pamwmsn]

📷: Brandon Coffey

"Thought to have originated in the Kingdom of Kongo on the western coast of Africa, bottle trees have a long and storied history. When enslaved people were transported to America and the islands, they brought their traditions with them. Just like much of Southern coastal cuisine originates from slavery times, bottle trees do as well. Brightly colored bottles are placed on tree branches for the sake of attracting evil spirits who would then become distracted and trapped in the bottles, protecting the home in the process. This one was found outside of St. George, South Carolina."

[uniqueartisanconnoisseur]

Lodging in Nature in Northeast Kansas!

Have you been to the beautiful countryside of northeast Kansas? This was a new experience for me! Traveling on a press trip hosted by Kansas Tourism‘s Kelsey Wendling, and Colby Sharples-Terry, I headed to the Sunflower State for some fun, fall outdoor adventure! Along the way, we three travel bloggers me, Jamie Ward of Cornfields and Highheels, and Michelle Marine of Simplify Live Love, stayed…

[mitjalovse]

Darla Records is more versatile than one could have asssumed and we have noticed they house many intriguing idioms under their roof despite them having a certain base. Look, they were basically founded as an indie rock label, so they have to some indie rockers, correct? Well, they do have a couple of them, though I shall present to you Superdrag. To be honestly, I'm mostly doing this thanks to them sounding like a group that worked during the 90's on the scene. Yes, they could sound generically indie for you, though let us be honest here – indie rock industrial complex might be to blame in here, since the latter slowly modified into a set of sonic signifiers that amount to the soundscape many of their peers use as a brand.

[siena-sevenwits]

Thank you, @rowenabean, for tagging me to share twenty(-five) books dear to me. Insert ramble full of caveats and non-definitiveness, because I am an overthinker. But whatever. Let's do this. Here's what I got off the top of my head:

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

How a Book is Made by Aliki

Stalky and Co. by Rudyard Kipling

The Works of Shakespeare (but most especially "Henry V," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Richard III," and "Romeo and Juliet")

Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

Great Tales from English History by Robert Lacey

The Man from Rocca Sicca by Reginald M. Coffey OP

The works of G. K. Chesterton (but especially The Ball and the Cross and The Napoleon of Notting Hill)

"The Man of Destiny" by George Bernard Shaw

Rosie Backstage by Amanda Lewis

Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery

The Shadow of the Bear by Regina Doman

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healey

The Iliad of Homer

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Works of C. S. Lewis (but especially The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, and The Chronicles of Narnia)

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

The Dialogues of Plato

The Works of Charles Dickens (especially David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, The Pickwick Papers. A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol... um, better reel it in here.)

The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson

The Man Born to Be King by Dorothy L. Sayers

"A Man for All Seasons" by Robert Bolt

The collected works of James Herriott and Gerald Durrell hiding in the cloakroom and holding out a single calling card in hopes of passing for one book.

No-pressure tagging anyone who's interested, but especially @informedimagining, @kindredspiritsnotsorare, @marietheran, @firefly-nightsky, and @mademoiseli.

Feel free to do 5, or 10, or 15, or whatever makes you happy.

[wankerwatch]

Commons Vote

On: Finance (No. 2) Bill: Third Reading

Ayes: 215 (98.6% Con, 0.9% Ind, 0.5% DUP) Noes: 19 (94.7% SNP, 5.3% PC) Absent: ~416

Likely Referenced Bill: Finance (No. 2) Act 2010

Description: A Bill to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with finance.

Originating house: Commons Current house: Unassigned Bill Stage: Royal Assent

Individual Votes:

Ayes

Conservative (211 votes)

Aaron Bell Alan Mak Alberto Costa Alec Shelbrooke Alex Burghart Alex Chalk Alicia Kearns Alok Sharma Amanda Milling Andrew Griffith Andrew Jones Andrew Lewer Andrew Murrison Andrew Percy Andrew Selous Andy Carter Angela Richardson Anna Firth Anne Marie Morris Anne-Marie Trevelyan Anthony Browne Antony Higginbotham Ben Everitt Ben Spencer Ben Wallace Bernard Jenkin Bill Wiggin Bim Afolami Bob Blackman Bob Seely Brandon Lewis Caroline Ansell Caroline Nokes Charles Walker Cherilyn Mackrory Chris Clarkson Chris Grayling Chris Green Chris Philp Conor Burns Craig Tracey Craig Williams Damian Hinds Daniel Kawczynski Danny Kruger David Davis David Duguid David Jones David Rutley David Simmonds Dean Russell Dehenna Davison Derek Thomas Desmond Swayne Duncan Baker Edward Argar Edward Leigh Elizabeth Truss Elliot Colburn Esther McVey Felicity Buchan Fiona Bruce Gagan Mohindra Gareth Bacon Gareth Davies Gareth Johnson Gary Sambrook Gavin Williamson Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Gillian Keegan Graham Brady Graham Stuart Greg Hands Greg Smith Guy Opperman Harriett Baldwin Heather Wheeler Helen Whately Holly Mumby-Croft Huw Merriman Iain Duncan Smith Iain Stewart Jack Brereton Jack Lopresti Jackie Doyle-Price Jacob Rees-Mogg Jacob Young James Cartlidge James Cleverly James Davies James Duddridge James Sunderland James Wild Jane Hunt Jane Stevenson Jeremy Quin Jerome Mayhew Jo Churchill John Glen John Howell John Lamont Jonathan Djanogly Jonathan Gullis Julia Lopez Julian Lewis Julian Smith Julian Sturdy Justin Tomlinson Katherine Fletcher Kelly Tolhurst Kemi Badenoch Kevin Hollinrake Kieran Mullan Kit Malthouse Laura Farris Laura Trott Lee Rowley Leo Docherty Lia Nici Liam Fox Lisa Cameron Louie French Lucy Frazer Luke Hall Marcus Jones Mark Fletcher Mark Francois Mark Garnier Mark Logan Martin Vickers Matt Hancock Matt Warman Matthew Offord Mel Stride Michael Ellis Michael Fabricant Michael Gove Michael Tomlinson Mike Freer Mike Wood Mims Davies Neil O'Brien Nick Fletcher Nick Gibb Nicola Richards Nigel Huddleston Paul Beresford Paul Holmes Paul Howell Pauline Latham Penny Mordaunt Peter Aldous Peter Bottomley Philip Dunne Philip Hollobone Priti Patel Ranil Jayawardena Rebecca Harris Rebecca Pow Rehman Chishti Richard Bacon Richard Drax Richard Fuller Rob Butler Robbie Moore Robert Buckland Robert Courts Robert Goodwill Robert Halfon Robert Largan Robert Syms Robin Millar Robin Walker Royston Smith Sajid Javid Sally-Ann Hart Saqib Bhatti Sara Britcliffe Sarah Dines Scott Mann Selaine Saxby Shailesh Vara Sheryll Murray Simon Baynes Simon Clarke Simon Fell Simon Hart Simon Hoare Simon Jupp Stephen Metcalfe Steve Baker Steve Brine Steve Tuckwell Stuart Andrew Suzanne Webb Theo Clarke Theresa May Theresa Villiers Thérèse Coffey Tobias Ellwood Tom Hunt Tom Pursglove Tom Randall Tom Tugendhat Tracey Crouch Vicky Ford Victoria Atkins Victoria Prentis Wendy Morton Will Quince William Cash

Independent (2 votes)

Mark Menzies William Wragg

Democratic Unionist Party (1 vote)

Jim Shannon

Noes

Scottish National Party (18 votes)

Allan Dorans Amy Callaghan Angela Crawley Anne McLaughlin Brendan O'Hara Chris Law Chris Stephens David Linden Deidre Brock Joanna Cherry John Nicolson Kirsty Blackman Marion Fellows Owen Thompson Peter Grant Philippa Whitford Richard Thomson Stewart Malcolm McDonald

Plaid Cymru (1 vote)

Hywel Williams

[conandaily2022]

El Paso, Texas's Marvin Rex Lake sentenced to life in prison

Marvin Rex Lake, 27, of El Paso, Texas, United States was sentenced to life in prison on April 3, 2024. He was convicted of the capital murder of Ahren Joshua DeHart, who was born on March 2, 2020 to Brandon Robert Dehart and Araya Dae Coffey. Lake and Robert were close friends. They first met when they were stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso. At the U.S. Army post, Lake and Robert worked in…

[newmusicweekly]

Moe Bandy To Be Honored at 2023 Texas Country Music Awards With First Ever Moe Bandy Icon Award

CMA and ACM award-winning country music legend Moe Bandy was presented the first-ever “Moe Bandy Icon Award” at the 2023 Texas Country Music Awards on November 12 at Billy Bob’s Texas. Cody Canada and the Departed, Coffey Anderson, Chad Cooke Band, Monty Dawson, Brandon Rhyder, Case Hardin, Payton Howie, Ryder Grimes, Jaret Ray Reddick, and Jacob Stelly performed throughout the awards ceremony, which was hosted once again by TCMA Spokesperson Brandon Rhyder along with his co-host Malone Ranger, on-air personality with 95.9 KFWR The Ranch. “The evening was a dream come true in every way,” expresses Moe Bandy. “I have had a wonderful career in country music. To have an award created that will continue to be given out year after year is very humbling. I am thankful to the good Lord above, my family, and all of my fans. I am a blessed man.” “The Texas Country Music Association is very proud and honored to have created a new staple in the Texas Country Music Awards – the Moe Bandy Icon Award – with the very first one being presented to Moe Bandy himself,” shared Linda Wilson, President, Texas Country Music Association. “Moe has been such a solid staple in the country music industry in Texas, our nation, and around the world, and we couldn’t have been more excited to present him with this award at Billy Bob’s Texas during the Texas Country Music Awards. Read the full article

[egrgegr]

快艇遇爆肝賽程！可愛、喬治同場輪休　上半場慘輸30分斷5連勝

剛奪得5連勝的快艇，接下來將經歷4天3戰的「爆肝賽程」，30日對戰騎士的賽事中，快艇選擇讓陣中主將「可愛」雷納德（Kawhi Leonard）和喬治（Paul George）輪休，快艇火力明顯熄火，上半場打完，全隊只拿下34分，落後騎士多達30分，雖然第四節全隊狂飆42分，但最終快艇仍以99：122落敗。

上半場快艇全隊40投13中，三分球只有1顆，拿下34分，反觀騎士全隊穩定輸出，上場球員皆得分，共飆出8顆三分球，拿下64��，其中勒維特（Caris LeVert）、奧斯曼（Cedi Osman）就貢獻5顆三分球，進帳17分，上半場打完快艇34：64以30分差落後騎士。

第三節快艇沒有三分球進帳，靠著籃下進攻24投9中，再加上5罰5中搶下23分，反觀騎士雖然也只投進9顆，但包含5顆三分球，攻下25分，仍以32分差大幅領先。第四節快艇全隊雖然25投15中，���6成的命中率，但三分球只有1顆，攻下42分，其中波士頓（Brandon Boston Jr.）就貢獻20分，而騎士雖然單節得分不及快艇，仍靠著7顆三分球攻下33分，最終騎士仍以23分差，終止快艇5連勝。

本場快艇有6人得分雙位數，波士頓拿下全隊最高24分、柯菲（Amir Coffey）攻下18分；騎士有5人得分雙位數，奧斯曼三分球7投7中，拿下全場最高29分、賈蘭德（Darius Garland）貢獻16分10助攻、艾倫（Jarrett Allen）進帳15分8籃板。

德國黑螞蟻生精片 黑螞蟻官網 黑螞蟻生精片 德國黑螞蟻生精片官網 台灣購買黑螞蟻 黑螞蟻生精片哪兒買 德國黑螞蟻官網 黑螞蟻生精片效果 德國黑螞蟻生精片台灣 德國黑螞蟻生精片正品 德國黑螞蟻效果 德國黑螞蟻生精片偽藥 黑螞蟻價錢 黑螞蟻官網  https://deblackant.com/

[lowcountry-gothic]

Alligator in Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, Green Pond, SC. Photo by Brandon Coffey.

[pamwmsn]

📷: Brandon Coffey 

Seaside Plantation, also known as the Edgar Fripp Plantation, is a historic plantation house located on Saint Helena Island near Beaufort, South Carolina. It was built about 1795, and is a two-story, frame dwelling in a transitional Georgian / Federal style. Along with Tombee Plantation, Seaside is one of only a few remaining antebellum plantation houses on St. Helena. Also on the property are the contributing original, brick-lined well, a clapboard shed, a large barn with clapboard siding and tin roof, and a round concrete and oyster shell silo. The beautiful home is still resided in today.

It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

[chmerkovskiyvalentin]

(IG Stories) teddycoffey: 01.08.19

[mariacallous]

Still undeclared

Attorney General Suella Braverman

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Ellis

Home Office Minister Kit Malthouse

Cabinet Office Minister Nigel Adams

Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans

Intentions clear: staying in the cabinet

New Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi

New Health Secretary Steve Barclay

New Education Secretary Michelle Donelan

Deputy PM and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab

Home Secretary Priti Patel

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

Scotland Secretary Alister Jack

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis

Environment Secretary George Eustice

Leader of the House Mark Spencer

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps

Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg

Chief Whip Chris Heaton-Harris

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Although the majority have not resigned, the BBC has been told a group of cabinet ministers are expected to tell the prime minister to resign, including the chief whip.

[wankerwatch]

Commons Vote

On: High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill: Instruction (No. 3)

Ayes: 323 (69.6% Con, 27.0% Lab, 1.6% Ind, 0.9% DUP, 0.3% WPB, 0.3% RUK, 0.3% LD) Noes: 7 (62.5% Con, 37.5% LD) Absent: ~320

Likely Referenced Bill: High Speed Rail (Crewe - Manchester) Bill

Description: A Bill to make provision for a railway between a junction with Phase 2a of High Speed 2 south of Crewe in Cheshire and Manchester Piccadilly Station; for a railway between Hoo Green in Cheshire and a junction with the West Coast Main Line at Bamfurlong, south of Wigan; and for connected purposes.

Originating house: Commons Current house: Commons Bill Stage: 2nd reading

Individual Votes:

Ayes

Conservative (222 votes)

Aaron Bell Adam Afriyie Alan Mak Alberto Costa Alec Shelbrooke Alex Burghart Alexander Stafford Alicia Kearns Alok Sharma Alun Cairns Amanda Milling Amanda Solloway Andrea Leadsom Andrew Bowie Andrew Griffith Andrew Jones Andrew Lewer Andrew Murrison Andrew Rosindell Andrew Selous Andy Carter Angela Richardson Anne Marie Morris Anthony Browne Antony Higginbotham Ben Bradley Ben Spencer Bill Wiggin Bim Afolami Bob Blackman Bob Seely Brandon Lewis Brendan Clarke-Smith Caroline Ansell Caroline Dinenage Caroline Johnson Charles Walker Cherilyn Mackrory Chloe Smith Chris Clarkson Chris Green Chris Philp Claire Coutinho Damian Collins Damian Green Damian Hinds Danny Kruger David Duguid David Johnston David Jones David Rutley David Simmonds Dean Russell Derek Thomas Desmond Swayne Duncan Baker Eddie Hughes Edward Argar Edward Timpson Elizabeth Truss Fay Jones Felicity Buchan Fiona Bruce Flick Drummond Gagan Mohindra Gareth Bacon Gareth Davies Gareth Johnson Gary Streeter George Eustice Gillian Keegan Gordon Henderson Graham Stuart Grant Shapps Greg Knight Guy Opperman Harriett Baldwin Heather Wheeler Helen Grant Henry Smith Holly Mumby-Croft Huw Merriman Iain Duncan Smith Iain Stewart Jack Lopresti Jacob Young Jake Berry James Davies James Gray James Grundy James Heappey James Morris James Sunderland James Wild Jane Hunt Jane Stevenson Jerome Mayhew Jesse Norman Jo Churchill Jo Gideon John Glen John Hayes John Howell John Lamont John Penrose John Stevenson John Whittingdale Johnny Mercer Jonathan Djanogly Julia Lopez Julian Lewis Julian Sturdy Julie Marson Justin Tomlinson Karen Bradley Karl McCartney Kate Kniveton Kelly Tolhurst Kevin Foster Kevin Hollinrake Kit Malthouse Laura Farris Lia Nici Liam Fox Lisa Cameron Louie French Lucy Frazer Luke Hall Marco Longhi Marcus Jones Maria Caulfield Maria Miller Mark Fletcher Mark Garnier Mark Harper Mark Logan Mark Pawsey Mark Spencer Martin Vickers Matt Vickers Matt Warman Michael Ellis Michael Tomlinson Mike Freer Mike Penning Mike Wood Mims Davies Miriam Cates Nadhim Zahawi Neil Hudson Neil O'Brien Nick Fletcher Nick Gibb Nickie Aiken Nicola Richards Nigel Huddleston Nigel Mills Paul Beresford Paul Bristow Paul Holmes Paul Howell Paul Maynard Paul Scully Pauline Latham Penny Mordaunt Peter Aldous Peter Bottomley Priti Patel Rachel Maclean Ranil Jayawardena Rebecca Harris Rebecca Pow Richard Bacon Richard Fuller Richard Graham Richard Holden Robbie Moore Robert Buckland Robert Courts Robert Goodwill Robert Halfon Robert Neill Robert Syms Robin Millar Robin Walker Ruth Edwards Sally-Ann Hart Saqib Bhatti Sara Britcliffe Sarah Dines Scott Mann Selaine Saxby Shailesh Vara Shaun Bailey Sheryll Murray Simon Baynes Simon Fell Simon Hart Simon Hoare Simon Jupp Stephen Crabb Stephen Hammond Stephen McPartland Stephen Metcalfe Steve Barclay Steve Tuckwell Stuart Anderson Stuart Andrew Suzanne Webb Thérèse Coffey Tobias Ellwood Tom Hunt Tom Pursglove Tom Randall Tracey Crouch Trudy Harrison Vicky Ford Victoria Atkins Victoria Prentis Virginia Crosbie Wendy Morton Will Quince

Labour (86 votes)

Abena Oppong-Asare Afzal Khan Alan Campbell Alex Davies-Jones Alex Norris Alison McGovern Alistair Strathern Andrew Western Andy Slaughter Angela Eagle Anneliese Dodds Bambos Charalambous Barry Gardiner Bell Ribeiro-Addy Ben Bradshaw Cat Smith Catherine McKinnell Chris Elmore Chris Evans Chris Webb Damien Egan Dan Jarvis Dawn Butler Emma Lewell-Buck Fabian Hamilton Gareth Thomas Gen Kitchen George Howarth Gill Furniss Grahame Morris Harriet Harman Helen Hayes Hilary Benn Holly Lynch James Murray Jeff Smith Jim McMahon Jo Stevens John Cryer John McDonnell Judith Cummins Julie Elliott Karl Turner Kate Hollern Kevan Jones Kevin Brennan Kim Leadbeater Liz Twist Lloyd Russell-Moyle Luke Pollard Margaret Beckett Marie Rimmer Mark Hendrick Mark Tami Mary Glindon Matt Western Matthew Pennycook Mick Whitley Natalie Elphicke Naz Shah Neil Coyle Pat McFadden Paul Blomfield Paula Barker Preet Kaur Gill Rachael Maskell Rachel Hopkins Rebecca Long Bailey Rosena Allin-Khan Ruth Cadbury Ruth Jones Sam Tarry Samantha Dixon Seema Malhotra Sharon Hodgson Simon Lightwood Stephen Doughty Stephen Kinnock Stephen Morgan Stephen Timms Steve McCabe Taiwo Owatemi Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Thangam Debbonaire Vicky Foxcroft Wes Streeting

Independent (5 votes)

Bob Stewart Claudia Webbe Conor McGinn Diane Abbott Nicholas Brown

Democratic Unionist Party (3 votes)

Gavin Robinson Gregory Campbell Jim Shannon

Workers Party of Britain (1 vote)

George Galloway

Reform UK (1 vote)

Lee Anderson

Liberal Democrat (1 vote)

Helen Morgan

Noes

Conservative (5 votes)

Adam Holloway Gavin Williamson Jack Brereton Philip Davies William Cash

Liberal Democrat (3 votes)

Helen Morgan Richard Foord Wera Hobhouse

[dwellordream]

“Legend has it that the erotic historical sprang, full-grown and kicking, out of the head of Kathleen Woodiwiss and stormed brazenly onto the romance novel scene. Between 1972 and 1974 romance sales were down, publishers were looking for a new formula, and Nancy Coffey of Avon books discovered Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower (1972) from a stack of unsolicited manuscripts. Longer than other romances then on the market, its sexual encounters were more graphic and violent and there was a grandness of design, involving extensive travel and high adventure, heretofore unseen. The sweeping popularity of this new formula electrified the whole market; hundreds of thousands of romance lovers became burningly obsessed.

Soon after Woodiwiss’s resounding success Avon came out with Rosemary Rogers’s Sweet Savage Love (1974), giving the new formula one of its names: the “sweet savage” romance. What was it about the “bodice-ripper” that caused such a historical break, a radical shift in romance formulas thereafter? Their essential charm stems from their erotic dangerousness, their near-pornographic sexual violence, and their eroticization of travel, of the world and all its exhilarating experiences. In fact, experience itself becomes erotically dangerous, a sublime reaching toward transcendence, or a final movement toward a heroic and ecstatic death. 

The formula hinges on the elusive and cryptic hero who gestures toward the endless possibility of erotic darkness. Brandon, the hero of The Flame and the Flower, emanates ominous blackness: hair that is “raven black,” skin that is “darkly tanned”; he “sweeps” the heroine “with a bold gaze from top to toe” (31). His desires turn on cruel mastery and imprisonment of the heroine; his evil actions set him apart from earlier mass-market formulas as a character singularly unredeemable: “He had the look of a pirate about him, or even Satan himself” (31). “Tall and powerful he stood, garmented regally in black velvet and flawless white. He was Satan to her. Handsome. Ruthless. Evil. He could draw her soul from her body and never feel remorse” (92). 

The erotic fantasy of being subjugated—terrified and trembling—by such an archetypal enemy figure hinges, once again, on his subjugation at the end of the novel by his love for the heroine. He tumbles from masterful demon lover to having a body that is pale, that trembles, mirroring her physical terror upon first meeting him. “The breath caught in Brandon’s throat. He went pale and suddenly began to shake. He cursed himself for letting a mere girl affect him this way. She played havoc with his insides. He felt as if he were again a virgin, about to experience his first woman. He was hot and sweating one moment, cold and shaking another” (152).

Tossed from one passionate, self-decimating extreme to another, the hero of the erotic historical embodies a grandness of contradiction distinct from other romance formulas, particularly earlier ones, and his dramatic transformation from distant, cold villain to burning lover whose world resides in the heroine is more violently exaggerated than in any other romance genre. It is this excessiveness that pulls the erotic historical toward the genre of pornography.

 Both genres tend to repeat again and again the point of supersaturation of meaning—with pornography this point is penetration, and with the erotic historical it is the passionate frisson between the hero and heroine. Steve Morgan, the hero of Sweet Savage Love, cynical gunfighter, ever-wandering killer, is so full of dark experience and secret doings that his past is never finally told and resolved. Steve’s life as a homeless fighter does not change with his final transformation into a lover; he takes the heroine along with him on his travels, and she herself becomes a vagabond and fugitive. 

In the erotic historical, distinct from other contemporary mass-markets, the lovers remain outside, wayfarers on the margins of society. In all the heroes of this genre, we find something of Rhett Butler from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936) (itself an early classic of the erotic historical genre). A perennial influence on enemy lovers everywhere, Rhett introduces us to the cynical libertine who hides an interior of deep disappointment. He self-destructively gestures again and again to his fallenness, goading society to cast him out more and more: “Suppose I don’t want to redeem myself?” Rhett asks. “Why should I fight to uphold the system that cast me out? I shall take pleasure in seeing it smashed” (240). 

A ruined idealist, he has before him a world void of real truth, of strong principle and moral rectitude; thus he tumbles into the abyss with an unimaginable grace and charm. Rhett presents us with that common twist on the erotic outcast character: the dandy. He wears “the clothes of a dandy on a body that was powerful and latently dangerous in its lazy grace” (179). We often encounter the dandified dangerous lover, as we see with Oscar Wilde’s characters (and Wilde himself and his fellow Aesthetes), the Byronic hero in the popular imagination (and Byron himself), and many characters from contemporary romances (particularly the erotic historical and the regency genres). 

This performance of eccentricity, showiness, and bold statement expresses a sense of mastery over social codes and gestures—a mastery to the point of deconstructing them. Exaggerating such social expressions performs an ironic disenchantment and, to reference stock Romantic ideas, a sense of self so singular that, even visibly, he “stands out.” To “stand out,” though, asks for witnesses to self-exile; the dangerous lover “confesses” his disappointment in a world too shallow for him; his only recourse is to parody this lack of soul. To be superficial on the surface is to point to and, at the same time, hide an interior. 

Confession is eroticized with dangerous subjectivity: the secret depth of the soul is unveiled to the beloved and the beloved only, and when it’s exposed the fact that it can’t be represented is uncovered. Such is the paradox; the lover says: “Here is the depth of my pain, see how it can never be understood.” Yet the dangerous lover’s infinite subjectivity is infinite only insofar as it is confessed and witnessed—its very presentation guarantees its unrepresentability. As Barthes affirms of the lover: “ . . . passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something from you, that is the active paradox I must resolve: at one and the same time it must be known and not known” (Lover’s Discourse, 42). 

What the dandy expresses with his style is that his style can never represent him. While Rhett is a rascal, when he loves he is the best of men, but he must hide this because, more than any other man, he feels he has failed on a grand scale. Maintaining complete indifference for the world and in the world is essential, otherwise his hell will cut deeper, his lacerated interiority will be exposed to further wounding. The world mirrors his subjectivity: a lost cause. Only the heroine witnesses his depths of strength and hence also the depths of his final despair. All others see only his reckless, insolent façade. 

With Rhett we are reminded of the self emptied or the absence of being—his eroticism sets before us our own death, our own darkness. Scarlett describes her first encounter with this erotic: “He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. . . . She was darkness and he was darkness and there had never been anything before this time, only darkness and his lips upon hers. . . . Suddenly she had a wild thrill like she had never known; joy, fear, madness, excitement” (940). Barthes writes of this craving to be engulfed or annihilated as part of the lover’s discourse. It is a dying without the pains of dying, “the gentleness of the abyss” (11) where responsibility no longer holds one in its clutches. 

The beauty of erotic death is replayed in another classic dangerous lover narrative, as well as an early and influential erotic historical—Edith M. Hull’s The Sheik (1921), considered by some to be the first romance of the twentieth century. The sheik of the title kidnaps, rapes, and holds captive an aristocratic English girl. Again the inexorable divide: the mysterious, ruthless leader of a roving band of Arabs and the subjugated, enslaved English girl. The sheik has “the handsomest and cruelest face that she had ever seen. . . . He was looking at her with fierce burning eyes that swept her until she felt that the boyish clothes that covered her slender limbs were stripped from her” (56–57). 

She observes that “ . . . his face was the face of a devil” (141). His subjectivity has the hiddenness of danger: “The man himself was a mystery. . . . She could not reconcile him and . . . [the] dozen incongruities that she had noticed during the day crowded into her recollection until her head reeled”(79). He has exiled himself from his aristocratic English origins; he wanders the desert incessantly. Redemption from self-inflicted loneliness comes finally through true love. His only escape must be from outside, through a transcendence which he can’t possibly see beforehand because it is so exterior to any kind of solution he could find for himself. 

The lover brings the caesura, the utter surprise of an interruption of restless being. As an outsider love narrative, The Sheik ends with the declaration of love signifying a pact to wander together as homeless voyagers. The Sheik makes fast the chain that links the erotic historical with pornography (and we will see everywhere these links between the dangerous lover romance and pornography, particularly in the nineteenth century). Even though Hull’s story is not sexually explicit—in fact, on the page we only read about kisses—she rewrites and romanticizes a popular nineteenth-century pornographic narrative.

The darling of nineteenth-century pornographers, the story of an exotic foreigner—a Turk, a sheik, a pirate, a brigand—enslaving and raping a pale and supplicant English virgin provided the ultimate titillation for the English gentleman reader. The anonymous The Lustful Turk: Scenes in the Harem of an Eastern Potentate, published around 1828, provides us with a famous example of a pornographic version of The Sheik. The narrative of The Lustful Turk, up until the all-important ending, is essentially the same as the sheik romance.

 Of course, with the romance the ending is everything: in The Sheik, the transcendent sphere of love “redeems” the brutality of the hero, casting a rosy glow of forever back on all sadistic acts. The pornographic version merely repeats, unrelentingly, the act of penetration, of possession. No transcendence here: meaning flattens out into a repetition which could sustain itself forever.”

- Deborah Lutz, “The Erotics of Ontology: The Mass-Market Erotic Historical Romance and Heideggerian Failed Presence.” in The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains, Byronism, and the Nineteenth-Century Seduction Narrative

[film-book]

ROBERT THE BRUCE (2019) International Movie Trailer: Angus Macfadyen Wants to Free Scotland From English Rule

#RobertTheBruce (2019) International Movie Trailer: #AngusMacfadyen Wants to Free Scotland From English Rule

Robert the Bruce International Trailer

Richard Gray’s Robert the Bruce (2019) international movie trailer has been released and stars Angus Macfadyen, Jared Harris, Zach McGowan, Patrick Fugit, and Daniel Portman. (more…)