#brasilian literature

[saintsaensreads]

The growing TBR Pile : 2024 edition

I'm not a fast reader. Case in point : Storygraph has me pinned as someone reading a book in... 2 months. I say this is slander. I think. I'm not sure. There might be some truth somewhere. But I consume a lot of content either via YouTube or Tumblr about books.

The consequences are dire : my TBR pile grows and grows! So here are some of my 2024 discoveries that I want to read (at some point, I don't know when exactly, it's difficult to say - but it will happen?).

First stop : Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian literature.

At the beginning of the year, I happened on a very short article (in an otherwise very dense newspaper) listing some of the latest translations by a single translator of BCS language. She mentioned the similarities and differences between all those languages, leading me to read more and more about her work and those languages. It made me quite curious about translated literature from that region and ended up compiling a few of them.

Source : interview in French of Chloe Billon, the translator in question, in Pages Sauvages.

Na Drini ćuprija - The Bridge over the Drina -, Ivo Andrić (1945)

The town of Visegrad was long caught between the warring Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, but its sixteenth-century bridge survived unscathed--until 1914 when tensions in the Balkans triggered the first World War. Spanning generations, nationalities, and creeds, The Bridge on the Drina brilliantly illuminates a succession of lives that swirl around the majestic stone arches. Among them is that of the bridge's builder, a Serb kidnapped as a boy by the Ottomans; years later, as the empire's Grand Vezir, he decides to construct a bridge at the spot where he was parted from his mother. A workman named Radisav tries to hinder the construction, with horrific consequences. Later, the beautiful young Fata climbs the bridge's parapet to escape an arranged marriage, and, later still, an inveterate gambler named Milan risks everything on it in one final game with the devil.

Adios, Comboy, Olja Savičević Ivančević (2011)

Dada’s life is at a standstill in Zagreb—she’s sleeping with a married man, working a dead-end job, and even the parties have started to feel exhausting. So when her sister calls her back home to help with their aging mother, she doesn’t hesitate to leave the city behind. But she arrives to find her mother hoarding pills, her sister chain-smoking, her long-dead father’s shoes still lined up on the steps, and the cowboy posters of her younger brother Daniel (who threw himself under a train four years ago) still on the walls.Hoping to free her family from the grip of the past, Dada vows to unravel the mystery of Daniel’s final days.

Second Stop : Polish literature

I learned a lot this past year about Poland (for personal reasons). I started reading about the history of the country, the language, its culture etc. I was at first quite ashamed to be so oblivious to another country from which quite a few of my friends's family come from, and with which French history is so closely linked. Obviously, I started piling up some polish writers in my TBR as a result.

Bezrobotny Lucyfer - Lucifer Unemployed -, Aleksander Wat (1927)

In these nine stories the Polish writer Aleksander Wat consistently turns history on its ear in comic reversals reverberating with futurist rhythms and the gently mocking humor of despair. Wat inverts the conventions of religion, politics, and culture to fantastic effect, illuminating the anarchic conditions of existence in interwar Europe. The title story finds a superbly ironic Lucifer wandering the Europe of the late 1920s in search of a mission: what impact can a devil have in a godless time? What is his sorcery in a society far more diablical than the devil himself? Too idealistic for a world full of modern cruelties, the unemployable Lucifer finally finds the only means of guaranteed immortality. In "The Eternally Wandering Jew," steady Jewish conversion to Christianity results in Nathan the Talmudist reigning as Pope Urban IX. The hilarious satire on power, "Kings in Exile," unfolds with the dethroned monarchs of Europe meeting to found their own republic in an uninhabited island in the Indian Ocean.

Third and Final Stop : under the Influence

I used to watch TikTok at some point, and most of the content left me frustrated, with a hint of dissatisfaction. But sometimes, sometimes, I happened on a great content creator, full of enthusiasm, or a very very avid reader sharing their love for one book. This, unfortunately, doesn't leave me unbothered. And I do admit, witnessing the passion of someone else about a book, made me want to dive into the novels myself !

Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas - The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas -, Machado de Assis (1881)

Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and half-hearted political ambitions, serves up hare-brained philosophies and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to works by Cervantes, Sterne, Joyce, Nabokov, Borges and Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world.

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden (2024)

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

[somuchstrdst]

Same Scout, same

[redcherrykook]

Hi love, how are you doing? There's been quite some time since we interacted

I, i will always

remember how sweet and loveable you were to me when i was feeling low, it made me feel so much better.

I made a request some time ago, tumblr don’t let annex links in anon messages, but i was going through a heart break and asked for a breakup with JungKook with a happy ending, that reminded me Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish

In our last interaction I thanked you, gave myself the 🎭 anon, anyways I missed talking to you

I love your blog and your imagines, I probably have already read it all, i was wondering can you please recommend me some JungKook series from authors you like?

Also i just noticed i never answered your question, i am Brasilian, my native language is Portuguese, how about you? I read in your bio that you are Italian, that's lovely, i lived in Italy for some time, i also speak italian, Spanish, French and Chinese.

Can you tell me a little bit more about you? Only if you feel comfortable, of course.

Always nice to interact with you

hello sweet baby!! I missed you loads, glad to hear from you again. I'm so thankful for your words, so so grateful that my little drabble means so much to you.

Thank you for liking what i write, i love you!<3

Sooo so cool that you speak this many languages!! You're so inspiring. My native language is german along with Italian.

I'm not really a fan of personal questions so i will share some little things about me, thank you for your kindess<3

I'm gonna study psychology in a year and a half, i absolutely love literature and i drink caramel ice coffe every morning. My espresso machine is my best friend. I actually am a huge, gigantic hopeless romantic and that's also why kdrama and romance manga are my comfort hold.

Here are some recommendations of my favorite fics on here!!

anything by har, my baby. @jeonful

the wine series by @hoseoksluna

Also the steam series by her

the all kinds of wine verse by @frmisnow

Promise you series by @luvismenu

babydaddy JK series by @muniimyg

crybaby series by @lavishedinjimin

Infrunami by @kooktrash

Obvious by @lovieku (go read her entire ariana grande songs series honestly its SO good)

There are so many more amazing writers on here that i love with all my heart, but these are the ones of the top of my head!

Have fun reading sweetheart, i hope to talk to you more often<3

[yanderefairyangel]

Bal masqué

Chapter 7 of Vanitas no carte : Bal masqué - The night of sneering masks is one of the most important chapter that serves to introduce several important plot points such as Louis's existence or the fact that Jeanne is a curse bearer, Vanitas's goal or confronting his power's incapacity to restore every vampire, meeting with Naenia and the members of Charlatan etc.

However, masked balls are a recurring tropes, a topos 19th century literature, or more speficially of the genre of "bildungsroman" Vnc shares many similairites with/takes inspiration from

In her article in which she compares 3 ball scenes, Zlatka Timenova-Valtchev establishes that the uses of this topos is usually here to explore the sincercity of emotions and pathos, of a non verbal communication throught words in spite of the concealed identities within the masks

Meanwhile, in her massive essay which also includes Portguese and Brasilians works, Claudia Helena Daher analyses the rise of the ball as a social events, it place within high society and it's transformation into a topos in which she explains that balls are part of a processus civilisateur, and at the crux of a questioning between the indiviual and society, a questionning that had rised in the 19th cnetury with the spreading of romantiscism and liberalism in France after the revolution and the end of the Ancient Régime

(I am trying to sum up essays that are either 20 or 500 over pages long, please bear with me)

Now what I wish to focus on is how exactly Jun sensei uses this topos in the context of Vnc

So we'll start by number one, the most obvious being how she adapts it visually

This chapters opens up with Teacher teaching baby Noé about the Formula and Babel incident establishing the origins of vampires as a whole

After this little lore information, we are met with this page

The page focuses entirely on the architecture, with a zoom out mimiking cinematic language to present the reader with the impression of entering the building where the bal is held and if you are familiar with 19th century novel especially french one (looking at you Balzac and Zola) you probably know that those books love their sweet, sweet descriptions of the settings, overtly detailled and very long but still very important because of the phrasing and the imagery within it

Well thankfully for us, manga can do show don't tell but my point here is that the focus on the spectacular aspects of this scene can be linked to this type of descriptions to set the reader into the environement and progressively immerse us into the world of the bal masqué of the vampire society

This cinematic aspect is further supported by the next page which feature a full view of the ball scene and really shows that Sensei has a an eye for detail, the amount of informations presented in this one scene is impressive, we see several vampires dancing together with various disguises, others in the background on the balconies

We can also see the precense of performers such as a clown, jesters, acrobats etc. We can also see elements proper to VnC such as the giant gear on the scene or the several skulls decorating frames and chandeliers

After this full view we zoom in some more

We see a fire breather, then a couple of vampire, a view of 5 vampires on the balcony, a zoom on 2 masqued women and finally, a panel showcasing 2 other masqued women in awe looking at two people dancing, we can only see the waist of the women and the details of her dress

That is to show how Sensei's guiding our gaze from all these events taking place during the Soiree to Noé and Domi dancing together

So having established how Sensei uses her drawing and panelling skills to restore the spectacular and grandiose aspects of a masked ball, we can also draw some intepretations of what it is meant to say about vampire hight society, which corresponds to something that Daher had pointed out as well, the ball as a societal and social event

Needless to say that the presence of the circus and the little zooming in on innonucious things such as vampires seducing one another or chatting and gossiping is meant to further erase the idea of a difference in behaviour between the two species, especially after we just learned that vampires are a race born from Babel's rewriting of humanity's formula and that there is only one human partaking into the soiree whose later on exposing himself as such, but this representation also fits with the idea of the ball being the scene where the whole world is shrinken to showcase all the differents layers of the society depicted, it's very telling of the vampire's enjoyement and behavior, fitting with the idea of a new world that we discover as an audience, notice that we aren't discovering it with Noé unlike let's say, Paris, it takes us a little exploration guided by the panels until we find our way back to him and Domi, we can guess that's a world Noé is unfamiliar with because of Dominique's comments about Noé's dancing skills

But another element is the striking parallels between the artisitic decisions Sensei took for this ball and the Charlatan Parade, something that Noé himself notices

More specifically, the Parade draws inspiration from Venise carnival

In her essay, Daher recontextualizes the history of bal in society and their raise, establishing the differences between the two as a social event, being that the Parade is a a Carvinal, that is to say popular events often portrayed as chaotic popular events, meanwhile bal and masked balls are the pleasure of the artistocracy and the higher class, it's a social event regulated

They are born thanks to Italy unsurprisngly, mainly raising during the Renaissance and figuring various disguise, mostly inspired from mythology at that time, but regarding the period of time we are interested in, 19th century, the disguises are taking inspiration from historical figure, for instance in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian and Lord Henri masquerade as Henri III and his minion, in VnC we can see this in the choice of the disguises :

one of the vampire on the panel is wearing a fairy costume

Lucas is wearing an outfit similar to what men wore during the 16th century

Jeanne is wearing an outfit matching Lucas's theme, possibly inspired of Juliette's gown

Vanitas is dressed up as a pirate etc

It says that in the 19th century masked balls also had developped a more playful aspects, notably a game of trying to guess the guest's real identity as they were supposed to be disguised enough as to not be recognized, which lead to a whole developpement in the world of fiction as an event proper to plays and eroticism, sensuality and a lose of inhibition, the masked identity allowing fro a freedom of one's inner selves

It's also criticized for this very aspects but also supports the idea developped by Daher and many others as the ball representing the world of appearances, of deceptions, most specifically with the mask, hiding your identity, a notion of dishonesty

Unlike the ball where Sensei focuses on the spectacle and beauty we can see within it, the luxury meant to be highlighted, the Parade of Charlatan is presented as wonderous, bizarre event with a bit of eeriness, the panel focuses on Amelia's eye, the hands of the masqued female figure, then a foot popping up ear her dress and introducing the two main masqued figure, and a third masqued figure holding something, this progression introducing progressively the parade is made with black frame bordering the panels as opposed to the white and this coupled with Sensei's panelling and the use of screentone contributes to the eeriness of the scene before we get to the full view of the Parade, with the use of screentones on every element but Amelia accentuating the eeriness and the impression we are being shown a spectacle out of this world

The use of screentone is meant to darken the scene whereas in the ball scene Sensei uses it to make the scene pop up, shines and sparkles

Also don't take this as me trashing the anime but

I think the colors choosen kinda undermines this effect despite the dark atmosphere, I kinda get why they went with this direction but I feel like Sensei's usage of screentones allowed the element to work better at conveying the bizarness of that scene

Anyway back on track - this parallel between the two scenes explain the subtle focus on the element of the circus such as the clown and the fire breather or the way the gear stand out even in the background, to prepare us mentally to think about the Parade before Noé even brought that up

but this is even more interesting as later on Charlatan manifest, the mixing between these two events socially distinguished historically and distinguished in the narrative is already foreshadowed by those elements

Bringing up the social elements of these festivities might seems irrevelant at first however we must remember what Vanitas is refering to, a still life meant to showcase the futility of life, or even the reference to saying such as Carpe Diem or to the danse macabre, all linked to the brievty of life and the futility of believing in a system of hierachy for everyone is equal in death, nobles and peasants, humans and vampires, that is not mentioning the various elements refering to one motif in vanities, the skulls, present as a decorations in the ball room

Sensei using this decoration isn't simply to sign this with VnC's trademark, the skulls presented within the frame surrounding the characters on the various covers, it's also a subtle way to include a key element of vanitas, meant to remind of the futility of materialistic possesion in rank, meant to humble society in an event that represent the culmination of what vanitas are meant to critique, the showing of luxury, appearances, lust even

In an ironic way, the tragic turn of even that the ball takes with many guest turning into a trance and attacking others is further emphazing the idea that death is constantly prying on the vampires as long as Charlatan is active, that regardless of status, race and even conditions, (curse bearer or non curse bearer) everyone is equal to death as we see by the several victims made in this attack or the death of Catherine

This one might be a strech though but this does reminds me of the ball of the Mask of the Red Death written by Edgar Allan Poe where the main plot focuses on a Prince having locked himself with aristocrats and nobles whereas his people would die from the Red Death, one night where he is helding a masked ball, a mysterious guest show up diguised as the Red death which lead the Prince to become furious and chase the guest until he reaches him and falls death, then everyone else dies and the narrator reveals that the guest was indeed the Red Death itself because no one can escape from the ultimate fate of all living beings (I am obviously leaving out a lot of details for the sake of brievety but what is important here is)

This tale is obviously a commentary in the same manner that vanities are, but the precense of death as an uninvited guest is pretty similar to Naenia and Charlatan's presence in the ball, I don't think I need to further explain how they play a similar role as the Red Death though

Another aspects of masked ball that can be found within VnC is it's privileged choice for love or establishing romance, as demonstrated by Zlatka Timenova-Valtchev so... sorry if i you dislike this ship but it's obviously gonna be about VaniJeanne because ... well... you know why... also NoéJeanne ? Kinda ?

So Jeanne's introduction in this chapter isn't proper, it's mainly Noé remarking that Lucas refered to the plural, indicating he came accompanied and Noé wondering if this means that Jeanne might be here too

We are then shown Jeanne panting and visibly in pain, remember this chapter is the one introducing her condition as a curse bearer so I think it's very interesting that Sensei choose to introduces her in this situation through Noé's questioning on her presence ... especially when we get to the following chapters

Now what I want to focus is the panelling once more, we are shown Noé remarking Lucas's phrasing implying he didn't came alone and then a panel without speech bubble, focusing on Noé looking like he is thinking about something, this something only being shared in a monologue bubble that present panting Jeanne

Now this part of the developpement could raise some eyebrows since later on there is this repeated idea that Noé might be infantuated in some ways towards Jeanne, in chapter 3-4 there were some scenes showing him in awe before Jeanne's beauty and even blushing when she glared at him, this chapter is dropping here another scene that could lead to this intepretation, and this all takes place before the chapter where Lucas invites him and Vanitas to eat and where Noé is shown blusing at her again and even considering to invite her to dance

That's where this post is getting a bit complicated, you see a big reason why a lot of us (myself included) don't feel very convinced Noé would be in love with Jeanne like what Domi is shown to believe during the Attraction arc is that they got few moments together and barely real intereactions, however to play devil's advocate, I'd like to remark that a lot of times there are attempts at interections that gets cut such as Noé trying to invite Jeanne to dance before Domi beats him to it or they end up taking place at a bad timing such as Gévaudan or when during the Attraction arc

Does that mean Noé is in love with her ? Not necessarily but he is at the very least intrigued, and in a way that pushes Domi to believe in this possibility, plus it's Sensei we are talking about I don't think she would put those little intereactions for as small and tiny as they are if it wasn't meant to built something, as to what though I have no real clue but I assume it will be painful because... well it's Sensei we are talking about

That said if we go back to focus on the text itself, Lucas is searching for Jeanne but despite using this opportunity to present us with jeanne's current situation (Lucas explaining to Noé he is searching for her), instead Sensei's showing us Noé wondering about the meaning of this "us"

This could be because by this point they left on antagonistic terms, especially after what Vanitas did, but Noé focusing on Lucas's wording being emphasized by the narrative, even as a mean to justify presenting Jeanne in a state of weakness before she makes her introduction to pick up Vanitas, is still worth pointing out, this shows that Noé is at the very least interested in Jeanne, a plot point reprised in chapter 12, with a dance scene meant to parallel the ball, this time being more of a popular event than a formal party and not ending as tragically, and that this interest, whatever it might be, is born in chapter 3 and 4

That being said another reason why I feel the need to mention this is that Vanitas's relationship with Jeanne and Noé are paralleling each other but also that Vanitas's relationship with her porgresses in times where he isn't aware, in chapter 3 he can't hear them, in this chapter he doesn't know what happened between either of them until chapter 12 , they got on a date while he is left alone with August and we all remember how Noé had to learn about what happened between Vani and Jeanne during the Gévaudan arc only when he had to bring him seek help because he was at death's door

This chapter is furthering that we went from simply not hearing to not seeing in Noé's case, so his interest with Jeanne could also simply have to do with how he has seen that Vanitas is interested with her which is less of a strech to prove

Jeanne makes her proper appearance by the end of chapter 7 and intervene in chapter 8 by taking Vanitas away before he gets killed after he had revealed himself as a human to all the vampires

She is part of the several characters reacting with surprise to Vanitas's revealtion that he desires to get revenge on Votbm, like Noé she gets two panel dedicated to show her reactions,

In the next chapters she picks him up wearing her mask on

Now what's interesting is that Noé could recognize her despite her mask, which surprises even Lucas

and unlike us, who had seen Jeanne's costumes and could recognize the patterns, Noé had no idea what she was wearing, he was even wondering whether she was here in the first place a chapter ago

But back to the main point, the main big step in Vanitas and Jeanne's relationship is him discovering that she is a curse bearer and the biting scene that I won't share because last time I did tumblr told me it was "too mature"

And this ties back to the masked ball used to present scenes of eroticism and sensuality, for a reminder we saw earlier a couple of vampire presumably biting and Vanitas (or rather Domi) himself bring that up

this exchange led to Domi explaining to Vanitas why exactly Noé drinks her blood before proceeding to

So then Vanitas essentially mocks Domi's protectivness and you might wonder why exactly DomiNoé doesn't figure on the list of relationship to be covered, well that's because aside from their dance and reestablished frendship on Noé's part, this doesn't have as much focus as Vanijeanne does, though to be fair we do get to see the genesis of said friendship but the real focus is given to Louis due to the theming of curse bearer

That being said you could argue that Vanitas's frankly sexist remark is there to show he guessed that Domi felt something more for Noé but still goes along with simply being his friend, hence the "conveninent" comment

This further cements the idea that blood drinking isn't an entierly neutral act, it represent something and while in classical literature it's seen as a euphemism/metaphor for the you know what, it's not necessarily the case in VnC, even if Vanitas's reaction shows that he doesn't buy into Noé's vision of blood drinking, but in Jeanne and Vanitas's context, it's very much meant to have this connotation, if the way this scene plays out isn't enough to convince you, I will remind you that Vanitas uses the mark he got from this and this blood drinking itself as a proof that "he and Jeanne are in love" in chapter 12, cause he is a little sheet

However, if we go in detail of what happened in this scene

When Vanitas tells her to drink his blood and in imperative tone, he is wearing a strange smile, the next scene shows Vani removing his scarf to open his collar as he pushes Jeanne against the balcony

It's a scene where a lot of ink and screentones are used to accentuate the darkness of the atmopshere and creating a tense scene, but when Jeanne asks Vanitas why he is doing this he answer

"no real reason", we then see a puzzled Jeanne next to a panel showing his argument with Domi and his reaction afterwards, those are clearly Vanitas's thoughts while he argues that he doesn't really care about what could happen to him right now, possibly linking to how he decided to just throw himself into the vampire's den, we'll also note 2 bubble speech featuring suspension marks, indicating an unspoken, however, when we see the panel showing the character's gaze, the 2nd bubble speech ends up with an exclamation mark, and the little signs coupled by Vanitas's gaze indicates he is realizing something or rather remembering something, this reaction is pretty off in contrast to Jeanne's reaction

And he ends up correcting himself saying he is doing this because he is intriguied, remembering Noé drinking Domi's blood while he was waiting and thinking about Noé being an orphan, we can see blod stain and...this might indicate that Vanitas is lying right now

This could be a translation thing, however the bold text putting in emphasis "either way, I'm in love with you" highlight that this is a strange phrasing (but from what I recall from the anime that's mostly what he says in Japanese as well)

That's like Vanitas forgot that he could just use the fact he is in love with Jeanne to explain him wanting to let her drink his blood, and that's not like Vanitas wouldn't just use that his done worse before

But again, he doesn't think about it or even about a scene of blood drinking he had at least heard up until he had this little realization shown in the panel, before he was thinking about something else

And that's where you will have to focus on the blood spit in white

This is Vanitas remembering something, we don't see what, we only see blood and in white, he remembers this as Domi mentions Votbm and argues that Vanitas might worship them

It's that dialogue Vanitas was thinking about before he told Jeanne his excuse, it's also this dialogue that triggered this memory and this reaction from him, revealing himself to the vampires

This page uses a lot more ink and in the case of Vani it's trying to accentuate the shadows, he is repeating what Domi said but the bubble speechs are black with white texst and twisted, this is meant to showcase that Vanitas's reaction is meant to put us in unease, scare us even

Especially as later on he laughs

This not only puts Domi but also her servants in unease, Vanitas's reaction seems to indicate that he thinks it's ridiculous to think what he is doing is because of a feeling of admiration towards Votbm that would go as far as worship, this is further expanded upon when Vanitas clashes with Roland later on, Vanitas doesn't believe anything and is a pretty nihilistic person when you think about it, so the idea that he could worship anything let alone Votbm is likely what makes him laugh, not to mention everything we learned about his relationship with Luna for as little as we know, this does put a lot of things in context

Anyway, it seems that Vanitas's desire was to correct Domi's mistakes but because of Vanitas's conflicted relationship and him realizing what exactly the book of Vanitas represent in the vampire world, he decide to just set the records straight for everyone and that's where we get this scene

This is the scene that hightlights the skeletal chandelier and where we see the skulls and skeleton, creating a bit of confusion on the authenticness of those skeletons seeing them move like that, but that furthers reinforces the importance of their presence, to see a character named Vanitas standing on furniture made after a common symbol used in vanity could also place Vani on the same ground as the Red Death but unlike the Red death that promises demise to the guest, Vanitas offers salvation (more on that later)

The bit I want to tie to Jeanne is obviously the mention of possession mark

The way Vanitas describe possession marks informs on how exactly he views blood drinking, but this is like polar opposite to how he talks about Jeanne's mark of possession, the framing with the dark background, the blood invanding the bubble speech

This is basically a proof of objectification, that's how Vanitas describes it, mark proving he is the possession of Votbm

This essentially ties in one bow the topic of curse bearer's fate, Vanitas's honesty about being related to Votbm and the status of blood drinking in vampire society while making Vanitas and Jeanne's relationship progress

Given his recollections when he approached Jeanne before switching to "I was intrigued" it's becoming obvious that Vanitas did that because of events related to Luna, his biting by Votbm bears painful memories but by the point we reached in the story, how exactly did it pained him has become a lot more foggy to answer, regardless, him thinking later on about Domi and Noé while the blood stain he remembered during Domi's interogation reappears could indicate that he wanted to see if being bitten by Jeanne would be painful like it used to with Votbm or if it would be like Domi and Noé, but again, the portrayal is showing it's a bit... off, there is a slide there

Moreover this is happening meanwhile Noé is away and suffering (*look at the Vanijeanne date and the cabin scene* God, this is really establishing a pattern huh) so this second the idea that whenever Vani progresses in his relatioship with Jeanne, Noé is kept unaware of it for a reason

That said, to go back a bit further, I commented that Jeanne's costume could be inspired to Juliet from the play, mainly because in an interview Sensei said she had wanted to write a Romeo and Juliet type of dynamic between a man and a woman, enemies to lover basically, however an other reason I bring that up is because if you have seen or read the original play, Romeo and Juliet meet and fell in love during a... masked ball

Crazy I know, however the most interesting angle about this chapter is the thematic of the masks and who is wearing it and why

So it might seems like everyone is wearing one, however this isn't quite exact

If we look at the masks, Jeanne and Veronica wear a mask fully covering their face, Domi, Noé and the majority of vampires wears a loup mask (one that cover only the upper half of the face) and Vanitas just wears a eye patch, meanwhile other characters such as Lucas or Rutheven have their face fully exposed

Eyes are the windows of the soul, hiding them ties to a larger motif of the eyes present within VnC be it the vampire's eyes, the dhampir's eyes, the eyes of Misha and Vani or some characters having heterochromia, one eye bandanged, vision, the glasses the dhamps wear to hide themselves etc.

No matter what mask they are wearing, the eyes are always the hidden part,

The meaning of who is wearing a mask and who isn't can varry but this is where we go to the heart of Vnc's way of handling this specific topos : to talk about what is hidden within

For example, in regards to Lucas no wearing one it could be argued that's because he has nothing to hide in contrast of a whole society that is constantly hiding their true selves but in the present context the mask is an accessory meant to emphasize what it reveals of the person wearing

Because it's a masked ball, Charlatan can easily inflitrates and there is nothing that help distinguish the curse bearer from non bearer but the curse bearer are wearing a double mask, the literal one and a figurative one refering to their hiding their conditions

In the case of Jeanne, her wearing a full mask rather than a loup is making her standing out from everyone else, outside of Veronica, Lucas's escort and Charlatan, other characters all wear a loup

So in Jeanne's case it could be said that's because she is trying to hide her nature as a curse bearer, therefore Vanitas unmasking her (literaly) is meant to fit with him unveling her secret, thus removing her figurative mask, this could also tie with the notion of Pathos presented by Zlatka Timenova-Valtchev, the freedom given by the mask to give in your impulses, as Jeanne is given the permission from Vanitas to quench her thirst and to stop repressing herself, which we saw her do earlier, that's how she is introduced, fighting back her urges

In the case of Domi, she does take off her mask herself as she introduces Vanitas to

Unlike Jeanne she wears a loup which means only a part of her face is hidden, therefore this means only a part of her figurative mask is taken off during this scene

She isn't gonna reveal her true self or at least not entirely, what's revealed rather is what she intents to do to Vanitas and why, but it's becoming clear in her argument with Vani she isn't telling us everything but this chapter and the later chapters will help us realize that Domi as presented in the early story is still acting the way she does as a way to cope, she is acting in a way she believes doesn't reflect how she truly is inside as we see in the lastest chapter in how she praises Jeanne and how she is shown to be suffering from self accepting issues. In short, Domi is wearing a partial mask because she is already wearing one, hiding her true self under a mask of charisma and assurance

When it comes to Noé and Vanitas though this goes wild, and yeah this is by this point I am going to tackled their relationship and Noé's relationship with Louis (mostly because this is this angle of Louis that is explored in those chapters)

Noé wears a Loup too, however he doesn't seem to be wearing a mask unlike Domi and Vani or even Jeanne, but the truth behind the mask that is revealed in those chapters is his relationship with Louis and also a look to Noé's inner darkness which makes him more vulnerable and easy to exploit

This is a scene that is very interesting, especially compared to how Vanitas's own feelings about himself contrast drastically Noé's reaction but that further explores Noé's desire to help people as also resulting from the traumatic experience of failing to save his friends

Whereas for Vanitas he is wearing a triple masks if not more

2 literal ones and one gigantic figurative one, one that resists everyone to this day

Of course there is the eye patch, but also the pomander made to hide the fact he is human

The fact he is wearing such a simple accesory to hide his face would in my opinion highlight the idea that rather than it being to fit his pirate costume, it's his pirate costume that exist to match his eye patch

Vanitas is already wearing a mask, so his face being barely hidden would make sense with the idea he is already wearing one that hides more than a loup or a full mask, in that sense the pirate costume would be the only match of a mask that still hides him but also not entirely or not as partially as the loup, so the unveiling in this chapter can only be partial

He loses his eye patch during his session with Domi (what am I supposed to call that) but his second literal mask (his pomander) is something he takes off by himself when he reveals himself to the vampire, however this intereaction and the one he has with Jeanne later on helps pierce if for a moment through his figurative mask, he is already revealing an important information about his relationship with Votbm, he is their possession and he wants to take revenge on them, it's possibly so antagonistic that Vanitas takes offense and find utterly ridiculous the notion he worships them to the point he feels the needs to reveal himself to the whole world of the vampire aristocracy

However, it seems he does put his figurative mask back when approaching Jeanne, not when he tells her to drink his blood but rather when he tries to give her a better explanation than the one he gave her first hand

So while Vani manages to break through her mask easily because outside of her curse bearer nature and her bourreau persona she doesn't hide much, breaking through Vani's will take more time because he is hiding a lot more, and Noé will get to see one of the things that Vanitas "hid" from him

I am using "hid" because Vanitas didn't exactly tried to hide that but rather there has been no occassions for him to show this side of his power

So an important element of Louis story being introduced here isn't only to showcase Noé's darkness but also to highlight his cowardice

Noé was incapable of killing Louis and granting him the salvation Louis wished for

However this specific idea of killing = salvation ? is reused in this very chapter

Vanitas is amusing two vampire girls, one named Catherine and her little sister and everyone commented on how it gave them flashbacks of the flower girl from PH because Vani gave her a flower and her ending was tragic too

So this girl and her sister aren't wearing a mask, and while you could argue that it's for the same reason as Lucas, they aren't hiding anything, I would argue that for Catherine, it's precisely because she is already wearing one, one she isn't aware of but one nonethless and of course her mask falls off like the rest of the guests, Jeanne and Noé's (past) when Naenia enters the scene

This moment where Vanitas intervenes would tie back to what I said about Noé's perception of Vanitas, up until this very chapter Vanitas always succeeded in restoring the vampire's corrupted names

They were saved and by that Noé meant "alive and well", that's how Noé views salvation and what it had wished for his friends, but when he thanks Vani, Vani replies with a black speech bubble telling Noé's he got the wrong idea about this, and when you have the fresh memories of Louis story, we will see Noé is going to repeat the same mistake he dreaded over and was reminded off a bit ago

When Vanitas arrives to heal Catherine, the girl he offered a flower to and that even Noé remembers, he comments that it's too late and little digression but her lack of mask and mention of name makes it a lot easier to remember her after all the informations we were asked to digest but seeing her face and name also helps humanizing her enough in the little time she was given for us to find tragic what's going to happen

Yet she still has moving dialogue where she begs Vanitas to kill her with black speech bubble, crying because she doesn't want to hurt her sister

more speficially she says "before I kill my sister too" meaning that she killed other people, potentially even their own mother, but enough disgression, this request is obviously similar to Louis's desire to be killed by Noé and later on Jeanne and then Vanitas asking someone to be killed (this one scene really makes vanitas's "it has to be me who kill you" and "if I had to be kill it has to be him" gain even more weight than it already had and imo it's because we see Vanitas is doing what people begging him to do, even when it's about killing)

Noé tries to stop him, fails, gets angry at him and when Vanitas mentions he was saving her, Noé had an immediate flashback comparing Catherine to Louis before he asks one of the main thematical question of VnC : what is salvation ?

One that ties back to the backstory we were told about Paracelsus

Paracelsus came up with his formula theory to ensure humans would not suffer from illness anymore and to guide them to happiness (which danse macabre in background please) in other words : to lead humanity to salvation

The mentions of illness and salvation obviously ties back to Vanitas, a man who swore to heal the vampire's illness to save them, but unlike Paracelsus whose (so far) seemignly doing it genuinely, Vani does it because of his revenge against Votbm, that being said his very omnious phrasing of "saving them without fail" should have highlighted that what Vanitas considers salvation would be very different from the conception Noé or Paracelsus had of this term, and thus from us since we are likely thinking like them : saying someone is preventing them from harm's way and ensuring they are alive and safe

Vanitas's defintion aligns with Louis : saving means preventing one to become a monster, it is preventing one from suffering any longer in a state where they do not even have any longer the appearance or bearing of humans

The transformations of curse bearer into beings losing anthropomorphic traits, into "monsters", "beasts" plays directly into the diabolization we see humans perform against them when they had been characterized many times and even a in this chapters as being human like being, Catherine's plea to kill her before she harms her sister is showing she retained a thread of humanity and that she is using this to plead for her family rather than her, maybe realizing that it's too later for her

So this chapter is lifting a veil/mask on one of the reality of Vanitas's power, a tragic one but also one that must makes us think, and in the case of Noé in particular, reminds him of his own weaknesses

He didn't just failed to save Louis by his definition (making sure he is still alive) but also by Vanitas and Louis definition (making his suffering end), so in the same way that Noé will lecture August about him blaming Vanitas before realizing he literaly did the same thing (and he believed Vani was mad at him for that when ... no he was mad that Noé intervened between him and August, this does show Noé isn't that good at deciphering Vani), Noé repeats once more his mistakes of believing in one definition of salvation before reflecting on what exactly does that mean being "saved", something that steems from his own cowardice of not being able to "save" people in a way that doesn't align with his own definition

So I'll conclude by saying this : the balls chapters really cover a lot of thematic ground and every panel is sparkled within details that foreshadows not only the great thematics and questioning of this chapters but even informations about the cast at large, playing within larger motifs used by sensei and cleverly reusing a popular topos with its own twists

[fabiansteinhauer]

Zwirner

1.

Kollege RS hat mich darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass eine Biographie von Rudolf Zwirner erschienen ist. Er war kuratorisch in die Ausstellung Westkunst involviert, die im Rheinland einen gewissen legendären Charakter besitzt, was sich früh schon daran zeigte, dass man als Jugendlicher der Achtziger Jahre besonders dann abheben konnte, wenn man in seinem Zimmer einen Katalog dieser Ausstellung hatte (am besten abgegriffen, also intensiv und lässig genutzt!). Wenn ich mich recht erinnere, ist das auch literarisch irgendwo schon verarbeitet worden, vermutlich von den Popliteraten.

Es war schon wichtig, über bestimmte Schallplatten zu verfügen, bestimmte Literatur im Regal zu haben und eventuell auch, ein gutes Poster an der Wand zu haben. Der Katalog der Ausstellung Westkunst war aber ein Megagipferli im Zimmer, der Supertrumpf, Türöffner in die die höchsten Kreise und das intensivste Kreisen. Been there, done that.

2.

Zwirner hatte einen dicken Wagen, Beuys hatte einen dicken Wagen. Michael Werner besaß eine Galerie mit scheinbar nach oben hin nicht enden wollenden Flügeltüren. Die Jungs zeigten Jungs, die ein bloßes, archaisches Gefolge mit sich führten (nicht nur Immendorff führte das mit sich).

Das war nicht die Zeit, in der Galeristen einen Privatjet besaßen, in der Galeristen auch keine Zweitgalerie in St. Moritz hatten (Ausnahme: Bruno Bischofberger) und in der sich auch unter dem Begriff Zweitcytwombly (der zweite Cy Twombly für die gerade aktuelle Ehefrau) noch niemand etwas vorzustellen wagte, sprich: die Achtziger Jahre waren noch eine durch und durch bescheidene und asketische Zeit, in der man in Westdeutschland in Bescheidenheit und Askese, züchtig und folgsam lebte. Alle waren gesund und munter, außer den Kranken. Die Leute sparten viel In dieser Zeit waren die Richters und Kiefers nicht auf Jahre im Voraus, quasi trabilike, schon verkauft, weil plötzlich Russen, Mexikaner, Brasilianer, Chinesen und Araber (die von Kemp mit erstaunlich leichter Einseitigkeit genannten Oligarchen) auch so ein Ding haben wollen. Das war das am Kargheitsideal lebende Mittelalter der heute an den Schalthebeln noch Schaltenden.

[eddieangel]

◇ WELCOME TO THE EDDIE BLOG!

☆ about me!

I'm eddie! I'm a disabled, medium needs autistic person with paranoia and chronic pain and fadigue.

I'm brasilian!! And proud!!

I have very bad brain fog and do not speak english naturally so i'm sorry for any spelling mistakes!

I don't want children on my blog, it does not mean i think less of any of you! I just don't think this is the right space.

My favourite colors are pink and orange!

I'm an bisexual enby boy! My pronouns are he/they/bear/angel!

I am a religious neopagan hellenic polytheist, even if i don't speak much about it. I'm specially connected with my god Dionysus!

I'm a recently discovered posic and objectum as of 2024, i age regress sometimes as a sfw coping mechanism, i do furry content for myself but mostly don't post it.

Everyday of every month is halloween for me!

I enjoy doing art and literature, most of which i do not post unless it's fandom!

I reblog like crazy, but i do add to the posts from time to time.

Please please dm me! Let's be buddiez!!!

☆ here you'll find...

■posic and objectum content!

■fandoms such as pressure, the toxic cesspit, dreams of an insomniac, sonic the hedgehog, mlp, cult of the lamb, resident evil and other horror games, minecraft, fnaf, studio ghibli, friday night funkin, fullmetal alchemist, percy jackson, a24's movies, creepypasta, hello kitty and sanrio, vocaloid, invader zim, mitski, the crane wives, tf2, gravity falls, better half, homestuck AND OTHERS!

■lgbtq+ discussions

■illness, disorder and disability discussions

■memes, shitposts and dumb shit

■current state of the political and social scene aswell as identity discussion

■late 2000s to early 2010s media and fashion (i'm one of those)

■VERY rare art

■dogboy stuffz

☆ Do not follow list -

▪anti-otherkin or anti-furries, anti-posic or objectum, anti-neopronouns, anti-agere anti-xenopronouns, anti-mogai or anti-gender hoarders.

▪16-, zoo, pedo or incest apologists, proship, radqueers and transids, terfs and transphobes, homophobes, xenophobes and racists.

■ cluster-b/schizophrenia/paranoia/psychosis abuse believers, anti-endogenic systems, anti-self diagnosis, ableists and the such.

■(or not. You can follow me but i will shadow block/straight up block you depending on who you are)

[alineonfire]

COURSERA_WEEK1 How sleep habits influence personality ?

Among the impressive number of data available on the ADD HEALTH documentation and code book, I paid attention more precisely to the data relating to sleep patterns.

The variables describe both bedtime and wake-up times on work, school or similar activities days, as well as for days without constraints.

They are respectively :

Working day wake-up time : H4SP1H; H4SP1M; H4SP1T

Working day bedtime : H4SP2H; H4SP2M; H4SP2T

Day without constraints wake-up time : H4SP3H; H4SP3M; H4SP3T

Day without constraints bedtime : H4SP4H; H4SP4M; H4SP4T

I would like to study whether these sleep patterns impact personality.

Code is very large to describe personality. It includes both descriptive variables of behavior (stable/unstable; structured/disordered; cartesian/creative, etc.) but also variables relating to relationships with others (empathetic/egoistic; extroverted/introverted, etc.).

I, then, carried out a bibliographic review to guide my research.

Adriane M. Soehner et al. [1] in her article ‘Personality Correlates with Sleep‐Wake Variables’ (2007) worked on 3 samples for a total of 356 subjects aged from 18 to 59 yo (1 initial and 2 confirmatory studies). In the initial e-mail questionnaire, variables related to personality were collected using Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) for extraversion and neuroticism level and Attitude to Life Questionnaire (ATLQ) for sub‐clinical manic‐type symptoms. The quality of sleep was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), by questions from the Sleep Timing Questionnaire (STQ), and finally, morningness‐eveningness was assessed using the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM).

In the three studies, neuroticism was associated with poorer quality of sleep and sub‐clinical manic‐type symptoms were found to be significantly associated with later bedtimes and wake‐times during the work‐week and a more-evening type CSM profil. However, any of the personality variables were significantly correlated with sleep duration variables.

In a more recent article (2018), Victor Hugo Dias Pereira et al. [2] investigates the behavioral effects of sleep on the personality traits in a younger panel of 114 brasilian university students from 18 to 40 yo, clinically stable, using chronotype type according to Horne and Östberg questionnaire (Moderately Morning (MM), Intermediary (I), Moderately Evening (ME)), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and among others, Big five Personality Inventory for personality data.

The results, obtained by MANOVA method, also showed a significant difference between the chronotype and personality traits, particularly significant on extroversion and agreeableness traits. Another MANOVA test was performed on the data according to the participants’ sex. The analysis showed no difference among the chronotypes and personality traits to men, however differences were observed among in relation to the trace agreeableness. MM women showed higher scores regarding agreeableness than ME women.

Stephan, Y., Sutin et al. (2018) [3] presents a large synthesis combining 4 studies (the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the Midlife in the United States Study, the Health and Retirement Study, and the Midlife in Japan Study) with a total of more than 22 000 adults from 30 to 107 yo whose personality and sleep quality were assessed at baseline and again 4 to 10 years later. Once again, poor sleep quality at baseline was associated with steeper declines in extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and a smaller decrease in neuroticism over time. In this analysis, openness and agreeableness were unrelated to sleep quality.

CONCLUSION

The literature review highlights that a state of neurosis (anxiety, depression), low extroversion, low open-mindness are often associated with poorer overall sleep habits and could also affect kindness traits.

Based on my curiosity and my literature review, among ‘Personality’ variables from ADD HEALTH codebook, I am going to focus on the following, representative of the selected traits :

Optimistic (H4PE7) / Pessimistic (H4PE31)

Empathetic (H4PE18) / Insensitive (H4PE26)

Stable (H4PE16) / Unstable (H4PE20)

Thus, the question becomes clearer: How does the duration and timing of sleep impact personality in terms of turn of mind,  kindness and stability of behavior, assuming that late falling asleep and lack of sleep negatively affect these parameters.

I keep in mind that quality of sleep (represented as H4SP5 and H4SP6) could also interfere with the hypothesis that poor sleep quality is associated with detrimental personality trajectories.

REFERENCES

[1] Adriane M. Soehner, Kathy S. Kennedy &Timothy H. Monk. Personality Correlates with Sleep‐Wake Variables. Chronobiology International, The Journal of Biological and Medical Rhythm Research, Volume 24, 2007 - Issue 5 – Pages 889-903. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420520701648317

[2] Victor Hugo Dias Pereira, Luiz Henrique de Carvalho Diniz Melo, Natanael Antonio dos Santos, Melyssa Kellyane Cavalcanti Galdino, Michael Jackson Oliveira Andrade. Personality Traits and Behavioral Sleep Patterns: Differences between Men and Women. Trends in Psychology/Temas em Psicologia – Março 2018 - Vol. 26, nº 1 – Pages 199-213. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/tp/v26n1/en_v26n1a08.pdf

[3] Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R., Bayard, S., Križan, Z., & Terracciano, A. Personality and sleep quality: Evidence from four prospective studies. Health Psychology, (2018) 37(3), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000577

[mundoliteratura]

[bigheartblacklungs]

I had no children, I did not transmit the legacy of our misery to any creature.

- Machado de Assis, by “Posthumous Memoirs of Bras”.

[strawhatsufi]

reading a brasilian portuguese textbook on the bus and shaking my head so people know i don't approve of the use of historical literature as the basis for a modern prestige dialect

streaming my live reaction to a brasilian portuguese textbook

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

Based on the 1954 Vinícius de Moraes theater play Orfeu da Conceição (Orpheos of Conceição), Black Orpheus is a 1959 film directed by Marcel Camus, a french production made in Brazil and in the portuguese language. It is a retelling of the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Rio during Carnaval. Orfeo is a trolley conductor who moonlights as a dancer in a samba school. He is engaged to be married to the gorgeous and passionate Mira, bu doesn't seen too enthused about it. On his trolley car, he meets Eurydice, who has arrived in Rio from the countriside because she is being chased by a mysterious man who she thinks is trying to kill her. Orfeo and Eurydice fall in love, but the strange man -Death himself- is still stalking her. Black Orpheus was shot in a shoestring budget, with a cast of amateurs (with the exceptions of Lea Garcia and female lead Marpessa Dawn). It won both the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the favorite film of Black Panther's leader Huey Newton, and of Ann Dunham, the mother of Barack Obama. It was remade with the title Orfeo (Orpheus) in 1999, starring Patrícia França singer and actor Toni Garrido and with direction by Cacá Diegues. Now you know that the Broadway musical Hadestown has an spiritual ancestour.

[saylor-twips]

Es justamente la posibilidad de realizar un sueño lo que hace que la vida sea interesante

Paulo Coelho (El Alquimista)

[fabiansteinhauer]

Norma

Sie trägt gute Literatur aus Russland schon im Namen und besseres Russland im Herzen: Norma Schneider. Kann man ein Buch über ein Land schreiben, ohne in das Land zu kommen? Die besten Reiseführer werden in Zimmern geschrieben, die nicht verlassen werden, durch Kopfreisen. Es geht also, auch wenn im Schreiben wie im Reisen dann was schief gehen kann.

Schneiders Buch basiert in weiten Teilen auf Internetrecherche. (Rechts-) Theorien Russlands legen aber nahe, dass Russland ohnehin ein artifizieller, kunstvoller und künstlicher Ort ist. Überall auf der Welt sind Dörfer gestellt, künstliche Orte, die in echt nicht natürlich und natürlich nicht in echt gewachsen sind. Aber dieses Land hat das explizit gemacht, mit den Potjomkinschen Dörfern. In Brasilien gibt es künstliche Parkplätze, sogar Potjomkinsche Parkplätze, aber obschon die Brasilianer die Russen Südamerikas sind und das im Nordosten gerne vorführen, nennen sie ihre Parkplätze nicht extra künstliche oder gar Potjomkinsche Parkplätze. So etwas gibt es nur in Russland. Weil darüber hinaus die russische Gegenkultur in weiten Teilen im Internet sich abspielt, hat Schneider richtig recherchiert.

In dem Buch gibt es Passagen, die Russland erklären, das sind prekäre Stellen, weil Erklärungen keine Verstehungen sind. Ino Augsberg hat einmal über einen Autor gesagt, der wolle eher etwas erklären als etwas verstehen. In dem Sinne können die erklärenden Passagen in Schneiders Buch prekär sein, aber glücklicherweise will Schneider verstehen, noch mehr: Sie gibt weiter, verstehen zu wollen. In Russland leben unter anderem Russen, die zu den erklärensten Völkern der Welt gehören. Hat man genug Geld, um sich einmal einen Tag lang in einen Sessellift zu setzen, der den Suvrettahang bei St. Moritz hoch und runter gondelt, und beobachtet man dann Leute, die während dieser Fahrt ihren Gefährten alles das erklären, was sich entweder bewegt oder still wahrnehmbar ist, dann werden das höchstwahrscheinlich Russen sein. Russland zu erklären ist in Russland nicht nur hohe Kunst, auch Alltag und Genuß (wenn auch der Art nach, mit dem Leute Zigaretten, Bier und Schnaps genießen). Man muss sich nicht unbedingt daran messen, im Zweifel kommt man eh nicht mit.

Aber Norma Schneider trägt gute russische (zumal rechtstheoretische) Literatur in ihrem Namen (nämlich Sorokins Buch über oströmische Digesten, also gesetzesartige Dinge noch dann, wenn sie unartig aussehen) und weiß offensichtlich, dass Namen Aufgaben sind und Verantwortung ermöglichen. Und sie trägt besseres Russland im Herzen. Sie erklärt schon gut, sind halt aber Erklärungen. Dem Tod darf man auf jeden Fall keine Gründe geben, im übrigen bleiben Erklärungen erlaubt, aber eben auch, wegen ihres begründenden Charakters, prekär.

Zu den prekären Stellen kommen viele wunderbare Stellen, in denen Schneider Russland mitteilt, also auch teilt, was in Russland passiert und dabei die Russen teilt. Da habe ich unheimlich viel erfahren. Superbuch für alle die, die an (Rechts-) Theorien Russlands interessiert sind. Norma Schneider fährt Untergrundbahn und kreuzt erkennbar die Wege anderer, das scheint in ihrem Schreiben noch Methode, was kann man sich mehr wünschen? Bestimmt was, aber das ist schon sehr wunschvoll und wunderbar.

[trishvaylar]

Once you get down to writing anything, it changes your world, or at least your perception of it.

For example, writing a romance novel is never the same as reading one. If we take it right back to the beginning, what is a romance novel really? Is it just a story about a female character meeting a male character, then they both fall for each other, or he falls for her, but something goes wrong and only after learning to appreciate her as she should be appreciated, and "understanding how to please a woman worthy of being pleased" (c) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, the greatest classic romance in English literature, he gets the right to be with her? Is a romance story always about obstacles between the man and the woman, any at all? Or is it about a moral journey, undertaken to prove how much he loves her? What kind of romance novel do we prefer and why? I know I have always fancied those which reminded me less about the multi-episode Brasilian shows, where every episode ended with a cliffhanger and you had to wait until the next evening to find out if he finally told her he was in love with her, or to make sure she survived childbirth or...whatever the scriptwriters put them through, the tougher the better. I always gave my preference to profoundly deep, emotional stories, not neccessarily even with a clear-cut happy ending, but with a journey still within. Romeo and Juliette is one of the greatest tragic romances in the world.

But when I started writing my own novel, which is not a romance novel, or, at the very least, not just a romance novel, but more of a mix of genres, I have come to realize how much I have always craved to read something like that - a story, where, from the moment of meeting each other, two people never, for a moment, doubt they belong together. It is them against the hostile cercumstances of the situation in which they met, it is sometimes them against the prejudices of the society, the cold demeanor of their sorrowndings, of the hostility of other groupps of people who do not see their relationship as love and interfere... It is a story, where the reader never doubts the raw reality of their affection. It is the outside world, testing them but never the way they feel about each other. There is no betrayal, no raws, no cheats, no coldness between them, no male-female rivalry, no hard feeling about it being just her to get up at night to feed and wash and put the baby back to sleep, for he does it also and willingly. The novel tests them as a unity, but not what they feel for each other.

Does that seem boring to some people? 'Cause in fact it is anything but. Two people standing as a mutual front, as a family against all the tests lifd throws at them? That is what I call engaging story. Plenty of cliffhangers and adrenaline, plenty of characters letting the author explore the nature of adverse human behaviour, of the fact how always the past influences the present. Of a man, who is given his one sole chance to start life afrash, to be taught to love in a very special way and to learn to accept that being loved and told he is worthy of unconditional love he never expirienced before is what could could really motivate him to become and to be the best man she deserves. It is a story of a love started in redemption, and of what it takes to bring out an innate goodness in someone who once accepted that he deserved nothing more then to be alone, betrayed, miserable and vengful, always getting into a fight for people's affection and always loosing in the end. It is also a story of a woman who took an obvious and an awful risk of responding to a loud plea for affection she saw in a pair of hazel eyes of a convict she knew must be someone cruel and dangerous. But it never impeded her will to respond. To protect and nurture, that is female way, that is what leads us forward. She took the risk, she never looked away from a plea for rescue, she exteded both her hand and her heart, and he repaid her but loving her in a way she could not doubt.

What is an epic story of redemption? It is when one would give anything up to be good after being called good by someone who lights the way forward, and for whose affection one is ready to give up life but also only learns to appreciate life in all the ways he never did before.

I know that great writers always put emphasis on redemption being iniciated by the inner "pull to the light" of their characters, love seems to be a poor and a way too simple, egotistic motive for decing to wish to atone and to atone, but I believe that there are ways of presenting this differently - for example, for someone who was always deprived of love, only love, mutual and true, could become both the motivation and the source of strenght needed to undertake that path of redemption, which is complicated but rewarding in a way that allows him to feel it, feel worthy of her love which is what makes him see how beautiful and worth living life really is.

Such a story allows one to explore so much without being contrite. Indeed reading and writing are the two perspective-changing expiriences!

[alineonfire]

COURSERA_WEEK1 How sleep habits influence personality ?

Among the impressive number of data available on the ADD HEALTH documentation and code book, I paid attention more precisely to the data relating to sleep patterns.

The variables describe both bedtime and wake-up times on work, school or similar activities days, as well as for days without constraints.

They are respectively :

Working day wake-up time : H4SP1H; H4SP1M; H4SP1T

Working day bedtime : H4SP2H; H4SP2M; H4SP2T

Day without constraints wake-up time : H4SP3H; H4SP3M; H4SP3T

Day without constraints bedtime : H4SP4H; H4SP4M; H4SP4T

I would like to study whether these sleep patterns impact personality.

Code is very large to describe personality. It includes both descriptive variables of behavior (stable/unstable; structured/disordered; cartesian/creative, etc.) but also variables relating to relationships with others (empathetic/egoistic; extroverted/introverted, etc.).

I, then, carried out a bibliographic review to guide my research.

Adriane M. Soehner et al. [1] in her article ‘Personality Correlates with Sleep‐Wake Variables’ (2007) worked on 3 samples for a total of 356 subjects aged from 18 to 59 yo (1 initial and 2 confirmatory studies). In the initial e-mail questionnaire, variables related to personality were collected using Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) for extraversion and neuroticism level and Attitude to Life Questionnaire (ATLQ) for sub‐clinical manic‐type symptoms. The quality of sleep was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), by questions from the Sleep Timing Questionnaire (STQ), and finally, morningness‐eveningness was assessed using the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM).

In the three studies, neuroticism was associated with poorer quality of sleep and sub‐clinical manic‐type symptoms were found to be significantly associated with later bedtimes and wake‐times during the work‐week and a more-evening type CSM profil. However, any of the personality variables were significantly correlated with sleep duration variables.

In a more recent article (2018), Victor Hugo Dias Pereira et al. [2] investigates the behavioral effects of sleep on the personality traits in a younger panel of 114 brasilian university students from 18 to 40 yo, clinically stable, using chronotype type according to Horne and Östberg questionnaire (Moderately Morning (MM), Intermediary (I), Moderately Evening (ME)), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and among others, Big five Personality Inventory for personality data.

The results, obtained by MANOVA method, also showed a significant difference between the chronotype and personality traits, particularly significant on extroversion and agreeableness traits. Another MANOVA test was performed on the data according to the participants’ sex. The analysis showed no difference among the chronotypes and personality traits to men, however differences were observed among in relation to the trace agreeableness. MM women showed higher scores regarding agreeableness than ME women.

Stephan, Y., Sutin et al. (2018) [3] presents a large synthesis combining 4 studies (the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the Midlife in the United States Study, the Health and Retirement Study, and the Midlife in Japan Study) with a total of more than 22 000 adults from 30 to 107 yo whose personality and sleep quality were assessed at baseline and again 4 to 10 years later. Once again, poor sleep quality at baseline was associated with steeper declines in extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and a smaller decrease in neuroticism over time. In this analysis, openness and agreeableness were unrelated to sleep quality.

CONCLUSION

The literature review highlights that a state of neurosis (anxiety, depression), low extroversion, low open-mindness are often associated with poorer overall sleep habits and could also affect kindness traits.

Based on my curiosity and my literature review, among ‘Personality’ variables from ADD HEALTH codebook, I am going to focus on the following, representative of the selected traits :

Optimistic (H4PE7) / Pessimistic (H4PE31)

Empathetic (H4PE18) / Insensitive (H4PE26)

Stable (H4PE16) / Unstable (H4PE20)

Thus, the question becomes clearer: How does the duration and timing of sleep impact personality in terms of turn of mind,  kindness and stability of behavior, assuming that late falling asleep and lack of sleep negatively affect these parameters.

I keep in mind that quality of sleep (represented as H4SP5 and H4SP6) could also interfere with the hypothesis that poor sleep quality is associated with detrimental personality trajectories.

REFERENCES

[1] Adriane M. Soehner, Kathy S. Kennedy &Timothy H. Monk. Personality Correlates with Sleep‐Wake Variables. Chronobiology International, The Journal of Biological and Medical Rhythm Research, Volume 24, 2007 - Issue 5 – Pages 889-903. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420520701648317

[2] Victor Hugo Dias Pereira, Luiz Henrique de Carvalho Diniz Melo, Natanael Antonio dos Santos, Melyssa Kellyane Cavalcanti Galdino, Michael Jackson Oliveira Andrade. Personality Traits and Behavioral Sleep Patterns: Differences between Men and Women. Trends in Psychology/Temas em Psicologia – Março 2018 - Vol. 26, nº 1 – Pages 199-213. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/tp/v26n1/en_v26n1a08.pdf

[3] Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R., Bayard, S., Križan, Z., & Terracciano, A. Personality and sleep quality: Evidence from four prospective studies. Health Psychology, (2018) 37(3), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000577

[narvana27]

Ok, but like we all know Rai loves Brasil, right? But what we also May know and assume by his canonical behaviour is that he isn't that much of a science guy. Like we saw him reading a lot of scroll in the Episode about Sword of the Storm he loose due to not listening to Omi and fighting Tubbimura. Kimiko often is the one who makes jokes about Rai being stupid, and Im often like:

...

BISH ekskjuzme what? He's making mistakes doesn't mean He's stupid, duh! But like even tho he has no interest in learning boring stuff like biology or history, he for sure knows history of his own country on a good, and maybe surpirising for someone (*ekhem*Kimiko) level. I mean like if you would be with him in Rio or Tubarão or just anywhere in Brasil he would tell you ANYTHING you would like to know. He wouldn't flex over his knowledge, but he would just simply told you stuff about the things you see like building, sculptures, brasilian culture, all of that, and he would FOR SURE tell you maaaany stories with him and his crew. When did they go then and then, what did they do and did and done, and he would be just super happy if you would actually listen to him. He's just super proud of his country even tho he knows that it isnt perfect, so he fels obligated to know it's history well.

(Ps. Also on the side note I feel like Rai would be also good at math and literature 🤔 He wouldn't ofcourse give a single fuck about those lessons in school, but he would be just naturally talented imo)