#classic literature? hannibal of course

[begun-to-blur]

what is it about hannibal that gets such a death grip over all of us... like yes i adore the show, yes every time i watch it i notice something new, yes there's a million beautiful interpretations ... but that doesn't really explain why it comes up in my mind multiple times daily. everything can and will be a hannibal reference.

[xielians--lver]

➵ ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

➵ LYNDON

➵ He/Him/His ➵ Bisexual ➵ Dazai - Gogol - Akutagawa - Hua Cheng - Crowley - Shinji kinnie (Will Graham is so me core) ➵ Goth ➵ Introvert

➵ Likes :

Sketching

RPG games

Painting

Reading / Writing

Poetry

Psychology

Philosophy

Music

Punk

Rock

Grunge

Angst

Slow Burns

Goth music / aesthetic

Dark academia

Ouji fashion

Manga / Comics

Red spider lilies

Swords

Tragic yaoi

Motorcycles / Motorbikes

Queer-Coding

Classical Literature

Bats - Cats - Raccoons - Sharks - Snakes - Spiders

Vampires

Blood suckers

Twinks with long hair and deep voice or Russian accents

Ghosts

The Ro'meave siblings

Cannibalism

➵ Fandoms - Actively in

Heaven Official's Blessing 天官赐福

Fav Character - Xie Lian Fav Ship(s) - Hualian | Beafleaf | FengQing Fav Arc - Blackwater Fav Volume(s) - 4 | 6 | 8

Hannibal (TV show)

Fav Character - Will Graham Fav Ship - hanigram (duh) I LOVE HANNIBALITS SO WELL WRITTEN AND AWESOE I LOE IT

Minecraft Diaries

Fav Character(s) - Laurance Zvahl | Zane Ro'meave Fav Ship(s) - Zanus | Garrance Fav Arc - All Shadow Knight arcs

Studio Investigrave

Fav (released) Game(s) - Dead Plate | Elevator Hitch Fav (unreleased) Game(s) - JACKPOT CRASH COURSE Fav Ship(s) - Rondent | Protag \ Coworker Fav Character(s) - Vincent | Winnie | Protagonist

Honorable Mentions - BC I am in at least 40 fandoms

My Inner Demons & Mystreet Sally Face Mononoke <--- tweaking over it might become the only thing i talk abt Good Omens Hazbin Hotel / Helluva Boss Creepypasta Danmei Sk8 the Infinity Black Butler No. 6 Arcane WEBtoons Omincet Readers Viewpoint The Summer Hikaru Died Chainsaw man K project I hear the sunspot Devilman Crybaby Neon Genesis Evangelion Alien Stage

➵ Boundaries

DNI / WON'T BE TOLERATED

| Proshippers | MAPs | Homophobia | Transphobia | Racism | Sexism | Atsushi/Xie Lian Haters |

THIN ICE

| Dsmp fans | Jaxx (TADC) fans | Non-queer men | People who vape in school bathrooms |

^ is made by racheldrawsthis

➵ My babygirls (They're grown men)

#1 Xie Lian [TGCF]

Mu Qing [TGCF]

Atsushi [BSD]

Fukuzawa [BSD]

Fyodor [BSD]

Travis Valkrum / Enki [Diaries]

Zima [Reverse 1999]

The Undertaker [Black Butler]

MASTERLIST WILL BE ADDED SOON

[yourtastefulcannibal]

"Hello, Dr Lecter!" *sits next to him on the bench in front of several paintings*

"Thank you for your thoughts on my photo. It's not John Constable who I had in mind, but it was through my first options as well."

"Regarding your lifestyle as a polite individual..." *she sighs softly* "it's understandable and interesting. Being raised as such can influence an individual's behaviour towards the one you adopted it. I can risk to affirm you have nothing to lose by being like this. Yet, I risk again to affirm some might have mocked you for being always so stoic. But I think we both can agree politeness has done no harm to no one.

No worries, you have answered my question just as I expected you to do. I'm satisfied by the explanations I have received."

"I will refer now to your tardiness in replying. Can you agree with me it's considered being rude, Dr Lecter?"

She looks at the man next to her. "I doubt you would allow such behaviour should the situations (not necessarily with me) be reversed. While I understand time is precious and you are indeed a busy man, I'm hoping you have the same notion and you respect the time of your partners of conversation."

"As for my pseudonym you chose for me... yes, I am very pleased. Its meaning and history are very fitting with my self. Yet, the name is rather rare where I'm from because it's considered being an almost archaic name, used for girls at the countryside. But worry not. I will take no offence whatsoever. Some names, despite them being outdated, still remain beautiful and with a beautiful history."

"You mentioned I am a mystery to you. I would be overjoyed to explain why is that? I often considered myself an open book anyone can read."

Aspasia

Aspasia,

It seems you feel slighted by a perceived lack of attention to you on my side of things. That is a stance you are, of course, wholly validated in holding, and with your explicit expectations in mind I will endure not to further upset you in the future, however to make a promise that I will never fall short again would be to assure you of something I am not certain I will be able to uphold. My intention was hardly to be rude, however if this is how you have taken my lack of prompt response, it is hardly within my power to change your mind, nor would I hope to do such a thing.

As for John Constable not being the artist you were seeking, I would be curious if you ever did happen upon the correct artist in question. I did a good deal of research (a part of the reason why that question in particular took such a great deal of time to answer, as I even neglected others during this period of time) and decided upon the romantic style being most apt, but there are so many painters who create art in this style, classical and modern artists alike.

One reason I chose the name ‘Aspasia’ at all was due to its uncommon nature as a name in the modern age. I imagined that something too commonplace would not be befitting for you — while I also feared that too common a name might be underwhelming, where I promised I would offer a unique name. This is coming from a man named ‘Hannibal’ — at times, an uncommon name may be unfortunate and incide ridicule, but also such uncommon names set one aside from the crowd from the outset. It can be seen as a boon or a hinderence, depending on one’s view in the moment.

You are a mystery due to the fact that you seem to know me, my character and life, quite well, while I do not know the same of you. You seem to be intelligent, a lover of art and literature, and one who insists upon fairness and values reciprocity, but beyond this? I know very little of the woman from Romania to whom I speak. Do not feel obligated to share yourself with me, as I know firsthand that the ordeal of being known, as I have heard it called, is a terrifying one. I hardly feel owed, I assure you.

Kind regards,

Hannibal Lecter

[a-pigeons-soliloquy]

Alternatively (or additionally) Hannibal finds himself getting very bored, so he sets up two blogs with opposing views on classical literature or true crime or something, spends a little while gaining a decent following on each, and then makes them fight

And for the first few hours or so, he has a great time watching people tear each other and the subject matter apart in the notes of his posts! Amidst the general widespread chaos (because this is of course Tumblr circa 2013) there are actually some surprisingly interesting viewpoints that pop up from time to time! He finds himself engaging in debate, laughing internally at some of the more wildly incorrect takes, making follow up posts that spur it all on-

-And then he starts receiving hate mail

Most people of course send these asks anonymously, but a daring few don't, and the next thing Hannibal knows his Rolodex is rapidly filling up with expensive little pieces of card with some of the most questionable and unhinged Tumblr usernames the website has ever seen written on them in fancy calligraphy

When the FBI searches his things in S3, there are... a lot of questions...

(What nobody but Chilton knows is that one of the aforementioned blogs with questionable usernames is in fact his)

Let's be honest Hannibal is 100% a Tumblr girlie. He'd be in the trenches with us. He'd be posting his art of Will's butt. He'd run a hate blog for Tattle Crime. He shares our madness.

One time he leaves the app open on his iPad when Will visits and because of course Will sits at Hannibal's desk sometimes like it's his own, Will discovers the madness. He just scrolls through the Murder Husbands and the Hannigram tags with an increasing look of surprise on his face, like a trainwreck he couldn't look away from.

After a few quiet moments, Will just looks up and goes:

"Why do you follow a blog named willgrahamscock."

[ridingancientrome]

Riding Through History: Equestrian Horse Riding Tours in ANCIENT ROME

The history of Ancient Rome stands as an epic tale that unfolded over centuries, shaping the destiny of a city that would become a powerhouse of civilization. From its legendary foundation to the pinnacle of its imperial might, Ancient Rome's history is a saga of political intrigue, military conquests, cultural achievements, and enduring legacy.

The story of Ancient Rome begins with the legendary tale of Romulus and Remus, twin brothers raised by a she-wolf, who went on to establish the city on the banks of the Tiber River in 753 BCE. This mythological origin, though not historically accurate, captures the essence of Rome's dramatic and mythical beginnings.

The Roman Republic, established around 509 BCE, marked a pivotal phase in Ancient Rome's history. It was a time of political evolution, where the city-state transformed into a powerful republic. The political structure of the republic featured a Senate and two consuls, embodying the ideals of checks and balances. The Republic's expansionist policies led to the conquest of neighboring territories, and by the 2nd century BCE, Rome's influence stretched from Spain to Greece.

The Punic Wars against Carthage, particularly the Second Punic War led by the brilliant general Hannibal, showcased Rome's military prowess. The famous Carthaginian general crossed the Alps with his elephants, surprising and challenging Rome in ways that had never been anticipated. However, Rome emerged victorious, solidifying its dominance in the Mediterranean.

The internal strife of the Roman Republic, marked by social and political tensions, eventually culminated in the rise of Julius Caesar. Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BCE ignited a civil war, and his eventual appointment as dictator marked the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.

The subsequent period witnessed the rise of Augustus Caesar as the first Roman Emperor, signaling the start of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) – a time of relative stability and prosperity that lasted for around two centuries. During this era, Rome reached the zenith of its territorial expansion, encompassing regions from Britain to Egypt.

The architectural marvels of Ancient Rome, such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon, stand as enduring symbols of Roman engineering and innovation. The city's cultural achievements in literature, philosophy, art, and law have had a profound and lasting impact on Western civilization.

The decline of Ancient Rome is a complex narrative involving economic challenges, external invasions, political instability, and the eventual division of the empire into the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. The sack of Rome by barbarian tribes in 410 CE and the eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE marked the end of Ancient Rome.

Despite its fall, the legacy of Ancient Rome endured. The Roman legal system, Latin language, architecture, engineering, and governance structures continued to shape the course of history in Europe and beyond. The Renaissance, in particular, witnessed a revival of interest in Ancient Rome, with scholars and artists drawing inspiration from its classical achievements.

In conclusion, the history of Ancient Rome is a captivating tale of rise, triumph, and eventual decline. From a humble beginning on the banks of the Tiber to a sprawling empire that left an indelible mark on the world, Ancient Rome's story is a testament to the enduring power of human civilization.For more details visit our website: www.ridingancientrome.it

[theoutcastrogue]

The gentrification of an outlaw: “If they must have a British Worthy, they would have Robin Hood”

[by Stephen Basdeo, abridged]

Amongst the great writers of eighteenth-century literature, the names of two men stand out: Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) and Joseph Addison (1672-1719). These two quintessentially “Augustan” writers dominated the literary marketplace between 1709 and 1715 through their essay periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator.

Periodicals such as The Tatler, like many of the other periodicals available in the early eighteenth century, were designed to be read and debated in public arenas such as the coffeehouse and the tavern, and periodicals, or “moral weeklies” as Jurgen Habermas calls them, contributed to the birth of the bourgeois public sphere, or as we might phrase it today, public opinion. Through the essays in these periodicals these authors promoted a culture of aristocratic politeness among urban readers, in which learning and self-improvement were the order of the day.

It is Addison��s reference to Robin Hood in the eighty-first issue of The Tatler [1709-1711] which I would like to bring to your attention. Addison tells his reader that he spent the whole afternoon mentally cataloguing the various heroes and “military Worthies” that have appeared throughout world history. He was so preoccupied with this matter, he says, that after many hours awake thinking it over, he fell into a deep sleep and proceeded to have a dream in which he was invited into a great hall in which a number of prestigious persons entered, [starting with Alexander the Great]. Other ancient worthies enter: Xenophon, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Hannibal, Cato, Pompey the Great, Augustus; it is all very classical, which of course ties into the neoclassical modes of the eighteenth century.

All of these worthies sit at a table, but it is revealed that there is an empty seat at the table where these illustrious heroes are seated. They begin to whisper among themselves and discuss who, from British history, is worthy to join them at their table. Would they choose King Arthur? He had, after all, been called a “British Worthy” only a few years prior in John Dryden’s opera King Arthur; or, the British Worthy (1691). How about King Alfred, the only English King ever to have been given the epithet “the great”? No—neither of these men are good enough in the estimation of men such as Caesar and Augustus. They conclude by saying that,

“if they must have a British Worthy, they would have Robin Hood.”

An outlaw who (supposedly) lived in the thirteenth century was greater than all of the other heroes of English history, and worthy enough to take his place amongst the likes of Alexander and Caesar.

In Addison’s essay all of the ancient worthies are from the Classical period, with the exception of Robin Hood. Indeed, Addison’s placing of Robin Hood—a medieval figure—among all those classical heroes seems incongruent. In the early part of the eighteenth century, whilst it was recognised that the Middle Ages were integral to Europe’s past, the period was “not much liked” by scholars and thinkers. And 1750 is the date that Peter Raedt cites as having been the year when eighteenth-century scholars stopped being dismissive of the Middle Ages as a barbaric interlude between antiquity and the “enlightened” eighteenth century and the period began to be appreciated in its own right. Thomas Arne and James Thomson authored the libretto for the opera Alfred (1740), known most famously today for its finale Rule Britannia!. An appreciation for England’s medieval past also manifested itself in architecture, most famously in the Temple of British Worthies at Stowe, designed in 1734 by William Kent. Whilst the marble busts of most of the great men on display there are mostly from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, there are two medieval figures present: King Alfred and Edward, the Black Prince.

The Temple of British Worthies at Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire, England [x]

Yet Addison’s idealisation of Robin Hood as a British Worthy is an anomaly when compared to the works of Arne who venerated a King, Alfred, and the establishment figures that were sculpted in marble by William Kent. Robin is different to these other illustrious persons because he is an outlaw. And Addison’s reference to Robin Hood is certainly more positive than the one which would appear in Alexander Smith’s A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen (1719) only a few years after Addison was writing, where Robin is described as a “wicked, licentious” individual. This makes it seem odd that Addison would choose Robin Hood to make a point in a “moral weekly.”

I have two theories about this. Firstly, it would seem that Robin Hood was by the early eighteenth century gentrified enough in the public consciousness for him to be used in such a way. The gentrification process had begun with Anthony Munday’s two plays The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon (1597-98) where Robin is recast firmly as an establishment figure.

The second is that an idealisation of Robin Hood fits in with eighteenth-century contemporaries’ love of liberty. In a later issue of The Tatler, Addison wrote about another vision he had in which he witnessed the goddess of Liberty presiding over the prosperity of the nation. Although crime was increasingly viewed as a problem during the eighteenth century, as indicated by Fielding’s lament that the streets of London would soon become impassable except “without the utmost hazard,” liberty-loving men of Georgian England resisted any attempt by the government to form a professional police force. In a rather odd sort of way, highwaymen (and Robin is the original highwayman) were loved by the people because to many they were seen to embody liberty. People of all ranks held a degree of admiration for highwaymen. At the trial of the “Gentleman Highwayman,” James Maclaine (1724-1750), for example, “many persons of rank of both sexes attended his examination, several of whom were so affected with his situation that they contributed liberally towards his support.” This admiration of outlaws and highwaymen perhaps then explains why Smith, whose Highwaymen is a heavily moralist text, is so keen to recast Robin Hood in a negative light, for he evidently disagrees with the prevailing admiration for both Robin Hood and contemporary criminals.

Whilst many early eighteenth-century appropriations of Robin Hood are negative, Addison’s elevation of Robin Hood into the status of a “worthy” in the face of negative interpretations is interesting for it confirms to us that the gentrification process was not a linear process but an uneven one. It is often fleeting comments about Robin Hood in later texts such as The Tatler which allow us to map and construct an idea of how people in past ages interpreted the legend at various points in its history. By 1709 it seems that Robin’s status was firmly gentrified in public consciousness for Joseph Addison to speak about him in a “moral weekly.”

[source]

@tuulikki

[somewheremeantforme]

10 favorite female characters

Borrowing the tag from @pythionice because creating this list was surprisingly therapeutic. Although I now want to read everything on it again.

Tagging: anyone who would like to do it, but a gentle nudge in particular to @emberglows, @ciacconas, @lantur, @muffinworry, @imthemuthafuckingcricket, and @revenantmothling. No pressure of course.

1. Robin McKinley’s Beauty: my god, this was formative. Beauty and the Beast retellings are my bread and butter; along with East of the Sun, West of the Moon, it’s my favorite fairy tale. But this Beauty - bookish, practical, waspish, kind, achingly insecure, wonderfully strong - was everything to me. I was bookish and quiet too, and I’d never met a heroine with those traits until Beauty. (Yes, Hermione Granger is a bookworm too. No, she is not quiet. I liked her, but I could never relate. Such a Gryffindor.)

2. Sandrilene fa Toren/Trisana Chandler/Daja Kisubo: Yes, this is cheating, especially because their quartet isn’t complete without their foster brother Briar Moss, but I love these kids. Separately they’re gold, but it’s when they’re together that the best of them really comes out and I fall in love all over again. This was another formative influence. I first encountered these books when I was a year or so younger than the characters, and I grew up as they did. Also, quite frankly one of the best magic systems I have ever seen.

3. Tiffany Aching: Formative influence number three! She was my introduction to Discworld, though I actually read I Shall Wear Midnight first. What can I say about Tiffany Aching that hasn’t been said a thousand times before. I could never be her, but I would willingly be her sidekick, always and forever. That speech she gets against the Fairy Queen about selfishness? Dancing with the bees? Talking down winter? Literally life-changing. I get chills to this day.

4. Jane Eyre: last of the formative influences. I met her when I was thirteen, and I frankly worshipped her the way she worshipped Miss Temple. Now we’re more like friends. This article does a great description of her: “my favorite little creep in literature.”

5. Lyra Silvertongue: I never wanted to be her - I’m far too cautious and quiet, and I like it that way - but I would love to have a daughter like her. Lyra is a name I’m seriously considering for a future daughter.

6. Emma Bovary - Emma is selfish and impractical, yes, but also so starved and lonely. What really struck me, though, is how incredibly realistically her mental illness is written - and how much Flaubert hates her for it. I don’t think I’ve ever read another book where the author both understands and hates his creation so intimately. I loved her all the harder for that, and even more since I first met her when I was just starting to recover from mental illness myself.

7. Susan Pevensie: I wanted to marry her when I was fifteen. Tumblr (and to be fair, a lot of modern writers) tends to have a pretty fraught relationship with “the Problem of Susan,” and so did I for a while. I think now my stance is what Lewis himself set out in his foreword: “one day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again.”

8. Ley from Ruin of Angels: Ley is the bad girl every sapphic dreams of. Ley is the horrible ex everyone has nightmares about. Ley is an artist. Ley is manipulative, sharp as a scalpel, secretive and ferocious. I adore her.

9. The second Mrs. De Winter. I met her in my second year of college, when I was going through a rough patch and struggling with whether to keep studying for medical school or switch to ancient history (spoiler, I switched). Meeting this painfully shy, insecure girl and watching her grow into strength was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I cried. 

(As an aside, Max de Winter is my all-time favorite literary hero, second only to Henry Tilney. If you’re reading this and you have a feeling that this is meant to push you into reading the book, it is. You know who you are.)

(Natalie, I’m sorry, but I relate to Darcy far too much to ever want to marry him. He’s all yours)

10. Tullia Minor. “Although  younger, the fiercer of the two sisters.” Encourages a man known as The Arrogant to “greater heights of daring”. Obviously she and Tarquin are made for each other, but her father arranged her marriage to the wrong brother, so she casually kills her husband and talks Tarquin into killing his wife/her sister so they can get hitched. Has three sons and goodness knows how many daughters with him. Deposes her father with him. Is the first to hail her husband as king, to which he replies (again, a man known as The Arrogant), “Please go home, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Runs her chariot over her father’s corpse in the streets. Lady Macbeth, you wish you could be this cool. I am not entirely joking when I say I got my classics degree for the sole purpose of writing a novel about her.

Bonus: Elizabeth Sloane in the film Miss Sloane. I really do not like how her character arc ended, which is why she isn’t in the list proper, but the beginning, my god. Amoral and ruthless and absolutely sharklike. We need more women like her in media. Also, I would kill for her wardrobe (hers and Lorraine Broughton’s).

Bonus 2: Astrid Dane from V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic. Astrid as presented in canon ticks a lot of my boxes, but is missing something to make the whole come to life. The Astrid in my head - my Astrid - owns my soul.

Bonus 3: All the women on NBC’s Hannibal. All of them. I haven't finished the first season yet so I can’t say anything more concrete, but I would marry any one of them in a heartbeat.

[tsukkeirock]

30 questions challenge

Rules: Tag the person who tagged you, answer the questions, tag 20 people

Thank u @hystericalroger for tagging me!! 💕💕💕

1. How tall are you?: 5'2-5'4 I'm not sure haha but it's in that range

2. What color and style is your hair?: I have really dark hair, shoulder length and i have bangs that are growing out hehe i look cuter with bangs so yea

3. What color are your eyes?: A dark brown, nearly black i guess but there's a bit of brown

4. Do you wear glasses?: Yep! I have astigmatism basically :> I'm not really blind but things get a little blurry if i don't wear them

5. Do you wear braces?: Yes!!! And I am in immense pain right now because i got my wires again yesterday and found out that I'm really gonna have my 2nd or 3rd molars removed by surgery this summer so yay :') send help pls huhuhuhu

6. What is your fashion style?: 80s-90s Art hoe ish. Basically just mom jeans, striped shirts, ribbed tops,mens sweaters, sometimes art socks and vans or converse :> but i mostly wear shorts right now because it's really hot in where i live

7. Full name: I'm not gonna put my full name here but my second name is Martha and that's kinda where i got my online name which is mat hehe

8. When were you born?: July 20 '01 :> i nearly have the same bday as brian uwuwuwu oh yah guess who's gonna be legal this year yeet

9. Where are you from and where do you live now?: I'm from the Philippines and i live somewhere in manila ahahaha

10. What school do you go to?: I'm not gonna say what school specifically bc there's multiple branches of this school so Im studying in St Paul University so im a paulinian basically :'))

11. What kind of student are you?: I'm a really quiet one ahaha like i don't really recite and i have average grades and of course i procrastinate alot but I try not to and I'm described as 'masipag' I don't know how to translate this but it's something like productive in a way?? idk my filo mutuals would get it so ahaha sorry but I always try my best in school :))

12. Do you like school?: It's okay i guess hahaha there's just some subjects I don't like hahaha oral communication I'm looking at you

13. What are your favorite school subjects?: So I just finished 1st sem and honestly i don't really have a favorite but i like science, personal development, mandarin even tho it's just a club activity and literature haven't had the subject yet but I already like it hahaah

14. Favorite TV shows: Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, , NCIS, Brooklyn 99,Big Bang Theory, Orange is the new black, Hannibal

15. Favorite movies: I have a lot of faves ahaha but I'll list a few that I really like

Call Me by Your Name, Kimi no nawa, The Hobbit and LOTR series, Les Miserables, American Psycho, Studio Ghibli Movies, The Breakfast Club, Marvel movies and of course Bohemian Rhapsody

16. Favorite books?: I have some classics that are my faves like The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Half Blood Prince, The Hobbit, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Ryunosuke Akutagawa short stories and Shakespeare's A midsummer nights dream and Sherlock Holmes stories and i have some modern faves like Lang Leav and Michael Faudet's works, To all the Boys I loved before series it's really good omffjkd, Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase series, Fangirl and Eleanor and Park

17. Favorite pastime: Sleeping lmao, playing the uke guitar and piano, reading actual books and fanfics, hanging out with fam and friends, eating and baking

18. Do you have any regrets?: Yes, a lot of regrets but hey that's alright

19. Dream job: I don't really know im still trying to figure that out but probably somewhere in psych, law or crime related careers

20. Would you like to get married someday?: Marriage is cool but i don't know yet but maybe, I'm still young and I barely date but thinking about marriage makes me anxious somehow?? idk

21. Would you like to have kids someday?: I don't know man, I like kids but having kids of your own takes full responsibility and commitment and I don't know if im ever ready for that so I'd rather be an aunt even tho im already one and have nephews and nieces ahaha

22: How many?: well if i were ever planning to have kids, maybe 2

I'd rather have cats and puppies as my children cough

23: Do you like shopping?: I guess?? I window shop most of the time and i buy food, books and stationary most of the time but right now I'm saving ahahaha

24: What countries have you visited?: I went outside the country twice and the countries I visited is Singapore and Hong Kong

25. What’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had?: I had very few nightmares and most of them happen when I have sleep paralysis and I'm not really scared of them about but I had a dream where it kinda made me anxious and I woke up sweating and i couldn't breathe properly so yah I don't remember much of the dream but it did made me freak out when I woke up 

26. Do you have any enemies?: idk?? There's people who thinks I'm annoying but they're not really threatening like heck we fucking spilled tea we had a freaking tea party with some friends so none i guess

27. Do you have a s/o?: nope! lmaaoo I wish but hey self love comes first ;) but srsly tho im so lonely date me pls

28. Do you believe in miracles?: uuuhhh not really I'm a bit of an atheist so no

imma tag @whoevenisgalileoos @heyyyydee @queenrogerina @doing-allright @sneakydeakyy @drowsyroger @bensroger-tay @ben-hard-on @marshzzellow @moonvinyls @dancing-deacon @ddeaky I don't really know who to tag so hahaha just want to get to know u guys a little better ahahha yall don't have to do this btw hehe

[iamliberalartsgt]

Ivan Allen College Professors Discuss 'Game of Thrones'

Twenty years ago, Janet Murray, Ivan Allen College Dean's Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communications, predicted many of the narrative shifts depicting in sprawling stories like Game of Thrones. (Photo Credit: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech Institute Communcations)

The Game of Thrones may be nearing an end for viewers of the hit HBO series, but it is sure to live on in the classrooms of Janet Murray and Richard Utz, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts professors who find the show an ideal platform to help students learn to untangle a complicated world.

Murray, Ivan Allen College Dean’s Professor and director of the Prototyping eNarrative Lab, sees evidence in the series' sprawling plots of the very changes in narrative structure she predicted more than 20 years ago in her seminal book, Hamlet on the Holodeck.

“The confusion we feel in viewing programs like Game of Thrones, and the immersion that draws us to them, are signals to me that these stories are outgrowing the classic television format,” Murray said.

Utz, professor and chair in the School of Literature, Media, and Communications, sees in the show "rich opportunities to examine our current interplay of cultures, politics, and social mores," and plans to use it as part of an upcoming class in the new Global Media and Cultures program.

Read more about what these professors have to say about Game of Thrones below, then visit the Georgia Tech feature A Science of Ice and Fire to see a video featuring Mariel Borowtiz, a Sam Nunn School of International Affairs associate professor, and two Georgia Institute of Technology graduate students and their simulation of what might have happened had the legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal had a dragon like Daenerys Targaryen's.

Merging Media: Breaker of (Narrative) Chains

More than 20 years ago, in her seminal book Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray, the Ivan Allen College Dean’s Professor, predicted the rise of a new genre of deeply complex narrative driven by the marriage of television and computer.

It would be what she called the “hyperserial.” Plot, backstory, and detail too fine to showcase in an hour-long drama would pass back and forth between television screen and computer screen, high-speed digital transmission of content would enable new ways of accessing stories, and narrative would, as a consequence, grow richer and more complex.

Nowhere has the promise of complex narrative storytelling been so fully realized as HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. So it is no surprise that Murray and her students in the college’s Digital Media program have used those stories to test her hypothesis.

“The confusion we feel in viewing programs like Game of Thrones, and the immersion that draws us to them, are signals to me that these stories are outgrowing the classic television format,” Murray said.

In recent years, Murray’s students in the Prototyping eNarrative Lab (PeN Lab) have prototyped a companion app meant to help fans keep track of the dozens of characters, backstories, alliances, and antipathies that make up the dizzyingly complex world of Westeros. Working with Murray, they also have built an application to help viewers track the many plots of Game of Thrones, and the fates of its characters.

The companion tablet app provides a moment-by-moment window into a Game of Thrones episode, automatically serving information about onscreen characters and their relationships without user intervention.

The Digital Story Structure Project graphed the fall and rise of characters, showing, for instance, the opposite fates of Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow early in the series, followed by the merger of their fates in season 7.

“I am interested in prototyping the future of narrative,” Murray said. “Computers give us a new vocabulary of representation, and I believe this will lead to ever more complex storytelling. We need more complex storytelling to understand the world and share our understanding of complex systems and multiple chains of causation, multiple points of view, and multiple possible outcomes.”

Maester of Humanities

Richard Utz, professor and chair in the School of Literature, Media, and Communications sees in Game of Thrones "rich opportunities to examine our current interplay of cultures, politics, and social mores.” (Photo credit: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech Insitute Communications; Game of Thrones image courtesy HBO)

To a medievalist like Richard Utz, professor and chair in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Game of Thrones is engrossing, if unsettling, fantasy, one of the most complex narrative structures ever attempted, and a “highly valuable admission ticket to the study of contemporary media.”

One thing it is not, he said, is “medieval.”

“None of the reasons for Game of Thrones’ popularity — attractive world building, thriller-fiction pacing, complex characters, sexposition, bait-and-switch plot, escapist fantasy, intricate power play, clever play with archetypes, diverse female characters, guilt-free barbarism and violence, Sopranos-like family drams — is intrinsically ‘medieval,’” Utz said.

While the global fascination with Game of Thrones is sometimes seen as a recruitment opportunity by scholars of the Middle Ages, focusing on the books and HBO show from a traditional medievalist’s perspective is too limiting and self-serving.

“It is a global phenomenon. It is the most widely watched television show in the world ever,” he said. “While it is set in a fictional past, it raises a host of issues about our past, present, and future, and provides rich opportunities to examine our current interplay of cultures, politics, and social mores.”

Utz has written about his aversion to the use of novelist Martin’s world as way to lure students into studying the Middle Ages.

“Classes on the Middle Ages rarely need advertising because of the general cultural love affair students have with medievalist topics,” he said. “Game of Thrones needs to be studied as a contemporary media phenomenon that uses a vague ‘medieval feel’ as one of its attractions.”

In fact, he finds it notable that one of the main characters, Sansa Stark, began the series seeking the trappings of the romantic ideal of the Middle Ages — princesses, knights, and all — only to see that fairy tale viciously taken from her at every turn.

“Watch out for Sansa Stark in season 8,” he predicted. “She will play a major role in how the story unfolds, as will some of the other women whose paths have been transformed throughout the series. Like in classical drama, it’s the survivors who, having learned many difficult lessons, are the real heroines of this story.”

But he does see Martin’s stories and especially the HBO adaptation as an excellent place to meet students where they already are — invested in stories that are indelibly shaped by our current experiences, while retaining the enduring fascination with all things premodern.

“The premodern is an eternal mirror. On the one hand, we like to shudder at the otherness of it to reassure ourselves that we have long overcome its negative features,” he said. “On the other hand, we get to go back, fictionally, to a life that seems so much easier and unburdened by the complicated rules of contemporary civilization. Both responses are illusions, but that doesn’t mean we won’t entertain them.”

Utz plans to use the series as a case study in an upcoming class in comparative media cultures, as part of the new Master of Science in Global Media and Cultures program in LMC and the School of Modern Languages. The program is designed to prepare students to pursue professional careers that require advanced training in communication, media, language, and intercultural competency.

Utz believes that the narrative complexity of Game of Thrones is exactly the right realm within which to model the kinds of practices his students need to succeed and find fulfillment in their future jobs.

“The global city of Atlanta is in dire need of a workforce educated to be skilled communicators across cultural and linguistic divides,” he said. “I am planning on an approach that will confront my students with a wickedly complex scenario that allows for a deep understanding of multiple governmental structures, leadership styles, gender and race relations, linguistic and cultural traditions, and human behavior, a scenario just as complex as the ones increasingly common in future work environments.”

Dancing with Dragons

It isn’t a particularly bold supposition that dragons are a formidable weapon. Still, we wondered: exactly how much of an impact would a dragon have on a battlefield? Chandler Thornhill, a graduate student in economics, and Matthew Redington, a graduate student in computer science, offered to devise a few simulations.

Both are currently enrolled in the course Modeling, Simulation, and Military Gaming, an interdisciplinary, project-based class requiring collaboration across a range of backgrounds and skills. Groups of students spend a semester researching and dissecting historical battles, using this deep understanding to adjust variables and outcomes through computational modeling.

Introducing fantastical elements may seem an inconsequential exercise, but to one of its instructors, School of International Affairs Assistant Professor Mariel Borowtiz, introducing pop culture elements allows students to connect with modeling simulations in a different way.

“One of the things I like about bringing dragons into a simulation is that you really have to go through the same research process,” she said. “You have to be rigorous in how you find data and how you make assumptions. Obviously, there’s not a lot of data available on a dragon’s efficiency but you can look at the information sources available as a basis to formulate and justify assumptions. It shows the process can be applied in all sorts of areas.”

So how much of a difference did the dragon have? By their calculations, roughly 70 percent of opposing forces were turned to ash.

IAC Link

GT Link

[farfromsugafanfic]

Sammy Interview

Before we get started, do you mind introducing yourself and telling a bit about yourself? 

My name is Sammy. I’m 34 years old, a college graduate with a background in cultural anthropology as well as women, gender, and sexuality studies. I’m particularly interested in queer and feminist methodologies. I live with my partner of some 15 years, who is also a fanfiction writer.

Q1: So, you told me that you’ve been writing fan fiction for 20+ years which is awesome! How did it all get started and what kind of fan fiction have you written in that time?

A1:  Like a lot of fangirls of my generation, anime was my introduction to fanfiction.  I grew up watching Sailor Moon when it first aired on American network television. It was love at first sight. There was nothing else like it on TV. At my local Blockbuster I discovered anime. It wasn’t as readily available then as it is now. Because the english dubs were so limited I ended up watching the same OVA rentals over and over - Ranma ½, RG Veda, Vampire Princess Miyu. First I wrote stories in my head, then I started writing them down. When I recieved my own computer and constant access to the internet, I went searching for fansites. Secreted behind unassuming links I found small clutches of fanfiction. This was before fanfiction.net first took off, and An Archive of Our Own was well over a decade away. Fansites had webrings, which took me to the next fansite, and so on.  It really was a matter of finding the right webring for a given show and following the thread.

I began with writing Sailor Moon fanfiction, and as Cartoon Network’s late night block of programming (Toonami) expanded, the more I wrote. Gundam Wing fandom introduced me to shipping and it blew my mind.

I moved away from anime when the Harry Potter movies happened. A lot of us made the transition to book and movie based fandoms when someone discovered Harry/Draco. After that I found DC comics, and then became very active in the Star Trek reboot fandom. I’ve written for Stargate: Atlantis, BBC Sherlock and Hannibal and so, so many other shows/books/video games. I’ve been an active participant in Yuletide, which is an anonymous holiday fanfic exchange, and multiple Big Bangs -another fanfic/fanart exchange- as well as a kinkmeme prompt filler for years.

Q2: What pushed you to begin sharing your fan fiction?

A2: The mailing lists. In the early days of fandom private yahoo groups and message boards were the main venue for posting and reading fanfiction. Most mailing lists were fandom based and created for specific content - like Gundam Wing Slash, GundamWingGEN and CRACKSHIP. These became high volume, tight knit communities. It wasn’t unusual to have your mail box refreshing on the left side of the monitor, while you chatted with members on AIM on the right side. There was a lot of encouragement, experimentation, and collaboration. You posted your fanfiction to the list, or board, and people cheered. It was all so exciting.  It’s hard to describe now how close we all were, and just how much fellow-feeling fueled hundreds of emails a day. This was my online family, my community. I didn’t need a push or moment of courage to post my early fanfiction - I was delighted to share, invited to share. It was an electrifying thing to be part of.

Q3: Were you scared to post it online?

A3: Not at all. I didn’t need to be scared - none of us did. No one outside these early lists and boards knew what we were doing. I really can’t emphasize enough how guarded the early fanfiction community was. We were incredibly insulated. Our families didn’t know, our teachers and co-workers were oblivious, popular culture wasn’t shitting on fanfiction writers because it didn’t know we were writing. I wasn’t scared to press ‘send’, but it did feel dangerous, a little rebellious. There was a sense of getting away with something.

Q4: Has writing fan fiction taught you anything? About writing? Reading? Something else?

A4: On a basic level, fanfiction taught me how to write. Structure, pace, dialogue - I was taught those things in a classroom, but I learned them by writing fanfiction. We all taught ourselves to write by writing for each other. We created an entire literary movement without an MA in literature, or a structured pedagogy. Fanfiction writers generated new narrative traditions, like the Five Things + 1 format (a breakaway from the three-act story), Hurt/Comfort, and a language of tagging that defies classical genre rules - all because we were messing around.

Writing fanfiction has taught me the value of questioning western literary rules and conventions, that writing for myself and my own pleasure is valid.  It’s also taught me that I don’t like to write alone. One of the things that makes fanfiction so special for me is that so much of it happens in conversation with other writers and readers. My best writing experiences have been in simpatico with total strangers, on AIM, in livejournal comment threads, gchat.  I’m not writing “original fiction” because I lack imagination; it’s just too lonely.

Q5: Do you ever want to be published in a professional capacity one day?

A5: I do, though I feel like this is a bit of a fraught subject for fanfiction writers.  There’s an compulsion to say yes, of course I plan to publish one day, as if that end goal legitimates the fanfiction I write. I don’t want to contribute to the idea of fanfiction as a lesser form of literature- a stepping stone to Real Writing - but yes. I started writing creative nonfiction in community college.  That writing comes from a very different place than fanfiction. It satisfies another hunger.

Q6: How you feel about the stigma surrounding fan fiction and fan fiction writers? Or, do you not feel any stigma at all?

A6: I think the stigma towards fanfiction is pushback from multiple sociological and institutional sources.

In the beginning we had the sense that fanfiction - slash fanfiction - wasn’t something to bring up outside of those digital spaces we made for ourselves. We knew it would be considered an auteur kink at best, or downright perverted plagiarism at worst (I think this is largely still the case). Before the community found the language to discuss slash and fanfiction as transformative works - as deconstructions of conventional media, gender roles, and sexuality - there was an ethos of compartmentalization to the whole thing.

Q7: Do you think that stigma is warranted? (Whether or not you have personally experience it?)

A7: No.

I touched on this earlier, but I believe the stigma and hostility towards fanfiction is firmly rooted in gender and non-normative sexuality. The writing we do is generally characterized as a feminine endeavour, which immediately marks it as inferior to a literary canon that values the masculine so highly. The perception that fanfiction is a plagiarism of male authored source material makes it all the more egregious.

Equally as foundational, is the reduction of fanfiction to gay porn written by straight cis women for straight cis women - fanfiction is not only shit writing, it’s perverted and weird.

I’ve never been ashamed of the fanfiction I write, or read. Embarrassed maybe, of those first earnest attempts at writing. But fanfiction does not have a monopoly on bad writing. I can just as easily find the same trash in Barnes & Noble. So, quality is not and never has been a valid criticism.

Q8: What’s your favorite piece of fan fiction you’ve ever written? Why?

A8: A gen fic I wrote for Star Trek (AOS). I’m a leisurely writer, and stories don’t just hit me whole and complete in one go. But this one did. It took three hours to write and I didn’t have to think about where I was going after finishing a paragraph, the next was already there, I just had to type it out. It’s never come that easy before or since. It’s not my most popular piece of fanfiction, but I can go back and read it and not feel like I need to change anything.

Q10: Do you write outside of fan fiction?

A10: I do - until recently I was writing up lesson plans for classes I was co-facilitating. Generally, when I’m not writing fanfiction I’m working on creative non-fiction. I use the frame of gender analysis and sexuality studies (among others) to write about my life.

Q11: What site do you prefer to write and post your fan fiction on?

A11: An Archive of Our Own (AO3). The tagging system is superior and the site is far more user friendly than ff.net, which is an absolute dumpster fire.  

Q12: What’s something you want people outside the fan fiction community to know about the fan fiction community?

We’re not a monolith. Teenage girls are the cultural face of fanfiction, but so many of us are in our 30s and 40s, old fandom queens from those first private mailing lists, boards, and LiveJournal accounts. We have soul sucking jobs. We have degrees in STEM. We teach college, have kids and debt, and friendships that have lasted decades.. We are not, and never have been a homogenous group of straight cis women. Asexuality and gender fluidity abounds. Plenty of us experience disability and chronic illness.  And we aren’t a small group of weirdos obsessed with Johnlock. We’re an enormous and diverse group of weirdos who have created a literary movement.

[rageofthenerd]

Phyona, could you recommend m/m books?

I sure could!  Alright *rubs hands together*, let’s start with the holy trinity (most have probably heard of these and with good reason):

Captive Prince by CS Pacat: My favorite of all time tbh.  Laurent and Damen are clinics in character writing, and the slow, methodical way Pacat brings them together has a staggering payoff (aka the best sex I’ve ever read, period.).  Trigger warnings abound, however (mentions of rape, slavery, dub con (though not between L&D), torture), so be warned.  

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Pure poetry.  Reading this is like getting drunk on gay wine (emotional hangover included).  A piece of literature that I wish I’d read in a classics course.  Knowing how it ends between Patroclus and Achilles does not save you from this book shattering your heart. 

All for the Game by Nora Sakavic: Less, um, *elevated* than the previous two, but it’s full of relatable yet dark, delicately handled characters.  I like sports, but I don’t think you must to enjoy this.  Andrew is a character that burrows under your skin and refuses to leave.  The slow burn is everything.

And now for some lesser known gems.  If you want something sexy and historical with a supernatural mystery as a bonus, I recommend:

A Charm of Magpies by KJ Charles: Pure fun.  KJ Charles is a ridiculously prolific writer, so if you like her style you’ve got plenty of reading material.  The relationship between her characters is sweet and sexy, while not being unnecessarily angsty.  

For something raunchy, dark, and wickedly fun:

The Beautiful Monsters series by Jex Lane: Vampires, Incubi, Egyptian Gods, oh my.  These books are not for the easily triggered, but if you enjoy a bit of guilty indulgence and don’t mind some m/f sex with your m/m, these are for you.  There are two ships to pick from (team Tarrick/Matthew all the way), though everyone pretty much fucks everyone.  I’m serious with the trigger warnings, though (specifically rape and dubcon).  Oh, and the plot is thrilling and complex.

For some smutty, healthy BDSM:

Wine & Song series by Eleanor Kos: I’ve been a fan of this author’s Hannibal fic for years, and boy am I glad I decided to read her original work.  I blew through these books in 2 days.  You’ll fall in love with the characters.  The way their relationship deepens, despite some intense baggage and a significant age difference, is erotic and beautiful and I couldn’t get enough.

For something teen, sweet, and Harry Potter-ish:

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: Enjoyed the plot, enjoyed the characters, and the world is interesting.  This is a great PG-13 m/m read.

For more adorable, PG-13 teenage love:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz: Poetic and touching with a cute get-together and supportive families.

A Boy Worth Knowing by Jennifer Cosgrove: If you want something easy and happy with very little stress or plot, this is for you.

For elves, prostitution, and a fantasy setting:

A King’s Ransom by Lia Black:  I enjoyed how these characters found love and the magic that enhanced their bond.  Definite trigger warnings here, specifically for rape and dubcon (though not between the main couple, except for perhaps a scene where one of them is a little drunk).  

Things in my library that I haven’t read yet:

The Raven Cycle, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Shadow of the Templar, The Half Wolf (I’m like 20% in and it’s cool), Hush, The Ruin of a Rake, and Locked in Silence.

Happy reading!

[the-gentle-art-to-going-insane]

... But what about gifted kids who didn't want to read children's books/at their age level books?

I was like, twelve and just. So. Fucken. Bored. with what I was expected to read. Like, harry potter? nah, read that when I was seven. And there's very little that actually sparked any interest in me back then, regarding "age appropriate" literature. Like, give me action, give me epic tales of love through millennia, give me Depth.

So, of course that's where The Classics(tm) came in. Did I enjoy drivel like turn of the century romance? No. But I would read the hell out of Shakespeare. I would sit for hours with Poe. Days were spent with Holmes and Watson on epic journeys.

You see, it's not about "reading above your age level" it's about - realistically, reading above your content level. Like, there's shit tons of books w/o smut/swearing excessively that are highly intelligent and challenging.

And sure, I get a kick every now and then if lighter reads, less wordy reads, like Neverwhere and Stardust, but more often I'm drawn to Homer and Voltaire or even Vonnegut and Thomas Harris. Because I'm older. I've learned about things kids shouldn't have to deal with.

I'd be freaked tf out if I picked up Hannibal Rising at fifteen or so. But it was technically a book I could understand, even if the content wasn't suited for my age group.

*eyes snapping open* the pattern of gifted children being encouraged to read way above their age level isn’t just damaging because it puts a lot of pressure on them, removes the fun, and makes them miss out on children’s books. It’s also damaging because it tells them that reading something for adults or older teens is a good thing. There is startlingly little labeling differentiation between ‘this book is advanced so here is the age it’s recommended for’ and ‘this book contains disturbing or sexual themes so here is the age it’s recommended for’ and the difficulty in telling the difference plus the pressure to read books written for older people (in order to be seen as smart) does not go well. And then you add the element of the internet, and having been told your whole life that it’s good to read things for people older than you, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Idk I’m just thinking about how my parents were so proud when I read game of thrones at 11 or 12 and it contained explicit rape and sex before I’d been given any kind of Talk. And I’m thinking about how when I was in elementary school I saw the label ‘this is for readers over 18’ on a story and thought ‘That’s me because I’m reading at a college level.’ And. Idk. I don’t like it

[fuckyeahbadasswomen]

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Margaret Tobin was born on July 18, 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri to John and Johanna Tobin; two poor Irish immigrants. Contrary to the myth, she did not survive a flood as an infant not did she have a nanny goat for a wet nurse. Maggie, as she was known back then, was educated by her aunt up to the 8th grade, equivalent to a high school education today. She then began seasonal work in the Garth Tobacco Factory for several years. Pretty soon, Margaret was 18 and had no suitable marriage prospects. In the spring of 1886, she bought a train ticket and moved out to Leadville, Colorado to live with her brother Daniel and hopefully to find a rich miner to marry.

James Joseph Brown

At first sight, Margaret rejected any idea of possibly marrying James Joseph Brown. She had come to Leadville to find a rich husband, and JJ was by no means a millionaire. However, after just a few months of courtship Margaret decided it was better to marry for love rather that money and on September 1, 1886 they were married. Pretty soon they had two children Catherine Ellen “Helen"  and Lawrence Palmer “Larry" Brown.

Family Portrait, taken in Leadville

After marrying JJ, Margaret began lessons with tutors, studying reading and literature as well as piano and singing. The happy family lived comfortably for several years in  Leadville right up until the US government repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, switching from silver backed currency to the gold standard which is still used today. This was really bad news for Leadville, which mainly relied on silver mining. Long story short, JJ discovered gold, became a millionaire and the family moved down to Denver.

The Family Home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver

Now for the good stuff.

One of my personal heros, Margaret was an incredible humanitarian, philanthropist, feminist, and activist.

Some of the incredible things she did include (in no particular order):

Organize soup kitchens for poor miners and their families in Leadville, with her two small children in tow no less

Helped form the Denver Women’s Party, was involved in Colorado politics, and was part of the women’s suffrage movement at both the state and national levels

Was fluent in 5 languages

Donated money to the Denver Dumb Friends League (animal shelter, still open today)

Organized the Carnival of Nations, a festival in Denver to raise money for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. She had booths representing cultures from all over the world, including Native Americans, which was very much frowned upon. She and her husband JJ also donated quite a bit of their own money to the project. Interesting side note: once the Cathedral was completed, Margaret attended every Sunday she was in town. She was known to walk in a few minutes late (you can literally see the cathedral from her house) so everyone would have to turn around to see what she was wearing that day.

She worked with Ben Lindsey to create a juvenile court and detention system, similar to the system in place today. Before this, children would be tried as adults and sentenced to adult prisons, or left unpunished entirely because the judges couldn’t bring themselves to send child into such awful conditions. Margaret hosted functions (including an annual function at the Opera) and donated some of her own money to help fund Judge Lindsey’s cause.

She ran for state Senate three times

Margaret’s official campaign portrait

She attended the Carnegie Institute

She organized nurses and supplies in a relief station in France where she herself was an ambulance driver

She offered her cottage in Newport, Rhode Island to be used as a hospital

She translated books to Braille for soldiers who lost their eyesight due to mustard gas

She earned the French Legion of Honor Medal for her efforts during the war (really big deal!!)

Yes, she did survive the Titanic. But there is so much more to the story than Hollywood makes it seem. Margaret was on the deck of the Titanic and used her 5 languages to help get people off the ship. There was supposed to be a training drill the morning before it sank, to this day we don’t know why it was cancelled. Margaret is telling the passengers things like “it’s only a drill, you’ll be back soon” knowing this was the best way to save as many people as possible. Many did not want their families to be separated, or they did not believe the ship was actually sinking. You couldn’t tell until it was too late. It is believed that Margaret would have gone down with the ship had she not been forcibly put onto a lifeboat by two crew members. Once her lifeboat reached the water, Margaret took off her many layers of clothing (she dressed like an onion before leaving her room) and distributed them to the other women and children in her life boat. She then instructed the first class women to begin rowing. This was important to a) prevent hypothermia and b) not be sucked into the ocean by the undertow of the ship when it finally did sink. Once their lifeboat was found by the Carpathia, Margaret used her excellent organizing skills to collect and distribute blankets and clothing to the survivors of the Titanic from the passengers of the Carpathia. She also collected money from the first class passengers and survivors to give the the third class immigrants once they reached New York. She had some difficulty convincing them to donate, so she put a list with all the names of the first class people with the amount that they had given (or not) it didn’t take long for the 1st class passengers and survivors to realize they should donate as to not tarnish their name. She raised $10,000 equivalent to about $250,000 (USD) today. When the Titanic Survivor’s Committee was formed, she was of course appointed chairwoman. She attempted to testify in the Senate hearing but was turned away because she was (shocker) a woman. She did however help fight to change Maritime policy to families first (instead of women and children first) and ensure that there will always.be enough lifeboats, life jackets and properly trained crew members to prevent disasters like this in the future.

When on vacation in Florida her hotel caught fire, and she helped guide the other people on her floor out the fire escape to safety

She sang, yodeled, played the piano and classical guitar

She worked as an actress in NYC, living in the Barbizon hotel (men were not allowed past the lobby, this building was symbolic of a cultural shift in the ‘20s). She also taught acting, and had her own studio in the hotel.    

She died in her sleep in 1932 from a stroke brought on by a misdiagnosed brain tumor. She is buried in the Holy Rood Cemetery in New York.

Margaret Brown is so amazing and I can go on about her for days. Forgive my rambling.

Sources: Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iversen

Random facts I know (I give tours in her home)

Pictures: Google?

If you have any questions, please ask!

I’m planning on writing about Justina Ford (the first African American female to be a licensed physician in Colorado) next, but if you guys have any suggestions please let me know!

[wyrm-wolf]

I wish you would write a fic where Hannibal and Will found, or saved, a herd of lost ducklings at the crime scene, and the ducklings accidentally imprinted on them so they followed them both everywhere like they were their parents. xD

This is the cutest thing ever, can you just imagine Hannibal or Will having the little ducklings following them all around!! CUTE!!

~~

“We are their father’s now. Will.”

“Hannibal, I don’t think you’re making any sense. We cannot be their father’s, it’s not logical.”

“Tell me then, Will, what would be the logical idea to leave them?”

“I…I don’t know. Maybe adoption? Someone would want them…right?”

“Surely, no one would be able to take care of them better than us, Will.”

“Hannibal…”

“Yes, Will?”

“We are talking about ducks, Hannibal, not small children.”

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at the statement, before looking down as he heard a small peep come from below him. Both men turning at the little tub of water in which the three little duckling’s were swimming in, each one staring at the both of them as they followed wherever the two walked. One of them continued to try and jump out of the tub, only to slip back in. When Will turned to glance over to Hannibal, he only saw the older gentleman smiling at the ducklings, a smile, rare and in the purest of forms.

“Not ducks, Will, ducklings.” the man corrects, “And I think they’ve come to be rather fond of us, would you give them away so soon, after they have started to imprint upon us.”

Will opened his mouth to respond back to Hannibal’s question, only for his eyes to flash back towards the ducklings, as one the one trying to escape finally succeeded and hopped out of the tub. The two other one’s trying to follow suit, while the one free of the tub run across the table to where Will was standing. Close to jumping of the wooden surface, before Will jerked his hands out to pick the duckling up, preventing it from falling to their doom.

Clutching the chick to his chest, Will rubbed it’s small little fuzzy head with his thumb, watching as the duckling nuzzled against his hand. Feathers fluffing up, before it started to relax completely in his hand, looking up to see Hannibal starring at the two, his gaze a mix between sadness and adoration. And a little something else, but it was hard for Will to look deep into the man’s expression, as he felt his eyes looking down.

“I suppose you are right about that, I guess three more mouths to feed wouldn’t be so hard.”

“Perhaps we could switch off on caring for them, as they would probably want to spend time with both their father’s.”

Will snorted a little, “I didn’t expect you to be an animal kind of guy, Dr. Lecter.”

“Hannibal, please. And I certainly have nothing against animals, I just do not enjoy the mess of cleaning up hair afterwards. But I can certainly take care of three little ducklings.”

“Whatever you say, Hannibal.”

~~

No one said anything, at least not Will.

Not during class, or when he was walking in the halls, no one said anything to the man. They only started, watching as the shaggy and strange man walked through the halls, with three little ducklings following right after his feet. Or in class when the duckling’s all snuggle up in a little sleepy pile as they  peep quietly, While having gone out and bought a large wool blanket for the little guys. Well two boys and a girl, Will and Hannibal had had a long discourse over the phone on what to name all three of them, the girl Will had settled on Abigail, as for the two boys it was Hanni Jr. and Homer. As both men had a love for the classical literature, while Will had joked about naming one after Hannibal just for the fun of it.

It wasn’t until he was leaning in the corner of the science lab, as the science trio were poking at a dead body, did someone finally say something.

“So…are they like your kids now?”

“Hm? Who?” Will hummed coming out of his lazy bored haze.

“The ducklings, they’re always following you around, they won’t even let Zeller pet them. I swear I saw that little dark one almost bit his finger.”

Will chuckled, looking down at Hanni Jr. who ruffled his feathers, before settling down next to Will’s hand. “That’s Hanni Jr. for you, he doesn’t like it when people get near him. Scared the hell out of two of my students.”

Beverly cackles at that, “You named him Hanni Jr.! What did Hannibal have to say about that?”

“It was more of a joke, but he seemed rather fond of the idea. The girl is named Abigail, and the shy one is Homer.”

The science trio all made a soft little ‘awww’, as each one of the duckling’s peeped at attention when their names were called. Will fishing out little treats he made with Hannibal for them. Feeding each one a little piece, before letting them cuddle next to his arm, smiling down at them.

“You know for a weirdo like you, you sure do look adorable with a bunch of baby animals.”

Will snorts, “Thanks, Price.”

~~

Hannibal finds himself reading up more than necessary for raising ducklings, conversations on the phone lasting up to three hours, as he discusses proper care of raising their ducklings. Pacing back and forth in his studies, while the three little ducklings followed right after their tall and graceful father. Finally after some more discussing, Will and Hannibal move Will’s session to Hannibal’s house, sometimes having these dark conversations over dinner, or in the man’s study where they can keep a closer eye on the ducklings.

“I have a couple of men coming over in a few days, they’re going to work in my backyard and fix a big enough pond for the ducklings to swim in when they get bigger. Of course, I’ll need to do some research on what are the best kind of fish for them to have in the pond, so they don’t get sick. But I can see them growing, healthy and strong under our-”

“Hannibal.”

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

Before Hannibal could say anything, Will had leaned forward to press a kiss against the man’s mouth. Humming in delight, as Hannibal deepened the kiss with his own mouth, a hand coming up to cup Will’s cheek as he pulled a way.

“We’re going to be great father’s.”

[jccamus]

The Outer Fringes of Our Language: A Conversation with Werner Herzog

The Outer Fringes of Our Language: A Conversation with Werner Herzog https://ift.tt/3668v3o

DECEMBER 30, 2019

I INVITED WERNER HERZOG to Stanford to discuss a relatively unknown masterpiece published in 1967 called The Peregrine, by an obscure British writer named J. A. Baker. We hardly know anything about him, except that he authored one of the most extraordinary pieces of nature writing of the 20th century. The Peregrine is one of Herzog’s favorite books, and it’s one of mine as well.

Herzog ended up speaking mostly about his devotion to books in general, and his belief that reading is the best, and perhaps even only, way to take possession of the world.

Our conversation took place on February 2, 2016, at Dinkelspiel Auditorium as part of Stanford’s Another Look book events. This transcript is excerpted from that interview.

You can listen to the audio of the conversation here.

¤

Legendary film director Werner Herzog discusses J.A. Baker’s book The Peregrine with Robert Pogue Harrison, a Stanford professor of Italian literature, at the Feb. 2 Another Look book club event.

ROBERT POGUE HARRISON: In your conversation with Paul Cronin in 2014, you say, “Read, read, read, read, read. Those who read own the world; those who immerse themselves in the internet or watch too much television lose it. […] Our civilization is suffering profound wounds because of the wholesale abandonment of reading by contemporary society.” Could you share with us some of your thoughts about your relationship to reading books and the value of the literary?

WERNER HERZOG: In a way, it has been something that is guiding me throughout my life. Beyond this auditorium, there are many more students at Stanford University, and many of them do not really read — including film students. They read a book about editing, but they haven’t read, let’s say, the dramas of Greek antiquity. And I keep saying to them you have to read. Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read. If you do not read, you will become a mediocre filmmaker at best, but you will never make a really good film. And almost everyone that I know who has made very strong, very good substantial films are people who are reading all the time. I see three, four films a year, maybe sometimes a little bit more during a festival, but I do read.

And of course, I’ve written prose and some poetry. I am fairly certain that my written work will outlive my films.

Is that right?

It’s very, very clear. There’s no doubt whatsoever in me.

Why is that?

When you make a film, you have cameras and production money and actors, a lab or a post-production editing. Many, many layers of very vulnerable elements. When you write, you just write and there’s nothing else. It’s a completely direct form of expressing something.

I’m curious about the books that have become a part of you and your psyche. You mentioned, in A Guide for the Perplexed, that whenever you go on a film set, you bring two books with you, in particular. One is Luther’s translation of the Bible. You have to read the Book of Job for consolation —

It’s a 1546 edition in the original Lutheran language, which was an enormous cultural event. The German language somehow started with Martin Luther — the common language, Hochdeutsch, high German. Before that, there were only dialects. But Luther, yes, the Book of Job for consolation. Or the Psalms sometimes. I have it with me. I love to read it.

The other book that intrigued me greatly is Livy’s The Second Punic War. It’s the story of Hannibal’s invasion [of Rome] and the war with Carthage. Fabius Maximus, who is the Roman general, refused to engage Hannibal directly and was derided by his fellow generals — even accused of cowardice. And you say that he saved Rome.

History derided him, yes. Until today.

But you think that we still owe a huge debt to that man because he’s the one who saved Rome?

Exactly. And not only Rome, the Occident. The Western world was at stake. Rome was in a very, very deep crisis. Hannibal was coming across the Alps with a motley army and elephants. He defeated Rome twice at the Trasimene Lake and Cannae. They were the most devastating defeats Rome ever suffered. Rome was on the verge of collapse. And they voted in Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator. “Cunctator” is his cognomen, a deriding attribute — the cowardly, hesitant one. Cunctatore means to hesitate, to not be bold enough to take steps, because he said to everyone, “If Rome continues to encounter Hannibal in open field combat, we will perish completely and we will be extinguished.”

He started a war of attrition, always moving away, always retreating, always being hesitant, never offering an open field battle and attacking the retro guard or the foraging parties. He was the one who saved Rome. Our civilization would otherwise have been dominated by the North African Punic ideas and culture. He was derided and solitary — the solitude of the man is totally intriguing for me.

And you read Livy in Latin?

Yes, I do. I had to learn Latin and ancient Greek in school. I hated it. Only now, much later, I started to appreciate it.

And another classic that you read in Latin and love dearly is Virgil’s Georgics.

Yes. I run my own film school, the so-called Rogue Film School. It’s really wild stuff. In Guide for the Perplexed, there’s some summing up of advice. “Guerrilla tactics are best. Take revenge if need be. Get used to the bear behind you.” Actually, there’s a photo with a bear right behind me. It is not photoshopped. My wife made it, and there was a real bear. But it was a setup. The bear was not completely docile, but it didn’t do any harm. It was habituated to humans. A few things I teach students: breaking safety locks or forging documents and doing criminal things for the sake of making a film.

The film school has a mandatory reading list. On it is Virgil’s Georgics. It’s more than programmatic writing, it’s celebrating the achievements of the Augustan Rome. There’s a clear ideology and a sheer celebration of Rome.

Virgil grew up as a farm boy near Mantova, in northern Italy. He observed it all. Of course there’s also some program in it — half of it is about the world of gods who somehow interfere in things. But what’s really incredible is his knowledge about what he is writing, the precision of observation. In a way, that’s quite close to J. A. Baker. I’d like to read one brief passage, “Death of a horse, how a plague invades the stables.” It’s totally illuminating in the caliber of language. The caliber of observation is unbelievable. I love his writing. Here it is:

Then everywhere in the joyous burgeoning fields, the young cows die; in their pens, in the very presence of their mangers full of food, give up sweet life. Fawning dogs go mad. The sick swine seized with retching, coughing, choke on their own swollen throats. The horse that was once victorious, now miserably sinks as he tries to arise, forgetting what he has been, forgetting his pasture with its lush green grass, averting his face from the waters of the trough, over and over again pounding the earth with a disconsolate hoof, his ears laid back, fitfully sweating. The sweat turns cold as death draws near. His skin is dry and hard, insensible to the touch of the stroking hand.

These are the signs you witness in the first days of the coming of the death. But as the suffering moves into its final phase, his eyes glare bright, with a brightness of the fever. The horse’s groaning breathing drags itself forth from deep inside, and the whole length of the body labors and strains with drawn-out shattering sobbing. Black blood pours out from the nose and the creature’s throat is utterly blocked up and choked by its tongue. There are those who have thought the only possible hope was to use a funnel to pour in a little wine. But this itself facilitated death. Revived, they raged with weird, new, desperate strength. And in the final crisis — god grant such madness not to ourselves, but to our enemies — they tore at their own flesh with their own bad teeth.

The difference between the Georgics and the Aeneid, both by Virgil, is that the Aeneid is about history, the founding of Rome, whereas the Georgics is about the earth, the cultivating of the earth, the care for the earth. This might be an occasion for one of the questions from the audience — Valerie Kinsey asks the following question: “Based upon your documentary films like Happy People, Grizzly Man, Encounters, and your admiration for The Peregrine, you seem to have a deep interest in exploring the need of some individuals, mainly men, to reconnect with the earth in a primordial way. Where does this interest come from? Is it an elegiac homage to an interconnection between man and earth that has all but disappeared among suburban contemporary populations? Or is it a diagnostic of our present alienation from the status quo?”

Well, that sounds … complicated … but I understand the core of the question.

There seems to be an interest, on your part, in people who have this nostalgia to reconnect with the earth. Is that correct?

No, I have no nostalgia. I’m not a nostalgic person.

I grew up in the very secluded in the mountains of Bavaria, with no real technology around. Of course, I was connected to the mountains. And then, more than anything else, traveling on foot. I would walk 1,000 kilometers for very existentially important reasons. I would travel on foot, not with a backpack — not with my household, a tent, and a sleeping bag on my back. I have understood, first, that it’s a solitude that is unimaginable for anyone who hasn’t done it. And second, a dictum: the world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.

You see a connection with the German poet Hölderlin, whom I really love more than anyone else. He traveled on foot and actually became insane. He traveled from Bordeaux to Tübingen or Frankfurt and arrived stark mad. He had a premonition of insanity coming at him, creeping up on him. He describes it in some of his poems in a very secretive form. Very, very tragic man. He understood the outer fringes of our language. He understood the essence of being solitary, of solitude.

I keep saying to the Rogue Film School students that The Peregrine is a book that is the absolute must-read piece of literature, because that’s how a filmmaker should see things: in loneliness. He or she or it should see the world with an incredible amount of human pathos and enthusiasm and rapture.

He sees with ecstasy. He has such rapture, such enthusiasm, such passion. That’s the way a filmmaker should see the real world and people and everything around us — with an enormous amount of passion. But that’s not all. Anyone can have this passion, but he writes in a language, with a caliber of prose, that we have not seen since Joseph Conrad’s short stories. That’s why I find this a very, very decisive book for anyone who wants to make films. By the way, for anyone who is becoming a writer, you will have to read it, learn it. Learn the whole book by heart.

I agree. When you open that book, you ask: What is going on? What passion is he bringing to bear? I think he falls in love with a peregrine. He is infatuated. On page 12, when he describes his first encounter with the peregrine, it’s a language of rapture. He says,  

This was my first peregrine. I have seen many since then, but none has excelled it for speed and fire of spirit. For ten years I spent all my winters searching for that restless brilliance, for the sudden passion and violence that peregrines flush from the sky. For ten years I have been looking upward for that cloud-biting anchor shape, that crossbow flinging through the air. The eye becomes insatiable for hawks. It clicks towards them with ecstatic fury …

Yes, it’s ecstasy. And that’s one of the things that really caught my attention because there’s always a question — in filmmaking, particularly in documentary filmmaking — of what constitutes a deeper truth. Sometimes in poetry, you have the instant sense that there’s a deep truth. You don’t have to analyze it and vivisect it in academic terms and with the tools of literary theory. The same thing with films. Because today what you see — and what I hear constantly at any festival, with all colleagues — is they believe wrongfully that facts constitute truth. They do not. At best, facts create norms; they have that power. But only truth is something that illuminates us, that carries us into some sort of an ecstasy. And that is something which I find on every second page in The Peregrine. There is a religious quality of incantation, the invocation of a demon brother, which is a peregrine falcon. It’s like a ritual and the question, of course, is: How much is factual?

I have tried to defend Baker on factual grounds, but I don’t have the competence or authority to do that. The question is: If the book is full of factual inaccuracies …

There may be a few. That’s what I keep saying in moviemaking: “It’s the accountant’s truth you are after. You get a straight A, you idiot!” In [Robert Macfarlane’s] very intelligent, beautiful introduction, he says it’s irrelevant, that The Peregrine is “not a book about watching a bird, it is a book about becoming a bird.” Quite often in the book he writes how the peregrine is soaring higher and higher, and becomes a dot in this incredible sky. Then he writes, “And then we swooped down” — we swooped down — as if he had become a peregrine himself. Sure, that’s a factual inaccuracy.

Let me make a case for facts. A quote from Henry David Thoreau, in one passage from Walden where he says, “If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality.”

I crave many other things beyond reality. It’s a very impoverished life if we go only for that. Even a good steak is a form of ecstasy sometimes. You shouldn’t dismiss that the primitive things of real, everyday life can acquire different quality.

And facts and ecstasy go together.

No, they do not marry.

They do not?

Truth gives you an illumination and transports you into a state where you step outside of your own existence in an ecstasy. You can, for example, find it in the writings of late medieval mystics — that kind of ecstasy. That’s the beauty of this book.

After the book came out, many people were calling attention to misrepresentations. Baker was asked if he took any poetic license in writing this book — and Baker said none.

Probably all these kinds of reports are made-up things, like on the internet. I believe it wasn’t until recently we even knew who J. A. Baker was or what the J and A stood for — I still do not know. Probably we only know that he may have worked in a library sometime in his life and he may have been carrying some illness. That’s all. I think we do not have a single letter from him. And it’s better that we don’t know.

Well, it doesn’t matter. We have a few letters. But let me quote this to you. Maybe this can shed some light. He says, “Everything I describe took place while I was watching it, but I do not believe that honest observation is enough. The emotions and behavior of the watcher are also facts, and they must be truthfully recorded.”

That’s beautiful. I hope that he really wrote it and not some internet imposter. Yes, it’s strange what happens to us. It’s not happening to the observer alone, it happens to the memory of the observer. I give you a recent example, which is very puzzling for me. I made a film, Lessons of Darkness, about the fires in Kuwait. It’s a film where, for 60 minutes, there’s not a single image that belongs to our planet anymore. You do not recognize our planet anymore. I start the film with a caption and it reads, and it’s a very beautiful two-liner: “The collapse of the stellar universe will occur — like creation — in grandiose splendor. Blaise Pascal.” Some people asked me, “Where can I find this? I can’t find it in his aphorisms. I can’t find it in Pensées.”

Fact is, I invented it. And I put “Pascal” under it. Pascal could not have written it better. But it takes the audience right into a quasi-ecstasy, to a very sublime, elevated position. And then the film begins, and I never let them down from that.

In Lo and Behold, about the internet, there’s one question I’m posing. The Prussian war theoretician Clausewitz, in Napoleonic times, once famously said, “War sometimes dreams of itself.” Does the internet dream of itself? It’s really a deep and a very, very puzzling question for very intelligent people.

Now, what happened? I tried to find this quote in Clausewitz, and I did not find it. So it may happen that in my memory I somehow thought it was Clausewitz — but maybe I made it up myself. I do not know. So it’s a very blurred thing. But the question itself, in the way I quote Clausewitz, has such a formal clarity in it that it doesn’t matter whether it was Clausewitz or me making it up and not remembering whether I made it up. That’s a very disturbing moment.

And that’s why, if it’s true that the emotions and behavior of the watcher are also facts and must be truthfully recorded, then there could be an exact, a very exact truth, that has to do with the subjectivity of the watcher.

And the behavior of the watcher.

Behavior, where he becomes more and more the hawk. It’s quite remarkable. The further Baker gets on in his diary, and he’s inspecting these kills, there’s a suggestion that he ends up also tasting —

He writes:

I found myself crouching over the kill, like a mantling hawk. My eyes turned quickly about, alert for the walking heads of men. Unconsciously I was imitating the movements of a hawk as in some primitive ritual, the hunter becoming the thing he hunts. […] We live, in these days in the open, the same ecstatic fearful life. We shun men.

We. While he writes these five lines, he morphs into a falcon.

A hundred pages later he says, “What was left [of the kill] smelt fresh and sweet, like a mash of raw beef and pineapple. It was an appetizing smell, not the least bit rank or fishy. I could have eaten it myself if I had been hungry.” And one has a sense that he might have, every now and then, even tasted some of these dead birds.

Yes. But I think there wouldn’t be anything wrong to eat a bird or the carcass of a bird raw. Why not?

Perfectly understandable. Let me propose my interpretation: it’s not so much that Baker desires to become the hawk. He does have flight envy and he does have this aerial envy. He wants to fly and —

So do I. I’ve wanted to fly all my life.

— and unfortunately, the only way he can do it is in prose. There are moments in this book where he is soaring as high as any writer can soar in sentences, in the way he’s writing, and in the ecstatic passion that transports him. And therefore, as a writer, he does become like a hawk.

The raptor has another myth associated with it, which goes back to the Greek myth of Ganymede — the young boy, the most beautiful of all mortals whose father was Tros, after whom Troy was named. On Mount Ida, Zeus takes the form of an eagle and seizes him, captures him, “rapes” him in a sense, of rapture, bearing him up into the heavens. He becomes the cup-bearer of the gods and he becomes immortal. There are moments in The Peregrine where one has a sense that Baker is just waiting to be rapt or enraptured by the hawk.

That’s fantastic. Via his own writing and via his own life watching the birds.

Let me see if I can find the passage. On page 154–155:

After two minutes of uneasy glaring, he [the peregrine] flew straight at me as though intending to attack. He swept up into the wind before he reached me, and hovered twenty feet above my head, looking down. I felt as a mouse must feel, crouching unconcealed in shallow grass, cringing and hoping. The hawk’s keen-bladed face seemed horribly close. The glazed inhuman eyes — so foreign and remote […] I could not look away from the crushing light of those eyes, from the impaling horn of that curved bill. Many birds are snared in the tightening loop of his gaze. They turn their heads toward him as they die.

The fantasy is to be borne up into the sky like Ganymede. To call it a Ganymede complex would trivialize everything, but he wants to leave the earth and he can’t leave the earth.

At the same time, he is very warm-hearted, almost humorous. A couple of times he describes wrens. They really touch his heart very deeply: “The flat land was booming void where nothing lived. Under the wind, a wren, in sunlight among fallen leaves in a dry ditch seemed suddenly divine, like a small brown priest in a parish of dead leaves and wintry hedges, devoted till death.” I mean, it can’t get any better. Or he writes another time about a wren: “Turning through a hedge-gap, I surprised a wren. It trembled on its perch in an agony of hesitation, not knowing whether to fly or not, its mind in a stutter, splitting up with fear. I went quickly past, and it relaxed, and sang.” It’s just wonderful.

The elements are very present in this book. There’s the earth, water, air, obviously, and then the circle of fire. Fire is not technically an element, but the sun really represents that fiery element. He speaks of the falcon in terms of fire. He speaks of the heart of fire that it has. He sees it flying, he calls it a burning brand. And yet he is earthbound.

I think he’s not reconciled with the world …

No, he’s not reconciled.

He’s not reconciled with human beings, and he’s not reconciled with creation. Absolutely not. I share this kind of anger against the mess out there. When you look at it, there’s no glorious harmony of the spheres. It’s a stupid concept that still pops up in Walt Disney sorts of movies sometimes.

You read the passage on the wren. With your permission, I’ll read one about the mouse. I think those of you who read the book will have noticed that Baker takes the perspective of a bird’s-eye view. He describes a valley, estuary, sea. It’s from great distances. But all this changes when he’s speaking about a little mouse that is an earthbound creature. I’m reading from page 45. Let me read the whole paragraph:

At the side of the lane to the ford, I found a long-tailed field mouse feeding on a slope of grass. He was eating the grass seeds, holding the blade securely between his skinny white front paws. So small, blown over by the breath of passing cars, felted with a soft moss of green-brown fur; yet his back was hard and solid to the touch. His long, delicate ears were like hands unfolding; his huge, night-seeing eyes were opaque and dark. He was unaware of my touch, of my face a foot above him, as he bend the tree-top grasses down to his nibbling teeth. I was like a galaxy to him, too big to be seen. I could have picked him up but it seemed wrong to separate him now from the surface he would never leave until he died. I gave him an acorn. He carried it up the slope in his mouth, stopped and turned it round against his teeth, flicked it round with his hands, like a potter spinning. His life is eating to live, to catch up, to keep up; never getting ahead, moving always in the narrow way between a death and a death; between stoats and weasels, foxes and owls by night; between cars and kestrels and herons by day.

This is the fate of those who are earthbound. It’s also the fate of Baker himself. He can get that close to the mouse because they share, at least, this earthboundedness. And we know that Baker was in the grip of a very serious illness when he was out there, recording these things that he was seeing. Perhaps there was some kind of promise of transcendence if you could somehow take to the sky and free yourself from living “between a death and a death” on earth.

I think that pervades the whole book. It is not just observations of natural creatures out there, it’s much more.

I traveled on foot to Paris in snowstorms, in rainstorms. You see so many mice. It’s astonishing how many mice there are. In Of Walking in Ice, I write, “Friendship is possible with mice.” It’s very strange. They have something which has a very strong allure to those who are the solitary wanderers out there.

Baker writes that creatures, even when they’re dying in agony, will do anything desperately to get away if a human being approaches them. Their fear and phobia of humans is such that you can never get near them. And yet Baker can actually stroke this mouse.

We have a question from Mark, in the audience: “Part three of The Peregrine begins, ‘Wherever he goes this winter, I will follow him [the peregrine]. I will share the fear, and the exaltation, and the boredom, of the hunting life.’ Do you feel this way as a documentary filmmaker, that you are on a quest without knowing where it will lead you? Or do you have a clearer idea of what you’ll find when you begin?”

That’s a deep question because I do have a focus and I do know basically what I’m out for. Of course, there are surprises en route. I follow the surprises and I follow my instincts. It’s a little bit like hunting. But in documentaries, you should not underestimate the amount of casting that I do. I’m speaking of casting the same way you cast a feature film with actors. And I look around, [and I think] “Who could be really good for introducing me to this or that phenomenon?” Casting somehow narrows the possibilities, of course, but it intensifies the possibilities at the same time. So, yes, it’s wonderful where you are ending up. One signal that I know what I’m doing is that I end up with very little footage.

Yes. For those who have devoted decades of their lives to a kind of scientific study of a bird or some other aspect of nature, and go through the labor and careful analysis to get the facts correct, that’s also a form of devotion. It’s not poetry, but it is a love that takes a different form.

That’s what scientists do. That’s the charm of what they do. Sometimes it takes them to discoveries that decide the shape of our civilization — the tools that we use, the inventions or the insights that they have. We change because of these lonesome insights. That’s the beauty of it. It transforms society, it transforms how we behave as human beings. Our humaneness suddenly changes because we are using cell phones, the internet, Facebook. The idea of self, which is shifting and changing, and the ambiguity of human exchange suddenly becomes so clearly visible.

Legendary film director Werner Herzog discusses J.A. Baker’s book The Peregrine with Robert Pogue Harrison, a Stanford professor of Italian literature, at the Feb. 2 Another Look book club event.

May I ask about some of the other books that you ask your students at the Rogue Film School to read?

Yes. I brought with me the Poetic Edda, but I also, for example, have a very, very fine book by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain. He was a 19-year-old footman of the conquistador Cortés. Late in his life, he wrote a very, very, very detailed account — much better than any other source at that time. It is a phenomenal book.

I would also recommend you all read the Warren Commission Report on the Assassination of Kennedy. Everybody puts it down, yet nobody has read it. It’s a wonderful, incredible crime story. And it has a logical conclusiveness that is staggering. It’s a truly wonderful, wonderful piece of reading.

Back to the Poetic Edda. I am somebody who has held the Codex Regius in my hands twice in my life already — a little crumpled parchment text which is a little like the Dead Sea Scrolls for Israel. This is a book for Iceland. It goes into the mythological life and description of the creation of the world. It’s very, very strong. I tell people who make documentaries: go read the Edda, read the depth of the myths that can suddenly come out of very simple things that you do not notice — unless you have a sensory organ for the mythological. Here’s Völuspá Edda, the creation of the world:

In earliest times     did Ymir live: was not sea, nor land    nor salty waves, neither Earth was there     nor upper heaven, but a gaping nothing,    and in green things nowhere.

Was the land then lifted aloft     by Bur’s sons who made Mithgarth,    the matchless earth; shown from the south    the sun on dry land, on the ground then grew    The greensward soft.

The “matchless earth” is just very, very beautiful. A few stanzas later in the text — the creation of dwarfs. And all of a sudden, the text about the creation of the world rattles down to 84 names of dwarfs. Idiot scholars believe that it is an interpolation of later times, which probably it was. It doesn’t matter. It is an integral part of the Codex Regius. It’s just really, really beautiful. I’ll read a little bit into it, if I don’t bore you with names of dwarfs:

Then gathered together     the gods for counsel, the holy hosts,     and held converse: who the deep-dwelling     dwarfs was to make of Brimir’s blood      and Bláin’s bones.

Mótsognir rose,      mightiest ruler of the kin of dwarfs,      but Durin next; molded many manlike      bodies the dwarfs under earth,      as Durin bade them.

Nýi and Nithi,     Northri and Suthri, Austri and Vestri,     Althjóf, Dvalin, Nár and Náin,     Níping, Dáin, Bifur, Bofur,     Bombur, Nóri, Án and Onar,     Ái, Mjóthvitnir.

Veig and Gandálf,     Vindálf, Thráin, Thekk and Thorin,    Thrór, Vit, and Lit, Nár and Regin,     Nýráth and Ráthsvith; now is reckoned     the roster of dwarfs.

Those are only the first 40. And you see this kind of love for these things is … I cannot describe it. These things have not changed the course of my life, but they have made it better.

I’ve never made a pilgrimage to a filmmaker, but I did make a pilgrimage to Salt Lake City, to the University of Utah. One of the texts, which is not on my list, is one of the greatest books — one of the most intense and beautiful texts. The Florentine Codex, a collection by monks who accompanied the next wave, the next generation of Conquistadors. They collected voices from Aztecs about child rearing, about botanic knowledge, about military things, about history, about religion, about human sacrifice, and so on.

The text is so stunning because the Aztecs, in the shock of the conquest and utter destruction, tried to regain their speech. They try to describe simple things. “A cave is a place of darkness. It is full of fear. It is dark, yes, very dark. And fear looms there and do we dare to enter because the cave is big and it is dark” — and it continues like this. Somehow trying to grasp the world by newly trying to name it — just name it. The translation was done by some scholars of the University of Utah, because the Mormons believe that the Aztecs were one of the lost tribes of Israel. So they have the probably the best pre-Colombian studies in the world. Two professors translated the text, which is Nahuatl, with Spanish translation in parallel text, in the Codex Florentino. They translated it into English. Over 25 years, they released bit by bit by bit in scholarly editions. Now you can buy it. It’s a book which unfortunately has very few copies. I think I had to pay $1,200 or so for 12 or 14 volumes. The translation has such a power of language. It’s like the Old Testament in the King James Bible translations. Something which happens only once in a few centuries. And it was translated by two wonderful scholars, Professor [Arthur] Anderson and Professor [Charles] Dibble.

Anderson had died. I learned that Professor Dibble was still alive, professor emeritus at the University of Utah. And so I went to Salt Lake. I asked him if I could see him and I made a little pilgrimage to him. He was completely astonished that a filmmaker would come and visit him. Nobody had ever visited him. And he had no real help. I cooked tea for him. He didn’t know how to ignite his gas stove anymore. So he was really a great, wonderful, tragic man who made an incredible achievement in language. And for him, I made a pilgrimage. I visited him. I would never do that for a filmmaker.

So, Werner, to conclude, you’re persuaded that you’ll be remembered more for your books and your films.

Not remembered. I don’t care about being remembered. No, no, no, I mean something different. They will outlive the films, whether anybody cares who the person was, or what my name was. You cannot become completely anonymous in our time, in our century.

Good. But there is another book that maybe you could read from, Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo.

It was written during the time when I filmed Fitzcarraldo, and of course there were lots of catastrophes. Whenever I had a moment, I would write, and my handwriting shrank to miniature size — I mean, microscopic. It has this kind of strange prose in it, which just comes at me here. I’ll read something from the prologue:

A vision had seized hold of me, like the demented fury of a hound that has sunk its teeth into the leg of a deer carcass and is shaking and tugging at the downed game so frantically that the hunter gives up trying to calm him. It was the vision of a large steamship scaling a hill under its own steam, working its way up a steep slope in the jungle, while above this natural landscape, which shatters the weak and the strong with equal ferocity, soars the voice of Caruso, silencing all the pain and all the voices of the primeval forest and drowning out all birdsong. To be more precise, bird cries, for in this setting, left unfinished and abandoned by God in wrath, the birds do not sing; they shriek in pain, and confused trees tangle with one another like battling Titans, from horizon to horizon, in a steaming creation still being formed. Fog-panting and exhausted they stand in this unreal world, in unreal misery — and I, like a stanza in a a poem written in an unknown foreign tongue, am shaken to the core.

This kind of stuff calms you when you’re battling in the forest. Others would seek consolation or refuge in drugs or in alcohol or in religion or whatever. My last resort is language. It’s a last resort. And it is boiling inside of me and I sometimes, like a tune that you cannot get out of your head for weeks and weeks, words and things are spinning in my head. It was very strange because I later returned to the site where I moved the shape of the mountain, and there was hardly anything that you could see, no trace is left. I noticed the hostility among people in a native village, which I had not really noticed before but it was evidently there. I describe it:

It was midday and very still.

I looked around, because everything was so motionless. I recognized the jungle as something familiar, something I had inside me, and I knew that I loved it: yet against my better judgment. Then words came back to me that had been circling, swirling inside me through all those years: Hearken, heifer, hoarfrost. Denizens of the crag, will-o’-the wisp, hogwash. Uncouth, flotsam, fiend. Only now did it seem as though I could escape from the vortex of words.

Something struck me, a change that actually was no change at all. I had simply not noticed it when I was working there. There had been an odd tension hovering over the huts, a brooding hostility. The native families hardly had any contact with each other, as if a feud reined among them. But I had always overlooked that somehow, or denied it. Only the children had played together. Now, as I made my way past the huts and asked for directions, it was hardly possible to get one family to acknowledge another. The seething hatred was undeniable, as if something like a climate of vengeance prevailed, from hut to hut, from family to family, from clan to can.

I looked around, and there was the jungle, manifesting the same seething hatred, wrathful and steaming, while the river flowed by in majestic indifference and scornful condescension, ignoring everything: the plight of man, the burden of dreams, and the torments of time.

So that’s how I see nature.

¤

Robert Pogue Harrison is the Rosina Pierotti Professor of Italian Literature at Stanford University. He is the author of several books, among them Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (1992), The Dominion of the Dead (2003), and Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age (2014).

  https://ift.tt/39riVwF via Los Angeles Review of Books December 30, 2019 at 10:35PM

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