#macrob

[iffeelscouldkill]

First thoughts on starting to read FENCE Challengers: Long Shot

Marcus Washington remains Very Hot

[audiblybored]

Krušovice 5% Pilsner-style lager [@hos_quayside] #Krušovice #Krušovicelager #KrušovicePilsner #CzechBeer #macrobeer #macrobrew #crapnotcraft #lager #Pilsner #headofsteam #headofsteamquayside #headofsteamnewcastle #newcastle #newcastleupontyne #newcastlepub #newcastleupontynepub #craftbeer #craftbeerlife #craftbeerporn #beer #bier #birra #cerveza #biere #beersofinstagram #beerstagram #beerporn #beerlover #instabeer #beeroftheday https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpp5tlotnWX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[philippequeau]

Le Dieu mis à nu

“Apollon” De Numénius, poète et philosophe originaire d’Apamée en Syrie, et actif au 2e siècle ap. J.-C., sous Marc-Aurèle, il ne nous reste que quelques fragments. On y trouve une nette distinction faite entre le Démiurge, créateur du monde, « dressé sur la matière », et le Dieu d’en-haut, vers lequel le Démiurge tourne son regard, pour nourrir son « désir » et entretenir ainsi son « élan ».…

[spellsword177]

Thoughts on Fence Challengers: Sweet Sixteen

We follow Kings Row through round one and the start of round at the State Championship Finals.  I must start off by saying I’m very proud of the heroes on our team and how far they’ve come and how far they’ll go.  As usual, these are the things the things that really stick to me. 1.  Unsurprisingly, MacRobertson went down swinging.  As I’ve stated previously, I’m sorry to see them go, but this has always been a story about Kings Row and Exton.  Win or lose the final match, Nicholas Cox and Seiji Katayama will have their dramatic face off with Jesse Coste.

2.  Aiden Kane yet again proves himself to be a Chameleon and an excellent fencer, when he actually tries, in his bout with Nate Spencer.  Harvard Lee will forever be his sole reason for continuing to fence.  Interesting how the tables have turned and Seiji is able to unnerve Aiden, but Harvard is always there to calm him down.

3.  Marcus Washington was indeed an impressive fencer.  I’m sorry a hidden knee injury finally took him down, but he was gracious in his defeat by Seiji who knew about his weakness.  Kings Row has at least one ally from another school cheering them on as they proceed in the Finals. 

4.  Seiji shows even more how much he has grown since the beginning.  He’s now a team player willing to have faith in Nicholas and can step aside when needed to save his strength for the eventual match against Jesse.  He can still dish out the smack talk as cold as ice when facing opponents, but is also warm when he needs to be.

5.  As predicted, Lowther Hall is the next team to beat.  Like against MacRob, I know Kings Row will triumph due the set up of the narrative, but it may be close especially without Seiji participating.  Right now, Kings Row is four points behind going into bout 6, but I do have faith in our boys.  They will survive to face MLC.

6.  In some ways, Kyle Allen is worse than his cousin, Jesse, ever thought of being.  He’s a braggart who’s not above using dirty tricks to gain an advantage.  I’d love nothing more than for him to finally lose against Nicholas.  So far, we haven’t actually seen Nicholas fence this time, but the point totals against Emmett Scott in bout one showed him one point behind at 5-4.  Three weeks have passed since Kyle defeated him at camp and he may just need Seiji’s faith to help get him through.

7.  Saving the biggest development for last, Bobby Rodriguez finally knows Nicholas’s secret that he is the bastard son of Robert Coste and Jesse's half-brother.  Seiji may be the primary fencer for Kings Row, but Nicholas is clearly their secret weapon.  I have faith Bobby will not share the knowledge before Nicholas is ready, but it is bound to come out during the Finals.  I still suspect Coach Williams already knows which is why she reached out to Nicholas in the first place.  I look forward to the next edition and what new drama will unfold

[mahjastrax]

[FANART] Vagrant Macrobic Hunter

Wandering Vagrant + Macrobic Predator Unswerving Devourer of the Ether and Terra Firma

[nothingtoknow222]

Ok so.. who’s gonna win state? (Kings row is defeating high rated schools like dust) When is everyone gonna find out that Nicholas’s father is Robert? How will they have time to fit all of that plot into books that are like 60 pages? Are we seeing Macrob again? And WHEN IS THE NEXT BOOK COMING OUT

[mask131]

The myth of Apollo (4)

As with Dionysos previously (see here), the Dictionnary of Literary Myths of Pierre Brunel offers two different articles about Apollo. Here is the loose (but free !) translation of the second one, « Apollon, the mythical sun ».

APOLLO, THE MYTHICAL SUN

Pontus of Tyard wrote in 1552: “Of all the poetic gods, Apollo is the one that has been the most disguised by the fables and the etymologies of his name.” The mythical figure of Apollo, which has been turned in Western literature as one of the most conventional figures there can be, was considered by ancient mythographers as an extremely complex character, because he was given many names and many properties. Apollo is first and foremost an universal archetype of the Divine, of which literature kept – alternatively as much as indiscriminately – three main names: Apollo(n), Phoebus, Sun. The chronological evolution of the god allows us to isolate and separate the solar god (as a symbol) from his mythological adventures, since the solar Apollo is more present within poetry than within legends.

I/ The names of the Sun

In the Platonic tradition, all the way to the end of the Renaissance, numerous significant and diverse etymologies were invented for Apollo, all reflecting the various functions of the solar god. Within the name Apollo(n), interprets can read as much an idea of destruction as an idea of freeing (from the verb “luô”, to untie) or purification (from the verb “louô”, to clean). This reflects the “drying” effects of the sun, which can be negative or positive – and thus is a survival of the ambiguity of the archaic god.

The interpretations found within the “Cratylus” (see the previous part of “The myth of Apollo”, “The Antique Apollo) allow us to define the four main attributes of the god: medicine, divination (both seen as manifestations of “purification”), music and the art of shooting with a bow. The name Phoebus has been associated by Isidor of Sevilla with the endless youth of the ephebe (e-phoebus), while Cartari (in 1556) linked it to the vital light (phôs, light, bios, vie). For Platon, the name of “Sun” within Ancient Greek meant he who “nuances” the colors (“helios”, the sun in Greek, derived from “aïoleïn”, to nuance) ; and all the ulterior commentators assimilated it with the Latin “Sol”, tied to the adjective “Solus” (the sole, the unique, the lonely), a link which can be found in the neo-Latin languages (in French “soleil” and “seul”, for example). Cartari, who was follow the works of Plotin and Macrobe, linked this precise etymology to the Greek name of Apollo that he translated as “he who is not multiple” (“a” as a privative + “polu”, many) – highlighting again the important idea of unity within the idea of the sun-god.

II/ Main attributes

The mythographers of Renaissance made a very useful synthesis work that offers us in their roughly definitive state the various interpretations of the myth of Apollo, compiling together the commentaries from Antiquity, the interpretations from the Middle-Ages, as well as the point of view of some Oriental civilizations. Within his “Images of the Gods” (1556), Cartari divides the solar myth in a series of elements linked together as part of a long allegorical chain:

1) The sun represents at first, in the diversity and universality of its effects, an archetype of the Divinity. The Assyrians assimilated it to Jupiter as the soul of the world (because through all the other gods, it was always him who was evoked). As such Macrobe noted in his “Saturnals” that all theology always returned to the worship of the sun.

2) As a symbol of eternal youth, as the allegory of the always-new day, of the always-resurrecting light, Apollo is depicted as beardless (except for the Assyrians) and is associated with Dionysos.

3) Because of its central position within the Universe, it is called “heart of the heaven”, by analogy with the vital function of this “pulsing” organ within the human body. The sun is the source of light that communicates their movements to the other astral bodies. It is why Apollo is sitting in the middle of the nine Muses, allegories of the nine celestial sepheres, and with them he embodies the Harmony and the Universe, as a symbol of “symmetry and concordance” (according to Tyard). As such the Music of the Spheres, that R. Lulle will represent through the “Great Lyre of the Universe”, is reflected in Apollon’s association with Music and Poetry (Poetry which was originally simply the art of singing).

4) The rays of the sun are depicted by the arrows of Apollo (just like by those of his sister Diana). They can penetrate the very core of the earth – it is why there is an archaic tradition according to which Apollo is a chthonian or infernal god (and can sometimes be called Hecate, since the primitive gods were without genders).

5) It is due to the purgative and drying effects of his rays that Apollo is also the god of medicine. Mythographers tie this function of the god to the fable of the snake Python killed by Apollo soon after his birth: they assimilated Python to the mythical Flood, as a principal of morbid humidity wrapped around the earth.

6) The attribution of the laurel to Apollo, and the fable of Daphne, are explained by the medicinal virtue of the plant, the always-green plant that never rots, and that the mythographers saw as a symbol of Health. The laurel is also tied to the alchemical symbolism of Humidity, because Daphne was metamorphosed thanks to the intervention of her father, a river-god.

7) Finally, Apollo is the god of divination, because he is the eye of the sky, he sees all and he reveals all secrets (hence why in mythology Apollo was the one who denounced the adulterine love of Venus and Mars). He has the role, within the Universe, of the eye within the human body – he is the “spy of the intellect”, the “censor” or the “rector”, and his eminent position makes him a sign of omnipotence. Cartari described a hieroglyph that designated the sun as a scepter surmounted by an eye – which would identify the mythical sun with the idea of royalty.

Such a synthesis – within which each of the god’s main attributes were defined and linked together – as the interpretative model which was used as a basis for all ulterior poetry. For example take Du Bartas: in his “Sepmaine ou Création du Monde », in 1578, the sun, which is not a god anymore but a mere « ornament of the sky », is always designated by metonymy through a series of names that resume all the attributes of the solar god in his cosmic function: Phoebus with gold hair, the blond Titan, the Torch of Laton, the Archer, Apollo giver-of-souls, the Fountain of Heat, the Life of the Universe, Giver-of-honors, King of the Sky, Eye of the Day, Censor, Torch of Delph, Torch of Delos, he who “makes the face of the world young again”. In a parallel way, from Cartari’s work, the different aspects of the character will be slowly simplified until he simply becomes the god of Poetry, crowned with both sunrays and laurel leaves, sitting among the Muses on top of mount Parnassus, always holding his lyre (which can sometimes represent him in his entirety), distilling the poetic inspiration under the shape of the Hippocrene spring (created from Pegasus’ hoof), a spring that Ronsard will describe as “the fountain of verses”.

III/ The philosophical Sun

Symbol of the Philosophical Gold in the alchemical tradition, uniting the fundamental opposites that are the fire and the water, the dry and the wet ; or a symbol of the divine creative soul within Orphism and Pythagorism, the go of Poetry s the very image of all creation within the Neoplatonic literature, in which Apollo with his lyre is always associated to his “mortal double”, Orpheus. Within the Renaissance, Apollo was the god who inspired the “Poetic Fury”, without which the lyrical production cannot be: it is under his influence that (according to Ronsard’s Hymn to Autumn) the spirit can “penetrate the secret of the heavens” and the soul “rise among the gods”. It is under the sign of Apollo that the soul finds back its celestial origin through the effects of the divine enthusiasm (from the Greek “theos”, god): this is the Orphic origin of poetry. For Ronsard and the poets of La Pléiade, the “inspired Poet” is both the “prophet” and the “priest” of Apollo (hence why in the 16th century it was believed that the Sibyls and the oracles were exceptional poets).

This Neoplatonic interpretation of the myth, which confuses the two main attributes of the god, prediction and lyrical art, this same tradition that shaped the image of Apollo we have today, relies on the commentary by Marsile Ficin of “The Symposium”, which divines four different divine “furies”, associated with four patron-deities. First is the highest, the poetic fury, which is caused by the Muses ; second is the “mystery fury” or the sacerdotal fury, which proceeds from Dionysos  ; third is the prophetic fury, given by Apollo ; fourth is love, and it originates from Venus. Despite the distinction marked within this text between the Muses and Apollo, poets usually invoke indifferently one or the other – the god understood as the “universal principle” and the Muses as allegories that represent the individual repartitions of the poetic virtues. It should be noted that within the Neoplatonic context, Apollo is not opposed to Dionysos – rather their functions are complementary. The god of divination, who is also the god of the penetration of divine secrets, forms a couple with the god who initiates humans to the divine Mysteries ; it is to the point that they are called “brothers” by Pontus of Tyard, who explains the epithet of “Delphic Apollo” by a fake etymology “adelphos”, “brother”, for the “fraternity considered between Denys (Dionysos) and Apollo”.

For the Neoplatonicians, if Apollo is one of the poles of the duality of the world, he is rather opposed as the One, as the universal principle, to Diana, who embodies Nature – that is to say the Multiple. According to the Platonic idea taken back by Giordano Bruno in “Eroici Furori” (1585), the Nature (Diane) is the mirror of the God (Apollo). Apollo is the absolute light whose essence must be hidden, who blinds and kills those that see it directly, and thus he can only be perceived through his reflection. A variation of this idea, developed by Léon Hébreu in 1535) made Apollo the “simulacrum of the divine Intellect”, while the Moon was the “simulacrum of the soul of the World” and acted as an intermediary between the divine plane (the intelligible world) and the corporal plane (the sensible world). This conception has been very influential in term of literary posterity, because it means in a very explicit way, that the sight is a sense that must be valorized: the sensitive vision, the one of the eye, is to be identified with the intellectual vision, the one that allows thanks to the spirituality of the light to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly and the good from the evil. The supremacy of the eye above all other senses will be abundantly developed, in poetic and metaphorical ways, from the 16th to the 17th centuries. Even within the anatomical descriptions of the baroque poets, the eye appears as an intermediary between the sensible and intelligible world, as a double of the Sun, whose light shines upon the minds as much as upon the bodies.

[applesandbannas747]

Johanna the Mad and CS Pacat are truly masters of their crafts, and I really believe that every aspect of Fence and the symbolism we see in it is intentional. Each detail was deliberately put in–there’s a reason for everything. So why make the crests of MacRob and Lowther such a perfect match for each other if not to hint at a romance across the two teams?

They’re literally broadcasting their intention to us, I mean come on, a bird and a tree? A TREE? A place where birds find refuge?? It’s so obvious. And the only characters that make sense to feature in this titular romance are, of course, Hector and Kyle. Think about it.

[kwockwoc]

i need to know your thoughts on the marcus backstory reveal in sweet sixteen

Well murder, as a card-carrying appreciator of both Marcus and Nate, I can say how moved I was by their development throughout Sweet Sixteen – from the surprisingly detailed unwrapping of Marcus’s backstory, through the glimpses of Nate rightly freaking out for his boyfriend teammate, right up to Marcus passing the baton to Seiji  [side note: I mean… come on… “I’m not the best” / “Not yet.” / “What?” / “That was my last bout, Seiji, so I won’t tolerate you losing… You have to win for me now, too.” – i am screaming crying throwing up over here 😭😭😭]. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we saw of the MacRob boys in both of the Challengers issues, and was delighted to have them handled in the way they were.

I think giving Marcus a lingering injury was an interesting choice – because we’ve learnt how abruptly Marcus departed the fencing scene, and how his retirement was reported at the time (per Long Shot), I wasn’t expecting it to be something musculoskeletal – I thought maybe a crisis of confidence, or something connected with protecting his wellbeing, but not necessarily injury management.

And to be honest, the way Sweet Sixteen depicted Marcus’s path back to ‘fighting fit’ was also really affecting/moving? Like I am surprisingly moved by that? I did not expect that in this issue and I did not expect that for Marcus, but I am pleased by how it was done.

I also thought that the (indirect) example of MacRob as a sort of cautionary tale for Kings Row was good (overreliance on your one champion fencer does not make a champion team, etc.). I loved Nicholas bringing Robert’s KR years into the spotlight too (“Robert Coste took Kings Row to the finals when he fenced here. But he didn’t win. Coach said it was because one fencer alone is not enough.” – PREACH NICHOLAS PREACH!!)

[Sorry got distracted re-reading the issue 😅]

Finally, I am still over here labouring in the Marcus/Nate mines, and in my heart, those two are dating 🥰  Thanks murder for the lovely ask, really enjoyed answering it & I hope you are enjoying Sweet Sixteen too! So on we go to the next chapter hey! (eventually! 🥹⌛)

[aurevoirmonty]

L'homme, une fois éveillé à une volonté de création, cherche à dépasser les limites des cercles de la nécessité et à maîtriser le pouvoir résidant dans le Feu. Cela constitue clairement une variation du mythe prométhéen, qui se termine également par une "chute" : l'homme qui est "supérieur à l'harmonie [c'est-à-dire à l'ordre universel, à l'unité des diverses lois et conditions naturelles], devient esclave de l'harmonie". Bien qu'hermaphrodite comme le Père et au-delà du sommeil, il reste dominé par le sommeil. Mais le sommeil est un terme ésotérique désignant traditionnellement une conscience alourdie par les conditions du corps animal, en antithèse au symbole de l'éveil de l'initié engagé dans le travail de destruction du sommeil (nidrābhanga dans les textes hindous), par la nature intellectuelle "sans sommeil" — ἡ φύσις ἄγρυπνος — dont parle Plotin. Comme l'avidyā bouddhique, ce "sommeil" symbolique peut être considéré comme équivalent à "l'oubli", le lêthê grec, "l'oubli". Macrobe transmet la tradition de la division de la "matière" — ὕλη — en deux parties, dont l'une, comme ambroisie, est la nourriture des dieux, et l'autre, comme boisson des âmes, constitue les eaux du fleuve Léthé, l'eau de l'oubli ; et cette tradition clarifie le sens de l'enseignement des deux septénaires.

Julius Evola, La Tradition hermétique

[atomimperatrix]

Kyle seeing Marcus in Fence Rise goes Emotional Damage after he said something out of line about Macrob in the previous page.

[audiblybored]

Guinness - Original 4.2% Stout First and last time I'll ever have one of these. Fucking awful. #Guinness #Guinnessbeer #mygoodnessmyguinness #GuinnessTime #IrishBeer #IrelandBeer #Stout #SupermarketBeer #SupermarketCraftBeer #crapnotcraft #macrobeer #craftbeer #craftbeerlife #craftbeerporn #beer #beersofinstagram #beerstagram #beerporn #beerlover #cheers #craftnotcrap #instabeer #beeroftheday https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp_H0SoNP_u/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kurulover]

to be a hater. That one post about the Blue Pool and how 38 degrees Fahrenheit is so cold not even microorganisms can live in it. Girl. There are microbes and macrobes dedicated to living in waters regularly below freezing (and as a result, salty enough to not freeze). I promise you they live in your cold little pool. Don’t go swimming tho it’s true you will drown.

[spellsword177]

Thoughts on Fence Challengers: Long Shot

At long last, it begins. Kings Row is headed to the State Championship Finals, Nicholas has the chance to show his growth as a fencer, and Seiji will help guide the team through its long fight to face off against Exton. Though I'm a bit behind in putting this together, a few things did stand out to me. 1. Starting with the smaller pieces, I look forward to learning more about the other competing schools. I like the introduction of girl characters and the parallels between Aiden and Adrienne. The subtle hints at Aiden's obsession over Harvard's love life and knowing Dafna's name was a nice touch. Bobby is cheerful as always and charmingly oblivious, but a little over the top with superstitions on the bus. I look forward to seeing their stories unfold 2. MacRobertson shows yet again why they are my second favorite team behind Kings Row. I'm sorry they will be the first team to face off against our boys, but it is promising to be a tricky match and not an easy win. Out of the few schools seen, they could prove to be some of Kings Row's strongest allies in later competitions. Marcus Washington in particular will be the most immediate threat and could be helpful especially for Seiji after MacRob is inevitably beaten. I suspect Lowther, MLC, and Halverton to be the next teams in that order. 3. It is unfortunate Eugene Labao will not be participating in the Finals. He is a determined fencer, and he will have several more opportunities to compete, but Nicholas has always been at the center of this series, and he has surpassed Eugene. The good news is he will still be part of the story as Kings Row battles its way to the top, and Aiden may once again leave an opening.

4. Seiji has come a long way from when he viewed Kings Row as beneath him. He clearly has a thing for Nicholas, but neither one will openly admit it. Win or lose the final match, I think he is finally finding his true place in the world. It will still be a long way to go before he faces off again against Jesse Coste.

5. Jesse Coste once again proves himself to be an arrogant prick who cares more about winning than actual friendship. I find it interesting how Robert Coste seems to have no idea about Jesse's fallout with Seiji. We've had a few hints about his personality in the books, but I'm curious to see who he is in the comics. I have little doubt Seiji and Jesse will face each other again on the piste. Time will tell how it all unfolds. 6. No one has come further than Nicholas Cox. He is not yet ready to face the best fencers, but he has proven to be a fast learner and is rapidly advancing. The name Nicholas Cox is starting to grace the lips of spectators. I look for him to have his rematch against Kyle Allen (his secret cousin) in future installments.

7. I was at first concerned about Nicholas leaving the news article with his note to his father, but it looks like it won't matter in the long run. His biggest secret will likely be revealed during the course of this story arc. It is the number one thing I most look forward to reading in future installments.

[mahjastrax]

i have drawn the vagrant macrobic hunter yet again

[its-11oclock-blog]

Im a microbe in this macrobe world...