#robert holton

[razorsadness]

…According to postwar analysts such as David Riesman and C. Wright Mills, the outcome was rather different. America’s mid-century masses were no longer huddled—unless around their TVs or in their Chevrolets—yet this gain was offset by the fact that they were apparently no longer yearning to breathe free, either. Whole new industries had sprung up based around the emergent conformist masses, finding productive and efficient ways to move them around in mass transit, to entertain and inform them through mass media, to supply them with needs and desires through mass marketing, and to fulfill those needs and desires through mass production.

With the calling into question of that way of life, with the rising concern that its bounty could be reduced to bland mass consumerism and its freedom reduced to mass conformism, Beat discourse contemplated a reversed trajectory of liberation leading from (relative) riches back to lumpen rags. The experience of life might be fuller and the desire to breathe free might be better explored, it seemed to some disenchanted Americans, through a downward mobility, and this led back to a curiosity about the inassimilable lumpen state of homeless refuse. "We wandered around," Kerouac writes, "carrying our bundles of rags in the narrow romantic streets" (170). The rags proclaimed (even etymologically) a lumpen identity; the wandering established a sense of freedom from the ordered efficiency demanded by modernity; and the narrow streets remained available to those romantics willing to abandon the standardized freeways and suburban subdivisions of the postwar world. Modernity seemed not only to homogenize the social diversity of individuals, it seemed to reduce the range of experience available to those individuals. The heterogeneity of the lumpen-bohemians, whether the vagabond vision attributed to Mississippi Gene or the bohemian delirium of Sal himself, famished and "frozen with ecstasy" on the streets of San Francisco (172), appeared to counteract this tendency.

The exploration of the spaces of skid row, of addiction and perversion, criminality, lunacy and vagrancy, became sources of a desperate sense of possibility in a white middle-class modernity that had begun to seem synonymous with dead-end mass culture, a space of potential individuality and freedom in the land of what C. Wright Mills called the "cheerful robots" (233). If, as many social critics charged, the cheerful robots of postwar America functioned as efficient cogs in the wheels of modern production, the antithesis would lie in a calculated inefficiency. The original French bohemians arose in the context of a postrevolutionary disillusionment with political solutions; their postwar American counterparts, in the wake of two world wars and a global economic depression,  in the grip of the cold war's threat of nuclear holocaust, developed a similar estrangement. In the absence of any sense that progressive social change is an option, then, uselessness itself can become a kind of virtue, and dysfunctionality a badge of countercultural courage. Nonproductivity is a hallmark of the lumpens and bohemians, whose activities may include poetry, petty crime, or wandering ragged through narrow romantic streets, but whose proclivities do not extend to productive labor in the industrial or bureaucratic model. As Jameson puts it, "To be unique or grotesque, a cartoon figure, an obsessive, is also ...not to be usable in efficient or instrumental ways" (101). The adoption of strategies of un-usability potentially opens the door to a freer space, to "a Utopia of misfits and oddballs, in which the constraints for uniformization and conformity have been removed, and human beings grow wild like plants in a state of nature" (99). Coincidentally, Sal comments at one point that Dean's "madness…had bloomed into a weird flower" (112).

Social scum and refuse appeared to threaten the coherence of both Marxist and capitalist taxonomic order, both of which depend on the efficient control of productive labor. The nonproductive nature of the lumpen-bohemians is one of their defining traits, and Georges Bataille associates this directly with unassimilable heterogeneity:

the heterogeneous world includes everything resulting from unproductive expenditure (sacred things themselves form part of this whole). This consists of everything rejected by homogeneous society as waste.... the waste products of the human body and certain analogous matter... the numerous elements or social forms that homogeneous society is powerless to assimilate... those who refuse the rule. (142)

—Robert Holton, from “The Tenement Castle: Kerouac’s Lumpen-Bohemia” (What’s Your Road, Man?: Critical Essays on Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Southern Illinois University Press, 2009)

[moviesludge]

thanks

[roskirambles]

Horror Comedy of the Day: Leprechaun (1993)

1983, North Dakota. Dan O'Grady comes back from a trip overseas with a pot full of gold. Shortly after showing this to his wife, she gets murdered, for the true owner of this treasure followed him all the way. You see, in Ireland there's an old legend that talks of a pot of gold you can find at the end of the rainbow. If you manage to get there, it's yours to keep. But you got to be careful: the fae folk known as the Leprechaun will come for you to take it back.

10 years later, a teenage girl called Tory Redding, who's renting the farm house with her family has to fend this same creature off, as he has escaped the crate he was trapped in.

No, you read that correctly: someone made the old Irish folk tale you most likely associate with the Lucky Charms cereal into a horror film. One where Jennifer Aniston is fighting off Warwick Davis of Willow (1988) fame. And the end result is... kind of a glorious, silly mess.

As the film underwent production, it changed the tone multiple times, going from a more straightforward slasher film to a comedy film that might qualify for a PG rating, only to inject back some gore late in production. The pastiche shows: it's has the same kind of simplistic logic and gags you'd expect from a kids movie down to the musical score, while also being punctuated by (infrequent) blood levels that wouldn't be out of place in Friday the 13th, with the occasional burst of profanity on top.

But of course, we got to talk about the titular character: among an enthusiastic but not very robust cast, Warwick Davis took the role after a slow period in his career to show he had more range than the well meaning Nelwyn; he very clearly had a blast playing the smug, conniving little trickster, chewing the scenery wherever the opportunity arose.

It borders on being infantile but charmingly so, being very much unashamed of its ridiculousness. Fuck you, Lucky Charms indeed.

[tudorblogger]

Monthly Reading Summary – July 2024

[2ndaryprotocol]

The cult classic ‘Leprechaun’ crept into theaters this day 30 years ago. 🍀📦☠️

“𝙰𝚑! 𝚃𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚖𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝, 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑����𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝.”

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Ok, so normally I just...ignore creators who can't be bothered to include women, LTGBTQIA, and BIPOC authors in Fantasy Book Lists, but today I'm tired and grouchy and this goddamn video pissed me off because it's a vast majority of white dudes and their fantastical man pain. SO. I would like to just toss out some NOT white male fantasy authors because frankly I am *so tired* of white dudes retreading Tolkien and Robert Jordan forever. So let's celebrate some amazing fantasy authors who tend not to make these lists.

I'll give the author (and a book to start with).

- Mercedes Lackey (Arrows of the Queen)

- Tamora Pierce (Sandry's Book)

- Fonda Lee (Jade City)

- India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels)

- NE Davenport (The Blood Trials)

- Naomi Novik (His Majesty's Dragon)

- Moniquill Blackgoose (To Shape A Dragon's Breath)

- CE Murphy (Urban Shaman)

- Sue Lynn Tan (Daughter of the Moon Goddess)

- Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights)

- Judy I. Lin (A Magic Steeped in Poison)

- Tasha Suri (The Jasmine Throne)

- Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow)

- Jordan Ifueko (Raybearer)

- Chelsea Abdullah (The Stardust Thief)

- Tracy Deonn (Legendborn)

- Gabi Burton (Sing Me to Sleep)

- Brittany N. Williams (That Self-Same Metal)

- Juliet Marillier (Dreamer's Pool)

- Stephanie Burgis (Scales and Sensibility)

- Allison Saft (A Fragile Enchantment)

- Chloe Neill (The Bright and Breaking Sea)

- Olivia Atwater (Half a Soul)

- Heather Fawcett (Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faerie)

- MA Carrick (The Mask of Mirrors)

- Kristin Cashore (Graceling)

- Marie Brennan (A Natural History of Dragons)

- Maya Ibrahim (The Spice Road)

- HM Long (Dark Water Daughter)

- Aparna Verma (The Phoenix King)

And these are just the ones I can see on my bookshelves by turning my head without moving from my chair. There are DOZENS of others who I apologize for missing and who are absolutely worth reading. If I missed one of your favorites, add it to the list with a reblog, and let's stop defaulting to filling fantasy author lists with white dudes.

[harryforvogue]

book recommendations that are similar to my fics

i tried <333

harry and mia

dreamland billionaires by lauren asher (ceo trope)

the dead romantics by ashley poston (quiet reserved MC x overwhelmed FMC in literary setting)

the spanish love deception by elena armas (grumpy x sunshine),

beautiful bastard by christina lauren (serious MC, workplace setting)

the hating game by sally thorne (grumpy MC, workplace rivals)

love on the brain by ali hazelwood (grumpy MC x sunshine FMC, workplace, male pining)

neon gods by katee roberts (grumpy MC, hades x persephone)

harry and faye

practice makes perfect by sarah adams (nervous FMC x tattooed hottie MC)

all the lovers in the dark by mieko kawakami (depressed FMC wanting to change her life around)

georgie, all along by kate clayborn (FMC has anxiety)

harry and fleur

the wisteria society of lady scoundrels by india holton (grumpy/serious FMC x flirty MC, rivals-to-lovers, forced to work together)

these violent delights by chloe gong (friends to lovers to exes to enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers), 

harry and lucia

the heart principle by helen hoang (FMC has OCD)

forget me not by julie soto (grumpy x sunshine, second chance romance)

happy place by emily henry (second chance romance, break up for a good reason)

alone with you in the ether by olivie blake (characters messed up all around)

harry and miriam

yours truly by abby jimenez (MC has really bad anxiety)

people we meet on vacation by emily henry (sunshine FMC x nervous MC, second chance romance-ish)

below zero by ali hazelwood (MC doesn’t know he’s hot, nervous MC x happy FMC)

harry and yasmine

a rogue of one's own by evie dunmore (enemies to lovers, male pining, historical romance)

emily wilde’s encylopaedia of fairies by heather fawcett (academic setting, serious FMC x playful MC)

love theoretically by ali hazelwood (academic rivals)

divine rivals by rebecca ross (enemies to lovers, rivals to lovers)

harry and aaliyah

portrait of a scotsman by evie dunmore (grumpy MC x artsy FMC)

pride and prejudice by jane austen (duh!)

the belle of belgrave square by mimi matthews (marriage of convenience, grumpy MC)

harry and annaliese

the poppy wife by caroline scott (post ww1 romance)

the princess diaries by meg cabot (best friend’s brother LOLLL)

when i come home again by caroline scott (post war romance)

divine rivals by rebecca ross (again but it’s also ww1 inspired)

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🗡️ What To Read After Watching My Lady Jane

❓ Have you watched My Lady Jane yet OR what's the last adaptation you watched (and was it any good)?

🗡️ Grave Mercy - Robin Lafevers 🗡️ And I Darken - Kiersten White 🗡️ Romanov - Nadine Brandes

🗡️ The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - Mackenzi Lee 🗡️ Earls Trip - Jenny Holiday 🗡️ My Fine Fellow - Jennieke Cohen

🗡️ Before We Disappear - Shaun David Hutchinson 🗡️ The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels - India Holton 🗡️ A Curse So Dark and Lonely - Brigid Kemmerer

🗡️ The Princess Bride - William Goldman 🗡️ An Assassin's Guide to Love and Treason - Virginia Boecker 🗡️ Squire - Tamora Pierce

🗡️ Cake Eater - Allyson Dahlin 🗡️ Stalking Jack the Ripper - Kerri Maniscalco 🗡️ Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

🗡️ Powerless - Lauren Roberts 🗡️ Serpent & Dove - Shelby Mahurin 🗡️ Once Upon a Broken Heart - Stephanie Garber

🗡️ The Shadows Between Us - Tricia Levenseller 🗡️ From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout 🗡️ Cinder - Marissa Meyer

🗡️ The Empress - Gigi Griffis 🗡️ Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess - Nancy Springer 🗡️ My Contrary Mary - Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

[mermaidsirennikita]

I was just on Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland and thought, “a pirate romance would be great right about now.” Any recs? Thank you!

I dooo--these aren't really true-blue Golden Age of Piracy PIRATE PIRATE recs because a lot of those are *quite* old and *quite* problematic even by my standards... And I mean, that era of piracy is kind of inherently rough because piracy like, directly intersected with the slave trade, among other things, etc.

If you're open to something more magical and whimsical, I would absolutely recommend India Holton's The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels and The League of Gentlewoman Witches. They're set in a Victorian world populated by thieves and witches and pirates who fly like, airships. They're SO funny and sexy and romantic, but they still hav stakes, too. I actually find the heroes of both books very piratey. One is like, a charmer sort of like, borderline himbo, and the other is one of the slickest heroes I've ever read. Both are great, Gentlewoman Witches edges out the first for me juuust a little because of how the sex in that one works. She's just like "I am very stressed" and he's like "I have a solution". At one point they're just jacking/fingering each other while steering the ship lmao.

Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Hoyt OF COURSE. Charming Mickey O'Connor (one of the greatest hero names of all time sorry) is a river pirate. He's very successful, very dangerous, and has an incredibly OTT accent that Elizabeth Hoyt sells because it's Elizabeth Hoyt and she can sell almost anything. His heroine is a Quaker widow who ends up trapped on his ship because he, GET THIS, left his bastard infant daughter on her orphanage doorstep, and a year later, after she's fallen in love with this baby, shows up like "SO YEAH WE'RE IN DANGER AND I CAN'T HAVE PEOPLE USING SHIT AGAINST ME SO I WANT THAT BABY BACK EVEN THO IDGAF ABOUT IT". And Silence is like well if you're taking the baby you're taking ME too. And so he does.

The Hawk by Monica McCarty has a medieval hero who's like, a lord and shit, but also very much a self-acknowledged pirate. He's always swimming naked and using his piratical ways to do spy shit for Robert the Bruce. His heroine is an uptight Irish noblewoman he literally fishes out of the sea. This is indeed the "they fuck on a raft in the middle of a storm because the storm makes her anxious" book.

How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long has a hero who's a privateer, which is BASICALLY THE SAME THING LBR. The action doesn't really take place on the ship, because he and the heroine end up in the same room at this boarding house during a once in a lifetime storm (it's like a bottle episode romance, it's really fascinating) but he's still got that pirate charm. She's a spinster and has kinda missed out on life. At one point they play this weird old-timey game to pass the time and it gets oddly sexual, which is such a Julie Anne Long thing.

Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale. Allegreto is, while also being an assassin and political mover and shaker, a pirate on the side. Part of the book does take place on a ship, I believe, and the interesting thing is that it also takes place, in part, in VENICE, so you get the whole canal life. Allegreto is legit crazy. TW: noncon for the first encounter, one of those forced consummation things because he needs the heroine to marry him as a part of his Evil Plot.

(Sidebar: I always find this scene so interesting, because it is very obviously noncon, but in a way that I think is period-accurate she sort of is like more mad about her virginity being gone? Because she needs that for marital and political reasons? And she also realizes that he SUPER got off on her biting him, and he's shaken because she really wasn't supposed to know that he was into that, and SHE begins to connect the dotes re: his sexual inclinations, in that he wants her to dominate him, which is a major weakness of his.)

Lord of Temptation by Lorraine Heath. The hero's brother basically sold him--he was willing--to piratey types when they were young teens because they were on the run from their evil uncle. So he grew up and became this well known captain/pirate. Now he's sort of integrated back into polite society, but he doesn't want it, so he goes out to sea and ends up escorting the heroine when she's on the way to see her fiancee. Cue sex on a boat. This one is really fun because it gives major ILLICIT AFFAIRS.

Any Duke in a Storm by Amalie Howard. Arguably the most traditional piratey one here. The heroine is actually a spy, but she has this pirate identity and is very cold and fierce. The hero (who naturally is both piratey and a duke) becomes her first mate (or something like that) and she actually thinks he's a part of the illegal operation she's trying to bust. HOWEVER, things get complicated because he's wildly attracted to her and trying to get into her pants. There is indeed a fight where she ends up on top of him and realizes he's massively hard and there are like 12 pirates watching.

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Reading List Game

I was tagged by @thelettersfromnoone. Thanks for the tag, friend!❤️ So here we go.

What are your recent, current, and future reads?

Recent:

Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (reread) + the graphic novel version which I had not read before

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Once Upon a December by Amy E. Reichert

Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

The Ex-Mas Holidays by Zoe Allison

The Professor's Secret by mrspeetamellark

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too by c-r-roberts (reread)

Forbidden Love by mega-aulover

A Blind Date with Santa by MTK4FUN

Current:

The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton

The Islands by Dionne Irving

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through edited by Joy Harjo

The Chance You Didn't Take by ronja

Enthralled by damndonnergirls

THG Season of Hope 2023 entries by various

Future:

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Clash of Kings by George RR Martin

Becoming by Michelle Obama

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (reread) and the graphic novel version which, as with SoM, I haven't yet read

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Be That Way by Hope Larson

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen because I have somehow never read this one???? I swore I'd read all of hers but apparently not???? #Travesty #For SHAME kdnfb

A House United by shesasurvivor

The Firebird by merciki

Behind Blue Eyes by maxwellandlovelace

The Odds by mollywog

EDIT I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT THIS ONE! MORE FOR SHAME ON KDNFB.... ahem Hunger Games par Suzanne Collins (l'édition française)

The first three of the future fanfictions on my list are all ones that I've started reading and then, for one reason or another that has nothing to do with the stories or writers themselves, I got pulled away from finishing them. So I am determined. They're getting read this year.

Tagging to play if you want to! : @pookieh, @awhiskeyriver, @bellairestrella, @distractionsfromthefood, @pitualba2015, @mega-aulover, @jroseley and anyone else who would like to play!

[moviesludge]

insurance will never cover this

[dailyanarchistposts]

Bibliography for FAQ

Works about Anarchism

Alexander, Robert, The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War (2 vols.), Janus Publishing Company, London, 1999.

Anderson, Carlotta R., All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1998.

Apter, D. and Joll, J (Eds.), Anarchism Today, Macmillan, London, 1971.

Archer, Julian P. W., The First International in France, 1864–1872: Its Origins, Theories, and Impact, University Press of America, Inc., Lanham/Oxford, 1997.

Cahm, C., Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism 1872–1886,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989.

Carr, Edward Hallett, Michael Bakunin, Macmillan, London, 1937.

Coleman, Stephen and O’Sullivan, Paddy (eds.), William Morris and News from Nowhere: A Vision for Our Time,Green Books, Bideford, 1990.

Coughlin, Michael E., Hamilton, Charles H. and Sullivan, Mark A. (eds.), Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty: A Centenary Anthology, Michael E. Coughlin Publisher, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1986.

Crowder, George, Classical Anarchism: The Political Thought of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991.

Delamotte, Eugenia C., Gates of Freedom: Voltairine de Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind — With Selections from Her Writing, The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2004.

Dirlik, Arif, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution, University of CaliforniaPress, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991.

Ehrenberg, John, Proudhon and his Age, Humanity Books, New York, 1996.

Esenwein, George Richard, Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868–1898, University of California Press,Berkeley, 1989.

Guillamon, Agustin, The Friends of Durruti Group: 1937–1939, AK Press, Edinburgh/San Francisco, 1996.

Guthke, Karl S., B. Traven: The life behind the legends, Lawrence Hill Books, New York, 1991.

Hart, John M., Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860–1931, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1987.

Holton, Bob, British Syndicalism: 1900–1914: Myths and Realities, Pluto Press, London, 1976.

Hyams, Edward, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: His Revolutionary Life, Mind and Works, John Murray, London, 1979.

Jackson, Corinne, The Black Flag of Anarchy: Antistatism in the United States, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1968.

Jennings, Jeremy, Syndicalism in France: a study of ideas, Macmillan, London, 1990

Kline, Wm. Gary, The Individualist Anarchists: A Critique of Liberalism, University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland, 1987.

Linden, Marcel van der and Thorpe, Wayne (eds.), Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective, Scolar Press, Aldershort, 1990.

Merithew, Caroline Waldron, “Anarchist Motherhood: Toward the making of a revolutionary Proletariat in Illinois Coal towns”, pp. 217–246, Donna R. Gabaccoia and Franca Iacovetta (eds.), Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002.

Miller, Martin A., Kropotkin, The University of Chicago Press, London, 1976.

Milner, Susan, The Dilemmas of Internationalism: French Syndicalism and the International Labour Movement 1900–1914, Berg, New York, 1990.

Mintz, Jerome R., The Anarchists of Casas Viejas, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1994.

Moya, Jose, “Italians in Buenos Aires’s Anarchist Movement: Gender Ideology and Women’s Participation, 1890–1910,” pp. 189–216, Donna R. Gabaccoia and Franca Iacovetta (eds.), Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002.

Oved, Yaacov, ”‘Communsmo Libertario’ and Communalism in Spanish Collectivisations (1936–1939)”, The Raven: AnarchistQuarterly, no. 17 (Vol. 5, No. 1), Jan-Mar 1992, Freedom Press, pp. 39–61.

Palij, Michael, The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918–1921: An Aspect of theUkrainian Revolution, University of Washington Press,Seattle, 1976.

Pernicone, Nunzio, Italian Anarchism: 1864–1892, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993.

Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel, Palgrave MacMillian, New York, 2005.

Pyziur, Eugene, The Doctrine of Anarchism of Michael A. Bakunin, Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, 1955.

Ravindranathan, T. R., Bakunin and the Italians, McGill-Queen’s Univsersity Press, Kingston and Montreal, 1988.

Reichert, William O., Partisans of Freedom: A study in American Anarchism, Bowling Green University Popular Press, Bowling Green, Ohio, 1976.

Ritter, Alan, The Political Thought of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, 1969.

Salerno, Salvatore, Red November, Black November: Culture and Community inthe Industrial Workers of the World, State UniversityPress of New York, Albany, 1989.

Saltman, Richard B., The Social and Political Thought of Michael Bakunin, Greenwood Press, Westport Connecticut, 1983.

Schuster, Eunice, Native American Anarchism : A Study of Left-Wing American Individualism, De Capo Press, New Yprk, 1970.

Sysyn, Frank, “Nestor Makhno and the Ukrainian Revolution”, contained inHunczak, Taras (ed.), The Ukrainian, 1917–1921: A Studyin Revolution, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, 1977.

Taylor, Michael, Community, Anarchy and Liberty, Cambrdige University Press, Cambridge, 1982.

Thomas, Edith, Louise Michel, Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1980.

Thomas, Matthew, Anarchist ideas and counter-cultures in Britain, 1880–1914: revolutions in everyday life, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005.

Thorpe, Wayne, “The Workers Themselves”: Revolutionary Syndicalism and International Labour, 1913–1923, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1989.

Vincent, K. Steven, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the Rise of French RepublicanSocialism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1984.

Zarrow, Peter, Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, 1990.

[cruetrimeblog]

The Unfortunate Story of H.H. Holmes

H.H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in May 1861. His parents were Levi Mudgett and Theodate Price. Holmes was the third of five total children. His siblings' names were Ellen, Arthur, Henry, and Mary. The Mudgett's were a Methodist family. Many people believe that Holmes tortured animals and also suffered abuse from his father. However there has been no solid proof to back up either of these accusations.

Holmes graduated from high school at 16 years old and went on to be a teacher. He married a woman named Clara Lovering in July 1878. They went on to have a son named Robert in February of 1880.

Holmes enrolled in the University of Vermont when he was 18, but dropped out a year later. He then transferred to the University of Michigan where he studied medicine and surgery. He graduated in June 1884. After school Holmes worked as an apprentice to advocate of human dissection, Nahum Wight. After his crimes, Holmes admitted to using cadavers to commit insurance fraud in college.

Roommates of Holmes witnessed him be very abusive to Clara. She moved back home in 1884. She didn't talk to him very much afterwards. Holmes then moved to New York. It was rumored that he was the last one seen with a young boy before he disappeared. Holmes told everyone that the boy had gone back home to Massachusetts. There was no investigation into the boy's whereabouts, and Holmes quickly left town afterwards.

Holmes traveled to Philadelphia where he took on a job as a keeper at a hospital. He quit a few days later. He then accepted a job at a drug store. A boy died while Holmes worked there after taking medicine that was bought at that specific store. However, Holmes denied being involved. He then left Philadelphia and moved to Chicago. It is here that the officially changed his name to H.H. Holmes to avoid being exposed.

In a later confession, Holmes admitted to killing former classmate Robert Leacock for insurance money. However, it was confirmed that Robert actually died in his home in Canada 3 years later. While still being legally married to Clara, Holmes married a woman named Myra Belknap in Minneapolis. He filed for divorce just a few weeks later, claiming it was because Clara was unfaithful to him. These claims weren't ever proven, so the case was dismissed. It's possible that Clara never even knew the case had taken place. Their divorce was never finalized.

Holmes had a daughter with Myrta named Lucy Holmes 1889. She grew up to be a school teacher. Holmes married for yet a third time in January of 1894. This wife's name was Georgiana Yorke. He was still married to both Clara and Myrta at the time.

After moving to Chicago, Holmes got a job in a drugstore owned by Elizabeth Holton. Holmes would eventually buy the drugstore from her. It was rumored that Holmes had killed Elizabeth and her husband, but this was later proven to be a myth.

Holmes bought some land near to the drugstore. He began construction on a two story building in 1887. He planned to use the upper floor for apartments and retail space. The bottom floor would serve as a second drugstore.

Holmes added a third floor to the building in 1892. He explained that this floor would be used as a hotel of sorts. This section was never completed due to the contractors backing out of the deal after they found out that Holmes had been stealing materials from them.

Many of the rooms were soundproofed. The hallway resembled a maze with many pathways to nowhere. Several rooms were also equipped with chutes down to the basement. Holmes stored acid and lime in the basement which he later used as a crematorium for his victims. The builders notified the public of Holmes strange habits. This caused the investors of the hotel to back out. Many years after Holmes arrest, an unknown arsonist started a fire on the third floor which destroyed a large portion of the building. It was later rebuilt and used as a post office until 1938.

The hotel was mostly complete by 1892. The first floor was used as a storefront. The second floor held many elaborate torture rooms. The third floor held apartment space. Police decided to check out the hotel in 1894 while Holmes was away. The found many disturbing things inside: rooms with hinged walls and false partitions, secret passageways, gas pipelines leading to airtight rooms, and the chutes used by Holmes to transport bodies to the basement.

The basement held surgical tables and medical tools. Holmes used these to dissect his victims to then sell their organs and bones. He sold body parts to medical facilities on the black market.

One of Holmes' first victims was his mistress named Julia Smythe. Julia and her daughter Pearl went missing on Christmas Eve 1891. Holmes claimed that Julia died during an abortion, but what happened to them was never confirmed. Emeline Cigrande began working at the hotel in 1892 and was also likely a victim of Holmes. The disappearance of Edna Tassel has also been linked to Holmes.

Holmes met Benjamin Pitezel while working at Chemical Bank, and the two became close friends. Pitezel had a criminal history and soon became Holmes' right hand man.

Holmes met actress Minnie Williams when she moved to Chicago in 1893. He offered her a job as his personal stenographer, which she accepted. The two became close enough for Holmes' to convince Minnie to sign over some of her property to "Alexander Bond" which was one of Holmes' aliases.

Holmes would then sign the property over to Pitezel. Holmes and Minnie rented an apartment together in Chicago. After Minnie's sister Annie came to visit her, she wrote to her mother that the two sisters planned to go to Europe to visit "Brother Harry." The two sisters were last seen alive on July 5, 1893.

Several insurance companies were trying to prosecute Holmes for arson. So much so, that Holmes fled Chicago in 1894. He was spotted in For Worth, Texas where he had inherited property from the Williams' sisters. He planned on building another castle there to use to swindle suppliers.

Holmes was arrested for the first time in the same month. He was charged with selling mortgaged goods. He quickly posted bail and didn't spend long in jail. But while he was there he met Marion Hedgepeth, a famous Wild West outlaw. At this time, Holmes was planning to fake his own death to get $10,000 in life insurance money.

Holmes offered Hedgepeth $500 to give him the name of a trustworthy attorney. He gave him the name of attorney Jeptha Howe. Jeptha thought Holmes' insurance plan was genius. However, the plan ultimately failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay up. Holmes quickly adjusted his plan to claim insurance money on Pitezel instead.

Pitezel agreed to fake his own death so that his wife could collect the $10,000. She agreed to split it with Holmes and Jeptha. Holmes originally planned to use a cadaver as the fake dead Pitezel, but found it easier to just kill him instead. Holmes chloroformed Pitezel and burned his body.

Holmes collected the insurance money and even manipulated Pitezel's widow into signing over custody of three of her five children over to him. Holmes traveled with the children all throughout American and Canada.

Holmes managed to keep all of this a secret from his wife. Holmes would later admit to killing two of the children by locking them in a trunk. He drilled a hole into the trunk to insert a tube connected to a gas line causing the children to asphyxiate. He buried their bodies in the cellar of the house he was renting at the time.

Philadelphia policeman Frank Geyer was appointed to the case of the missing children. He ultimately found their bodies in Holmes' home. Frank then headed to Indianapolis in search of him. Holmes had been spotted at a pharmacy there. He was purchasing drugs to use to kill the third child. He had also been spotted sharpening knives at a repair shop. He later used those knives to dismember the child. He burned the child's remains in his fireplace where bone fragments and teeth were later discovered.

Holmes didn't stop killing until he was arrested again in November of 1894 in Boston. He was located by the Pinkertons Detective Agency. He had a warrant out for her arrest in Texas for horse theft. His wife was very shocked to find all of this out.

Police began investigating the murder castle in July 1895. Surprisingly, there was no sufficient evidence found against Holmes in Chicago. Some people even began to believe that the torture rooms were a myth.

Holmes was put on trial for Pitezel's murder in October 1895. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Holmes later admitted to 27 murders and 6 attempted murders. The Hearst newspaper paid Holmes $7,500 for his confession. However parts of his confession were proved to be untrue. There were several "victims" of Holmes that were later found to still be alive.

Holmes described his wife differently depending on who asked him about it. Sometimes he claimed he was innocent, while other times he claimed to be possessed by the devil. Because he lied so often throughout his life, the truth is hard to come by. Holmes claimed to start resembling the devil more and more the longer he was in prison.

Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He was calm and friendly throughout the process. He wasn't upset or afraid. He requested for his body to be buried 10 feet down and to be encased in cement so that people wouldn't try to rob his grave. Holmes' neck didn't break which caused him to suffocate to death. He was pronounced dead after hanging for 20 minutes.

The murder castle mysteriously burned down in August 1895. It was reported that two men were seen near the building at around 8 pm that night. They could be seen leaving half an hour later. After the fire ended, police found a gas can near the back steps. The building was able to be repaired and was turned into a post office until it was torn down in 1938.

It was rumored in 2017 that Holmes may have managed to escape his execution. His body was exhumed for testing, but wasn't as decayed as it should have been due to being encased in cement. His clothes were preserved. His mustache was intact. However, DNA testing was done using Holmes' dental records, and the corpse is in fact his. Holmes was then reburied.

[therubyreader]

See previous year's reading journeys

Book Goal for the year: 50

Books read so far: 46

TBR:

The Priority of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

The Hidden Oracle - Rick Riordan

Cobalt Red - Siddharth Kara

Reading list so far:

January:

The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan ~ reread

Powerless - Lauren Roberts ~ review

The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan ~ reread

Vampires of El Norte - Isabel Cañas

February:

What the River Knows - Isabel Ibáñez ~ review

House of Root and Ruin - Erin A. Craig

Sun of Blood and Ruin - Mariely Lares

March:

Twilight - Stephanie Meyer ~ reread

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo ~ reread

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo ~ reread

April:

Belladonna - Adalyn Grace

Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross ~ review

Foxglove - Adalyn Grace

The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan ~ reread

May:

Woman of Light - Kali Fajardo-Anstine

The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo

The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan ~ reread

June:

The Mark of Athena - Rick Riordan ~ reread

Ruthless Vows - Rebecca Ross

Ana María and the Fox - Liana De la Rosa ~ review

A Crane Among Wolves - June Hur

July:

The House of Hades - Rick Riordan ~ reread

Bringing Down the Duke - Evie Dunmore

Isabel and the Rogue - Liana De la Rosa

Sinner’s Isle - Angela Montoya

The Blood of Olympus - Rick Riordan ~ reread

August:

Small Favors - Erin A. Craig

Garden of the Cursed - Katy Rose Pool

Reckless - Lauren Roberts

The Brothers Hawthorne - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

A Rouge of One’s Own - Evie Dunmore

September:

Kaikeyi - Vaishnavi Patel

Wisteria - Adalyn Grace

Portrait of a Scotsman - Evie Dunmore

A Gentleman’s Gambit - Evie Dunmore

Masquerade of the Heart- Katy Rose Pool

Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow

October:

The Seventh Veil of Salome - Silvia Moreno Garcia ~ Book Bites Reveiw

The Map of Love - Ahdaf Soueif ~ Book Bites Reveiw

The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields ~Book Bites Reveiw

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels - India Holton

November:

Castle of the Cursed - Romina Garber

Ruin and Rising - Leigh Bardugo ~ reread

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead ~ reread

The League of Gentlewomen Witches - India Holton

The Witches of El Paso - Luis Jaramillo

December:

X

[abwwia]

Last year while working on my #PeggyGuggenheim research I stumbled upon information about artist Virginia Admiral - ‼ I didn't know Robert De Niro parents were painters! :) did you #PalianShow

Today we celebrate anniversary of Her birthday #bornonthis day Virginia Holton Admiral or Virginia De Niro (February 4, 1915 – July 27, 2000) was an American painter, poet and the mother of actor Robert De Niro. She studied painting under Hans Hofmann in New York, and her work was included in the Peggy Guggenheim collection. via Wikipedia

#womensart #PeggyGuggenheim #PeggyGuggenheimcollection

#VirginiaHoltonAdmiral #VirginiaDeNiro #painter #artbywomen

[benoitblanc]

arwen’s read in 2022!

(excluding a shitload of rereads of various things and inspired by tuser weepers aka the lovely @adamronans)

things in jars by jess kidd (★★★★☆)

the summer that melted everything by tiffany mcdaniel (★★★☆☆)

moriarty by anthony horowitz (★★★★☆)

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir (★★★★★)

crier’s war by nina varela (★★★☆☆)

in the garden of spite by camilla bruce (★★★★☆)

doing time by jodi taylor (★★★★☆)

slade house by david mitchell (★★★☆☆)

home work by julie andrews (★★★★☆)

harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir (★★★★★)

the 22 murders of madison may by max barry (★★★★★)

hard time by jodi taylor (★★★★☆)

saving time by jodi taylor (★★★★☆)

all creatures great and small by james herriot (★★★★★)

the peculiarities by david liss (★★★☆☆)

city of stairs by robert jackson bennett (★★★★★)

city of blades by robert jackson bennett (★★★★★)

city of miracles by robert jackson bennett (★★★★★)

macbeth by william shakespeare (★★★★☆)

hamlet by william shakespeare (★★★★☆)

the princess bride by william goldman (★★★★★)

king lear by william shakespeare (★★★★☆)

julius caesar by william shakespeare (★★★★☆)

richard iii by william shakespeare (★★★☆☆)

code name verity by elizabeth wein (★★★★★)

rose under fire by elizabeth wein (★★★★☆)

the enigma game by elizabeth wein (★★★★☆)

dark matter by blake crouch (★★★★☆)

sea of tranquility by emily st. john mandel (★★★★☆)

the thief by meghan whalen turner (★★★☆☆)

prince of spies by alex gerlis (★★★☆☆)

the other merlin by robyn schneider (★★★★☆)

a series of fortunate events by sean b carroll (★★★★☆)

ella minnow pea by mark dunn (★★★★☆)

the wisteria society of lady scoundrels by india holton (★★★☆☆)

a man called ove by fredrik backman (★★★★★)

the mercies by kiran millwood hargrave (★★★★★)

spellbreaker by charlie n holmburg (★★★★☆)

the mask of mirrors by ma carrick (★★★★★)

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (★★★★☆)

magpie murders by anthony horowitz (★★★★★)

the liar’s knot by ma carrick (★★★★★)

the queen’s gambit by walter tevis (★★★★☆)

spellmaker by charlie n holmburg (★★★☆☆)

the ocean at the end of the lane by neil gaiman (★★★★☆)

sense and sensibility by jane austen (★★★★★)

babel, or the necessity of violence by rf kuang (★★★★★)

the book eaters by sunyi dean (★★★★☆)

middlegame by seanan mcguire (★★★★★)

the inheritance games by jennifer lynn barnes (★★★★☆)

the agathas by kathleen glasgow & liz lawson (★★★★☆)