#Decameron Analysis | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aspoonofsugar · 11 months ago

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Netflix Decameron: Love's Got Long Claws

I have watched Netflix Decameron together with @hamliet and I loved it a lot! I did not have high expectations, but the series was fun, entertaining and had a very strong thematic heart. So strong, in fact, that it is wonderful to explore!

So, here comes this meta, which shares a very similar thesis to hamliet's own analysis: Netflix Decameron is a story about love.

IN THE NAME OF LOVE (AND CLASSISM)

The Netflix series is loosely inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron, a masterpiece of Italian literature. It is a collection of 100 short stories, told by 3 noble boys and 7 noble girls during the time of the pestilence in Florence (1348). The group runs away from the city and finds a refuge in the countryside. There they spend ten days (aka decameron) telling each other stories on different topics. The main theme is how the group keeps society alive through their shared rules, even in a time of suffering and chaos. The 100 short stories (the real focus of the work) showcase a world that is getting lost through the pandemic. They also bring to the table many other themes, like religion and love.

Netflix takes this premise and explores the same themes in a different way. Specifically, it imagines new plots and adventures for the members of the group, who are named after some of the original protagonists, but are given new characterizations.

To be precise:

Licisca, Tindaro, Stratilia, Misia and Sirisco are called after the nobles' servants. Here, they all become protagonists.

Filomena, Neifile, Panfilo, Pampinea and Dioneo are called after five of the protagonists of Boccaccio's Decameron.

Two things are interesting about this.

First of all, in the series, like in the original, we have 10 protagonists. However, the original has all the group made of nobles. The series instead chooses to have 5 nobles and 5 servants, so that it can tackle the theme of classism.

Secondly, the names of the 10 protagonists of the Decameron are all meaningful. They describe the characters' personality and the kind of stories they are gonna tell. Well, all the (noble) names the series chooses to keep do the same:

Pampinea means "flourishing" - that is a comical inversion as Pampinea is old and fears her age will ruin her chances to get married

Neifile means "new lover" - that fits with Neifile being sexually inexperienced and repressed

Dioneo means dissolute - this ties with the character's love for sex and edonism

Filomena means "lover of songs" or "the one who is loved"

Panfilo means "lover of all"

Isn't there an interesting pattern? All the names tie one way or another with love. That is perfect for a story whose main topic is, in fact, love. Not only that, but especially Filomena and Panfilo's names turn out to be pretty meaningful for the thematic role of the two characters (we'll see it through this analysis).

In synthesis, the series explores love and classism. Let's see how.

LOVE HAS MORE THAN ONE DIMENSION

Love has many dimensions. There is romantic love, platonic love, familial love and even toxic love. The series explores all these different relationships. In particular, it focuses on five bonds:

Licisca and Filomena's sisterhood

Neifile and Panfilo's sexless marriage

Pampinea and Misia's toxic relationship

Tindaro's unrequired love for Stratilia

Filomena and Misia's romantic love

The first three are platonic and they get consistent spotlight throughout the series. The last two are romantic and they develop in the second part of the story. I would say the first three are the key dynamics, but the other two are relevant, as well. Let's go deeper.

FILOMENA AND LICISCA: FAMILIAL LOVE

Filomena: What's the point in having family if you can't have their unconditional love?

Filomena and Licisca are master and servant, but they also share a strong bond of sisterhood, which is later revealed to be not only spiritual, but biological, as well. Licisca, thus, is Filomena's father daughter, hence they are half-sisters. The problem is that this bond of mutual love is made complicated by their different social classes. This is shown in their introduction:

Filomena: But you and I could've snuck off together to, I don't know, hug goats, or whatever they do in the countryside. Or at night, if I couldn't sleep, you'd have told me stories in the kitchen. Or rubbed my feet.

Filomena clearly enjoys Licisca's company to the point she can't imagine a happy future without her. In a sense, she thinks of herself and Licisca as a unit, always together. However, she is also self-centered and shows Licisca no appreciation nor consideration for her suffering.

Things start changing after Licisca accidentally pushes Filomena off a bridge. This results in a chain of events that ends with the two sisters exchanging roles. Now Licisca is the master and Filomena is the servant. This experience helps Filomena reflect on herself, so that she can become less selfish:

Filomena: I'm terrible, but... I'm getting better, aren't I? And I'm your sister. Okay, okay, I know that didn't use to mean anything, but it does now. Just... give me a chance.

Specifically, she starts being more honest with Licisca. She revelas Licisca's origin and that their father forced her to hide it. She also confesses that she lied to Licisca about their father's death, so that they could leave Florence and save themselves. Licisca doesn't take these revelations well and lashes out at Filomena:

Licisca: I have had, in my whole life, two days away from you. The day when I pushed you off a bridge, and the next day when I came here, and... and boys liked me, and I did what I wanted, and everybody treated me like a human being. And then, there you are at the door, dragging me back into servitude. I should not have pushed you off that bridge. I should have cut off your fucking head.

Licisca wants to free herself not only from servitude, but from all bonds:

Licisca: When the sun breaks, I'm gonna walk away from the bonds of it all. I'm going at all this alone. Independence is the greatest luxury. I'm gonna take it all for myself. Doesn't that sound divine?

But she is called out on this mentality:

Tindaro: The most divine thing in the world is having someone worth loving.

In the end, Licisca realizes she still loves Filomena and saves her. The two sisters survive and start a new chapter together, as equals and family. Their last interaction seals their newfound love and conveys the main theme:

Licisca: I love you, in spite of myself. Filomena: I love you more, in spite of nothing.

A love, which is mutual and unconditional. A love that withstands the person's flaws. A love that lets nothing, not even the world, get in the way.

NEIFILE AND PANFILO: SPIRITUAL LOVE

Neifile: Don't you love me as I am? Panfilo: Of course I love you. You're my partner... and my friend... and my wife.

Panfilo and Neifile share unconditional love. They love each other, as they are. Neifile loves Panfilo, even if he is a homosexual and a liar. Panfilo loves Neifile, despite her oddities that often put her in trouble. They are life partners, but they are so platonically. For both the sexual dimension is important. Neifile's repressed sexual desire consumes her and makes her suffer. Panfilo finds outlets to his sexuality through different lovers. However, they find in each other something that makes their marriage worth it. They do not regret it:

Neifile: I bet you could have had him. I think he enjoys men. Panfilo: You could have had my brother too, if you'd wanted. Neifile: Guidotto was a little skinny for me, but I would have wanted. Panfilo: So, what shall we do today? Neifile: I just want to talk... about everything.

Theirs is a spiritual love, which is the purest and most beautiful in the series. They complement each other:

Neifile is heart, as she has a fervent faith and a pure and childlike approach to things

Panfilo is mind, as he is smart, deceitful and good at navigating society and at coming up with plans

Neifile shares her heart and sense of wonder with Panfilo, while Panfilo takes care of Neifile. As the story progresses, though, their complementarity grows deeper. This ties with their religious motif:

Neifile: I'm testing God. If he really has not abandoned me, he will not let me perish in a well. He will rescue me somehow, and that will be a sign. Panfilo: Darling... What if I'm the sign? Neifile: Come on, you're not the sign. You're my husband and you love me. Of course you would try to save me. That wouldn't prove anything.

Neifile falls into a well and wants God to save her to prove his love for her. That is why, she refuses Panfilo's help. Panfilo, however, ends up paying Dioneo to save her. He rescues her, but he also tricks her.

This lie kickstarts Neifile's crisis of faith, which is mirrored in her relationship with her husband getting strained. It all culminates in a fight with Panfilo and in Neifile choosing to spend the night with Ruggiero. In this way, Neifile is finally able to satiate her sexual desires, but she also ends up falling ill with the plague. Before her death, she reconciles with Panfilo and shares with him her newfound faith:

Panfilo: Well, I guess I never really believed in God. Neifile: I've not always been entirely sure of the fellow myself. Panfilo: Really? Neifile: I never found the answers, exactly. I tried so hard. I searched everywhere. But I've come to believe that finding the answers was never really the point. I got to ask the questions with you by my side.

Neifile reaches the conclusion that God lives in the people she loves and that love her back. So, it turns out the love of God Neifile has been looking for is nothing, but Panfilo's love. Panfilo is indeed the sign. His love for Neifile is an extension of God's love.

Panfilo: Father, I know I said I wasn't sure about you... but I will take any mercy you can bestow. Any meager crumb. I can't... bear this grief... this anger... this guilt. Help me. Neifile, help me.

Panfilo isn't sure God exists, but when Neifile dies, he prays. His prayer starts with him speaking with God and it ends with him asking Neifile for help. The meaning is clear. Neifile is Panfilo's true faith. She is his link to the spiritual and to the best version of himself:

Panfilo: I think I'm some sharp mind. Clever. But I'm not, I'm nothing. I'm nothing without you. Neifile: My Panfilo, you are as clever as you think. You see with eyes so clear. Trust them. Trust yourself.

Panfilo's arc is about discarding the mask he wears to fit into society and to find his real self:

Andreoli: Whatever you desired before, whoever you were, I'd wager that it doesn't much matter anymore. I've seen 1000 doorsteps, watched high-born women carry children to unmarked graves, peasants sieging whole castles. If the pestilence has shown us anything, it's that we're to choose the parts of ourselves we wish to keep and the parts we wish to throw away.

He must give up his lies and his illusions to face the truth of life:

Panfilo: I lied to her at the end and she could tell. And we had just promised no more lies. And it made her so scared. And she went so scared. Andreoli: What do you want me to tell ya? Panfilo: The truth. Andreoli: Panfilo, it's awful and you will never recover. Panfilo: This is awful and I'll never recover. Yes. Yes. That's the truth of it.

And in the end, the part of himself Panfilo doesn't want to discard, the truest truth about life turns out to be his love for Neifile.

Neifile and Panfilo start the series loving each other, but also living in lies. They end it by realizing their love for each other is the only truth they need.

PAMPINEA AND MISIA: SUFFOCATING LOVE

Pampinea: Misia, the way you love me... you... you love me no matter what I do. That's the greatest gift I've ever known.

Pampinea and Misia are another example of unconditional love. It is just that theirs is negative. That is not only because it is not mutual, but also because one side takes advantage of the other:

Filomena: Misia! This woman cares only about herself and how you can advance her interests. When you fail in any way, she pretends you have fallen out of her heart. Then she smiles and allows you to, just this once, earn your way back in. And for a while she's gleeful. And you're gleeful because she's gleeful. But she is only gleeful because she knows her system works.

Pampinea is Misia's master and she uses Misia as a weapon to further her interests. Her abuse starts with Pampinea ignoring Misia's grief for her lover Parmena and it culminates in her weaponizing this grief to manipulate Misia into killing a person.

As a result of this constant mistreatment, Misia ends up growing more and more desperate to free herself until this desire turns into a refusal to help Pampinea and an attempt to switch sides. And yet, Pampinea is so rooted in Misia's mind that she falters:

Filomena: She is so deep in your brain. You will never stop loving her, will you?

And finds herself with no other option, but to kill Pampinea to free herself:

Pampinea: I will never let you go as long as I live. Misia: I've come to know that that's the truest truth.

Misia starts her arc by smuggling her ill girlfriend by using a barrell. She ends it, but putting Pampinea into a barrell and burning her alive. She buries two loves, so that she can start anew.

The choice of fire as the cause of Pampinea's death isn't by chance. As a matter of fact early on Sirisco tries to burn Pampinea by accusing her of witchcraft. This happens after Pampinea accuses Stratilia of the same thing. Well, Sirisco fails, but Misia succeeds, reiterating that Pampinea's final demise is a consequence of the woman's inability to love.

Her bond with Misia is, in fact, a foil to:

Licisca and Filomena's bond

Tindaro and Dioneo's bond

In all three relationships, the servant has to put up with their master's tantrums, until they explode and try to kill them. Still, Licisca and Filomena eventually work things out and start anew. Dioneo and Tindaro do not, as Dioneo dies. However, Tindaro forgives his servant and properly grieves him. They do reconcile in death. Pampinea and Misia never reconcile. Not only that, but Misia is the only servant that successfully kills her master.

That is because Pampinea is loveless:

Ruggiero: All you crave is love. But you've nevet gotten it, and you'll never get it.

She is loveless, not because she can't find love, but because she doesn't give it nor understand it. She is in fact given love multiple times:

Misia is loyal and loves her deeply (platonic love)

Sirisco is attracted to her and falls for her (romantic love)

Still, Pampinea mistreats and pushes both away because she pursues an idealized love that doesn't exist:

Pampinea: Misia! Leonardo is my one true love. He's the only thing that matters to me. I thought you might understand that, since you had to leave that girl behind. Misia: Her name was Parmena. Pampinea: Oh, Misia. I understand your pain now. That must indeed be what's clouding your judgement. Now, don't show your face to me until you've found the Misia that I need.

She falls for an imaginary husband, who loves her perfectly. Still, love isn't perfect. It is complicated, contradictory and has claws. You can't experience it, if you do not accept imperfection. You can't experience it, if you yourself do not love selflessly.

TINDARO AND STRATILIA: UNREQUITED LOVE

Tindaro is a foil to Pampinea, in how they are both men-children, who want love, but they are so insufferable they find themselves alone. Specifically, Tindaro is a third son who inherited a fortune after his siblings' death. So, he finds himself surrounded by flatterers he despises. At the same time, he is a hypochondriac buffoon who alienates everyone with his arrogance and stupidity. Still, Tindaro gets called out:

Stratilia: Your life is unfair? You've never wanted for anything excepts the affections of anyone, any person, since spending time with you is exhausting and boring all at once. Being near you is hell. No wonder Dioneo poisoned you.

Licisca: You loved her well, but you loved her wrong.

Both Stratilia and Licisca point out his flaws and he starts improving. This growth shows in his devotion to Stratilia, the character, who manages to heal him both physically and pshychologically:

She is the one who realizes Dioneo has been poisoning him and the one who gives him real medicine for once

She is the one Tindaro falls for and through her love for her he realizes his own privilege and becomes more selfless

Tindaro starts the story as a coward, forever scared for his own health. A loser, who wishes glory, but has no skill nor bravery to gain it. He ends the series by fighting despite a severe wound to protect Stratilia and her son Jacopo. By doing so he becomes the best version of himself.

His ending is in stark contrast with Pampinea's one. He dies as an adult protecting a child. She dies as a child, with Misia singing her a lullabye. The main difference between them, however, is rooted in their different takes on love. Pampinea wants love without loving. Tindaro instead accepts to love without being loved back:

Tindaro: You don't love me. Your love is not required by my love. I know that you have been given little and had much taken away. Is that true? I only ask that you let me give you what I can, what I have. It isn't much now, but do me the honor.

Tindaro's love for Stratilia is one-sided, but his love doesn't really require Stratilia's. It is perfect as it is because it lets Tindaro grow and experience life to its fullest.

FILOMENA AND MISIA: ROMANTIC LOVE

Filomena is another important foil to Pampinea. She is a selfish noble woman, who deep down resents societal rules that force her into an unhappy marriage in exchange for her safety. She is also lonely and craving for love:

Filomena: I meet an eligible noble, he buys me a castle, I'm never alone again.

But she is so self-centered she doesn't notice the love Licisca offers her:

Licisca: Me! You had me! We were friends until our twelfth year, when for some unknown reason, you cut off my hair in the third feast of Michaelmas.

Still, she is able to see and to appreciate the bond she forges with Misia:

Filomena: I have a real friend there. Misia. My one friend that I finally made. My very first friend.

Thanks to this bond, she is able to reflect on her privilege:

Filomena: When the pestilence ends, you can come and live with me in Firenze.

Misia: As your servant? Filomena: As my... friend. I don't think I wans servants anymore.

And herself:

Filomena: Yes, Misia, yes! I know this (the way Paminea manipulates Misia) because I am this! (Looking at Licisca) Or I was this.

Through her relationship with Misia, Filomena is saved and saves:

She initially wants Pampinea's help to reclaim her identity and gain the love of Ruggiero, a family member. She believes the people she belongs to are the nobles, but she is soon let down. Pampinea ignores her and Ruggiero almost kills her. She is saved only thanks to Misia's plead and Licisca admitting the truth about her identity. Misia is her true friend and Licisca is her true family.

She symbolically helps Misia, another version of Licisca, and saves her from Pampinea, a darkest version of herself.

Despite this progress, Filomena still misses what love is really about:

Filomena: Licisca hates me. You should hate Pampinea. Why don't you hate Pampinea?

She believes Licisca hates her and thinks Misia can escape years of toxic love easily. She has a simplistic vision of how relationships work and is called out by both Misia and Licisca:

Misia: You've spent about a month as a servant and you think you are so changed. Yet, no. You only see one side of a person at a time. No history baked in. Love has more than one dimension. Love has long claws. But I guess that you wouldn't understand anything about that, would you?

Licisca: I'd like to see you love anyone that isn't you.

As a result, she finds herself alone and scared. Loveless. Until Licisca comes and saves her:

Filomena: Licisca, you saved me again. Licisca: Yeah, you dumb bitch. Love's got long claws.

She repeats Misia's words. Love got long claws and it isn't as easily broken. Immediately after, Misia appears and confirms to Filomena she has finally fred herself. She is choosing Filomena over Pampinea.

Thanks to Misia, Filomena manages to relate to Licisca and works to repair their bond. Thanks to Licisca, Filomena understands Misia better and finally realizes what love is about. As a result, Filomena becomes the only survivor, who gets both familial (Licisca) and romantic (Misia) love. A perfect ending for a character, whose name means "the one who is loved". By the end she is truly beloved.

RUGGIERO: CHAOS AND FREEDOM

Love is the primary theme of the series, whereas classism is its secondary theme. The characters have to free themselves from classism and social rules, if they want to grow. That is why the character of Ruggiero appears. He embodies both chaos and freedom. He is violent and a brute. However, he also brings to light the characters' flaws:

Ruggiero: Oh, what a fascinating little assemblage this is. Liars, impostors, poisoners, flatterers. A gang of miscreants hiding out in my cousin's house in his absence.

Moreover, in his short screentime, he changes everything. He destroys all the barriers, transforms everyone's dynamics and brings both death and freedom. In a sense, he is the perfect embodyment of the pestilence itself. Something that destroys. Something that brings the chance for a new beginning.

Because of him:

Filomena and Licisca reveal their identities and the sisters are forced to work on their bond

Panfilo's family being ruined comes out

Leonardo's death comes to light

Tindaro is laughed at and ends up looking for some comfort in Stratilia, which kickstarts his arc

Neifile is fred from her sexual desires and is finally able to satisfy them

Dioneo dies marking the first casualty among the main characters

Most importantly, Ruggiero conveys this idea:

Ruggiero: My fate is the same as yours, which is the same as Stecchi's and Bruno's, Lorenzo's, all my friends, all my enemies.

He highlights how death can come for anybody, servant or noble alike. So, one should try to live their life to the fullest. The two characters that are challenged the most by this revelation are Pampinea and Panfilo.

Both go to Villa Santa to escape reality:

Pampinea: Let us make a rule, shall we? We are here to eat and drink and move into a bright new future. We shall have no more of this pestilence talk. It does not suit our time here.

Panfilo: We've all suffered great loss at the hands of the pestilence, but that is why we deserve this respite in an idyllic safe heaven. We're on holiday! Remember?

They live in lies. Pampinea finds comfort in her imaginary version of Eduardo, while Panfilo hides his sexuality from Neifile and his economical condition from the other guests. Both are scheming and try to obtain the villa by making use of societal rules. Pampinea stages a fake marriage. Panfilo tries to dethrone her by calling Ruggiero. Except that the world around them is changing. They can't rely on the same philosophy from the past. That is why their rivalry to ingratiate themselves to Ruggiero and claim the villa isn't solved by them offering him money. It is solved through a test.

Ruggiero forces both to face the truth about themselves.

He tells Pampinea point-blank everyone hates her. Not because of her age, nor her body, but because of her personality:

Ruggiero: Look at how everyone in the villa despises you. And I'm sure much was the same in Firenze. Every man that met you saw instantly what a slim-hipped, clenching little shrew you are and ran.

He forces Panfilo to address his problems with Neifile:

Ruggiero: You know I had sex with her, right? Does that not bother you?

After being told the truth, Pampinea spirals. She has the chance to show love for the only person who selflessly cares about her, that is Misia. Initially, she appears to do so, by finally showing empathy for Parmena's death. However, it turns out it is all a scheme to manipulate Misia into killing Ruggiero for her.

When Panfilo is forced to express his true feelings to Neifile, he manages to convey how much he cares for her. This impresses Ruggiero, who accepts to give the couple the villa. After this, Panfilo promises Neifile never to lie again. He fails, but he still learns the importance of truth and makes a step towards who he wants to be.

Pampinea fails to grow and stays attached to her schemes and to material goods. That is why by the end she finds herself alone and forced to eat her own jewels.

Panfilo grows and lets go of material attachmens. That is why by the end he finds comfort in comraderie and dies as a hero.

SIRISCO AND STRATILIA: SOCIAL CLIMBING

After Ruggiero comes to the villa, the equilibrium shatters and new power dynamics have the chance to impose themselves. Among these, there are two attempts of social climbing:

Sirisco chooses to lead a group of peasants to the villa, so that they can all find food and rule the villa together, as a community.

Stratilia decides to claim the ownership of the villa, as her son Jacopo is the only heir of Eduardo. In this way, she wants to give her son a better future.

Both Sirisco and Stratilia start with noble intentions, but they quickly spiral into parodies of the despotic Pampinea.

Sirisco is so focused on his idea to give humble people power, that he fails to notice his comrades do not really want it. All the countrymen want is some food, so that they can survive. They are not interested in noble games, nor into killing Pampinea nor into owning a villa. However, Sirisco keeps ordering them around and becomes just as controlling and obessive as his ex-lover.

Stratilia is tired of being mistreated and wants justice for her and Jacopo. However, things have changed and her authority in the villa amounts to nothing in the face of the mercenaries' violence. So, all she can do is really steal some of Pampinea's clothes and loosely imitate her mannerisms.

The message is clear. By the end of the story any social obligation is hopelessly destroyed. So, all that's left are love-made bonds. Because love ties. Love has long claws.

LICISCA AND PANFILO: LOVE IS A BURDEN

Licisca and Panfilo have parallels and inverted arcs, which are highlighted by comparing the first episode with the last one.

In the first episode, Licisca kills Cardinal Agnolo and tells Panfilo they are all going to die, so she will do as she pleases:

Licisca: You know we're all gonna die, right? I assure you we are, and sooner than you think. So I appreciate your concern, but I'm gonna do what I like in the time I have left.

In the last episode, Panfilo kills Eric in a similar way and tells Licisca she should do as she wants:

Panfilo: You wanna leave this place, right? Free yourself of her. Go be a lady. Or a whore. Or a street clown. Or anybody you want. In the end, love is burden.

Their behaviors are the result of grief:

Filomena: You act with such freedom, detached from earth. Aren't you afraid of death? Licisca: Ever since Eduardo died, I'm not afraid. I loved him, but as such, was bound to him. And when he was gone, so were the bindings. And now, it's... I feel like I can see... the other side of everything. The stillness and the peace in death. And this side... this is hell. And if I left this side, what would I even be leaving behind?

Licisca: Is this grief? Panfilo: Either freedom or insanity. Either way, it is something profoundly felt by me. We're about to die. Makes you want to lean your chin in for that final punch. Licisca: Do you wanna die? Panfilo: Don't you wanna be free? What's here for you anyway?

Both Licisca and Panfilo have lost their family and feel at the same time free and desperate. They are not binded anymore, but this also means they have no reason to truly live. That is why they help each other find some meaning again.

Panfilo acts as a dark mirror to Licisca. By talking with him, she confronts the part of herself, who wishes to burn everything and die. She realizes that isn't the right path and that she still has family in Filomena. So, she chooses to save her with Panfilo's help:

Licisca: I'm going to save her. Panfilo: I understand.

Licisca inspires Panfilo to take one final stand, by pointing out what they should all fight for:

Licisca: Besides, you know, each other... what is actually worth fighting for here?

Panfilo has embraced nihilism, but Licisca's words and the view of so many people loving each other and wanting to live lead him to choose his love for Neifile one last time:

Panfilo: Darling... I need your help. I can't seem to die without you.

Both Licisca and Panfilo choose bonds and lover over freedom and nichilism. It is just that Licisca does so by living, whereas Panfilo does so by dying.

PANFILO, THE ONE WHO LOVES ALL

Panfilo's final sacrifice is the conclusion to his and Neifile's arc, his final celebration of his wife and a beautiful exploration of the theme of love in its selfless and purest form. It is the perfect final for the climax and it is prepared since episode one. As a matter of fact the first episode foreshadows the last one. There a small group of criminals guided by a disgraced cardinal invades the villa. Here an army of mercenary led by a corrupted cult assaults the protagonists. There, Cardinal Agnolo brings the pestilence in and is welcomed by fear and eventually killed by Licisca. Here, Neifile's buttered body is used by Panfilo as a weapon to let the others escape.

More importantly, Cardinal Agnolo sets up Neifile's role in the finale:

Cardinal Agnolo: After the horrors I have seen, I now know the truth. God, he has abandoned us. Neifile, you were always such a pure child. A holy child.

Cardinal Agnolo's speech is important for two reasons:

After witnessing the horrors of the pestilence he loses his faith and gives in to violence and criminality. He embodies the idea God has abandoned humanity.

He calls Neifile a holy child.

Well, in the end Neifile is a holy child, in the sense she is symbolic of Christian love. She dies, but through her death she saves the others. As a matter of fact Panfilo uses her body against the members of the fake cult. Neifile's death brings life. Once again, this happens thanks to her and Panfilo's strong bond, which confirms itself as symbolic of God's love for humanity.

Neifile has a crisis of faith like Agnolo and even dies full of doubts and fear. However, she never gives up love and what she can't accomplish alone, Panfilo does for her. She dreams of witnessing a miracle. Well, she eventually becomes the miracle as she is the only reason a bunch of innocents survive. Panfilo's love for her is so strong that not only he chooses to die with her, but he gives her death meaning in a final celebration of her life.

Panfilo himself is able to save everybody else because of his strong feelings for Neifile, which opened his eyes to the truth:

Andreoli: She is dead. And your loss does not make you unique. We have all suffered. I have delivered the message of death a hundred times. And I am, but one handsome messanger.

Panfilo's loss is terrible, but it does not make him unique. He is told so by Andreoli and is shown so when everyone gathers together to grieve Neifile. Panfilo shares his feelings of pain and loss and is met with empathy and understanding. Neifile is the channel through whom everyone can grieve their loved ones. Because everyone suffered and because Neifile herself embodies love. Through this moment Panfilo is shown that everyone is the same, both in death and in life. This is why in the end he chooses to make one final big gesture, so that everyone can survive. In this way, he makes one final act of selfless pure love. Not only towards Neifile, but towards all of humanity. That is why Panfilo's name means "the one who loves all".

AN INVERSED DECAMERON

Boccaccio's Decameron has a group of nobles telling each other short stories in a country villa. Netflix Decameron has that same group of nobles try to escape in a fantasy world and being forced to confront reality. By the end, the nobles all die (with the exception of Filomena) and the story ends with a group of servants telling each other short stories in a cave. Not only that, but each character embodies a different kind of love:

Sirisca and Filomena (sisterhood)

Stratilia and Jacopo (parent and child)

Filomena and Misia (romantic)

Sirisco (community)

These characters start the story having nothing and they end it having freedom and each other. And somehow that is the only thing that matters.

#decameron netflix #panfilo #neifile #licisca #filomena #pampinea #misia #tindaro #stratilia #sirisco #my meta

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bonesandpoemsandflowers · 11 months ago

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tagged by @bluehairandproverbs!

Rules: answer + tag 9 people you want to get to know better and/or catch up with

favorite color: red

last song: La Mano - Ghetto Kids

currently reading: mad ADHD so I read several books at once but one per category

fiction: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, 2023

non-fiction: Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys of the Avian World, 2015, Candace Savage. not as good imo as Gifts of the Crow, but still a good time. I'm steadily working through all crow commercial nonfiction as part of our ongoing love affair with the babies. really i need to buy a supersoaker to discourage the hawks that are currently spooking the babies. by "spooking" I mean "trying to eat them." I have taken sides in this war. the gods play favorites and so do i.

technically this counts as work probably (writing or occult related): Fate, Fortune, and Mysticism in the Peruvian Amazon: The Septrionic Order and the Naipes Cards, 2011, Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Ph.D. I bought this for the included instructions on reading with la baraja española, but the author is just using the old French cartomancy rules attributed to Mlle Lenormand. But anyway, it's also a fascinating ethnographic peak into a neglected area and a neglected people, and I love that the author runs statistical analysis on the card system itself as well as her predictions. A lot of this will be familiar to anyone who's read cards for money, but it's awesome having math to back up how people misremember shit in your favor. ("You remember when you predicted xyz?" I did not predict xyz. "Yes you did! [client then repeats a completely unrelated thing you said about something else] See! That's what that means!" oh okay. thanks. sure. same time next week?) What is the Septrionic Order? idk I'm not at that part of the book yet.

currently watching: The Decameron

currently craving: those 90% dark chocolate squares that are delicious and I ate two a day for for like ten years straight but it turns out they're full of lead and cadmium

coffee or tea: coffee

tagging: jesus fucking christ NINE? i don't know nine people one of you tagged me in a nice one of these a while back and I meant to do it but I put it in my drafts and it is LOST FOREVER and I don't remember which one of you it was but please know I think of you fondly in the abstract and will think of you fondly specifically if you identity yourself.

otherwise, the usual suspects: @muffinbitch and @nanavn. plus @oldladynerd

@hueylewisandtheblues

@dixiedeadshake

@old-testament-bitch

@consideramove

@atomic0range

and you know, whoever. I'm trying to be more social on here. I don't remember anyone's name. I can spell maybe two of your handles off the top of my head and that's IT. I've known @nanavn for YEARS AND YEARS and it took me like five tries or rearranging the letters n and v and a before I got it.

#friends???

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alicent-vi-britannia · 11 months ago

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The Divine Comedy and Code Geass

Did you know that Lelouch is reading Dante's poem The Divine Comedy in the first episode of Season 2?

Lelouch is actually reading the Purgatory passage when we get a brief glimpse of the page he had open.

Considering that the poem is an allegory of the soul's ascent to God (at the beginning of the poem, Dante says that he's lost in the dark forest and is unable to find the right path; that is, he leads a life of sin and finds no salvation), I think the book works here as a foreshadowing of what we'll see at the end of the season. Lelouch is not free of many, many sins either, however, he will be able to atone for his sinful soul with the Zero Requiem.

Purgatory, in fact, is "a transitory state of soul purification and atonement in which, after death, people who have died in a state of grace suffer the temporal punishment still owed to forgiven sins and, perhaps, atone for their unforgiven venial sins in order to access the beatific vision of God" (according to our friend Wikipedia). So, if Dante's heaven and hell exist in the Code Geass universe, Lelouch went there after he died.

By the way, enough of the joke "The Divine Comedy is not funny." What is not funny is this silly joke that is too worn out. Words change meaning over time and this is the case of "comedy" which in the past was the term used to designate works with a happy ending (and a happy ending is what Okouchi and Taniguchi consider Code Geass to have). That's why The Divine Comedy was originally titled "Comedy" and it was the Italian poet Giovanni Boccacchio (the guy who wrote The Decameron, a collection of poems that had a Netflix adaptation this year) who added the adjective "Divine" to it. Here's that good fact for you.

Additionally, when the Ragnarök Connection begins in episode 21 of R2, we see for a split second these words that in English translate as "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." This is the scary (and famous) inscription that appears at the entrance to the hell passage in the Divine Comedy. In case it's not clear to you why the Ragnarök Connection is a shitty plan and is bad for humanity, I did an analysis of it here.

Also, In the first season, Lelouch is reading Hamlet and there are many parallels between Shakespeare's tragedy and Taniguchi and Okouchi's work. I pointed them out here:

#code geass: lelouch of the rebellion #code geass #code geass: hangyaku no lelouch #lelouch lamperouge #lelouch vi britannia #lelouch #divine comedy

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zorilleerrant · 1 year ago

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Bobby McFerrin - Don’t Worry Be Happy//Community 3x16 Virtual Systems Analysis//System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries) – Martha Wells//The Magicians 1x12 Thirty-Nine Graves//Phineas and Ferb 2x32 Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet Max Modem!//Uncle Kracker – Drift Away//John Constantine, Hellblazer: Newcastle Calling//Decameron (trans. Wayne A. Rebhorn)//Star Trek: The Next Generation 6x5 Schisms//Norman Rockwell – Triple Self Portrait//RuPaul – Jealous Of My Boogie//Futurama 5x16 The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings//Revenant Gun (Machineries of Empire) – Yoon Ha Lee//tumblr ad//Dresden Dolls – Sing//Mary Cassatt – Reading "Le Figaro"//Winnie-the-Pooh – A. A. Milne//DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 5x2 Meet the Legends//Odyssey (trans. Richmond Lattimore)//Beowulf (trans. Francis B. Gummere)//Grimms’ Fairy Tales (trans. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes)//Eiffel 65 – Blue (Da Ba Dee)//Red Hood and the Outlaws: The Life of Bizarro

#look i said something #web weaving #transformative work #my edit

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grandhotelabyss · 9 months ago

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What do you consider some of the best funny works of literature? (Not necessarily “funniest”, but best works that are funny); your canon of humour

My favorite style of humor—and humor seems more personal as well as more culture- and time-bound than seriousness—is arch and dry wit. I prefer this to a zany, slapstick, or gross-out style. Thus for humor if not for other artistic virtues I prefer Austen and Wilde to Dickens, for example, Emma and The Importance of Being Earnest for preference. Ulysses is the encyclopedia of every kind of humor as it is of every other kind of thing, and the funniest parts of Ulysses are the funniest parts of any novel ever written. Beckett, as Joyce's devoted student, and perhaps a disguised descendant of Wilde too, is hilarious in his plays' bleak repartee, though he might lean too hard on the scatology. Works before the 19th century are perhaps too distant from us to be funny, exactly. The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, Candide, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones all seem somehow too cruel, as Nabokov observed of DQ, to the modern sensibility. The deadpan irony in Dante's contrapasso is somehow funnier than all of those, somehow more forgiving in its cruelty. Shakespeare may be funnier to us in the tragedies, where the jokes flash like lightning in the darkness. Is anything funnier than the cosmic joke of Hamlet? Whereas I can't share the worship of Falstaff. Tristram Shandy is closer to us, but strained, over-familiar, like a beer-swilling uncle clapping you between the shoulders; I feel the same about the humor in Moby-Dick; both of those books are grab-bags of dick jokes. Henry James is funnier than he gets credit for being, especially in dialogue. To return to the 20th century, the aforementioned Nabokov is obviously funny; I like him better the subtler he is, as when Humbert describes Charlotte Haze descending the stairs and enumerates her features as they become visible to him "in order," from her feet up—as if any other order were possible! Pynchon? Too stoner for me; I prefer his elegiasm, though The Crying of Lot 49 always makes me laugh with its zaniness so adjacent to tristesse. Gore Vidal's critical essays might offer the acutest wit of the 20th century. Roth is funnier the further he gets from sex, ironically, and Operation Shylock is immensely funny at micro and macro scales, the height of die-laughing political comedy. Humor being, as I've said, personal and local, I have described DeLillo's White Noise as the funniest novel I've ever read, and I stand by that, even if the world it affectionately mocks is no longer quite ours, and even if I am affected in this instance by some latent Italian-American consciousness and its dry skepticism.

(I see from the inadvertent psychoanalysis in the above free association that there are two kinds of humor: one moves toward the body and its grosser functions as a source of laughter and the other moves away to higher levels of abstraction upon the world. I obviously prefer the latter, humor as high-minded irony, as pointed wit, a defense against sensation. The unruly body, the "lower bodily stratum" as I think Bakhtin called it in his study of Rabelais, whom I still need to read, is likelier to show up in my constellation of taste as a source of anxiety, tragedy, or, at its best, forbidden or abashed and therefore serious eros. Which self-analysis I'm sure a reading of my archly witty novels—they've been described as body horror—will bear out. Those who have scrutinized my sensibility as "very Catholic" will have something to say about this, given Catholicism's intensely abstract, paradoxical, and therefore inherently witty theology, based in its turn upon an equally intense and deadly serious affective veneration of the wounded corpus. Why else find Dante funnier than Boccaccio?)

#humor #comedy #literature #literary criticism

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arwainian · 2 years ago

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Reading this Week 2023 #46

Finished:

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein

Started and Finished:

excerpts of The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated and edited by Wayne A Rebhorn (I think technically read last week I just forgot to record it)

Preface Day 1: Introduction Day 1: Story 1

"Sex After the Black Normal" by Erica R. Edwards

"Undrowned: Black feminist lessons from marine mammals: Why we need to learn to listen, breathe, and remember, across species, across extinctions and across harm" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

sections of Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media

Introduction: Algorithmic Analysis Chapter 4: The Experience of Shifting

3 fic for the marathon

"Relaxing the Avant-Garde: Tan Lin and the Language-Oriented Tradition" by Mathies G. Aarhus

"English Before Engrish: Asian American Poetry's Unruly Tongue" by Tara Finkle

"RealFeel: Banality, Fatality, and Meaning in Kenneth Goldsmith's The Weather" by Jeffery T. Nealon

"Guillaume de Mauchaut and the Consolation of Poetry" by Sylavia Huot

"Love as a Source of Illness in Late Eighteenth-Century Sweden -- Exemples from the Life Description of Pehr Stenberg" by Ina Lindblom

"'Your Love is Like Bad Medicine': The Medical Tradition of Lovesickness in the Legends of Hippocrates and Erasistratus of Ceos" by L.F.C. Ribeiro

"Christian Lovesickness: Richard of St. Victor's The Four Degrees of Violent Love" by Travis Stevens

"Metaphor as Experimental Medicine" from Blindness and Therapy in Late Medieval French and Italian Poetry by Julie Singer

"Sans Merci: Affect, Resistance, and Sociality in Courtly Lyric" by Sara V. Torres

sections of Medieval Imagination: Rhetoric and the Poetry of Courtly Love by Douglas Kelly

sections of The Arrow of Love: Optics, Gender, and Subjectivity in Medieval Love Poetry by Dana E. Stewart

"'Pite Renneth Soone in Gentil Herte': Ugly Feelings and Gendered Conduct in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women" by Glenn Burger

"Love as Illness: Poets and Philosophers on Romantic Love" by Ruth Rothaus Caston

"Four Medico-Philosophical Traditions of the Origins of Lovesickness" from Lovesickness and Gender in Early Modern English Literature by Lesel Dawson

"Lovers: The Rise and Apparent Fall of Lovesickness" from Lovers and Livers: Disease Concepts in History by Jacalyn Duffin

sections of Eros & Anteros: The Medical Traditions of Love in the Renaissance edited by Donald A. Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella

"Ethical Problems of the Lie that Heals in Renaissance Literature” by Winfried Schleiner "Eros and Misogyny from Giovan Battista Marino to Ferrante Pallavicino" by Francesco Guardiani

sections of Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The Viaticum and Its Commentaries by Mary Frances Wack

Ongoing:

Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo

#cal reading log #arwainian princessoid decrees

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twistedr0se · 4 years ago

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Hey! If that's okay could i request Pomefiore with a chaotic reader that likes literature? Specifically literature from their world like "Dante's inferno", "Arabian nights" or "Decameron"? (I think they're super interesting!)

Like, when they're not causing trouble with Epel they're usually in their room reading those and other books on their phone (let's pretend that they have their phone with them lol). They also LOVE talking about it.

Pomefiore members with a chaotic reader with a love of literature 🌹💄

Note: GN (gender neutral) reader

Vil Schoenheit

- oh no, it’s another one of those rambunctious students…

- Vil has to make sure he’s more than prepared for whatever antics you decided to do today. An accidental spell explosion? He has antidotes in stock. A couple of injuries? He’s got that covered too.

- he may sometimes stop you when things have gotten too far and drag you to his dorm to cool off and clean your appearance up from all the action going on in your life (and it gives him an excuse to spend more time with you)

- he will ask rook to watch over you more often than with epel, you may be a chaotic potato but you’re HIS chaotic potato!!

- on the rare moments where you aren’t being chased around you spend a lot of time together unwinding. He’d take a few peaks at what you’re currently reading during your cuddling sessions.

- you tell a lot of things about the books that you’re interested in and/or currently reading, and Vil can’t help but smile and listen attentively. He finds your love and passion for literature one of your many beauties.

Rook hunt

- one day he saw you and Epel cause a ruckus and got in a fight with a few third year bullies and he saw you fend them off using the most bizarre of spells you could think of, and at that moment it was love at first sight.

- honestly chasing you down in case you or epel start anything (on vil’s request) is part of the fun. He loves that with your chaotic nature, everyday is uniquely beautiful in all it’s chaos

- takes a lot of photos of you in the middle of your antics. Whether it be with the adeuce combo, Epel and Jack, or sebek and silver, he’ll be sure to be there to capture you in all of your beauty

- he finds out about your love of literature when you read out some passages from Decameron for a literature assignment. You caught him staring and asked if he wanted to read along with you and from then on the two of you would have short reading dates with the book of the week

- he tries not to distract you with his touches and kisses while reading, but sometimes he couldn’t help but give you a quick kiss on the cheek or lovingly rub the palm of your hands with his thumb while you passionately talk about your books

- he’s overall very overjoyed about your hobby and overall presence in his life (he’d sometimes call you belle in reference to beauty and the beast as a cute nickname)

Epel Felmier

- honestly the two of you bond a lot when it comes to causing trouble. If epel wanted to run away from vil’s beauty lessons, you’d be the first to help him escape

- you two start a lot of trouble together, and if you were with ace and deuce at the same time…lord have mercy for the school 😭

- he’d try to impress you with how “manly” he can be whenever you two are in a predicament. He wants to impress you and it’s hard finding someone as colorful as you in his life.

- he’s actually really surprised at your love of literature, he didn’t think that someone as rambunctious as you would also have a hobby so peaceful and quiet

- you talk a lot about your books to him, if there was a tidbit of analysis you’ve created after finishing Dante’s inferno then epel would be the first one to hear it. It catches him off guard that you’d be willing to nerd yourself out to someone like him

- he doesn’t understand some of the things in those books but regardless, seeing you talk about them makes him feel something he hasn’t felt before…

#twst x reader #twst #twisted wonderland #rook x reader #Vil x reader #Vil Schoenheit x reader #rook hunt x reader #Epel x reader #Epel Felmier x reader #pomefiore #Epel Felmier #rook hunt #Vil Schoenheit

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emberfrostlovesloki · 5 years ago

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#25 Drowning (in Paperwork).

Prompt: You overhear Spencer defending after someone calls you stupid / lazy.

Category: Angst / Comfort

Content Warning: None

A/N: Sorry that I have been gone so long. Grad school has been as busy as I imagined it would be. I’m almost free however and will hopefully post often over the break. This piece has been sitting idle for months so here is it. This is a collaboration with @imagining-in-the-margins who came up with the idea for the story. They have some awesome CM content, so I highly recommend their blog.

Word Count: 2K

List with all stories

Y/n = your name

Y/l/n = your last name

_Y/n_ was currently slumped over her desk asleep. The bullpen was mostly empty at the moment because most of the members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit were out grabbing their lunch from the breakroom or getting food from the many take out joints near the FBI compound. Agent y/l/n_ had planned on shot gunning a cup of coffee and continuing her paperwork over their most recent successful case. The unsub, Keith Drivesdale, had ended the whole situation very dramatically with a seven mile footrace in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennessee. Mr. Drivesdale had been kidnapping young female hikers on the Appalachian Trail, assaulting them, and then dumping the bodies across state lines on the trail. Drivesdale had been repeating the same pattern for four months until the authorities in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania had the sense to contact the other states sheriff stations to see if there was a pattern in the type of killings that were happening on their portion of the trail. By that time the unsub had killed eleven young women. The man hunt had concluded with twenty five sheriffs, five helicopters searching for the last victim from above, and _y/n_ and Morgan tracking down the man on foot. When they had found his trailer, Keith had not attempted to injure Kelly Browning, his last victim. Morgan stayed with the hiker until Jason and Emily came to take her to the hospital. Meanwhile agent _y/l/n_ had run after Drivesdale. The unsub finally tired enough to make a bad decision in his choice of trail to attempt escape on. The man had run himself onto a lookout with a high drop. _Y/n_ had her gun pulled out and said, “Mr. Drivesdales there’s no place to go. Give this up.” Keith pulled out a pistol from his belt and said, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I really couldn’t.” The man quickly put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. His body wracked with the impact of the bullet, and the unsub fell back off the lookout, and into the river below. A second later Derek rushed into the clearing. The other agent was afraid that the unsub had hurt _y/l/n_. With the accelerating chase over, and the case solved the team piled into the jet and returned to D.C.

It was the following day after the case and the paperwork was due by the end of the workday. Derek and Spencer entered the bullpen. Morgan walked up to _y/n_ desk and pulled The Decameron out from under the sleeping agents folded arms. Surprisingly this movement didn’t stir the sleeping woman. After a few minutes of standing over _y/n_ Derek gently patted her shoulder. The female agent jerked awake, and gripped the sides of her desk. Morgan startled a little at the sharp movement, and said, “Hey, are you alright _y/n_? After rubbing her palm over her eyes and replied, “I’m fine. I had a paper due last night and about a hundred pages of reading left before attending lecture tonight.” Spencer smiled and moved forward saying, “I’ve read The Decameron five times. If you want me to give you a summary of the pages you haven’t read yet I’d be happy to.” _Y/n_ smiled at Reid. She knew that reading that much text was going to take longer than she had. Also, she never missed an opportunity to hear Spencer flex his extensive knowledge. Therefore she replied, “That sounds great. I’ll treat you to some good coffee. You talk and I take notes. If that seems like an equal exchange to you.” Spencer smiled, trilled at the idea of getting to spend time with _y/n_. Derek could see Reid’s excitement, but refrained from saying anything about it in front of agent _y/l/n_. After an awkward moment of silence the standing agents moved toward their respective desks and started working on their own paperwork.

After another three hours _y/n_ startled awake again. She internally berated herself for only getting an hour of sleep last night. Unfortunately editing a ten page paper took longer than she had anticipated. The paper was 15% of her final grade in one of the three graduate classes she was taking at Georgetown University. She looked up at the clock and was thankful that she had only been out for ten minutes. She was longing for the day to end, and to spend an hour or two with Spencer. Speaking of the young genius, she couldn’t see him anywhere in the brightly lit desk area. She also noticed that one of her thicker, unfinished files was apparently missing. She took the approach she always did when something strange happened near her; get a cup of coffee and figure it out after the caffeine hit her. She pushed her chair out from her desk and moved toward the break room. As she approached the small coffee area that was separated from the rest of the breakroom by a wall and door on the far right that led to the coffee she craved, she heard her name brought up. The voice sounded slightly like, ‘Dave, Devin, David’ she couldn’t really remember his name at the moment. He was a new quantitative technician that made sure all the servers were up and running as they should be. He often was in the bullpen in a desperate grasp to get into Penelope's good graces. From what she heard from Garcia was that the computer analyst hated the new guy's guts. “He thinks he is so smart, smarter than everyone else, even me,” the computer genius had once told _y/n_ over drinks. _y/l/n_ stopped and waited to see if the man had something else to say and wondered who in the world he was talking to. It’s not like this Dave guy knew her at all. It only took a moment before he heard his voice again, “So did she ask you to work on her files?” After a second _y/n_ heard a voice she definitely knew, Spencer's. He replied to the comment, “No, I just wanted to help.” There was a scoff from Dave and he replied, “Well I wouldn’t put it past her to ask you to do extra work for her. She’s such a lazy person.” This type of talk shouldn’t have gotten to her, she had heard worse. But hearing some egocentric man who didn’t even know her talk about her behind her back hurt in a way she hadn’t expected. What hurt her more was what Spencer said next, “How is she lazy?” _Y/n_ sucked in a breath and tried to stop the warm tears from rolling down her face. She had been doubted by cops, by teachers in the academy, by her own family that she wasn’t capable of doing this job. She didn’t expect to find her own team doubting her. Especially not Spencer. From the way he asked it sounded like he was trying to get more information about how she just wasn’t good enough. She wanted to move away, but couldn’t move her legs, instead she slumped against the wall and heard Dave say, “She’s always asleep at her desk, she doesn’t do her work, I don’t know what she’s like in the field, but I bet it’s not great.” The silence after his statement was finished was deafening.

At least it was deafening until Spencer replied. On the other side of the wall Spencer was leaning against the counter as Devin made a rude remark about _y/n_. He furrowed his eyebrows and asked the middle aged man to elaborate. When the man replied he was just digging himself into a bigger hole. After Spence finished a swig of his coffee he cleared his throat and said, “Let me tell you something about _y/n_, first of all she performs excellently in the field. The case we just finished almost entirely was solved by her. Secondly, just because she’s new to the team doesn’t make her less valuable, in fact it makes her more valuable. She sees things in the cases and the team that we don’t. I hope that doesn’t change. Third, she’s not lazy or stupid, she’s pursuing an advanced degree in English Literature. She’s essentially condensing her master and PhD. into four years. I don’t see you reading three hundred pages a night of the literary canon plus secondary readings and trying to write a dissertation at the same time. Also, she's taking three classes this semester, which is a full load at Georgetown University. So don’t tell me that _y/n_ is lazy. She’s far from it. Also, maybe stop making observations about people you don’t know to a profiler, and especially to me.” With this Spencer brushed past the man and out into the breakroom. Spencer noticed _y/n_ leaning against the wall. Once he saw her it became exceedingly clear that she had overheard the conversation he just had with Devin. He walked quickly over to her and gently grabbed her elbow and led her away from the wall and the break room altogether. As the pair entered the hall Spencer quietly said, “I’m sorry you had to hear that in there.” After the duo entered the hallway and moved back toward the bullpen. Before they both entered the bullpen _y/n_ stopped Spencer by touching his arm lightly. The genius stopped and looked down at her. She gave him a small smile and bit her lower lip slightly before saying, “Thank you for defending me in there. It means a lot.” Spencer shook his head slightly, as if in shock, and replied, “You don’t have to thank me. That guy is an idiot and an asshole.” Reid’s word’s caused _y/l/n’s_ heart tug slightly, she smiled up at him and said, “So, are we still on for later today?” Spence smiled and nodded. With the conversation being finished for the moment he opened the glass door to the bullpen and held it for her.

An hour later _y/n_ was sipping on a warm chai latte and Spencer was going over the last fourth of Boccaccio’s plague narrative. It was raining outside, and the atmosphere in the coffee shop felt like it’s own cozy little bubble separated from the rest of the world. After Reid had finished his recap and _y/l/n_ had all her questions answered she looked up and said, “Spencer, um, I was wondering if you’d like to do this again sometime, but without the books and notetaking and all that?” The lanky agent shifted in his seat before responding, “You mean a date?” _Y/n_ smiled slightly uncomfortably, hoping she hadn’t crossed some kind of professional boundary with her colleague. She thought about her response and replied, “It doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be. I would like it if I didn’t have to have the excuse of studying to spend time with you. You’re a cool guy and I’d like to know you better if you were comfortable with it.” Reid couldn’t suppress the small smile that crossed his face briefly before saying, “Sure, I’d like that a lot.” _Y/n_ looked down at her notepad to hid the redness of her cheeks from Reid. It wasn’t anything yet, but she hoped with time she could tell Spence how she truly felt about him. She reminded her self of one of her favorite quotes, ‘all in good time my love.’

#dr. spencer reid #criminal minds #spencer x y/n #spencer x reader #derek morgan #cm #coffeeshop #spencer reid

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dragonomatopoeia · 6 years ago

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Hello again! It's been a very long time, and I have no idea whether you remember me, but my question stands regardless of if you do. I've really been enjoying your podcast, but that's mostly just because you and your co-host are very fun to listen to. However, why do you constantly put yourself in situations that upset you like this? I recognize on some level that this may be played up somewhat for comedy, but it seems as though the vast majority, if not the entirety, of the games and routes on

otome games you choose seem to upset you a fair deal. No one’s asking you to hurt yourself in this way. You seem to be having fun with Madelyn, but maybe you could spice it up with something that you actually enjoy talking about, instead of talking about how cruel and unpleasant all of these boys are. The world’s already a stressful enough place. You’re great, and I’m glad to see you’re doing this, but it seems like you’re not really getting back the energies you put in. -RA

Hey, RA! Long time, no see!

As touched as I am about your concern, it’s exactly because the world is a stressful place that I enjoy doing this so much. It’s nice to blow off steam by complaining about pieces of media, rather than fixating on bigger issues that I can’t really interact with directly. In a lot of ways, it’s a ‘safer’ outlet to vent societal frustrations and blow off steam.

I got a lot on my plate pretty much all the time (I’m currently working five jobs and trying to graduate a semester early), so it’s pretty cathartic to take an hour to yell about something less close to home with a close friend, and just be loud and openly gay

In addition, I like doing critical analysis of media, and it’s a lot more fun and rewarding to conduct that analysis on stuff I actually care about (video games) than it is to slog through The Decameron in college classes.

I also do genuinely have fondness for Otome games– It might not shine through clearly when we’re focusing on the critical aspects of it, but I have fun playing them. I think they provide a lot of room for mechanical innovation, they tend to have pretty creative premises, and the character work can be fantastic (when they’re not focusing on creating the Blankest Slate Imaginable)

Plus, they do have some standout moments/prime dialogue:

All that aside, the podcast is really just a public version of what I’ve been doing privately for years. I have huge discord and skype logs going back YEARS of me rambling about what otome games have done well and what they’ve historically sucked at. They’re one of my most long-standing special interests.

Basically! I really appreciate the concern, but trust me when I say I get a lot more joy out of doing this than frustration– If it became more work/emotionally draining than I was comfortable with, I’d bow out. As is, it’s a fun way to share critical perspectives on media I engage with anyway

#asks #Anonymous #recurring anon

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hayaomiyazaki · 7 years ago

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hello! i was wondering if you had any recommendations for italian films (especially ones with lgbt themes?) :)

hello anon! i’ve always held the opinion that italian cinema has never found a middle ground: it’s either about thieves and poverty or it’s some half-surreal exploration of sensuality. both are great, but i think it often divides people. so i’m not sure what your tastes are, but here’s a little list:

ALL PASOLINI but in the meantime try these…at your own risk:

il decameron (1971)

teorema (1968)

salò, or the 120 days of sodom (1975)

so, so much of the work of luchino visconti, one of the Original Italian Gays™:

the damned (1969)

death in venice (1971)

ludwig (1973)

stan liliana cavani, who delivered the queer & sexy:

beyond good and evil (1977)

the berlin affair (1985)

satyricon (1969) dir. federico fellini

il conformista (1970) dir. bernardo bertolucci

dorian gray (1970) dir. massimo dallamano

a special day (1977) dir. ettore scola

ernesto (1979) dir. salvatore samperi

the flavor of corn (1986) dir. gianni da campo

the turkish bath (1997) dir. ferzan özpetek

his secret life (2001) dir. ferzan özpetek

pasolini (2014) dir. abel ferrara

i am love (2009) dir. luca guadagnino

call me by your name (2017) dir. luca guadagnino

(wow the 70s was Truly a gay time)

there are a lot, a lot, a lot of incredible italian visionaries, but i’m trying to keep this list pretty gay — as most lists should be !

a few recs i would mention that aren’t italian/-language but share the sensibilities of some of the italian art cinema i’ve been talking about include the works of derek jarman like the iconic sebastiane (1976) and caravaggio (1986) and edward ii (1991), melville’s le samouraï (1967) and le cercle rouge (1970) for their incredible asexuality / homosocial tension, ma mère (2004) by the underrated christophe honoré, caligula (1977) for the sheer boldness of it all, and who could forget the dreamers (2003) from the shameless pervert bertolucci himself :/

and some links!

this is a great article that can help find some contemporary italian lgbt films

i love this analysis of gay images in bertolucci’s films

this list of italian classics & this mubi list of choice contemporary italian cinema

here are some of my contemporary foreign lgbt film recs

my general lgbt films tag

resources for discovering lgbt cinema

buona visione!

#do i take these kinds of asks too seriously #a #my recs

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warriorsfortheplanet · 6 years ago

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Melchisedech the Jew: a lesson on religious diversity from a 14th century author

Between 1348 and 1350, Giovanni Boccaccio, the father of Italian prose and storytelling, wrote his most famous novel, the Decameron (which means “ten days”), a collection of stories and tales meant to entertain ladies (to whom the novel is dedicated) and gentlemen (especially merchants) and to distract them from the despair of the Black Death, which had struck Europe in 1348.

The novel tells the story of ten young men and women from Florence who have decided to escape the town and run to the countryside to protect themselves from the plague; during this period in the countryside, they spend their time storytelling. Each day, each storyteller tells a tale based on a theme proposed by the queen or king of the day, who has been elected at the end of the day before.

The first day of the Decameron has no peculiar theme, as queen Pampinea stated once she had been crowned by the other storytellers. Although the storytellers are free to choose whatever theme they want, the main theme of the day becomes the religious one.

The third storyteller of the day is Filomena, who tells the tale of Melchisedech the Jew: Salah-al-Din (known as “Saladino” to 14th century Italians), sultan of Egypt and ruler of Babilonia, has lost most of his royal treasure and is in desperate need to find a big amount of money. He would like to ask for help to Melchisedech, a rich Jewish usurer that lives in Alexandria of Egypt. However, Melchisedech is known for being a greedy man and the sultan doubts he will be willing to borrow the sultan his money. Eventually, he decides to try and trick the usurer with a tricky question: the sultan invites Melchisedech to his court and asks him which of the three faiths he believes is the truthful one: Hebraism, Islam or Christianity. Melchisedech, who is a very wise man, understands the intentions of the sultan, and answers by telling a story, which is known as the tale of the three rings:

There once lived a man who had a beautiful ring. Because it was so beautiful, he decided that he would pass down this ring to his legitimate heir, who would then receive most of the heritage, and that all his brothers would have to respect him as the favourite pupil of the house. This tradition was kept for many generations, with fathers passing the beautiful ring down to their favourite son. The ring ended up in the hands of an elderly man with three sons. Each of the sons was trying to please their father as they could to obtain the ring. Eventually, the father asked a good blacksmith to create two identical copies of the same ring and he passed the rings down to his sons. When the father died, each of the three sons came to claim their heritage, showing off their rings, not knowing the existance of the two copies. Incapable of telling which of the three was the real ring, they started quarreling on who was the legitimate heir, and Melchisedech tells us that they are still quarreling in vain.

Melchisedech answers the sultan that his question has no solution, because like the father who gave the three rings to his sons, so God gave each population a different heritage and religion without telling which one was the right one. Therefore, there is no right religion, as they all come down from God. The sultan praises Melchisedech’s intelligence, as it was just the right answer; eventually, now that he has tested his intelligence, the sultan feels finally free to ask the usurer for help. Melchisedech welcomes the sultan’s request and the sultan repays completely his debt with Melchisedech and become close friend with the wise man.

As you can imagine, this is one of my favourite tales of the whole novel. Despite the plague spreading all over Europe, which caused stereotypes and descriminations against jews and muslims to rise all over Europe (they had already been banned from Spain and assaulted during the first crusades during XI-XIII centuries), Boccaccio shows how in fact religious intolerance has no real motive or foundation and is actually impossible to tell which is the “true faith”. Besides, the fact that the protagonists are a very wise and rich Jewish man and the sultan of Egypt, a muslim monarch, really makes a difference: Boccaccio allows representers of the two other religions involved in the question to speak up. It’s not a Christian preacher that’s talking, but a muslim monarch and a jewish businessman (he is a usurer, which was considered a sinful profession, but during the XI-XIII centuries actual laws were made so that Jews could only be usurers, because this profession was seen as necessary, but Christians couldn’t practice it because it was seen as sinful; so it is not strange or weird to see a Jewish usurer during the Middle Ages. What is new with Melchidesech is that he is, in fact, a wise and generous man, although concerned about money, representing the uprising bourgeois class. Besides, his knowledge and intelligence make him more than just an usurer: they make him a wise man, which is something that was quite unconventional in an antisemitic society like the medieval one). They are high-status representers of their own culture and religion and they are portraied as generous, wise and well educated. Besides, Salah-al-Din isn’t an ordinary sultan: he defeated the Christian kingdoms with ease during the crusades, establishing his supremacy over the Middle East. He was an illuminated monarch, a great leader and a close friend of Frederick II of Swabia, with whom he shared his own culture.

Although the tale might seem a little bit old-fashioned, it actually sends a very important and current message: there is no right or wrong religion. Each of them has their own culture and heritage and it deserves to be practiced withouth any form of discrimination. Furthermore, this tale teaches us that it is in fact possible to be friends with people with different beliefs and cultures.

All that I can say is: well done Boccaccio, bravo.

And what about you? Do you agree with me on my personal analysis of Boccaccio’s tale? Do you think it could set a good example for islamophobes and antisemites? Let me know :)

Disclaimer: this is my personal analysis of Boccaccio’s tale “the tale of Melchisedech the Jew”. The historical evidence I reported comes from my recent studies on medieval European and Middle Eastern history and culture at school, which I got from my teacher’s lessons and my textbooks.

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gradling · 5 years ago

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Daily Decameron - Day Ten

Today’s story: A gentlewoman from Gascony is robbed during a pilgrimage and goes to shame the ineffective king of Cyprus into dealing out justice.

Contents/potential points of analysis include: Crusade, pilgrimage, values of kingship, gender.

Bonus: Flowers have been blooming beautifully here, and it finally got above 80F!

#daily decameron #bookblr #jam posts

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mr-chatterboxs-column · 5 years ago

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Like, I suspect, most people, my personal projects have kind of been put on hold while society adjusts. I have a healthcare-related essential job that can't be done remotely (not "bad management" reasons, it literally involves physical stuff received by mail and hardwired secure networks), so my work days are the same except I drive (instead of taking the bus) through an increasingly desolate metropolis, sit in a separate room from all my coworkers, and come home to be alone some more for the other half of the day. My friends are great... but they're working from home or are on leave, and almost all of them have roommates. This half-and-half isolation-with-a-commute, to put it lightly, blows.

All of which is to say, I don't think I'm going to finish it super soon, so I need to put it on the record now that I was already working on my music theory analysis series on Hozier's Wasteland, Baby! as an adaptation of The Decameron months before there was a pandemic. I can show you the time stamps on the Google doc, I swear, I called that shit

#personal post #it is so weird how even being isolated in a different way than everyone you know feels even more isolating #I'm serious though I've been working on this thing since he did that interview with Google #so... last July?#back when that was a novel angle to me since the overt climate crisis themes are so much more prominent

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mybarricades · 8 years ago

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Fredric Jameson; ”A Monument to Radical Instants”

Peter Weiss / Pasolini

“Pasolini was if anything even more of a loner than Peter Weiss, projecting his vision of the collectivity back into the myths and rituals of premodern villages and tribes, as supremely in the Medea (1970), with its cannibalism and magic, and its lament for the modern “desacralization” “of the world (the centaur teacher Chiron first appearing as centaur, then in modern-dress clothes on two legs—because we moderns have lost the framework in which we believe in centaurs). But I want to underscore a more basic analogy between Pasolini and Weiss—both otherwise incomparable, and Weiss virtually without any national tradition of his own—contemporaneous with the Beats, but here too without any genuine similarities, nor can I think of any other figures to compare them with. What they shared formally, besides the themes I have mentioned, is that crude hacking simplicity of the pedagogue who initiates forms; who feels no particular respect for a series of formal exercises or innovations, but chops into the medium in order to convey a point which would be unsophisticated and programmatic in the form of a philosophical position—as for example the juxtaposition of Marat and Sade themselves, or the thesis on magic I have just alluded to in Pasolini’s Medea. Add to this the reliance on preexisting texts—most often documents, in the case of Weiss, rather than myths or the tales of the Decameron or The Arabian Nights, in that of Pasolini. I have indulged this comparison in order to position Weiss in the postwar period, in a framework a little wider than the merely German one. The politics of both figures—essentially men of the 1950s—would merit attention, but for our purposes it suffices that alongside a lifelong commitment to politics and to the reinvention of a kind of avant-garde art, both were passionately nostalgic for a vanguard politics as well, and both keenly attentive to the sexual liberation of the 1960s and 1970s. Pasolini’s work is, however, drenched in sexuality from the very beginning, in contrast to the restraint of The Aesthetics of Resistance (which would have to be juxtaposed to the sexual themes of Weiss’s earlier works, along with the emblematic figure of Sade himself). Yet in Pasolini, as with COBRA, a preoccupation with history takes the form of the archaic and the mythic, and expresses the conviction that collective life can only be glimpsed, let alone recaptured, by a return to precapitalist societies, from the astonishing rituals of Medea’s tribal society all the way up to Boccaccio or The Arabian Nights. Contemporary works, such as Theorema (1968), are framed politically—the factory owner’s gift of the factory—but in programmatic or Utopian ways; even the early images of Roman low life and Pasolini’s favorite Lumpens exclude the perspective of a historical interpretation and causal analysis of the recent past.“

Fredric Jameson; The Modernist Papers // First published by Verso 2007

#Fredric Jameson #Peter Weiss #Pasolini #Die Ästhetik des Widerstands #The Modernist Papers

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mebwalker · 6 years ago

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Magdaleine Pinceloup de la Grange by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, 1747 (J. Paul Getty Museum)

Dear friends,

I have not been able to write due to various house chores. I haven’t quite finished settling down. In the past, I settled into a home in a matter of days. This time, I have to hire professionals. How humbling.

You may remember that I lost my voice on 11 December. It has now returned, but it is different. X-rays revealed advanced emphysema. I could not believe my doctor. Three thirds of my lungs have turned into a dry sponge. I’ve never smoked.

I can breathe normally, so no treatment is necessary.

However, I am losing my driver’s license: myalgic encephalomyelitis, not emphysema, although the two could be linked. I had a long career as a driver.

I bought an apartment located close to a little market. It has everything I need. I have been told I qualify for a service dog, but Belaud said no.

—ooo—

My cat Belaud was delighted when I discovered a painting featuring a chartreux sitting one a lady’s lap. French poet Joachim du Bellay had a chartreux named Belaud. When his Belaud died, he wrote an extroardinary epitaph entitled Sur la mort de Belaud. As you know, I share my home and life with a cat named Belaud is a pure-bred French chartreux. I named my chartreux after Joachim du Bellay‘s Belaud. Du Bellay wrote an epitaph on the death of his cat Belaud. It is entitled Sur la mort de Belaud, a long poem I would attempt to translate.

Belaud Portrayed & Enhanced

literary roots

artistic roots

Belaud has literary roots, but the J. Paul Getty Museum has a painting featuring a dignified lady, nose up, holding her precious chartreux. Artist Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (French, 1715 – 1783) is not as famous a figure as Joachim du Bellay, but we owe him an the portrait of a chartreux, and images are immediate. Upon analysis, we may find that a picture is complex, but in the case of Perronneau’s portrait, we know we are seeing a lady, Magdaleine Pinceloup de la Grange, holding her beloved cat, a chartreux.

Because of this portrait, chartreux have acquiredgreater stature. A cat protrayed is a thousand cats. Moreover, Jean-Baptiste Perronneau depicted a chartreux sitting on the lap of the distinguished madame de Pinceloup de la Grange. I told Belaud that a portrait of a chartreux had surface. Well, mother said Belaud, I knew. We cats research our ancestry. Mme de Pinceloup de la Grange’s chartreux could indeed be Belaud’ ancestor. However, my Belaud does not wear a collar because he is not a threat to birds. He would love to be hired to chase away various rats, “gros rats.” In fact, one gentleman offered him a lucrative contract: “toxicity” said the gentleman, “toxicity!” It will be the Black Death all over again. The gentleman died a few weeks later.

Given their profession, chasing rats, chartreux are large and very robust cats. Fearing the cold, they wear two coats of fur. I should also mention they they enjoy sitting with their legs extended forward and that they sometimes cross their legs, as though they were dogs, or human beings. They may be referred to as blue cats, but they are grey cats. The light, however, may make their fur appear blue and even mauve.

The chartreux and their British Blue relatives have a round face, large cheeks, a permanent smile and yellow to copper eyes. I should also tell you that Chartreux are very quiet. Legend has it that their silent owners, Carthusian monks, taught them silence. Belaud purrs, but he is otherwise absolutely silent. A long time ago, I read they were brought to France by crusaders. Were Carthusians crusaders?

Joachim du Bellay by Jean Cousin (Google)

The Literary Belaud

La Pléiade

the carpe diem

the Vernacular

Du Bellay’s epitaph on Belaud is very long, but very rich. Besides, Du Bellay is a better-known figure than monsieur Perronneau. He was a member of La Pléiade, a group of stellar poets who are the fountainhead of poetry in French. Poet Pierre de Ronsard (11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a prince of poets, un prince des poètes, which is not insignificant, but he is famous for carpe diem poem. In his Sonnets pour Hélène, he enjoins Hélène to love him dès aujourd’hui, as of today, life being so short. There was an Hélène whose gentleman friend had died in a war. She was not in the least interested in Ronsard, but Ronsard’s poem is unforgettable.

Vivez, si m’en croyez, n’attendez à demain : Cueillez dès aujourd’hui les roses de la vie.

Sonnets pour Hélène, 1578

Robert Herrick wrote in a similar vein:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today To-morrow will be dying.

As for Du Bellay’s poetry, it is eminently quotable. Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage is perfection, but Du Bellay’s place and fame in literature rests mainly on his Défense et illustration de la langue française, considered the Pléiade’s manifesto. The Renaissance was a moment of effervescence. Greek scholars and artists had fled the Byzantine Empire when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, on 30 May 1453. Hence, Du Bellay’s reference to Ulysses /Odysseus.

Italy was the first refuge of Greek scholars. As for painters, Christians, they fled to Russia, carrying icons. Constantinople had been a Holy See for Eastern Christianity. We know about the Great East/West Schism, 1054. The Vatican is Western Christianity’s Holy See. The Eastern Church would have several Holy sees, called synods.

The arrival in Italy of Greek scholars may have led scholars to look to Antiquity, and learn Greek. The Renaissance, however, saw the emergence of the vernacular, the mother tongue.

Du Bellay promoted the vernacular, French in his case. He was inspired by Italian author Sperone Speroni’s Dialogo delle lingue, 1542. Speroni was a friend and supporter of Venetian-language playwright Angelo Beolco (el Ruzante [the rustic?]). However, the greater supporter of the vernacular was Pietro Bembo (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January). Bembo championed the use of Italian by poet Petrarch (20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374). Predecessors were Dante Alighieri (c. 1265 – 1321), the author of the Divine Comedy, written in the vernacular, and Giovanni Boccaccio (16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) the author of the Decameron, written in the Florentine language.

A British Blue (Tumbler)

La Querelle du chartreux et du “bleu” britannique

le chartreux

le Bleu britannique

le chat de France

Charles de Gaulle

Yvonne de Gaulle in a London kitchen (Getty Images)

Chartreux are often compared to British blue cats. There is a resemblance, but the two breeds differ. The snout of British Blues does not point forward as much as the snout of chartreux. Consequently, British Blues have rounder faces and larger jowls. Belaud’s face is round, but his jowls are not as prominent as the jowls of his British cousins.

I was able to gather precious information about Chartreux and British Blues. My very bilingual Scottish friend Francis, was hired to go between English-speaking Winston Churchill and Charles De Gaulle, who spoke French, as D-Day was planned. How did Francis survive being a go-between to such men? De Gaulle would not always agree with Churchill and he communicated with the Free French Forces, Forces françaises libres which he led beginning on 28 June 1940. L’appel du 18 juin (1940), a radio, the BBC, broadcast, gave hope to the French. France had defenders: the United States and the British Empire. Churchill was at times livid, said Francis discreetly. We have learned since that De Gaulle told the Forces françaises libres that Paul Verlaine’s Chanson d’automne would be used in the planning of D-Day. It was a code. Verlaine is un prince des poètes.

Obviously, sharing the code was dangerous, but I wonder whether Francis had a role to play in the Querelle des Chartreux et des Bleus britanniques. He would not have told me. But truth me told, a querelle de chats took place in the thick of a devastating war. The British wanted to mix the Chartreux with the British Blue and De Gaulle would not allow the national cat of France simply to vanish. Later, Yvonne, De Gaulle’s wife, gave her husband a chartreux which le général called Gris [grey]-Gris. Gris-Gris probably had an aristocratic name, but le général called him Gris-Gris. Gris-Gris followed De Gaulle from room to room.

Writers Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, and Charles Baudelaire also adopted a chartreux. Belaud’s mother was a Sidonie de… I cannot remember the rest of her name, but his father was Tennessee. The cat she called la dernière chatte (the last cat), was no doubt a chartreux.

This post is a shameful coq-à-l’âne (jumping from one subject to another). The coq-à-l’âne had a terrible reputation, but that marginalia is the latest in-thing, I’m saved. However, I will close proudly as Belaud is all over this post, un fil conducteur, a link, carrying weight.

Pietro Bembo by Titian and the Vernacular (27 January 2016)

The Hundred Year’s War: its Literary Legacy (24 January 2016)

Belaud the Cat writes a post (22 October 2013)

The Art of Dionisius (9 September 2012)

Belaud the Cat’s Suite (28 February 2012)

La Pléiade: Du Bellay (30 December 2011; disappeared)

The Petrarchan Movement (6 December 2011)

Belaud (31 July 2011)

A Happy Valentine’s Day ❤

(See Posts on Love Celebrated)

Je ne pourrai pas vivre sans toi – Maurane et Michel Legrand

youtube

A Belaud, identical (Google)

A Chartreux Portrayed Dear friends, I have not been able to write due to various house chores. I haven't quite finished settling down.

#Belaud #Charles de Gaulle #Chartreux #Du Bellay #Sur la mort de Belaud #the British Blue #the Vernacular #une Querelle des chats

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