#hamman

[xnote08]

1218 - Hamman (Azur Lane)

[wally-b-feed]

Zar Hamman Olivon, 2024

[sacredheart-stigmata]

[Twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth century writers] wrote Jesus as a pregnant, laboring, and postpartum mother: lactating, bleeding, meant to be adored and imitated in his long suffering mercy and compassion. The crucifixion and childbirth meet at a strange point of willing love and willing suffering in the service of abundant life.

Thinking of Jesus as a laboring mother powerfully contextualizes Jesus’ suffering. The crucifixion is not suffering for suffering’s sake, as it has sometimes been depicted. Suffering alone is not redemptive, though we often can mistake it as such in our attempts to make sense of the world. Christ’s passion is more similar to childbirth than cancer, wounds received in war, accidental injury, leprosy, COVID-19, or any other bodily affliction. Through his agony Christ encompasses, shares, and knows all other pain, his suffering is profoundly generative, just as in childbirth. He gives birth to us in his passion, his resurrection, and his life of love.

Jesus Through Medieval Eyes, Grace Hamman

[theinwardlight]

Christ himself is bigger than any one image or narrative or perspective, he requires four gospels—more accurately, the whole arc of scripture—to reveal his character. He encompasses every virtue; his every act teaches us the life of love. No one person can imitate him in his fullness. We need the strangeness of one another to witness the bigger picture.

Grace Hamman

[archduchessofnowhere]

What did you think of The Reluctant Empress book? I found it a bit tough to read at times. Seems like the author kinda loathed Sisi. Not that you have to idolize the subject you write about, but that seemed like the opposite extreme.

Hello! Honestly I have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I do think it's a good biography all in all, and I quote it a lot on this blog, but on the other hand, the bias is so obvious that it makes for a very frustrating reading. I talked about this with someone the other day, but some of Hamann's takes are downright unprofessional. This becomes more obvious if you read her biography on Rudolf, because it is amazing how forgiving she is of him in contrast to how judgemental she is of Elisabeth.

And for the record, I don't think that Hamann disliking Elisabeth is necessarily a problem. She was deeply flawed and I understand why a lot of people don't click with her. But a lot of Hamann's take just seem to be in bad faith? Like the way she dismisses her depression. Or her stating that Elisabeth didn't care for Rudolf's last Christmas present for her without any concret evidence, to name a minor exemple.

The book has gained the unofficial title of "best biography of Elisabeth", mainly because it is the only translation we've had of a German biography of her in the past 40 years. Since then a lot of other works have been published, which bring new interpretations to the table. While I don't think there's still a "definitive" biography of Elisabeth, I think a lot of people just take Hamann's word for granted and don't question her at all. Her book seems to actually make people dislike Elisabeth, even. I give her credit for giving us the least romanticized interpretation of Elisabeth to date, but this is not the ultimate biography of her as some people claim.

[agent-troi]

four seasons and one and a half movies of farscape and i still have no idea if “hammond side” refers to port or starboard

[glassd0ll601]

[biseugen]

use it wisely

[siryl]

"The Tower" by Steven J. Hammans.

[placeoftheclearlight]

Annie Hamman

[wally-b-feed]

[patacitrouilles]

𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑎𝑛 𝘩𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑚.

[theinwardlight]

Petrus Christus, 15th century, Christ as the Man of Sorrows

Most days I take a walk near my house, and while walking, I would hold up my hands and imagine wounds in my palms, think about what it meant that the Great Judge, the Lord of the Universe, would show me his own relaxed, pierced hands in his judgment. This was the judge who would look right through me at the end of time. And I realized, not without bafflement, that I am invited to long for my own judgment. Let me explain. I do not long for punishment in a frenzy of holy, creepy masochism, nor do I long to be told all my faults. I hate being in trouble. I am an eldest child, after all. I would like nothing better than to be told I have been right about everything, always.  And yet – and yet – Petrus Christus’s picture of Jesus the Judge makes me think, O God, I want you to purge all the dross and nonsense and pettiness from my heart. Make me soft; make me love. Please judge me, with your lily and your sword and most of all, your very human wounds. Lay open my heart to you and to others, cut out the nonsense, grow the love. I actually do not really know what I am asking for, other than that I’m sure that the purgation process will be rather painful in unexpected ways. But I see that you, as judge, are the only person I could ask this terrible question, and trust that it will be good. Only Christ is to be trusted with judgment when time is over; only he can redeem time at all.

Grace Hamman, Medievalish, Nov 2024

[archduchessofnowhere]

Rudolf’s aunt, Archduchess Maria Theresia, also was the object of his infatuation. She was one of the six famously beautiful Braganza sisters and married to Archduke Karl Ludwig, who was 22 years her elder. She was the stepmother of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Otto. Rudolf’s sister Gisela, already married in Munich, was the person to whom he confided his admiration for her. Feeling sorry for her beautiful aunt, she lamented with her brother, “What you are writing about Maria Theresia is really sad. One can conclude from this that she can not be happy. It’s too bad to be married to such an old man when one is still so young.” The “old man,” however, who was second in line as heir to the throne after the Crown Prince, was very jealous. Rudolf’s infatuation and his sympathy for the beautiful young archduchess can hardly have improved his already tense relationship with his uncle, who was known for his “clericalism.”

Hamann, Brigitte (2017). Rudolf. Crown Prince and Rebel (translation by Edith Borchardt)

[Pictured, left: Maria Teresa of Braganza, Archduchess of Austria, circa 1870s. Right: Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, 1876. Via Wikimedia Commons]

[sacredheart-stigmata]

This fifteenth century, untitled, anonymous poem begins "in the vale of restless mind" as the speaker of the poem seeks "True Love". Wandering in the wilderness of his interior self, the speaker hears a voice and draws near, and the voice says this in "great dolor": "See, dear soul, my sides bleed/ Quia amore langueo [Because I swoon with love]". A handsome man with a gracious face, covered with wounds from head to toe, sits under a tree. He introduces himself as "True Love", never false, always in love with the Soul. He describes his travails of showing his love to the Soul in ways she can understand (...) This anonymous poet marries the language of romance with the imagery of the crucifixion:

I will abide til she be ready;

I will to her send though she say nay;

If she be reckless [without care] I will be ready,

If she be dangerous [disdainful] I will her pray;

If she do weep then did I nay:

My arms are spread to clasp her to.

Cry once, "I come", no soul, assay,

Quia amore langueo!"

These disparate things-- brutal death and the gentle language of a patient lover-- are united by the voluntary suffering of the lover for the beloved. In an echo of Christ's outstretched arms on the cross, the lover invites the Soul into his embrace, but she rejects him. He will abide until she is ready to come. Love returned through force or fear is not perfect love. [Christ] will wait in perfect patience and adoration as long as need be.

Grace Hamman as Christ as the 'Patient Lover' in Jesus Through Medieval Eyes

[glassd0ll601]

blonde