common-blackbird - Tumblr blog

[common-blackbird]

George Martin, 2013: "In a very basic level winter is coming for all of us. I think that’s one of the things that art is concerned with: the awareness of our own mortality. “Valar morghulis” – “All men must die”. That shadow lies over our world and will until medical science gives us all immortality… but I don’t think it makes it necessarily a pessimistic world. Not any more pessimistic than the real world we live in. We’re here for a short time and we should be conscious of our own mortality, but the important thing is that love, compassion and empathy with other human beings is still possible. Laughter is still possible! Even laughter in the face of death… The struggle to make the world a better place… We have things like war, murder and rape… horrible things that still exist, but we don’t have to accept them, we can fight the good fight. The fight to eliminate those things.There is darkness in the world, but I don’t think we necessarily need to give way to despair. One of the great things that Tolkien says in Lord of The Rings is “despair is the ultimate crime”. That’s the ultimate failing of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, that he despairs of ever being able to defeat Sauron. We should not despair. We should not go gentle into that good night".

JRR Tolkien, 1962 : "Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . . . (He quotes Simone de Beauvoir) 'There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it he would sense to it an unjustifiable violation.' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings".

"Lotr is all rainbows and unicorns and Asoiaf is nihilistic and grimdark". Wrong, and wrong. In all its hope and radiance, lotr often gets very dark, and despite all the death and suffering, the hopeful moments in asoiaf shine bright. The meeting point of these two is this: having hope while in despair, and even better, refusing to give up because you have to go on despite not having any hope left.

[common-blackbird]

I seethe with rage every time I am forced to sit in a chair designed like this like who is this good for

[common-blackbird]

Severance (2022) dir. Ben Stiller, Aoife McArdle // Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

[common-blackbird]

ngl they kinda went off with the costumes

[common-blackbird]

"The food is not that hot, just eat it."

The food in question:

[common-blackbird]

Michał Żebrowski as Jan Skrzetuski Ogniem i Mieczem (1999)

Happy birthday @kraciasta!

[common-blackbird]

Wet Trylogia Boys

Ogniem i Mieczem (1999) || Potop (1974)

[common-blackbird]

In every victory lay a future defeat, and in every intoxication bitterness at the bottom.

[common-blackbird]

With Fire and Sword: Horpyna & Bohun

   "You are at heart a Pole, not a Cossack, if you will not constrain the girl in Cossack fashion–“    "That I were a Pole, that I were a Pole!” cried Bohun, grasping the cap on his head with both hands, for pain had seized him.    "The Polish woman must have bewitched you,“ muttered Horpyna.    "Ai! if she has not,” answered he, sadly, “may the first bullet not pass me; may I finish my wretched life on the empaling stake! I love one in the world, and that one does not love me!    "Fool!” cried Horpyna, with anger; “but you have got her!”    "Hold your tongue!“ cried he, with rage. “If she lays hands on herself, then what? I’ll tear you apart and then myself. I’ll break my head against a rock, I’ll gnaw people like a dog. I would have given my soul for her, Cossack fame. I would have fled beyond the Yagorlik from the regiments to the end of the earth, to live with her, to die at her side. That’s what I would have done. But she stabbed herself with a knife, and through whom? Through me! She stabbed herself with a knife! Do you hear?”    "That’s nothing. She will not die.“    "If she dies, I will nail you to the door.”    "You have no power over her.“    "I have none, I have none. Would she had stabbed me,–it would have been better had she killed me!”    "Silly little Pole! She should have been kind to you. Where will she find your superior?“    "Arrange this, and I will give you a pot of ducats and another of pearls.”

[common-blackbird]

they’re looking at each other <3

[common-blackbird]

what are those

[common-blackbird]

why do I find their reactions to Bohun showing up so fucking funny

[common-blackbird]

[common-blackbird]

Commission for @perplexingly

Jurko Bohun and Jan Skrzetuski from ''Ogniem i mieczem''

[common-blackbird]

Jan Marcin Szancer (1902-1973), Jurko Bohun and Jan Onufry Zagłoba talking to Kurcewicze in Rozłogi

1. Charcoal version from the "With Fire and Sword" Polish edition, 1954

2. Ink version from the "With Fire and Sword" Polish edition, 1963

[common-blackbird]

[common-blackbird]

— Nigdy cię nie pokocham, tak mi dopomóż Bóg!

— Ty mi takich rzeczy nie mów! — rzekł chrapliwym głosem.

— Ty mi o swym kochaniu nie mów, bo mi od niego wstyd, gniew i obraza. Jam nie dla ciebie. Kto mnie życie ratuje, by mi dać hańbę i niewolę, ten mój wróg, nie przyjaciel.

Ogniem i Mieczem, Henryk Sienkiewicz