#19th c. russia

[jeannepompadour]

Sofiya Nikolaevna Chertkova, 1863

[arthistoryanimalia]

For a slow Sunday here are some Fabergé nephrite jade snails from Russia:

Carl Fabergé, late 19th/early 20th century, carved nephrite jade, 4.8 x 8.1 x 3.2 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum

Fabergé Workshop, c. 1900, carved nephrite jade with diamond eyes, 5.5 x 12.3 x 4.1 cm, Cincinnati Art Museum

Fabergé Workshop, c. 1885-1905, carved nephrite jade with rose aventurine quartz shell and gold tentacles, 4.9 × 4.8 × 10.8 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago

[resplendentoutfit]

Dress recreation • Credit: The Dreamstress. The blogger wore her Jeanne Samary dress to an Impressionist art exhibition. Notice the image on her fan.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (French, ) • Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary (1857-1890) • 1878 • Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

I love this 1870s style of a formal dress and I'm always surprised by the skill and creativity of current-day seamstresses who not only recreate dresses worn by portrait subjects but also model the dresses at appropriate events. It makes me wish I could sew!

As much as I'm enjoying re-visiting 19th century fashion after many years, my main interest is still with the art itself and often, the people portrayed therein.

So, who was Jeanne Samary? She was a beautiful, young actress with the Comédie-Française, who caught Renoir's eye. Her ambition was to compete for dramatic roles such as those offered Sarah Bernhardt. These roles were better paying and more prestigious than comedy.

Renoir would eventually paint Jeanne a dozen or so times. Many of those paintings are now masterpieces of Impressionist art.

Jeanne Samaray • c. 1877 Jeanne Samaray • Renoir • 1877

[mackerel1522]

Hey guys, have we already considered that maybe Fyodor is the same as IRL!Dostoevsky?

We know he already met Bram at least a few times and Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is set in the late 19th century - the same century IRL!Dostoevsky lived in.

What I'm trying to say is: What if our Fedya was actually born in 1821 just like the real author? What if our Fedya is actually the Dostoevsky?

First: Dostoyevsky's Works

Fyodor's character/ability/environment containt lots of references to most of his works:

- Crime and Punishment: the crime is being killed and as a punishment he take over the body of the killer + his character is heavely Raskonikov-coded

- The Demons: Fyodor is often refered to as a demon (or as the "Northern Devil")

*also another title of this novel is 'The Possessed' which heavily refers to his ability too

- Notes From The Underground: Fyodor's philosophy has a lot in common with the one of the "Underground Man" (the narrator and protagonist of the novella)

- The House of the Dead: his organisation "Rats in the House of the Dead" is based partially on the novel

- The Gambler: we see him play at the begining of the manga against Ace (and nails it) + later the Sky Casino where he sends Sigma

(The list continues but it'd take way too long for me to cover all of it TuT')

- The Double: his double-personality-faking after his breakdown in mersault is "The Double"-coded

- The Brothers Karamazov: in an interview, Asagiri revealed he based most of Fyodor's personality on a scene of the novel (the one where Ivan Karamazov talks to 'the devil')

Secondly: Rodion Raskolnikov

Fyodor and Rodion share a lot of common points - Fyodor being heavely Raskolnikov-coded:

First and most obvious: Fedya's ability is C&P and Rodya is the protagonist from C&P

The complex personality: Fyodor is a highly intelligent and enigmatic character. He is confident, exceptionally intelligent, manipulative and can easily see through his enemies' desires and plans. Rodion, on the other hand, is a lonely former student who actively rejects the society's morality. Just like Fedya, Rodya considers himself an exceptional man and wants to test the limits of his own freedom by committing murder. His personality is also tormented and complex.

Common themes: Both characters explore deep themes such as guilt, suffering, redemption and human nature. They both embody dark and complex aspects of the human psyche.

Thirdly: Dostoyevsky and Dostoyevsky

IRL!Dostoyevsky and Our!Dostoyevsky also have a lot of common points:

Personality/Lives:

Both were born on November 11 in Russia

Both have been sentenced to death/sent to prison

Both are very religious people

Both traveled a lot around the world

Both have chronic illnesses (epilepsy/anemia)

Both share a similar philosophy (Orthodox Christianity and Utopian Socialism)

Common themes: religion, redemption, guilt, suffering, human nature, gambling, death, chronic illness, psychology, etc...

Fourthly: Crime and Punishment

"I am crime. I am punishment. Crime and punishment are close friends. Borders vanish. Rooms awaken. The incarnation of death, the master of the ability-consuming fog… Eat, howl, and make violence as your instinct desires. This is neither a loss of control nor a singularity." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Bungo Stray Dogs Dead Apple)

There is definitely more to Fyodor's ability than "just" possessing the one who just killed him. For instance we have what happened in Dead Apple but we also have some more details that should be noticed (I think): Don't you find it intriguing how everytime before he dies his eyes are light but once he is resurrected his eyes turn dark again? The same happens when he fakes a double personality after his breakdown in mersault: his eyes turn the lightest we've ever seen him have but once he abandons the act they turn pitch black again.

Y'all remember how Harukawa said something like "the darker the eyes, the darker the personality, the lighter the eyes, the closest they are to the good side"? (sorry I don't remember the correct quote but it's something like that)

Intriguing, huh?

Finally: "Dostoyevsky is immortal!"

In his novel "The Master and Margarita", Mikhail Bulgakov says "Dostoyevsky is immortal!". In the manga, we just learned Fyodor's ability which, as said before, consist basically in taking over the body of the one who just killed him. Based on all the canon events of the manga, mostly everything conducts us to think Dostoyevsky's, in fact, immortal. Could Asagiri have been inspired by this quote? That could be possible. (Would it be extremely cool? Hell yeah.)

What if our Dostoyevsky is the Dostoyevsky but in a reality where he is, in fact, immortal?

What do you guys think about it? Do you have another theory? Do you wanna add something? (I'm open to everything! Tell me what you think - whether it's the same or the opposite, I'm curious!)

[milaisreading]

Isolation

Fandom: Hetalia

Characters: Y/n, Denmark. Mentions of Russia, Iceland, and Norway.

Warnings: Reader uses she/her. Requests for Hetalia stories are open

🌍Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya🌍

Sometimes in the middle of the 19th century...

"(Y/n), this is getting ridiculous! You have been stuck in your room for the past 3 centuries! You need to start going outside and meeting new people." The northern country's boss, who was an elderly and exhausted man, said in exasperation. The man was meant with silence at first, but the said country opened the door just enough for the man to see half of her face.

"That's not true! I do go outside. Just yesterday I was in the garden!"

"You know that's not what I meant. I meant for you to go into the world again and make allies. You have been isolated for so long, and the neighboring countries would like to make proper trade deals again-"

"No! I am not going outside or meeting anyone!" (Y/n) yelled back, watching as the man facepalmed, trying to calm down. This was the 4th time they had the conversation this week.

"Please, nobody will hurt you. The countries are very nice and kind."

"What about that silver haired one?! You know the one with the creepy smile and kept telling me to 'become one with him?!" (Y/n) panicked as she remembered the man. The last time she saw Russia was exactly 300 years ago. He scared her enough to go into a complete shut down.

"I don't and can't risk it. Besides! Everything I need, I have here." The country tried to reason with her boss. The man was about to start lecturing her again, when an assistant of the country ran towards them, panicking ad he held a piece of paper.

"Miss (C/n)! We have got mail today! It says that a country will visit us tomorrow, they already set sails and everything!"

"What?!" The woman asked as she got out of her room.

"What do you mean? Give me that paper, please." The assistant handed her boss the paper and backed away a little as the duo read it.

'Dear (C/n),

my ship already set sail and we will be arriving at your place in about three days! I figured that this surprise visit will make it easier for us to reconnect! Haven't seen you for the past 300 years, my dude... Anyway, my greatness will bless your place very soon and we can work! Prepare some beer and food to celebrate this occasion.

Signed by the king of Northern Europe,

Denmark'

"King of Northern Europe?! I didn't know he raised to that status." (Y/n) muttered, vaguely remembering Denmark from her memory. She didn't realize she missed out on so much. Her boss glanced at her and then looked back at the assistant.

"Well then, prepare everything they need. We will host our guests witht he finest food we have."

"What?! Why?! Can't we tell them to leave?" (Y/n) protested as she watched the assistant leave, but shut up when she saw the man give her a strict look.

"(C/n), I know you don't like to hear it, but times are changing. Your isolation will not help you or your people in the long run. You will eventually need allies to trade with. Please just try opening up a little, if you really don't like it, you can reject Denmark as a possible ally. I won't force you to leave your room anymore." Surpringly, the man had a much softer voice now. (Y/n) looked at him for a moment, thinking over his words before slowly nodding her head.

"Alright..." The man's eyes widened in surprise and then smiled at her softly.

"Chin up, (C/n). Not everyone is Russia." He joked a little, patting her back a little.

"R-right..."

The next day (Y/n) woke up earlier than she was told. The night prior anxiety has haunted her over talking to another country again.

"It will be ok..." She muttered to herself while playing with the hem of her military uniform. The country was standing in front of her boss's desk as the man was sitting on his chair. The office was silent for a moment as (Y/n) looked away from the door and at her boss.

"You think they are late-"

"Woo-hoo! The king of Northern Europe is here to make the day better!!" (Y/n) and her boss flinched at the loudness as the door slammed open, revealing the Danish country. (Y/n) looked at the blonde man for a moment, surprised how he barged in.

'Right... he was always loud and brash. Surprisingly enough...he didn't change much physically.' (Y/n) thought, observing the grinning Dane. Same blonde hair, in the same style, same blue eyes, same loud personality, just that he is taller.

"(C/n)!!! I didn't see you in so long!! You got tall, but not as tall as me!!" The Dane yelled, pulling the girl into a hug. She was frozen for a moment, then turning red in embarrassment.

"What is wrong with you?! You can't hug people at random!" (Y/n) yelled as the Dane laughed.

"You are still as shy as you were- Ow!" Denmark stopped laughing and let the shorter country go as he felt someone hit his head. Looking back, the duo saw Denmark's boss glaring at the country before turning to look at (Y/n).

"I am very sorry about him. Thank you for hosting us even though we informed you late." The older man said apologetically as her boss chimed in. The duo watched the two men talk as (Y/n) sighed, already feeling drained from so many people. Denmark looked away from them and at her with a huge smile.

"Come on! I want to see what you do for fun around here." Denmark said while grabbing her hand before she could protest, dragging her out of the room.

"Your place is so much colder than mine! I am freezing my balls off." Denmark said, breaking the awkward silence. (Y/n) looked at him in confusion, ignoring the weirded out stares they were receiving from other people walking by.

"Denmark, you know I am located far more north than you, with a lot of snow. What did you expect?"

"I didn't expect it to be this cold!" The Dane pouted as he kept on hugging himself, causing (Y/n) to sigh in defeat.

"You are as much of an air head as you used to be back in the day." (Y/n) rolled her eyes as they walked down the road, the girl showing him different small shops where he could eat of buy clothes.

"No offense, (Y/n), but this is all kind of boring. Don't you have something cooler to show me?"

The girl held back another sigh as she looked at the blonde.

"We have restaurants, ice rinks, and playgrounds-"

"Do you have any placed that sell beer?" Denmark suddenly asked, looking at the girl with puppy eyes. She had to pause for a moment, the look was pretty cute on him.

'Same old Dane...' (Y/n) thought, a part of her happy he kept the same personality for so long. She then snapped herself back to reality, realizing the country was still waiting for an answer.

"What is that?" (Y/n) asked.l, never having heard of that one.

"You don't know what beer is?! It's just the most delicious drink in the world!" Denmark yelled, looking offended for a moment.

"Damn... you really did miss out on a lot. That's so sad." The blonde fake-sobbed as (Y/n) blinked for a moment.

"But, don't worry! Your good, old friend Denmark is here to introduce and teach you about the new things! I will even bring you books of my writers, you will love those stories they made. And we also can make some..." The country kept on rambling before (Y/n) cut him off.

"Wait, you will come back? How do you know I will let you come back? I have been isolated for 300 years by now, why would I change that?" (Y/n) challenged him. Denmark stopped talking and blinked at her, confused by all the questions.

"Of course I want to come back. You were one of closest friends back in the day, I missed you." The taller answered, surprising (Y/n) with how genuine he was.

"I was pretty bummed out when you left, and I want you to open up again. The world has now many new interesting countries to meet. They are not as interesting as me, of course, but I am sure you will like them."

(Y/n) kept silent as Denmark finished his speech, she really had nothing to tell him in return. Sure, her and Denamrk were close back then, but she never expected he would miss her. Much less admit it.

"You... you don't have to do it all at once, you can start off with just the northern parts of Europe. If you want, I can help you. I am pretty close with the guys now." Denmark said softly, offering her his hand.

"You are?"

"Yep! Especially with Norge and Iceland, they will appreciate the coldness here when they visit one day." The blonde joked, still holding out his hand.

"What do you say?"

(Y/n) kept quiet, still not comfortable with the idea of letting new people in.

'What if they will backstab me and vage a war. My military isn't as strong, and I have basically no experience in fighting.' (Y/n) gulped, looking up at Denmark now.

'But... Denmark always kept his promises to me, and my people might end up suffering in the future if I don't start doing something.'

Sighing, she nodded her head and put her hand in Denmark's.

"Fine. But don't leave me alone with them for now."

"Of course! You have a promise there!" The Dane grinned as the shook hands.

"By the way, you said I never changed? Did you think of me all this time?" The Dane teased her. (Y/n), oblivious to the teasing, nodded her head.

"Well, you were my closest friend back in the days. So of course I would think of you from time to time." She said flatly.

"Ah... You really did..." Denmark blushed at her words, a soft smile appearing on his face.

Days later, (Y/n) and her boss were at the port, watching the Danish ships sail away. Denmark was waving back at them as he yelled.

"I will be visiting you soon! I will bring Norge and Iceland with me next time!! And I will bring beer. There is no way to live without it-"

His boss bonked him on the head before he could finish his sentence. The older man was clearly embarrassed by his behavior.

"You agreed to meet 2 new countries?" Her boss asked her in surprise.

"Norway and Iceland aren't new to me... Denmark used to mention them a lot when we were younger." (Y/n) shrugged her shoulders, still keeping her eyes on the ship Denmark was on.

"And besides, you told me to open up more... Maybe it won't be so bad." (Y/n) said, not noticing the relieved smile on the man's face.

"Miss (C/n)! Mr. (B/n)! We got another letter!" The two looked at a man running their way.

"It's from Mr. Russia! He wants to visit us!"

As hee boss went to check on the letter, (Y/n) felt her soul leave her body.

'Why did I agree to this?'

[unhonestlymirror]

Many people know that russia is afraid of Poland, but not many people know that russia is afraid of Lithuania too. Russia is afraid of Lithuania A LOT, and you probably want to ask me: Why? Lithuania is such a small country.

Well, you see, russia is actively spreading the "Great Russia as the Kievan Rus true inheritor" idea, completely erasing Ukrainian and Belaruthian histories. It's easy to do because you just need to change all "Rus" to "Russia", mix information like a smoothie, so that people are not able to distinguish Ruthenian from Ancient Ukrainian from Rusyn languages, and that implies that Ukraine and Belarus suddenly popped out in 19th-20th century. Very convenient, especially knowing that russia popped out in the 17th-18th century.

Very convenient that the Polatsk chronicle was stolen and then destroyed in moscow in 1812. We can't check it anymore and see what Belaruthians wrote about Kyivan Rus.

However, the Lithuanian documentation exists.

Lithuania nowadays is the only owner of the word "Ruthenia." Not russia, not even Rus - Ruthenia, an official Latin form. There are also maps that mark Ruthenian territories, which are strikingly similar to modern Ukraine and Kyivan Rus. The Ruthenia concept itself does not fit into the fairytale about Great Ancient Russia at all. In fact, it destroys all the russian myths about Ukraine and Belarus in Kyivan Rus times.

Russia hates Lithuania so much it doesn't want to admit that Lithuania used to be their ruler, in case of the Great Ancient Russia concept, lmao. Lithuania and Ruthenia do not fit into the Great Russian History at all. But GDL existed, and it pisses russia off A LOT. If there is Ruthenia-Ukraine, there is also Baltic Ruthenia Baltarusija Belarus - not "White Russia". Which makes Lithuania a culturally legitimate contender of these lands.

What frightens russia even more is that Lithuania technically can restore the GDL in 3 days (c) if they wanted to. And they wouldn't have to use tanks and missiles for that. Everyone just likes Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine are fucking sick of russia already.

Lithuania for russia is a very dangerous opponent. It's very hard to become the enemy of Lithuania, they always try to befriend everyone, but if you managed to, you're pretty fucked up. :D

[polish-art-tournament]

round 1, poll 6

Dirce chrześcijańska:

painted in 1897

chrisitan girl killed in an ancient roman amphitheatre

emperor Nero is here

yeah this was painted right after quo vadis was published

antiquity-inspired scenes with many characters and skillfully executed lighting details and theatrical poses are basically Siemiradzki's trademark

violent scene with tits out right at the front what more can i say

really fascinated me as a child, it's right there as you enter the 19th century gallery in the national museum so i would always come in like O.O hello naked lady.... i see you are still dead...... i wanna know what happened......

Napoleon w Smorgoniach:

painted in 1930

if you know me you know i'm a napoleon girlie

not a very glorious scene, this is Napoleon leaving the army in Russia after the catastrophe that was the retreat from Moscow

there he is, at the porch, in his gray redingote (dude where's your warm winter coat)

another wintery landscape, love me some wintery landscapes

theres dogs C:

see more of their works! Siemiradzki, Rozwadowski

[ddarker-dreams]

I want to be you, how do i be someone like you :c sob everytime you post smtg it makes me laugh and i think about the story naybe for the entire day:c how do i lock

please anon i reassure you that’s there’s no one better to be than yourself!! i’m sure there are plenty of things you’re capable of that i’d fall flat on my face if i tried.

also, i think it’d be dangerous if there were too many of me. my friends once changed their pfps and usernames to mine and tried to see who could pull off the most convincing impression. i think the concept could be pitched to a24 for a psychological horror movie.

if you’re determined to walk the path, though, my suggestions are as follows

develop an obsession with an author from 19th century russia

???

believe in cryptids (i just know mothman is out there)

watch the most random video essays and attain as much useless trivia as possible

i’m not sure where this will get you, but at least it’s a potentially fun (?) journey.

[norsesuggestions]

On the topic of 19th century polar expedition were everyone are greatly unprepared for what they were actually doing

Well the original reason i started to look up different polar expeditions was because i stumbled over the swedish engeeiner Andrée attempt to reach the north pole in:

A hydrogen balloon!

When the technology was new! And he knew very little about actually using the balloon. But he knew even less about the north pole.

They went in summer because:

1.

"The north pole got great weather in the summer for a balloon. Always sunny and and calm above the still ocean and smooth ice sheet"

(In reality summer means non stop fog and shifting winds. The ice sheet is melting and then freezing when the temp hovers around zero degress. This means it melts, moved and crashes into itself non stop.

The ice at the north pole is not you know. Anchored in land. Except at the edges were it sometimes reaches land. But in the summer it does not always reach land. So, no calm ice sheet, it is stormy broken landscape of arctic ocean with gigantic ice sheets crashing into eachother, breaking eachother, building up fun ice walls etc while the wind and oceans moves them around)

But! Andrée was gonna go with two lads across the north pole in a balloon.

2. Start in Svalbard and then just go were the wind takes them. Then he would land in "alaska, russia or canada" and just "walk to the nearest town and then take the train back to sweden idk"

(seriously his plan for post north pole flight was. Well i will be somewere in the arctic, i guess i will find humans and then go home?

At least, to his credit he knew and admitted that humans lived nearby the north pole, and he would be able to. Talk to them about how to get home. On the other hand, he was swedish so.... sweden has 30% of its surface within the polar circle. He started his travel from Norways Svalbard. So honestly, living in total ignorance of the people in northen sweden and norway would be absurd. And that it logically should be lots of people in equally northen places who knew in which direction the nearest train station/harbour were.

But! Some southern 19th century swedes would not have realised this so??? The bar is so low it have sunken to the south pole, but!)

But problem here is of course not that he gets that there are people to talk to when you have crossed the north pole. It is, that he do not grasp he might need to walk 1 week to reach these people. And what would our three stockholm dwelling southern swedes wear for their north pole expedition?

3. Normal southern swedish winter clothes! For you know around -10 to about -0 C. And living in a city were one can walk inside at any time.

Anyway their balloon crashed two days into the expedition on the that summer arctic ocean ice. And they needed to walk back to Svalbard archipelago.

It took 3 MONTHS. Because somehow Andrée had lived in denial that he might you know. Just crash into the arctic ocean. So all that. "I will just go the city and buy some coffee" planning did so not work out.

It took 3 months because Andrée and his two other expedition lads had no planning to actually needing to trek across the previously mentioned moving ocean ice. Also, the ice was as i mentioned MOVING.

Something they did realise. They did have all the academic skills in have to measure there movement across earth via stars, but not the.. pracitcal skills to solve how to get were they wanted to go.

Tbh i impressed that these 3 stockholm lads, all academic types, made it 3 months. What i mean is that, i would except most current day stockholmers to die much earlier tbh.

They also hunted polar bears like it is no big deal??? I mean they had guns so it was not difficult as such. But once again, tbh would expected my fellow stockholmers to be eaten earlier.

In general they appear to be good at hunting, which tbh finds interesting in contrast to other failed polar expedition were they run out of food. Perhaps swedens population having a hunting tradition were it was a important part for both getting food and the get money for ones household helped?

What i mean is that hunting was not just a upper class hobby as in some european countries at the time. It was just a normal way people got food.

Anyway, ones again the bar is low it sunk to the south pole haha. The 3 lads of Andrée expedition knew how to hunt and prepare wild animals. As the majority of people living within and near the polar circle

ANYWAY

In the end they did reached the Svalbard archipelago again. Finally not on moving ice anymore! But it was a remote island few ever visited... Shortly afterwards they all three die.

Exact cause of death is unknown, but personally i am surprised these 3 stockholmers even lived 3 months on sea ice?? 3 unprepared stockholmers? Like i am just like, obvoiusly they would not survive, there are so many things that can kill when you are just 3 indoor lads out in the arctic so....

We know all these details btw because in the 1930s the found the expedition and all there papers. And photos! Lots still able to be looked so

Anyway this was a rambling info dump of what i learned about the Andrée expedition these lasts days

[plutorine]

Thoughts on Demons (2014)

this was originally going to be part of my demons (2014) thread on my twitter, but i'll just be dumping my thoughts about the series here on tumblr. i'll continue where i left off from where i closed the thread.

spoilers below the cut. there will be triggering content as well (suicide, mention of blood). don't expect this to be coherent. also i haven't read the book yet (oooh when i tell you about how desperate i am in getting a copy here in the PH), so yeah.

long read ahead.

okay. the last scene i watched last night was liza nikolaevna (and mavriky) getting beaten by the townspeople after the death of the lebyadkins due to her connection to stavrogin (and stavrogin being the main suspect of the siblings' death). did they really have to beat the poor girl? why must a woman (yet again) suffer from the misdeeds of a man HGKJDGFJGHDK

also pyotr,,, maniacally dancing in the pig pen....

man. the whole thing about shatov finally getting the chance to be a father and live with a family of his own only to be shot in the head by pyotr is just. :((( my jaw was on the floor i tell you. i was devastated and utterly wrecked.

the thing with demons (2014) is that it's on a different level of insanity than, say, c&p. c&p is depressing. demons wrecked me from start to finish. i cannot stress how many times the hairs on the back of my head stood up whenever pyotr would manipulate and rope in stavrogin in his plans.

it has the vibes of like,, trying so desperately to wash off blood from your hands but the blood just "magically" keeps on getting redder and redder and it doesn't really come off

also what the fuck was that pyotr??? mans just shot shatov in point-blank range and has the audacity to eat chicken (without washing his hands, to boot)??? like OH you going to HELL hell.

this scene with kirillov's lines:

i mentioned in the thread that i had to brush up on russian history before i read/watch demons because otherwise, it would just completely fly over my head

it was pretty interesting watching how this movement that pyotr was trying to mobilize fit the existing narrative then within the context of 19th century russian politics; demons was essentially dostoevsky "warning" of what could possibly be if people who thought like verkhovensky would get the upper hand in deciding the course of the russia's future

i admit i can't really speak about this because well, i'm not russian, but i deeply appreciate the how dostoevsky was able to weave all of this in his novel in such a way that leaves even me, a foreigner, in deep thought about what the implications of such an ideology would have on a wider context outside its country of origin

ok kirillov wtf HAHAHAHAHA ang gago niya XD

stavrogin's confession.

VILE. stavrogin you VILE, VILE, MAN. i don't have any words for it at all. raskolnikov ends up looking like a saint when i put him next to stavrogin.

on another note maksim matveev's teary-eyed face in that scene is so fucking beautiful i almost cried along with him

i seriously want to ask dostoevsky why he insists on making beautiful the characters that we're supposed to dislike/critique

heck even that notion warrants much introspection

like he's about to k-word himself but he still looks so hot? okay i need to stfu

i like the bit here with tikhon talking about revolutions and such:

this reminds me very much of my country's very own EDSA Revolution (there's EDSA Uno and Dos, but I'm talking more about EDSA Uno here because it's probably more relevant to the political state of my country rn). i won't go into depth about it, but you can check the wiki of it to get an idea of what i mean.

(they can be *gets shot*)

the ending scene. okay.

i talked about this w my twt moot and according to her, the most accepted theory is that the kid there (with dasha) is stavrogin's, and verkhovensky's reaction to seeing them there was like him getting the idea to continue his failed twisted plan, but with the kid in the place of his father. just. what the fuck man. leave that kid alone.

i was also told that this scene wasn't really in the book? yeah. so there's that.

concluding thoughts:

at this point i'm quite used to ruslit plots wrecking my mental state and subjecting me to emotions that make me want to stare at a wall, so this experience with watching demons (2014) was not as jarring as i feared it to be XD as expected, there were really some scenes that left me like "huh??? 🤨🤨", but really that's because i haven't read the book. what i plan to do is once i get the book, i'm gonna read it as i revisit the series.

also maksim matveev? yeah. that man is HOT hot. i could stare at his stavrogin all day if i could.

that's it for me! thank you to everyone who engaged with the thread, it made the experience of watching demons (2014) more enjoyable.

my next target watch on the dostoevsky adaptation list is the italian tbk film!! that or the 1968 russian one. will definitely make a live commentary thread about either on twitter as well.

[harminuya]

19th c. Armenian women's costume from Gyumri, The State Historical Museum of Russia.

[jeannepompadour]

Three versions of a portrait of Princess Anastasia  Tcherbatov by Orest Kiprensky, 1808

[vintageshits]

soooo, look what just came in the mail yesterday!!!

as i said in some previous posts, i wanted to read c&p in english (my mother language is spanish, btw, so i’m sorry if, sometimes, my grammar is terrible) to be able to comment it with all the tumblr girlies that gather around the hashtag…

and so i began looking for it all around the internet and in libraries from my town, but all i was able to find were these ones:

and then an image came to my mind…the cover shown on the goodreads app.

so my journey trying to find that cover began…and it finished quite soon because I found it fastly on ebay.

when i held it in my hands I questioned myself: “why pay 500 mexican pesos for a worn-out, old book, instead of 321 mexican pesos for a brand new copy? just for the cover?” i wondered and wondered, and overthought about it until i found out why i was so keen on finding this edition…

this 1991 edition’s cover features the 1881 painting “a student” by russian artist nikolai yaroshenko.

which is one of two yaroshenko’s paintings that feature the intellectual, nihilist youth of russia back then. i’ll get to that later. this is the other painting of this pair:

this one is named, obvs, “the girl student”.

now, going back to the first painting. i found some interesting information about it. the first, and most appealing, thing is that it depicts a poor student, how do we know this? because he's wearing a rug over his coat, and only rich young men could afford warmer fur coats for the cold seasons.

so, back to why the hyper fixation with this cover...i think i like it because it was a great choice that is quite allusive to raskolnikov's background, and it somehow makes me feel that it depicts him as a person rather than as a criminal because, i mean, almost all of the other covers you can find on the internet, or at bookshops, almost always refer to the crime, like, there's always an axe, or blood, or even raskolnikov lifting the axe behind alyona ivanovna... but this much-mentioned cover only shows us a poor student from the second half of the 19th century, who may be struggling, who may be sleeping "in a closet", who may owe 3 months’ rent...just like raskolnikov at the very beginning of the novel.

and, of course, knowing the painting's historical context, knowing that it belongs to the russian realistic movement, helps me to build a better mental image of rodya lol.

oh, damn, am i verbose about a book cover?

[millenraven]

Julia of Prussia in a riding habit, c. 1810, by Thomas Lawrence (?)

This portrait was commissioned by her brother, Gilbert of Prussia. In the late 19th century, the portrait went missing from her home in Berlin but was recovered five months later. Currently, the portrait is in the possession of her youngest brother, Ludwig of Germany, and not available for public viewing.

Artist: Elizabeth Wakou (twi: elizamaru_)

*Do not repost

*Used references when drawing 

(Queen Louise of Prussia’s riding habit, see here;

Elisabeth of Hesse or Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia’s facial features, see here;

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia’s hat, see here;

and Thomas Lawerence’s painting styles. )

[umabloomer]

Teffilin bag from Russia c. 1900 and prayer shawl bag from Uzbekistan and Palestine c. late 19th century

From The Jewish Museum, NYC

[fateandloveentwined]

City C, University P -- the way modern chinese names places

Alright, you may have come across such initial-based namings in books, danmei and other cnovels: City S, University P, C市 (City C), S大 (University S)

-- is it lazy translation? why aren't they giving places actual names?

A tad bit of informal history below:

When did it start?

As a person very much inexperienced in chinese historical literature, I couldn't say for sure either. But what I do know, is that it has been in writing since the 20th century (around the 1920s and after). You see renowned writers of that time like Lu Xun 鲁迅 and Zhu Ziqing 朱自清 using these initials.

(I don't have concrete examples in mind, so I'm flipping about what I have around me, and Zhu Ziqing and Lu Xun's books happen to be near me so -- let me use their works as examples of the day.)

There's this novella Lu Xun wrote, with a protagonist which he named 阿Q (read as "Ah-Q"). I also see in his short stories that he named a dog S, a side character 小D (Little D), and a city S城 (City S).

Zhu Ziqing tends to write more about realistic things that happen in his life in the form of short writings, and for that reason he uses initials way less. He did refer to a person by "Y" in one of the pieces though.

So what are they doing?

So around that time of Lu Xun (we're in the republican era) there's a movement called the May Fourth Movement, and out of the movement it spurred in the literary realm the New Culture Movement. I honestly don't want to go into the details and confuse everyone with my inexperience here, what is worth noting is that they began promoting "modern chinese" (白话 bái huà) over "classical chinese" (文言 wén yán). "Modern chinese" is the kind of chinese you read in cnovels and everywhere else nowadays.

And in this movement, they also advocated quite a lot of western ideas. This is where they proposed a complete romanisation of chinese characters, and probably to do with this, in their new modern chinese writings, they started using anglicised phrases like "City Y" and "Dog S".

All movements are controversial, their failure or success is controversial, I really don't want to get into past history so let's move on.

What they use now.

When journalling one's own experiences, important places and all that, obviously real places and names are used. Otherwise, in fiction, alphabetic initials are used in place, likely to 1. distance fiction from real life, and also I suppose nowadays 2. to avoid heated topics. For instance china may be referred to as 华国 (Huá guó), which probably makes things less sensitive and easier to handle.

again i really don't want to get into nations and stuff. let me literary-this meta out in peace.

How can I understand where means where?

It took me a while to get used to them, basically sometimes you can guess the place -- City B may be Beijing, C could be Chongqing, S could be Shanghai -- the big metropolitan cities. University T and P (or Q and B) would be Tsinghua and Peking University.

As for the other names, when they say University A or High School No. 1 it usually means the top school in the area, because (at least for high schools) that's how quite a number of schools are named. If you couldn't tell what the letter represents, it's probably a random one.

additional note: these initials are only used in modern and futuristic sci-fi novels (at least from what I've seen so far!) using letters in historical or historical fantasy ones would break the fourth wall quite a bit for me haha.

Addendum

See Guardian article linked in the comments should you be interested.

Some points of note, made up places have been used in other fiction too, to avoid trespassing geographical localities and cultures aboriginal to a group of people;

Russian novels also have used mysterious initials -- "in the town of P", this is in the 19th and 20th century -- so it may well have come from Russia instead of literature under greco-roman influence (excuse the terrible description) -- but likely it did result from the movements, that's what instigated modern chinese writing in the first place.

(yeah it's on my lack of russian classics perusal -- i'll rectify that some time.)