#and Adrienne rich!!! of course!

[drop-drop]

just read rich's Time's Power. i get why people want to study litterature actually. i kinda want to read essays about her rn

[fairuzfan]

“It should surprise no one that we, Black and Third World people everywhere, attach fundamental importance to the question of Palestine,” says Jordan in her response to Rich’s statement. Driven by her grief and outrage at the massacres at Sabra and Shatila in September 1982, in which thousands of Palestinians were murdered by militia groups over the course of two days, Jordan wrote an open letter called “On Israel and Lebanon: A Response to Adrienne Rich from One Black Woman,” dated October 10, 1982. Her address to Rich was both personal (she names Rich alone among the signatories of the two letters) but also pedagogical (it is an open letter to be published in WomanNews and thus intended for public consumption). Using the words “genocide” and “holocaust,” Jordan lays out the shocking array of war crimes committed by Israel over five months—phosphorous bombs, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila—and criticizes Rich’s failure to take responsibility for these things as the tangible outcomes of the Zionism she claims to espouse. This idea of responsibility runs through Jordan’s response like a live wire, culminating in this astonishing statement:

I claim responsibility for the Israeli crimes against humanity because I am an American and American monies made these atrocities possible. I claim responsibility for Sabra and Shatilah [sic] because, clearly, I have not done enough to halt heinous episodes of holocaust and genocide around the globe. I accept this responsibility and I work for the day when I may help to save any one other life, in fact.

— Moving Towards Life: Exploring the correspondence of June Jordan and Audre Lorde, Marina Magloire assembles an archive of a Black feminist falling-out over Zionism.

[nordleuchten]

A quick question, which you may have covered already! (Ah, Tumblr search...)

Which portrait of young Lafayette is considered to be the most accurate? There are quite a few, and while some of his features remain fairly consistent, there's certainly variety too (and, of course, artists loved to flatter their rich and important subjects).

Thanks! 💕

My dear @my-deer-friend,

A quick question and a very slow response. I am so sorry but as they say: Was lange währt, wird endlich gut …

Since I am not quite sure what specific age spectrum you had in mind, I am going to give a broad response.

There are three portraits of La Fayette in his early youth (pre-teen to early teenage years), although one of them I have only seen referenced in writing. There are not many descriptions of La Fayette during this time of his life, but still these portraits can be considered quite accurate, based on what we do know.

I know of three or so portraits of La Fayette in his mid to late teen years – there are even less physical descriptions of La Fayette from that time. One of these portraits is part of set of portraits, made of La Fayette and Adrienne shortly before their wedding. If you were to ask me, that portrait is indeed too flattering.

Once La Fayette came to America, we have two paintings of him (or featuring him) by Charles Willson Peale and I would consider them the most accurate depictions we have of him in his younger years. Do I find them artistically pleasing and generally well done? Honestly, no, but they tick many important boxes.

Then there is also this print.

This print has many variations (different angles, standing, sitting, looking to the side, looking at the viewer) and that alone makes assessment difficult. But these types of prints are closely linked to each other and to the bust by Houdon. Houdon was not only extremely skilled, he also took a life mask from La Fayette, therefor having a perfect cast of his features. The paintings by Peale show more detail and is easier to pin to a specific date/age but I would nevertheless consider these prints (with all the restrictions and problems listed above) to be faithful representations.

I hope this helps and was not too late and I hope you had a wonderful day!

[apoemaday]

Song

by Adrienne Rich

You’re wondering if I’m lonely: OK then, yes, I’m lonely as a plane rides lonely and level on its radio beam, aiming across the Rockies for the blue-strung aisles of an airfield on the ocean. You want to ask, am I lonely? Well, of course, lonely as a woman driving across country day after day, leaving behind mile after mile little towns she might have stopped and lived and died in, lonely. If I’m lonely it must be the loneliness of waking first, of breathing dawn's first cold breath on the city of being the one awake in a house wrapped in sleep. If I’m lonely it’s with the rowboat ice-fast on the shore in the last red light of the year that knows what it is, that knows it’s neither ice nor mud nor winter light but wood, with a gift for burning.

[lesbianp1lled]

Do you know where I can find a good post about how radical feminism started political lesbianism? cuz I literally had no idea the two were related until I discovered the gold star lesbian stuff. unless if you wanna explain to me as a crash course

Hmm I don’t know any detailed posts on here ( some gsl are still drunk on the radfem kool-aid so not a lot of gsl talk about it ) however u can probably do the research yourself on google. Women like Adrienne Rich started political lesbianism and she was a prominent radfem.

Maybe I could make a more detailed post myself about it?

[heterophobicdyke]

i think the phrase "comphet" could have been useful but it has its roots inherently in lesbophobia and political lesbianism... oh well.

Yeah I agree. I think heteronormativity is enough of a word/concept to describe what lesbians go through.

The “compulsory” part in comphet has never really sat right with me because you either are or you aren’t heterosexual? It’s not an action, but an attraction? The more I read up on Adrienne Rich, the more “political lesbian” sentiments she said. So, with comphet, it sounds like she’s saying “yes I’m attracted to men but it is/was compulsory, I wasn’t given a choice, so I’m taking matters into my own hands and identifying out of that.” Whereas a lesbian isn’t into men ever, at all? Nobody can force you to be attracted to anyone.

Heterosexuality was never compulsory for me because I never felt attraction to men in order to be convinced I was one? You can force yourself to be intimate with the opposite sex and still be a lesbian but you aren’t ACTUALLY attracted to them. That’s why I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that Adrienne Rich didn’t mean “I wasn’t attracted to men but forced myself to sleep with them,” and ACTUALLY meant “I was attracted to him/them but I was taught heterosexuality was my only option” (making her bisexual).

I believe comphet makes more sense in terms of bisexuals feeling like women aren’t an option, so they choose men/“heterosexuality,” as opposed to not being attracted to men at all?

I know actual lesbians use comphet to refer to the pressure they felt to pretend to be attracted to men. But I truly believe comphet was intended to mean that women can “take ownership” of their sexual orientation and opt out of heterosexuality, making them bi, because men do so much damage in relationships with women that they felt like their feminist body was betraying them by being attracted to them. Of course women can/should avoid being in relationships with men, but why does she have to convince herself she’s not attracted to men, and can choose lesbianism, in order to do it?

[april-is]

April 28, 2024: The Mother’s Loathing of Balloons, A.E. Stallings

The Mother’s Loathing of Balloons A.E. Stallings I hate you, How the children plead At first sight—

I want, I need, I hate how nearly Always I

At first say no, And then comply. (Soon, soon

They will grow bored Clutching your Umbilical cord)—

Over the moon, Lighter-than-air, Should you come home,

They’d cease to care— Who tugs you through The front door

On a leash, won’t want you Anymore And will forget you

On the ceiling— Admittedly, A giddy feeling—

Later to find you, Puckered, small, Crouching low

Against the wall. O thin-of-skin And fit to burst,

You break for her Who wants you worst. Your forebear was

The sack of the winds, The boon that gives And then rescinds,

Containing nothing But the force That blows everyone

Off course. Once possessed, Your one chore done,

You float like happiness To the sun, Untethered afternoon,

Unkind, Marooning all You’ve left behind:

Their tinfoil tears, Their plastic cries, Their wheedling

And moot goodbyes, You shrug them off— You do not heed—

O loose bloom                With no root                                  No seed.

--

More A.E. Stallings: + Consolation for Tamar + Homeric Hymn, A.E. Stallings

Today in:

2023: To Be Alive, Gregory Orr 2022: A Metaphor, J. Estanislao Lopez 2021: Ode to the Unbroken World, Which Is Coming, Thomas Lux 2020: What Kind of Times Are These, Adrienne Rich 2019: Conversation with Phillis Wheatley #2, Tiana Clark 2018: Love Poem, Denise Levertov 2017: Young Wife’s Lament, Brigit Pegeen Kelly 2016: For the Confederate Dead, Kevin Young 2015: Awaking in New York, Maya Angelou 2014: when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story, Gwendolyn Brooks 2013: Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey, Hayden Carruth 2012: My Place, Franz Wright 2011: from The Wild Geese, Wendell Berry 2010: Love After Love, Derek Walcott 2009: To This May, W.S. Merwin 2008: Father, Ted Kooser 2007: from Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight, Galway Kinnell 2006: Crusoe in England, Elizabeth Bishop 2005: Dream Song 1, John Berryman

Quick poll on the future of these posts, if you have a moment. <3

[pub-lius]

im lowkey losing count but lafayette pt. 6???

okay this is a little bit embarrassing because this part will have a lot less detail since I'm both uneducated and lazy when it comes to the French Revolution SFHKSJFHSKJ also the details about lafayette in this section are highkey boring sooo here's pt. 5 and lets get moving

In Between Revolutions

Lafayette returned home from the war in December 1781, but no one really cared because Marie Antoinette had just given birth to her first son, so they were like. "ok! anyway" when they saw him.

He didn't spend very long in France, and he returned to America to do a small little tour of the states in 1784. He stayed at Mount Vernon for a little while, which would be the last time he ever saw his adoptive father, George Washington.

I'm going to talk about slavery now. Lafayette never commented on slavery at Mount Vernon, mostly due to his reverence of Washington, however Lafayette was proactive in abolitionism. He created his own plan to purchase an island plantation where the enslaved people would work to earn pay and be able to buy their own freedoms. He and Adrienne both arranged for education programs and career options for the enslaved people so that they would be well-adjusted to society by the time they were awarded their freedom. However, property seizures during the French Revolution would prevent them from ever being freed. So, you could say Lafayette owned slaves, but you have to consider that the only enslaved people he ever purchased were for this specific project.

Also, I'm begging you to look into James Lafayette and Peter Ostiquette (Otchikeita) because I don't have time to get into their stories here but they are really interesting POC figures in early US history. send me an ask if you want, i just don't have enough patience to do the research along with all this lafayette shit

While he was in America, he helped negotiate a treaty with the Six Nations/Iroquois with James Madison, since he already had particularly good relations with the Oneida tribe. The Oneidas gave him the name Kayewla, which was the name of one of their former warriors.

He returned to France after his short visit and helped negotiate trade agreements between his mother country and the United States along with Thomas Jefferson. Technically on paper, Lafayette was only supposed to have an advisory role in these international affairs, but he just. started doing it. and this pissed off a special someone.

That special someone was, of course, John fucking "I'm a bitch to everyone and wonder why they don't like me" Adams. Btw Lafayette did NOTHING WRONG to him, he was just butthurt. Lafayette would continue to press for an official representative of France (which wasn't allowed since he was allied to both France and America) while John Adams was fired <3

Lafayette was also a little involved in the Society of Cincinnati controversy, but he followed Washington's lead by not getting too involved. He was also a part of the Republic of Letters and the American Philosophical Society. With all that along with being a Freemason, he was basically admitting to being in the Illuminati

Could you imagine if I was just like a really intense conspiracy theorist and this is how you found out? I'm not but like. that's pretty funny

French Pre-Revolution

When Lafayette reestablished himself in Paris, he was a much richer, much more confident guy, which allowed for all kinds of rich guy shenanigans. These shenanigans included, two affairs, being a karen, getting into debt, and politics! Let's talk about the politics part, because I don't get paid enough to talk about all of it.

Lafayette was elected to the Second Estate of the Assembly of Notables, which has a french name thats almost exactly the same but I'm too lazy to type accents. He had very ambitious goals that aligned with his very liberal morals, which caused him to be closely allied with the men of the Third Estate aka the rich poor people.

Lafayette would end up having a crucial role in the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and a more minor role in organizing the Constitution, since he was too busy with the actual revolution!

The French Revolution Revolution

I just want to preface that, in the French Revolution, Lafayette was considered one of the leaders of the moderate party. "But pub-lius, I thought he was super radical because of his behavior during the American Revolution!" Yeah, well, little richie, you're fucking wrong. There are always bigger fish and there are always more liberal white men. Lafayette would get out-liberaled and out-conservatived by almost everyone during the Revolution, and that's why he didn't last. Basically. Pretty much.

Lafayette was named Commander of the National Guard in 178 which made his name even longer by the National Assembly, which was the first Revolutionary French government! There would be fifty million fucking more governments from now until 1792 i swear to fucking god-

If I sound stress to you, it's because this is literally the most stressful part of Lafayette's life, and actually I don't think it gets more stressful than this. I'd say Lafayette was more stressed as Commander of the NG than Washington was as Commander of the Continental Army. He was basically always running back and forth across Paris, putting down rebellions, and starting massacres because he's stupid, and organizing the Fête de Fédération, and constantly being threatened with lampposts and pikes. It stresses me out just reading about that.

After the more liberal white men took over the French government in 1792, Lafayette fled the country expecting more friendly faces outside France's borders. He was fucking wrong, he got arrested by Austrians immediately. He remained in prison for like five years or something.

What had happen was Lafayette was viewed by the powers of Europe as the motherfucker responsible for bringing the revolution to France, and they decided they needed to take the bitch out back, except not really, they just took his clothes and put him in a dirty cell for a while. Eventually, Adrienne and the girls joined him, while Georges Washington de Lafayette escaped to America to live with Alexander Hamilton. Which that is just a really American thing to happen.

This imprisonment had severe consequences for Adrienne, who would be permanently injured by the illness she and the others suffered while in prison, which would eventually cause her death in 1807, but we're not done with her yet.

Womp Womp Napoleon is in charge, and he doesn't like Lafayette, because Lafayette said he was a dictator, and that hurt his feelings, so he exiled Lafayette and his son and sons in law. So, while Lafayette was gardening in exile, Adrienne stepped up to the mother fucking plate and went into Paris every day to absolutely girlboss her way into reclaiming her family's citizenships and fortunes and KICKED ABSOLUTE ASS YOU GO GIRL I LOVE YOU.

Also I'm fairly sure it was during this time that Lafayette fucked up his leg by slipping on ice and breaking it and then it was improperly treated so his hip. rotted???? and he was in severe pain for the rest of his life. Nice going, fuckface.

Retirement and DEATH :'(

Lafayette did manage to scrap together a bit of a career after reentering France. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and had minor political roles along with his son, but he was more like an antique vase at this point.

He did go on a tour in 1824 and I highly recommend checking out The Lafayette Trail, where they track every place he went during this Farewell Tour!! It's so cool and I love them. I looked into if and when Lafayette came to Louisiana, and found out his fucking ship sunk on his way here FKSJFHSJ so he was stranded in the Mississippi river for a little bit which is silly.

While Lafayette was managing his estate, La Grange, he made many young friends, to whom he served as a mentor. In return, they kept him appraised of all the political and scientific developments which he was very interested in. La Grange is very interesting, since it was largely based on Mount Vernon, which if I think about that too much I'll cry.

And then... Lafayette died on May 20, 1834 at... 4:20 am. Historians won't tell you that. They don't want you to know that he died at 4:20. But I'll tell you. I'm a beacon of truth.

Also, by the way, he died of fucking pneumonia. And I'm not judging him for dying of pneumonia, I almost died of pneumonia, but i am ABSOLUTELY judging him for GETTING pneumonia. He got pneumonia from being outside in the rain repeatedly and refusing to go inside or take shelter. I got it from the same thing but I was like TEN YEARS OLD AND IT WAS HALLOWEEN, and he was a GROWN MAN WHO JUST NEEDED AN OUNCE OF COMMON SENSE. So, anyway, yeah, he's fucking dead.

this last half of his life is very rushed, I admit, but things should go a bit better with the last person on our list here. Which, by the way, prepare your ass for that. He's rapidly approaching.

[plumbob-pudding]

The day of the long awaited ball finally arrived and Lucy was elated. Everywhere she looked, she was surrounded by wealth and luxury, finally, she thought, she was where she ought to be.

Though she felt nervous, Lucy was quick to say yes to the first man that asked to dance- a Mr. Lloyd. He was old, older than Uncle Clarence, even older than Father but more importantly, as Adrienne informed her, he was insanely rich!

After their first dance and a few more after, Mr. Lloyd asked Lucy to come by his property next weekend. She said yes of course, she knew that she had found her ticket into this world.

[garadinervi]

Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins (Beirut. Baghdad. Sarajevo. Bethlehem. Kabul. Not of course here), [from The School Among the Ruins. Poems 2000-2004, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2004], in We Begin Here. Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, Edited by Kamal Boullata and Kathy Engel, Interlink Books, Northampton, MA, 2007, pp. 35-38

Adrienne Rich, The School Among the Ruins, «Seattle Journal for Social Justice», Volume 1, Issue 3, December 2002 (pdf here)

[haggishlyhagging]

The transformations in the Tree of Life symbolism unveil the fact that in christian myth Christ assimilates/ devours the Goddess. Whereas the Goddess had been the Tree of Life, Christ becomes this. Moreover, as the "life at work" in the tree, he becomes its juice/sap. When we consider that the tree had been the body of the Goddess, the violence of this assimilation becomes more perceivable. The "gentle Jesus" who offers the faithful his body to eat and his blood to drink is playing Mother Goddess. And of course the fetal-identified male behind this Mother Mask is really saying: "Let me eat and drink you alive." This is no mere crude cannibalism but veiled vampirism.

In connection with this "blood-drinking" syndrome of christian ritual, it is important to look at the origin of the "chalice" which contains the wine believed to be transformed into Christ's blood. In his Dictionary of Symbols Cirlot offers the confusing idea that the chalice is "a sublimation and a consecration of the cauldron as well as of the cup." To Crone-ographers aware of the significance of the cauldron in prepatriarchal history it is obvious that the symbol is not "sublimated" and "consecrated," but rather ripped off, reduced, reversed, reveiled. Neumann has pointed out that "the magical cauldron or pot is always [in early imagery] in the hand of the female mana figure, the priestess, or, later, the witch." Adrienne Rich lucidly shows the significance of the fact that pottery-making was invented by women and taboo to men. She shows that the cauldron is associated with the Mother Goddess, the Priestess-Potter, the Wisewoman, and Maker, and—generally—with women as transformers:

“Thus, not power over others, but transforming power, was the truly significant and essential power, and this, in prepatriarchial society, women knew for their own.”

What happens, then, when the cauldron of women-identified transforming power is stolen, that is, reversed by christian myth into the chalice, a symbol of the alleged transforming power of an all male priesthood? Just this: patriarchy asserts its power over others in the name of the male god by using the ancient symbol of nonhierarchical, gynocentric transforming energy. The priest is playing priestess. Hiding behind her symbol, he attempts to change wine into "sacred" blood—the christian version of Male Menstruation. However, in this case there is none of the original creation associated with the cauldron/chalice, but rather the christian chalice becomes the focus of a cannibalistic/ necrophagous ritual. The contents of the cup—the blood of the slain Christ—are consumed by the pseudopriestess.

-Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology

[saintsir4n]

I MISS YOU

PAIRINGS: ADRIENNE LUMIÉRE X NIKLAUS MIKAELSON

WARNINGS: Klaus being a dick. general angst, sad adrienne

___

“I miss you.”

We’re the words that Adrienne didn’t think she ever needed to say to Klaus. Why would she ever need to? They were past their courting phase, and far from ever being just lovers. They were partners, together… until hell froze over, or so she thought. I miss you. She missed him, his presence, his touch and especially the feeling of his love, the warmth she felt whenever he looked at her, smiled or even said that he loved her. But hadn’t said it in so long and she worried, no, she stressed what she had done wrong and received nothing but radio silence, hell she would even offer to listen to the radio with him if he would just happened to start speaking.

Even his family noticed how he was being, not because he was taking out his anger and irritation on him, far more than usually, it was because of Adrienne. The very look on her face when she would leave their shared room; utter misery and despair, at the youthful age of nineteen.

“Nik?” She approached him again, drawing closer to the easel with he was roughly painting on.

His brush strokes thickened and attacked the canvas almost like her voice grinded the gears in his mind and drove him to such aggression.

“I heard.”

“And?”

“You miss me.”

Licking her lips and nodding her head she tried again, blocking out the pain coursing through her unearthly veins.

“I’m guessing you don’t care,” she asked again, squeezing her fists so tightly that nails breeches her soft skin.

He could smell the blood kissing the air, provoking his eyes to flicker to gold and lines like the roots of a tree to trickle down his pale face.

Such rich blood.

He hadn’t tasted it in what felt like years even thought it had only been a few weeks. But those weeks had shown how much she had changed, her skin glowed and hair thickened and yet she moved slightly weaker, slightly off. He couldn’t put his finger it and he also didn’t bother to care either.

“Can you look at me? Please…” she took a step back when he forcefully placed his paintbrush down and spun on his heel and faced her with no love in his eyes or beaming smile, just annoyance like she was someone he had to put up with, like he didn’t push her to move into the Abattoir, or move into his room and sleep in his bed every single not because he couldn’t sleep without her or even rest if she wasn’t near. “What did I do? I promised that I wouldn’t be as self centred as I was being and I thought you would-“

His bitter laugh brought her to silence.

“You thought what exactly?” He humoured her words and took a step forward, making her shrink into her stance. “You’re mistaken Adrienne if you think everything would just go back to normal, as if you don’t neglect me, as I neglect you.”

“I neglect you?”

“The sincerity of your tone almost convinced me to believe you believe I don’t.”

Her bottom lip quivered at the rage in his eyes, “I-I-“

“You what? Honestly if it’s not an apology it’s an excuse.”

“It’s not an excuse I didn’t know that’s how you feel.”

“Because you only think of yourself!” He flashed in-front of her, glaring down at her timid state, “you are not the woman I fell for.”

“Nik…” tears pooled in her eyes and she felt pathetic, stupid for even crying in his presence. I truly only think of myself, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” He mockingly rose his hand to his ear, wanting to hear her apology again.

“I’m sorry for neglecting you and not taking your feelings into account. You’re right I should think of you more,” she thought that’s what she was doing but clearly it wasn’t enough, “you’ve done so much for me and I should return the favour lovey.”

All the rage subsided in his eyes and a crooked grin danced a crossed his lips.

“And I accept your apology my love, though I would appreciate it some alone time. I’ve been neglecting my artwork in service of this… reconciliation you see,” he watched the harsh gulp she took and apologetic look in her eyes, “I implore you to understand.”

“I understand,” she pressed a kiss to his cheek, missing eye roll he did, “I’ll go, please let me know if you need anything. I’m here for you.”

He hummed and sent a wry smile, “good, I’m glad.”

He caught the sad smile she sent and when she hastily left his art parlour and gently pushing the door shut and leaving him to the art decorating the room.

A dark chuckle escaped his lips as he turned back to his painting and picked up the paint brush.

He had her caught in his web and she would never escape.

a/n:

yikes, klaus loves to gaslight.

btw, this didn’t happen in the story I just added some headcanon to how I believe he would’ve been during the time he was ignoring her.

[ailous-arts]

I strongly believe that Courtney is not a comphet lesbian, or even a lesbian at all.

It’s something that I have thought about for a long time. A lot of people claim her to be one, but by her actions, it is so obvious that she is not (this post isn’t to bash anyone who believes this, of course).

Firstly, using the original source of the term “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” by Adrienne Rich, compulsory heterosexuality in short (to my understanding) is something that the patriarchy and capitalism forces upon women. That from birth, society pushes heterosexual as the normal to benefit men and their needs.

“Women have married because it was necessary, in order to survive economically, in order to have children who would not suffer economic deprivation or social ostracism, in order to remain respectable, in order to do what was expected of women because coming out of "abnormal" childhoods they wanted to feel "normal," and because heterosexual romance has been represented as the great female adventure, duty, and fulfillment. We may faithfully or ambivalently have obeyed the institution, but our feelings - and our sensuality - have not been tamed or contained within it.”

“But whatever its origins, when we look hard and clearly at the extent and elaboration of measures designed to keep women within a male sexual purlieu, it becomes an inescapable question whether the issue we have to address as feminists is not simple "gender inequality," nor the domination of culture by males, nor mere "taboos against homosexuality," but the enforcement of heterosexuality for women as a means of assuring male right of physical, economical, and emotional access.”

Whether you agree with Adrienne Rich or not, this is the definition we must base Courtney’s sexuality on.

So why isn’t Courtney a comphet lesbian? As what I stated earlier, her actions to me do not seem like something a person would do to make themselves like/love someone. Try putting yourself in Courtney’s shoes. If you were a lesbian or gay, and by the pressure of society, you were forcing yourself to love someone of the opposite sex, would you really take the time to collect multiple photos of the one you’re forcing yourself to love and collage them onto your desktop screensaver? Would you really sit there alone and stare at the screen and mutter their name for god knows how long? (Take note, that those photos are ones of Maxie “through the decades”, meaning that they might not be recent ones/ones that she took. Would you really take the time to hunt down baby pictures of someone you had no real and natural attraction to??)

(Original video link here)

“Courtney is a former scientist. She is known to have a brilliant mind, and she adores Maxie.”

I think it’s interesting that the word “adores” was used on the website for her character summary, too. Adore being defined as to love and respect (someone) deeply. I acknowledge that Courtney’s crush on Maxie is not actually confirmed and is slightly in the air, but this quote, along with her actions and the quote from the grunt in the demo “I totally know how she feels...” imply that her love for him is more romantic than platonic.

If one believed that Courtney’s love for him was platonic and not romantic, and that they truly think she’s a comphet lesbian, they would be just as right as I, but in the end, I do think Courtney’s adoration for him is out of romantic love. It’s just sad that she fell in love with the biggest homo on Earth.

[nobrashfestivity]

Hi! Sorry this is kind of random, but you seem to have a wide knowledge of art, and I'm wondering, do you know of any photographers who also use poetry in their work/artists who pair photography and poetry together in some way? (I'm looking for inspiration and at a bit of a dead-end.) Thank you!

I think maybe my followers will have a better handle than I will.

There are many examples of this but often the relationship is somewhat abstract.

On the concrete side we have pre-Raphaelite painters inspired by poetry and myth. The Lady Of Shalott by John William Waterhouse was inspired by the Tennyson poem, John Everett Millais painted Ophelia for obvious reasons.

Cy Twombly includes pieces of poems sometimes written into his work. Joan Mitchell was greatly influenced by poetry but you see it usually in a less obvious fashion.

And it goes the other way, Plath write a poem in response to a Rousseau painting:

Yadwigha, On A Red Couch, Among Lillies

Yadwigha, the literalists once wondered how you Came to be lying on this baroque couch Upholstered in red velvet, under the eye Of uncaged tigers and a tropical moon, Set in intricate wilderness of green Heart-shaped leaves, like catalpa leaves, and lillies

Of monstrous size, like no well-bred lilies It seems teh consistent critics wanted you To choose between your world of jungle green And the fashionable monde of the red couch With its prim bric-à-brac, without a moon To turn you luminous, without the eye

Of tigers to be stilled by your dark eye And body whiter than its frill of lilies: They'd have had yellow silk screening the moon, Leaves and lilies flattened to paper behind you Or, at most, to a mille-fleurs tapestry. But the couch Stood stubborn in it's jungle: red against green,

Red against fifty variants of green, The couch glared out at the prosaic eye. So Rousseau, to explain why the red couch Persisted in the picture with the lilies, Tigers, snakes, and the snakecharmer and you, And birds of paradise, and the round moon,

Described how you fell dreaming at full of moon On a red velvet couch within your green- Tessellared boudoir. Hearing flutes, you Dreamed yourself away in the moon's eye To a beryl jungle, and dreamed that bright moon-lilies Nodded their petaled heads around your couch.

And that, Rousseau told the critics, was why the couch Accompanied you. So they nodded at the couch with the moon And the snakecharmer's song and the gigantic lilies, Marvelingly numbered the many shades of green. But to a friend, in private, Rousseau confessed his eye So possessed by the glowing red of the couch which you,

Yadwigha, pose on, that he put you on the couch To feed his eye with red, such red! under the moon, In the midst of all that green and those great lilies!

Richard Saunders,Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Gordon Parks all collaborated. Richard Avedon and Baldwin collborated (I have one here I think under appropriate tags). Mourning Picture (main picture), Edwin Romanzo Elmer, 1890 was from the great Adrienne Rich poem and the mighty Auden wrote

Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden (1938) 

About suffering they were never wrong,   The Old Masters: how well they understood   Its human position; how it takes place   While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;   How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting   For the miraculous birth, there always must be   Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating    On a pond at the edge of the wood:   They never forgot   That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course   Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot   Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse    Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away   Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may   Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,   But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone   As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green   Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen   Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,   Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. 

I'll try to think of specifics and followers here I am sure will chime in, but the interest in cross pollination should be everywhere if you dig a little. Here's a more recent example:

[maaarine]

Revolution from within (Gloria Steinem, 1992)

"Only when the most recent wave of feminism brought a less traditional view of women’s inner lives into the mainstream of criticism did there begin to be a body of scholars who believed Wuthering Heights could have come from one isolated woman’s imagination.

Long ago, she had given us a major clue when she said, in the guise of Catherine, “I am Heathcliff.”

Emily Brontë was both the capricious, suffering girl who could not escape the restrictions of a female life, and the dark, adventurous, rebellious outsider.

Like each of our true selves, her nature was both “masculine” and “feminine,” but unlike most of us, she lived in such isolation that, far from being handicapped, she seems to have preserved more of that wholeness.

Growing up outside schools and conventional society, choosing to be reclusive even by the standards of her own isolated family, she was free to commune with nature on the moors, to turn inward, to learn from an inner universe.

Though she read a great deal—novels, poetry, and the many political journals her father brought into the house—she missed the social training that convinces women we must not identify with men—and vice versa. (…)

The romance between Catherine and Heathcliff had been the result of an inner void within each of them, and the story tells of their impossible effort to fill it with the body and soul of the other.

Indeed, in Heathcliff, Emily created the perfect vision of a self in which the “masculine” is totally bereft of the “feminine”: energetic, focused, strong-willed, controlling, even violent, unable to empathize beyond his own boundaries or to love without possessing.

Catherine embodied the fate of the “feminine” without the “masculine”: vulnerable, diffused, too connected, more aware of the needs around her than of her own.

In Emily herself, of course, there were both; yet this unity was forbidden.

The bond between the lovers who were born of her imagination, as poet and theorist Adrienne Rich has written, “is the archetypal bond between the split fragments of the psyche, the masculine and feminine elements ripped apart and longing for reunion.”

No wonder the romance of Wuthering Heights endures—as do romantic myths in almost every culture.

Indeed, the more patriarchal and gender-polarized a culture is, the more addicted to romance.

These myths embody our yearning to be whole."

[adapembroke]

Diving With Sedna: An Astrologer’s Journey Begins

First having read the book of myths,

and loaded the camera,

and checked the edge of the knife-blade,

I put on

the body-armor of black rubber

-Adrienne Rich, “Diving Into the Wreck”

"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." 

-African Proverb

In Iceland, there is a Christmas tradition called the Jolabokaflod (“Christmas book flood”). Everyone in the family exchanges books on Christmas Eve, and the evening is spent reading together. After I stumbled on this tradition in the news, my family decided to do our own version last Christmas. We each asked for a book we wanted to read, and we opened our book presents on Christmas Eve. 

I asked for Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology because it felt fun to combine Jolabokaflod with the old tradition in the English-speaking world of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve. 

My husband got me the book, and I read aloud the story “Kushtuka” by Mathilda Zeller. It was a wonderful ghost story, creepy and violent, but I was especially tickled that there was a reference to the goddess Sedna in it. 

I knew from Alison Chester-Lambert’s lecture (YouTube) on the dwarf planets that there was a dwarf planet named for Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea and the underworld. Aside from that, I didn’t know much.

A quick Google search told me that Sedna is best known for her violent origin story. While Sedna and her father are at sea in a boat, her father throws her overboard and refuses to let her back in the boat. Instead, he chops off her fingers when she clings to the side of the boat, begging to be allowed back in. Her fingers become sea mammals, and she falls to the bottom of the ocean where she becomes the protector of sea mammals.

It struck me that there are many different versions of her story. Each version of the story contains the story of the assault of Sedna, but they all give a different explanation for why the violence is happening. It is as if the Inuit received a common vision, and the different versions represent different ways that people cope with the hard truth that parents can do horrible things to their children.

Curious, I started including Sedna in all my charts and looking for her influence in astrology readings. 

Showing up in charts isn’t the same as having something to say in readings, of course, especially when the astrologer has done much research on the planet, but Sedna has been coming up a lot in readings this year. Recently, I was talking about Chiron with a client, and the only way to understand her Chiron was to tell Sedna’s story. What came after was so dramatic and so healing for my client, I knew that I needed to go deeper with Sedna. 

Most astrologers begin their research by looking at celebrity charts, studying history, or reading myths. My instincts told me that the best way to start learning about Sedna was to continue doing the work I was already doing. I would just do it in a more purposeful way. I would offer a reading in which I would tell her story, describe the places that Sedna touches in the charts of my clients, and help them process their responses to it. 

I asked the members of the Narrative Astrology Lab if they would help me develop these new Sedna readings. So far, eleven people have had or scheduled these readings with me.

I’m writing this in 2024, which is a big year for Sedna the planet. She was discovered in 2023, and 2024 is the 20th anniversary of the announcement of her discovery. As luck would have it, I happened to announce to the Narrative Astrology Lab that I was ready to start working with Sedna in charts on her last day transiting the sign of Taurus. Sign changes are significant for every outer planet, but especially for Sedna. Her orbit is 11,500 years long, and it takes her way out past Pluto--halfway to the next star! She’s moving quickly right now and approaching the fastest part of her orbit, but fast is relative. She spent almost 60 years in Taurus..

Because Sedna has been in Taurus for such a long time, most of the people who have gotten Sedna readings from me have Sedna in Taurus in their natal charts. As you might expect from her story, she tends to feature prominently in the charts of people who have been rejected by their parents, but parental rejection isn’t the only similarity. 

Just like Sedna is an advocate for the sea mammals who provide food for the Inuit, I have found that people with a prominent Sedna tend to be involved in advocacy. Sometimes, this advocacy is professional, such as fighting for fair treatment of women in the workplace. Other times, the advocacy is more informal and subtle, like building communities that are safe spaces or having a presence that makes women feel safe.

So far, the people who have answered the call to meet Sedna in a reading have told me that they found the process to be illuminating. It is far too early to know what Sedna in Gemini will bring, but Gemini is the sign of the storyteller, and I suspect that Sedna’s passage through Gemini will be a time for telling healing stories.

But Sedna is polarizing.

As I’ve started to talk about the things I’ve learned from Sedna publicly, I've been getting a crash course in the lengths to which people will go to convince themselves that bad things always happen for a good reason. 

Sedna cannot hide her scars. To face Sedna is to face her story. To face her story is to face the problem of evil… and the evils we need to keep us alive. She is the child of Omelas. She is the sacrificial victim on the altar to the lies we tell to make ourselves feel safe.

But for the ocean’s prey and rejected children and the ones who can’t hide our scars, she is one of us, and she is Goddess.

If you would like to learn more about Sedna in astrology, I will be sharing my research at a workshop on May 28, 2024. A recording will be provided for those who can’t attend live.