#gainza

[sublecturas]

"La luz negra", de María Gainza

[artistaforever]

[valuskahazater]

"Mellette a Krisztus az olajfák hegyén egyik változatára ismerek, megtévesztésig hasonlított a Buenos Aires-i Szépművészeti Múzeumban kiállított képre, ha nem volt ugyanaz. Felül Jézus az angyal előtt térdel; alul az apostolok kiterültek, mint a mélyen alvó hajléktalanok. Ez a kép a gyengém. Nem a témája vonz, sőt, alig tudom, hogy miről szól a jelenet, hanem a mindenre kiterjedő dermedtség megformálása. A gravitáció ereje visszafelé hat: valami felfelé húzza, a felhők felé szippantja az alakokat, ahogy a kamaszkori lávalámpám buborékjai szálltak fel. Mindig azt gondoltam, hogy ezt a képet helyesen kézen állva kell nézni, elfeledkezni az ábrázolásról, az olajfestéket szétoszlató ecsetvonások botrányos érzékiségéről. Aldous Huxley minden bizonnyal ugyanerre gondolt, amikor azt mondta, ha El Greco kilencvenéves koráig él, végül egy zsigeri absztrakt festőként végezte volna. Ezekbe a gondolatokba merültem, amikor a képen ábrázolt égre néztem. Az alatt a baljóslatú ég alatt csakis valami szörnyű és magasztos dolog történhet, mint egy családtag végső távozása vagy egy kereszt felállítása."

María Gainza: Látóideg

[jurassicbooks]

September 24, 2022

Got some new books today! I’ve discovered recently that I am a short book person, and I think this selection really shows that. Anything that’s about 200 pages is, I think, the perfect length. All that needs to be said is said, and there’s no room for the author to put in unnecessary and confusing sub-plots or side character romances.

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox is the outlier of this haul, and that is because I listened to the audiobook way back in January of this year, and then today when I saw the physical copy in the bookstore for the first time I decided to pick it up. It is a truly unique book, because it was written as if you are reading from a police report, with each character’s speech being encapsulated in it’s own section on the page, similar to how plays are formatted. The plot follows a group of friends in the aftermath of the disappearance of one of the friends sister. You get to see how well some of these characters move on with their lives, and how some seem to be crushed under the weight of guilt and sorrow. There’s also a huge reveal at the end that completely blew my mind!

[world-literatures]

Portrait of an Unknown Lady by María Gainza

This was, unfortunately, in many ways a novel where the synopsis sounds more interesting than the book actually is. That said, once I accepted this for what is was (literary fiction) and not what I thought (thriller/mystery) I did appreciate it. I liked the shifting timelines and the discussions around art, forgery and identity.

genres: literary fiction

translator: Thomas Bunstead

rating: ★★★

goodreads synopsis:

In the Buenos Aires art world, a master forger has achieved legendary status. Rumored to be a woman, she seems especially gifted at forging canvases by the painter Mariette Lydis, a portraitist of Argentine high society. But who is this absurdly gifted creator of counterfeits? What motivates her? And what is her link to the community of artists who congregate, night after night, in a strange establishment called the Hotel Melancólico?

On the trail of this mysterious forger is our narrator, an art critic and auction house employee through whose hands counterfeit works have passed. As she begins to take on the role of art-world detective, adopting her own methods of deception and manipulation, she warns us “not to proceed in expectation of names, numbers or dates . . . My techniques are those of the impressionist.”

What follows is a highly seductive and enveloping meditation on what we mean by “authenticity” in art, and a captivating exploration of the gap between what is lived and what is told. Portrait of an Unknown Lady is, like any great work, driven by obsession and full of subtle surprise.

[lapostaldemardelplata]

Agredieron a un periodista marplatense en Paraná gente de Vidal y Gainza

El periodista y director de Data24, Eduardo Prestofelippo, también reconocido como “El Presto”, entrevistó al comunicador Ulises Catriel Cuenca, el cual fue agredido por personal de seguridad del precandidato a intendente de Paraná (provincia de Entre Ríos), Emanuel Gainza, por tan solo preguntar. Ulises Catriel cuenca es coordinador de NOVA, editor de A24, colaborador de Data24 y socio director…

[adribosch-fan]

¿Quien es Horacio Rodriguez Larreta?

Por Juan Etchebarne Gainza Este año es un año electoral en la Argentina y para votar bien (no se elige lo que se nos impone), hay que conocer a fondo a quién estaríamos votando…por eso conozcamos quién es en realidad el candidato Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, actual Jefe de Gobierno (Alcalde) de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires… “Larreta” es un globalista pro Agenda 2030 “pobres pero felices” reza su…

[poetlcs]

sharing some books I read recently and recommend for women in translation month!

for more: @world-literatures

Two Sisters by Ngarta Jinny Bent & Jukuna Mona Chuguna (Translated from Walmajarri by Eirlys Richards and Pat Lowe)

The only known books translated from this Indigenous Australian language, tells sisters Ngarta and Jakuna's experience living in traditional Walmajarri ways.

2. Human Acts by Han Kang (Translated from South Korean by Deborah Smith)

Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend's corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice.

3. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez (Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell)

Short story collection exploring the realities of modern Argentina. So well written - with stories that are as engrossing and captivating as they are macabre and horrifying.

4. Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Maria Gainza (Translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead)

In the Buenos Aires art world, a master forger has achieved legendary status. Rumored to be a woman, she seems especially gifted at forging canvases by the painter Mariette Lydis, a portraitist of Argentine high society. On the trail of this mysterious forger is our narrator, an art critic and auction house employee through whose hands counterfeit works have passed.

5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrente (Translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein)

My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

6. Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen (Translated from Danish by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman)

Tove knows she is a misfit, whose childhood is made for a completely different girl. In her working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else.

7. La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel)

The first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, La Bastarda is the story of the orphaned teen Okomo, who lives under the watchful eye of her grandmother and dreams of finding her father. Forbidden from seeking him out, she enlists the help of other village outcasts: her gay uncle and a gang of “mysterious” girls reveling in their so-called indecency. Drawn into their illicit trysts, Okomo finds herself falling in love with their leader and rebelling against the rigid norms of Fang culture.

8. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (Translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang)

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast, and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

[liefst]

books i read in 2023

Sayaka Murata, Convenience store woman

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-five

Maryam Hassouni, Wat de fak

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake

Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo

Margaret Atwood, The year of the flood

Isabel Allende, The house of the spirits

María Gainza, Optic nerve

Piet Paaltjens, Snikken en grimlachjes

Arthur Miller, Death of a salesman

Anja Meulenbelt, Feminisme: terug van nooit weggeweest

Feminism: en antologi

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

Caroline Knapp, Appetites: Why women want

Jean Rhys, Voyage in the dark

Euripides, Electra

Euripides, The Phoenician women

Euripides, The Bacchae

Jean Rhys, La grosse Fifi

Odysseas Elytis, The axion esti

Hilda Newman & Tim Tate, Diamonds at dinner

Julie Orringer, How to breathe underwater

Richard Brautigan, Revenge of the lawn

Jane Campion, The piano (screenplay)

Jean Rhys, Quartet

Emma Cline, The girls

Arnon Grunberg, Tirza

Karen Blixen, Ehrengard

Alain de Botton, Religion for atheists

Arthur Japin, De overgave

[thereyouwere]

“ En la fotografía se juega un misterio que tiene que ver con las decisiones y la audacia. No es la técnica lo que interesa, sino la pulseada con el lenguaje; aquel que calza con la ecuación que uno es. ”

– M. Gainza

[jamesshawgames]

Big Update 2 of 2!

Relics 3 ending guide

Here is your definitive guide to the Relics 3 Endgame. This is going to get long and very very complex, so I’ll hide it under the jump so as not to annoy folk…

There are two parts to the guide. Part 1 will tell you how to maximize the chances of keeping your friends and allies alive. (If you want to do a nightmare run and get them all killed, just do the opposite of what this guide says!) Part 2 will tell you what the major end-states are and how to get them.

Part 1: How (Not) To Kill All Your Friends

One way to keep all your friends alive is very straightforward – don’t bring anybody with you. The way to achieve this is to have incredibly poor relationship stats with everybody. There are two reasons why you might not want to do this, however: 1) it will make the Endgame very difficult for you; 2) it will require you to play through three whole games as a character who is a colossal dick to everybody they meet. If you don’t fancy doing this, there are other ways to keep the blorbos breathing.

Some of the “friend deaths” that can occur are the result of bad choices you might make in the Endgame. Others are the result of how many forces you start with, which itself will be determined by choices that you have made throughout the trilogy. The two main numbers to watch are the number of your friends and allies who agree to come and fight (you want as many as possible to get you lots of tactical options), and the number of soldiers that Anderson is able to recruit for the mission (again, the more the better). We’ll start with the soldiers.

Anderson’s Forces

You can go into the endgame with anything between 30 and 90 troops. You want something towards the higher end to maximize your chances. Here’s how to get the numbers up:

The basic number is 30 – 20 Royal Marines and 10 US military personnel. If you start with just 30, you can be sure that at least a couple of your buddies will kick the bucket. So how do we improve the odds?

If you are rich, you will be offered the option to give Anderson money to recruit mercenaries. Depending on how rich you are, this will either get you an extra 10 or an extra 20 troops to start with (and your Fortune stat will take a hit). Alternatively, if you have high Political Impact, you will be offered the chance to have called some of the people you have helped and asked for volunteers. Again, you’ll get 10 or 20, depending on how high your stat is. These two approaches are mutually exclusive: you can use your money or your political impact, but not both.

If you successfully exposed (and reported) Winter, the Oxford traitor, then Anderson will have impressed his bosses and won more support from the higher-ups, getting you an extra 10 starting troops.

If you chose to send Anderson the co-ordinates of the treasure of the Annunciacion in Book 3 Chapter 4, then that will also get you an additional 10 mercenaries.

If you got Marius Stokes to fund Anderson, then this will get you an additional 10 soldiers. In order to do this, you need to discover Stokes’s letter in Book 2 Chapter 6, you need to choose either to blackmail him or to keep hold of the letter, and, when you encounter Stokes in Interlude 4, you need to tell him to start funding Anderson.

If you left Jorge Gainza alive at the end of Book 2, he will surprise everybody by doing the right thing and sending you money, feeling that he owes you for not killing him when you could, and you’ll use that money to hire 10 mercenaries. Alternatively, if Gainza is dead and his son Ezekiel won the prize in Book 2, then Zeke will come through for you and send you some cash, also getting you 10 mercenaries.

If, at the end of all this, you have fewer than 50 soldiers and you have brought a rich companion with you (meaning Esme/Abdul, Dominique or María), then your rich friend will stump up enough cash to take your numbers up to 50, to give you more of a chance.

You need to keep these numbers high for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if the numbers drop below a certain level, then any of your friends who are with the main strike force will start to die. If the number of soldiers drops below 30, one of your friends (randomly determined) will be killed. If it drops below 20, a second randomly-determined friend will die. If it drops below 10, you’ll lose a third. Also if, at the end of the game, the number of soldiers is below 20, then they will get overwhelmed by the SS and you will die at the end of the game (thought you’ll still have a chance to save the world and get a heroic sacrifice epilogue).

Friends and Allies:

The basic rules for whether a friend will join you for the final attack are as follows:

If you’re in a romantic relationship with a character, they will always join you.

If you have a good relationship with a character (65 or above), they will join you.

Any characters who join you will be available to fight. You can do one of three things with them: have them join your small group of three who will be taking the secondary path; assign them a specialist mission to complete which will help keep Strike Force Alpha’s numbers up; or have them join the main assault.

There are a few exceptions to the general rules above:

Sam will always join you, whatever the status of your relationship. However, if they got badly injured in Congo, they will be too traumatized to take part in the assault itself. They’ll be there for moral support, but they won’t be able to actually fight.

Stevo will always join you if he survived Tibet. However, he doesn’t fight like a normal team member. He has his own special role: he’ll be providing air support!

Rémy will choose to join or not join based on the usual rules. However, he will not fight, since he’s not really a fighter. But he’s still worth bringing along: his massive brain will identify a tactical opportunity which your team would otherwise miss, which will make one of your specialist missions a lot easier, so he contributes in his own way!

In addition to this, it’s possible to get a few extra bonus friends to come along.

If Zhu comes along with you, and if you helped Zhu save his friend Yun in Book 2 Chapter 4, then Zhu will bring Yun with him and she’ll be available to join the assault! She’s had the same training as Zhu and is therefore very competent, so she can be a big help.

If you saved the life of Yelena Vasilevsakaya at the end of Book 2, then she will also come along and help you out. Again, a very highly-trained secret agent. Definitely an asset to the squad!

Lastly, if you met Gus in Peru (Book 3 Chapter 5), then you’ll remember that he promised you his help in the future. Well, here’s where he comes through for you! As an ex-mercenary, he sure does have skills that you can use.

You also, of course, need to decide what to do with each of your friends and allies. The first decision is which two companions do you want to take with you? There are two viable approaches to this:

“Balance the Party”. Pick companions who are strong in areas where your MC is weak. Since you’ll be able to ask them to do many tasks for you on the way to the carxite, this can maximize your options.

“Save the Blorbos”. Pick the two people you least want to get hurt.

Characters in your party will only die if you ask them to accomplish some task that they don’t have the skills for. Ask Cleo (who can’t shoot) to take that tricky marksman’s shot, and she’s likely to fail and get a bullet in the head for her trouble. So if you really want to protect the people on your team, the simple way to do it is simply not to ask either of them to do anything and just do everything yourself. You may take a bit of a beating from this, but at least your two pals will be guaranteed to survive! (Unless they run into the Randomized Death Minefield without any of your team having the requisite skills to get past. That’s why the Balance the Party approach makes sense!)

After sorting out your own team, you need to choose friends to carry out the specialist missions that Anderson has identified. You can choose not to appoint any specialists, but if you do this then Strike Team Alpha will take more of a beating, and any friends you have in the main strike team will be at risk. So it’s recommended that you try to cover all of the specialist ops, but again you need to be a little bit careful. Choosing the wrong person for the job will not only fail the task, but get the specialist killed too!

Task 1 will only be available if Stevo is in the party. You need someone who is athletic and combat capable to take down the AA batteries. You really want to do this one if you can, since Stevo’s air support is a real lifesaver in the final stages of the assault. Abdul will get the job done; better choices are Yelena, Yun, Zhu or Esme, all of whom are good shooters and can thus use the cliffs as a snipers’ nest when the job is finished, which gets you extra bonuses later in the assault. Anybody else will fail and die.

Task 2 (the gatehouse) is where Rémy comes into his own. Anderson has found a way to get through the gatehouse, but it requires a specialist who is male, speaks German and is convincing. If Rémy is there, he’s found an alternative route: you need an athlete who is sneaky.

To succeed via Anderson’s route, you should pick Zhu or Gus. To succeed via Rémy’s route, you can pick Zhu, Dominique or Yelena. Anybody else will die.

Task 3 (the sally port) needs somebody who can fight and who is a good leader. Esme, Yun or Gus will do it.

So, in summary – to keep people alive, you need to start with as many friends, and as many soldiers, as possible. Pick either people who complement your skills or who you particularly want to protect to come with you: to really be sure that they survive, never ask them to do anything. Choose your specialists as recommended above, and make sure to fulfil all three tasks. If you do these things, you’ll have a very good chance of getting through without casualties! Good luck!

Part 2 - End States

There are six main world end-states in the game. I’ll list them by their achievement name.

Pax Britannica: This is where you execute the mission. You secure the carxite and hand it over to the British. You get this ending by taking down Sabine any way you can and then choosing not to use or electrify the carxite, but to guard it.As long as you still have more than 20 troops, you’ll be able to hand it over to the British. It doesn’t end all that great, sadly. The Brits use the power of the carxite to usher in an era of global British Empire. In the epilogue, you can choose whether to collaborate with the empire, to fight it, or to try to stay out of politics – which might affect the future of your relationship.

Status Quo Post Bellum: This is where you follow Anderson’s advice and destroy the carxite. Nobody gets all that power, and 20th century history unfolds pretty much as it has out here in the “real world”. You’ll get lots of choices about what you do with the rest of your life etc. You can get to this ending by killing Sabine any way you can and choosing to electrify the carxite.

Anagnorisis: A similar end-state to the above, but reached in a different way. After Sabine is taken care of, choose to use the carxite. (Everybody should do this at least once anyway – you get to destroy the whole Wehrmacht and make Hitler’s body explode from the inside, it’s kinda amazing!) Then, as the Most High Essence is taking over your consciousness, you need to come back from the brink and regain control of your body! There are two ways you can do this: if you have Carxite Affinity 100, you’ll be too powerful for the Essence to overpower; if you have an RO who is still alive and a strong relationship with them, then your love for them can bring you back (if you’re single, then it’ll be the strength of your friendship with Sam that can save you, assuming that they’re still alive). After you break contact, the carxite’s powers will dissipate and it’ll become inert and so you’ll end up in a modified version of the Status Quo ending.

Deus Ex Machina: This is what happens if you use the carxite and either choose not to fight back against the Essence, or if you try to fight back against the Essence and fail. You effectively become a monstrous alien god called The Hegemon, ruling over earth until your Most High brethren return. Most of your old friends will become freedom fighters trying to take you down and liberate humanity.

Unum Pro Multis Dabitur Caput: Only achievable if you end the game with a low number of soldiers (20 or less). They will be overwhelmed and the SS will storm in and kill you. However, if you have chosen to electrify the carxite, you will still die a hero, because you will have neutralized it and prevented the Nazis from being able to use it. For all the noble sacrifice fans out there!

Imperium Sine Fine: Yup, this is the baddun. You get killed by the SS, as above, but you haven’t electrified the carxite. The Nazis get it, use it, and become rulers of planet earth. Oops.

I did warn you that this would be really long and complicated! But I hope it’s useful. Happy epilogue-hunting!

[sublecturas]

"El nervio óptico", de María Gainza en la #LíneaB

[artistaforever]

On the set of Black Rider

[valuskahazater]

"Egyedül, megkönnyebbülten mentem be, de alig értem a kiállítótérbe, máris belém hasított, hogy El Greco képeit nézni annyi, mint magaddal viaskodni. Az a fajta művész, akit tinédzserként imádunk, a festészet még új dolog számunkra és a képzelet szárnyalása az újdonság varázsával bír. Aztán ahogy az évek során műveltebbek, következésképpen cinikusabbak leszünk, elkezdődnek a megrázkódtatások. El Greco merev dogmatikussága zavaró, de az érzékisége is irritáló. Vagy csak nehéz a kettőt összeegyeztetni egyetlen képben, mert arra tanítottak: a hús és a lélek nem férnek össze."

María Gainza: Látóideg

[just--another--wallflower]

I was tagged by @my-misery-index and since I haven't done one of these in a while, here it goes...

Last movie: An affair to remember (1957)

Last song: it's actually a playlist of argentinian musicians/bands, I'll put my favourites:

Yo no te pido la luna, Javiera Mena

Carta para no llorar, El Kuelgue y Zoe Gotusso

Cabilo y juramento, Conociendo Rusia

Mi primer día triste, Zoe Gotusso

El tesoro, El mató a un Policía Motorizado

Currently reading: El nervio óptico, María Gainza

Currently watching: Last Twilight, Cherry Magic thai, Cooking Crush, Sweet Home, I'm also watching Jujutsu Kaisen but since I'm watching them with my sisters it takes longer to finish. I also started watching One Piece but it's eternal so... 🤣

Currently consuming: mate

Currently craving: money and ice cream

Tagging with love and no pressure:

@goldennectar @poprdaper @alucidum @anatomy-of-a-glass-heart @pinkcanceress @zwiazdziarka @slowishgreen

+ anyone else who wants to do it! 💕

[pintto]

20231223. Santo Tomas eguna ospatzen da Euskal Herrian, eginkizun nagusia txistorra jatea. Zestoako Gainza Forge-n, oso ondo preparatzen dute!!