#i mean it always is

[ramblingoak]

I don’t care who the new Papa is gonna be just please give him some side quests during the next tour.

Aka put that man in a baseball uniform

[dianessunflower]

Art in The Good Fight (2017-2022) - Part 2

part 1 here:

this part 2 is mostly about s6, because i think you can really track what the art is doing for story and character. so, let's get into it!!

still mad the new partner Ri'Chard took away this beauty, but they're forgiven for 603's art history references.

in the scene with the Dr, Diane mentions Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, originally attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (oil on canvas, c. 1560). it's in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

this is absolutely fascinating, because the composition of the painting is original—to give prominence to the 'low' subject matter, being the agricultural figure, rather than Icarus, to whom Diane is drawn. this is called 'Mannerist inversion' (yes i screamed, i'm a nerd).

this piece is brilliantly used this ep. Icarus, small, drowns unnoticed by everyone else. death happens all the time, and we move on. i'm reminded of Diane's sane little corner. the world is oblivious to the tragedy of hubris, concerned only with themselves. seems apocalyptic...

which leads me to my next point. behind the Dr is a Jean Andran engraving of a painting called Winter, part of a Seasons series now in the Louvre by Nicolas Poussin from the 1660s. and what does it depict? the flood. 100% premonition of impending death.

i love that *someone* has done their NY homework and seen that Guggenheim Hilma af Klint exhibit (i am not jealous at all), because also in the Dr's office is af Klint's Tree of Knowledge, No. 5 (Kunskapens träd, nr 5), from the 1915 W Series.

for various reasons, af Klint was for a long time ignored in favour of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Kupka etc in modern Western nonrepresentational art (also her queerness 🍵). her work has two overlapping levels, one biographical and one relating to the history of humanity.

the Tree of Knowledge series is part of her series of 193 Paintings for the Temple, which was af Klint's vision for the future as given to her by a spiritual medium, to depict 'the immortal aspects of man'. hence, she uses iconography from Christianity and Hinduism.

each piece in the Tree of Knowledge series is a variation on a theme, a tree with a heart-shaped crown. and there's a progression to the biblical allusion to Genesis symbolising innocence to fall from Grace, but there are also organic forms and ornate details.

the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) is usually paired with the

symbol of the Tree of Life, and in af Klint's work, signals binaries melding into unity. but the tree also signals Buddhism (the fig tree), the Tau/life force, the Arasa Maram in Hinduism.

the colours have meaning, yellow for female and blue for male. put them together and it becomes green, and the colours have become purer. this is No. 5, so the white radiations that were pale rose-coloured in No. 4 are now inverted.

af Klint probably knew Rudolf Steiner's colour meanings—yellow as spirit, blue as soul. green as the lifeless image of the living, peach-blossom the living image of the soul. white as the soul's image of the spirit, black as the spiritual image of the lifeless (cf swans).

the 12 sections in the top lotus leaf crown seem to represent the zodiac, months. also, there's a multi-coloured, lobed 'cross' in the small box middle-right, which maybe suggests the first awakening of the higher self?? compare this to the unity of colourful two birds in the bottom circle. there's a lot to be said about how this art represents how humans navigate their smallness in the world.

as seen on 604 in Diane's office, this is Street Musicians, by the American artist Norman Lewis (oil on canvas, 1948). part of the post-war movement.

from 605, i have identified some of the pieces Ri'Chard chose for the office, and they were clearly chosen for reasons. (unfortunately i couldn't find Liz's but i love the home decor and don't doubt this was also carefully chosen.)

this is by Kara Walker, known for room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. her work illustrates the origins & legacy of slavery in the American South. i suspect there's a Civil War reference too. the 1994 piece riffs on Gone With The Wind (MOMA).

i really love this one. this is Holy Mountain II by Horace Pippin, a self-taught artist post WW1. he was influenced by Edward Hicks, a Quaker minister who painted interpretations of Isaiah’s biblical prophecy of world peace and harmony in nature (Peaceable Kingdom, c 1830-32).

though the gatherings seem tranquil, the Holy Mountain series is very dark. poppies, soldiers, grave markers, a limp body hanging from a tree... Holy Mountain I refers to D-Day, Holy Mountain II to Pearl Harbor Day, & Holy Mountain III (Smithsonian) to Nagasaki.

so there are parallels between WW1/Civil War, but it is also very Eden-esque. i rather like that the pastoral figure in a white dress with the yellow cheetah is the centre focus. all very biblical, which fits right in with Ri'Chard's style. Pippin himself stated that,

"'Holy Mountain' came to my mind because the whole world is in such trouble, and in reading the Bible (Isaiah 11:6) it says that there will be peace in the land. If a man knows nothing but hard times he will paint them, for he must be true to himself, but even that man may have a dream, an ideal and 'Holy Mountain' is my answer to such dreaming."

i was thinking about how much gold Ri'Chard brought into the office in the context of his Brand™ (1 & 2 old decor, 3 & 4 new, but none identified yet oop)

there are other etchings in the Dr's office: top: 'Rotherhithe' by James McNeill Whistler from the Thames Set (1860, V&A) bottom: 'Clearing a wreck on the north coast of Cornwall' by Thomas Rowlandson (c 1809-1822, British Museum).

Dr Dude likes ships that's all i can say 🤷‍♀️ but actually i think there's something interesting about all the Flood references in the Dr's office, like Diane is drowning. possibly, there's a subtle allusion to a very famous painting, Le Radeau de la Méduse, by Théodore Géricault (1818-19, oil on canvas, Louvre).

this is an icon of French Romanticism, depicting the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of what is now Mauritania on 2 July 1816. what's so interesting about this painting is that it presents ordinary people, rather than heroes, reacting to the unfolding drama. as Christine Riding says, the painting represents,

"the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive, which had superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilised man into barbarism."

by 607, Diane's office art has changed to a piece called Three Tumblers by Daniel Clarke (2018), perhaps a reference to her revolving office bar. also did we notice her flower obsession has dulled a little? but there are still orchids all around the office. i'll leave you to google the meaning of the original Greek word 👀

elsewhere in the office, FIRES abound on the digital screen in the conference room. flood, fire…and?

where there's a mansion, there's sure to be art (609): Asher Brown Durand, Landscape—Scene from "Thanatopsis" (1850, Met); Max Ferdinand Bredt, In the Courtyard of the Harem; John Frederick Lewis, Intercepted Correspondence (1869).

in 609 when same sex marriage is overturned (and Christine Baranski's acting chops is on full show with her shocked face), the image on the tv screen is Witch burning in Regenstein, Saxony-Anhalt, 1555. It's a wood engraving after an original printed on flyleaf (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg).

frankly there's a lot of misinformation about witch trials, not least of which is that they happened a lot later than most people think (ie. not the medieval period). the early modern period 16-17th centuries were the height of the European witchcraft trials.

and it was an ongoing, systematic persecution that resulted from the targetting of Christian heretics and Jews throughout the 14th century, and gradually both the church and scholars became more and more obsessed with demonology. it was really about the 'other', the concern about the loss of a certain way of life.

Diane, of course, calls herself a wench, so i think it's interesting that her s6 arc eventuates with her heading up a female-only law firm in DC working on women's rights and Roe v Wade. i dislike the way that the word 'witchhunt' is misappropriated like other historical terms in modern contexts, but it's probably fair to call the current backsliding on women's rights a witchhunt. so i love this double meaning.

finally, i wanted to return to how Diane's office art tracks her journey. the Surrealist art was the tone of the show throughout. but the violence seeped into the everyday and everyone just got used to it. hence the second painting is war (contrast the flowers).

but then Diane chooses to stop PT108. almost immediately, a bullet lands on the realist painting of a woman (where does she end up? in Washington DC fighting the good fight for women).

the violence doesn't end there. and then the office literally explodes & you can see a painting is off-centre. which seems like a good metaphor for where the world is at.

so yeah, the progression in Diane's office from Peony Girl to Post-War to a painted version of Chris is just chef's kiss. the way it tracks her psyche in s6? i'm obsessed.

[rosicheeks]

really in the mood to chill on a rooftop in the city

[redstonedust]

yknow AI art has ruined an entire genre of painting to me, i saw one of those smooth anime-realism pieces and immidiately thought ''ugh, AI art'' until i noticed it was posted by an established deviantart user 6 years ago. like ive never been a huge fan of that genre but it looks like a pretty difficult style to master and i feel bad for the artists who specialized in anime-realism only to have their entire market jacked by people typing keywords into midjourney.

[morganbritton132]

No one tells you when you get a Big Serious Job™ how many fucking abbreviations you’ll be forced to learn.

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[tallymali]

genuinely what is the reason for the internet becoming so prudish?? who can i fight about this

[ionomycin]

[chloesimaginationthings]

The FNAF Mikes talk about their extended family..

[brainrotcharacters]

the easy grip on the knife. the leg over the seat. the hand over the other seat. the sassy "come get it" move. you know the bitch is smiling behind that mask even as he said the line.

[bisexualpercyjacksons]

pjo tv show episode 5 alignment:

[alexandriad]

back to the antiquity with these ancient grecian gal pals

[inkskinned]

the other day we were talking about balance beams because you said that your family had one of those cool winch ones that wrap around trees to make a high wire. even though i was pretty good i had to quit gymnastics at 12 because we couldn't afford dance and gymnastics but. i had something-other.

and i got excited because i think it's a funny story. i didn't have a door for about 4 years. 13-17, or there about. i only got it back because i replaced it myself.

i think my dad took it off the hinges just because his very-macho friend david had said - i do this to punish my kids. and then about a week later it was down on the ground and then eventually rotting in a shed. i used to visit it on occasion and tilt it between two boxes so i could try to walk across the side of it. i have a scar on my foot from attempting the act of balance-beam fancy dancing. it's shaped like a crescent moon. a hinge sliced into my skin when the whole thing slipped out from underneath me.

and you looked at me and you said - what the fuck?

and i said, do you want to see? because i thought the thing you were replying to was the injury. i was already undoing my shoelaces.

you're supposed to have a door, you said slowly. you were a teenager. you - i've seen your house. you lived at the end of the hall.

i didn't understand the problem. so? i wriggled out of my shoe and then my sock.

so, you said it gently, which made me slow down. you said it in the way people tell me that i experienced something bad and i have no idea that it was supposed to be something-else instead. anyone coming down the stairs or in the hallway could see directly into your room. you were in a fishbowl for four years, am i understanding that correctly?

i stared at you, and then said the other things: well, it wasn't so bad. i just wore a towel and tucked myself into a corner to change. i could always just change in the bathroom. privacy didn't really exist for any of us. i wasn't allowed to decorate so it wasn't really my room anyway. i didn't have a lot of things growing up; so it's not like i minded having a semi-public space. my siblings left me alone if i needed them to. what's the big deal anyway.

this is accidentally what emotional vampires incorrectly label as a "trauma dump". this is accidentally how you learn that my house was actually unsafe. i don't even consider this a problem, because everything else was so much worse, in a way. i didn't know it was supposed to be different. at the time, i didn't know what privacy was. i just lied about most stuff and got good at hiding in public. i haven't ever lied about this because i didn't know it was supposed to be different. i am 31.

you looked pale and ready to throw up. you had a right to a door for your room. you were a kid. someone should have helped you.

i was busy examining the sole of my foot. the scar really does look like the moon.

[silentsockfeet]

the fact that the vi vs jinx fight was foretold from the beginning. the fact that the opening credits ends with their fight immortalized in stone, so that every episode you watch is a reminder of the immutable truth of it. the fact that every moment is building to this, that the show will culminate in this. this was always going to happen, they told us this from the beginning, and nothing anyone could do will ever change that.

[fanaticalthings]

Jason Todd fans come get your daily dose of scrunkly Jason (ft. Damian)

+ Jason being a protective older brother

and them fighting (because obviously)

he's just a little guy here

look at them!! brothers!!

From The Boy Wonder #2 By Juni Ba