#playwrights' words

[ladythomasina]

Hansy's Spank Bank

HANSY: Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona? (He pulls a reproduction of Palma Vecchio’s Venus from underneath his shirt.) Our father, who art in Heaven? You don’t look like it, my love – rapt in your expectation of what’s coming, as in that sweet moment of budding ecstasy when I saw you lying in the window of Jonathan Schlesinger’s—your supple legs and arms, the gentle curving of your hips, your firm young breasts…

If I wanted to count them—all the departed with whom I’ve fought the same battle here!—Thuman’s Psyche—another legacy of the hatchet-faced Mademoiselle Angelique, that rattlesnake in the paradise of my childhood; Correggio’s Io; Lossow’s Galatea; then a cupid by Bouguereau; J. van Beer’s Ada, whom I had to abduct from a secret compartment in Papa’s desk in order to add her to my harem; a quivering, twitching Leda by Makart that I happened to find in my brother’s lecture notes…

But my conscience will be pacified, my body will regain its strength when you, devil, no longer reside in the red satin cushions of my jewel box. In your place I’ll invite Bodenhousen’s Lurlei or Linger’s Forsaken Maiden or Defregger’s Loni to move into this sumptuous chamber of pleasure…

-- Act 2, Scene 3 of Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, translated by Jonathan Franzen

So what is in Hansy's spank bank? What images would a teenage boy in provincial Germany in the 1890s be getting off to? And why has no one put together a post like this before?

Palma Vecchio's Venus...

Resting Venus by Jacopo Palma Vecchio, 1520s

Thuman’s Psyche...

Psyche am Wasserspiegel by Paul Thumann, 1890s

Correggio’s Io...

Jupiter and Io by Correggio, c. 1530

Lossow’s Galatea...

I could not find any good candidates online for this painting, but note that the wikipedia page for Heinrich Lossow (1843-1897) calls him "a prolific pornographer".

A cupid by Bouguereau...

perhaps L'amour Mouille (Wet Cupid) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1891

J. van Beer’s Ada...

Portrait of Miss Ada Rehan as Lady Teazle in the "School for Scandal" by Jan van Beers, 1890s (this doesn't seem quite right but is the only candidate I could find?)

Leda by Makart...

Leda and the Swan by Hans Makart, 1868

Bodenhousen’s Lurlei...

Could not find a candidate for this either, not a lot of artwork by Cuno von Bodenhausen (1852-1931) seems to be online

Linger’s Forsaken Maiden...

Cannot find this online or even figure out what artist Hansy is referring to

Defregger’s Loni...

Loni by Franz von Defregger, 1890s

[quotelr]

If you know the art of being happy with simple things, then you know the art of having maximum happiness with minimum effort!

Mehmet Murat ildan

[thepersonalwords]

For a weak person, every little hill is a giant mountain; for a strong person, every giant mountain is a little hill!

Mehmet Murat ildan

[muffinlance]

Fellow Prisoner Li, Part 5: Zuko, Ruiner of Speeches

Read from the beginning || Previous || Read all chapters on AO3

“We can’t leave without Li,” Katara said, and Aang said, and Hama and the other ex-Fire-Nation-prisoners were largely neutral on, but Sokka wasn’t actually arguing that.

“We’ve been here too long,” was what Sokka was arguing. “We are in the middle of the Fire Nation. After breaking into a prison, with our giant recognizable sky bison and our glowing recognizable Avatar. The whole point of coming here was to not be recognized, which now that I think about it, was a planned doomed to fail the second it started with ‘break into a prison’—”

Not that he’d voted for that plan, either. Honestly, that plan seemed custom-built to out themselves immediately. While in a prison designed to hold benders. Which just went to show that Li was not a Plan Guy. And yes, Sokka was just as worried as the rest of them that the firebender had apparently wandered off with no supplies into a forest and not come out in any of the neighboring towns, but— 

“Would you leave me behind?” his little sister said. “Or Aang? Or Hama? Li’s one of us.”

“Yes,” Sokka said. “I mean no. I mean—ugh. He knows where we are. So either he doesn’t want to come back, or someone is stopping him, and the fact he’s held out for days means it would probably be pretty terrible of us to waste his—”

“If you say sacrifice—” Katara said, while Aang was turning a distinct shade of hadn’t-previously-contemplated-torture white. 

Which was, of course, when the Fire Nation troops announced themselves. The inn was surrounded. Appa was groaning under the sudden weight of an iron net. Faceless skull masks stood poised to bend in a double-ring all around them, with… a teenage girl as their leader?

Good evil smirk. 10/10. Sokka really felt the unflappable confidence.

“What have you done to him?” Katara shouted, interrupting a very dramatic monologue about the inevitability of their defeat. 

“Rude,” the girl said. “And unspecific.”

“With Li. Where is he?”

The girl’s eyes skimmed over their little group again. Three children and one elder out front, other elders huddled inside, watching through the upstairs windows. Her eyes narrowed. 

“You misplaced your firebender?”

“Well,” Aang said, clutching his staff in front of himself. “He might have been upset, and… left?”

“Li,” she said, drawing the name out in a very particular way. “Left. Left you. The Avatar.”

“Or,” Katara growled, her glare firmly on the girl, her hand firmly on her waterskin. “He was captured.”

“If he was captured, I would know,” the girl said.

“Because… you are…?” Sokka asked.

10/10 on the I don’t disappoint me, you disappoint me look, too. Which was on her, really, because what had been the point of her whole speech if there was no one here who even knew who she was? And it wasn’t like they should know—

“Princess Azula,” she said. “Daughter of Fire Lord Ozai. Heir to the Dragon Throne.”

And then she snapped her fingers, and started giving orders. Search pattern orders. 

“Find him,” she said.

“Um,” said Aang, holding his staff a little less tightly. “Are you… capturing me?”

The Fire Princess had quite a repertoire of looks. Sokka… did not recognize this one.

“What’s even the point if he’s not here to watch?” she said, and turned her back on them.

She still left the nets on Appa, and enough soldiers to burn the inn if they so much as twitched. Given all the elders inside who could barely walk, much less run…

Team Avatar sat tight. Or, as Sokka preferred to think of it: outsourced their Li-tracking to someone with superior manpower.

[usefulquotes7]

If you know the art of being happy with simple things, then you know the art of having maximum happiness with minimum effort! Mehmet Murat ildan

[arabdoll]

“Why do you style yourself "your worthless and insignificant brother"? You recognize your insignificance? . . . Recognize it before God; perhaps, too, in the presence of beauty, intelligence, nature, but not before men. Among men you must be conscious of your dignity. Why, you are not a rascal, you are an honest man, aren't you?

Well, respect yourself as an honest man and know that an honest man is not something worthless. Don't confound "being humble" with "recognizing one's worthlessness."

Anton Chekhov, The Letters of Anton Chekhov

[eloquenthubak1982]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

(28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath and writer, who is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literacy, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His words include plays, poetry and aesthetic criticism, as well as treaties on botany, anatomy and color.

[familiarquotation]

I pray for God to crush me, break me up into little pieces and start all over again.

Angels in America, Tony Kushner

[naneki-maid]

But, I am pretty sure that I was his best friend. We shared an intimacy that I cannot put to words except to say we saw into each other’s hearts and were in love with what we found…

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005) by Stephen Adly Guirgis

[etchif]

Btw rlly love that Dinah & Greaseball's relationship issues are resolved in the end by Greaseball literally begging her for forgiveness on his knees while all broken down and publically humiliated👍 big fan of this authorial decision

[the-nameless-nerd]

this might be a controversial take:

Theater Kids and Writers are two sides of the same coin

[quotationadmiration]

'Tis deeds must win the prize.

William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

[thepersonalwords]

Watch yourself from different angles so that you can understand better who you really are!

Mehmet Murat ildan

[litandlifequotes]

If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.

― Tennessee Williams

[usefulquotes7]

If you know the art of being happy with simple things, then you know the art of having maximum happiness with minimum effort! Mehmet Murat ildan

[blueheartedmayor]

Have you ever thought about the passage of time, dear reader? It must be a tricky one to comprehend while you scroll on your device. Does it make the day d r a g on to the point of minutes feeling like hours, or does it make time slip by unnoticed until you sit in a room in the dark?

How does that work when there's an extra day included?

A leap year is a rather peculiar event. It's one where it seems so mundane, yet so unique. A secret treasure that only reveals itself on such a rare occasion.

What a treat that is for the common horology enthusiast! A cameo on the stage of the calendar, gracing us with her presence and a sweet serenade only to step away quietly before the crowds can catch up to her. It's a story all its own, when you think of it that way.

Ah.

Forgive me. I ramble. I'm sure you realise by now that this is not the usual narration style. The day that's in it spurred a thought to my mind and I felt the need to share it somewhere. A leap day is no groundhog day, but it is an extension of what is considered 'spring' in our calendars and 'winter' in a meteorological manner for those of us in the northern hemisphere.

Does it confuse the passing of time? Can it confuse the matter...

... When time is naught but a day on loop?

Why does Celine damn her brother to such a cruel fate? She would advocate that 'life is there for the taking' and... Perhaps this is what she meant by that.