theluminaryblog

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Gertrud Kolmar, tr. by Henry A. Smith, from Dark Soliloquy: The Selected Poems of Gertrud Kolmar; "The Woman Poet"

[Text ID: "You hear me speak. But do you hear me feel?"]

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Sedmikrásky//Daisies (1966)

dir. Věra Chytilová

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Petrov's flu, 2021

dir. Kirill Serebrennikov

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art.

the best art should always make you uncomfortable.

a good opera will make you squirm in your seat, not smile in pleasure. the best painting will make you want to look away because of how painful it is and how close to your heart it hits. an exceptional symphony should make you weep in terror and sadness, not bring comfort to your ears. a significant poem should make you cringe in empathy for the horrid life of the poet, it should not make your heart flutter with beauty. 

art should inspire you, not make you simply want to bask in its presence. think vivaldi, think bukowski, think picasso, think wagner. good art comes directly from the heart, from the soul, and the heart and soul are not beautiful things. anyone who creates art that pleases the senses has not created a pure form of art, they have created art that deceives their mind in order to convince them that life is beautiful. the purest, most honest art is ugly, rugged, displeasing. it reveals everything in life from which we hide and creates the most vulnerable version of oneself. life is sad. life is ugly. life is displeasing. pure art is sad, is ugly, is displeasing. this is real art.

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"You are graceful, cozy and very good-looking. Don't argue, you yourself know that. Of course, dozens of men fall in love with you. It's a shame to think that all this will end very simply - a male will come, you give him children, then you will die. Boredom"

Ekaterina and Darya Bulaviny

The Road to Calvary, 2017

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Alain Delon in La prima notte di quiete (1972) dir. Valerio Zurlini

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Details of the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine

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«Those few days that they lived in Monaco, they had fun like crazy - the Romanovs knew how to arrange holidays! Riding between the casino, the Hotel de Paris, and fashion boutiques, they knew how to amuse themselves. She gave him elegant clothes, and he, for his part, presented her with luxurious jewelry that he managed to export from Russia: pearl necklaces, massive gold chains, crosses inlaid with rubies, diamonds, emeralds and sapphires…»

Coco Chanel and grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich

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Vintage Modern Library editions from the 1930s-50s

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Jean Seberg in Saint Joan, 1957.

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Detail of The Lament for Icarus, 1898, by Herbert James Draper (1863-1920)

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1. Mrs Helene Kirwan-Taylor

2. Edith Hope Iselin

3. Anna de Noailles

4. Mrs William Wickham Hoffman

5. Mrs. Winfield Sifton

6. Dona Maria Mercedes de Alvear

Philip Alexius de Laszlo

(1869-1937)

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“Stavrogin, you are beautiful,” cried Pyotr Stepanovitch, almost ecstatically. “I love beauty. I am a nihilist, but I love beauty. Are nihilists incapable of loving beauty? It’s only idols they dislike, but i love an idol. You are my idol!”

Pyotr Verkhovensky

Demons, 2014