Arnold Genthe. Helen Moeller and pupils, 1921.

executive function

Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau 1864

yknow im thinking about the disappearance of artisan trades as a means of living and how works of art have been reduced to consumable novelties and how it's almost impossible to live as an artist now unless you're incredibly lucky and like. yeah actually yknow the luddites were right.

Joe Strummer

@hmcbook been reading the replies with people theorizing when Howl realised he was in love with Sophie and it’s just making me appreciate how romantic Howl actually is when he’s just being himself vs when he’s putting on a show for someone. 

Spending hours trying to to look perfect every single time he goes out to see a person? Fine for a first impression, but not great for anything longer-lasting. vs I Am Terrified That This Person Is Going To Be Hurt So I Must Leave Immediately So I Can Save Them And I Don’t Care That I Look Like Absolute Disheveled Garbage? Incredible. (also a very obvious nod to the fact that he had the same reaction when Calcifer told him the Witch of The Waste found his family, so Sophie is clearly very important to him, just -chef’s kiss-). 

Trying very hard to do things that look or sound impressive to impress a girl? (the friggin guitar)? vs I’m Going To Use Magic On This Person To Try To Make Them Hurt Less And Improve Their Life And I’m Not Even Going To Mention It Until Ages Later Because Getting Recognition For This Isn’t Important? 

Flirting and showing off? vs I Am Going To Give This Person A Whole Business To Reign Over And It’s Purpose Will Be Entirely Up To Them And I’ll Also Provide Everything Necessary To Run Said Business So She Doesn’t Have To Worry About That (giving the love of your life a bouquet is so tired. give the love of your life a HOUSE and a SHOP and a FIELD FULL OF FLOWERS, jfc howl ily) 

(also sending The Love of Your Life and your newborn child (or TLoYL still pregnant with your child, I can’t remember which way it went) away and disguising them so that they’ll be safe while knowing full well you could very well die or any number of other things without them ever knowing, but at least they’ll be okay)

(also also the whole damn Twinkle thing, like Sophie went off on Official Super Serious Business and Howl had to tag along to bug the hell out of her make sure she was okay and also because he would miss her)

anyway, I’m having a full-on Howl Appreciation Hour over here

Roman. Anonymous loan - Bust of Athena (detail), c. 2nd century a.d.

Photo by Erika Dufour

The Belvedere Torso, Apollonious of Athens, 1st century BC

thinking about the way both Hot Fuzz and Umbrella Academy used „Goody Two Shoes“ by Adam Ant to establish two rather constrasting characters

the characters + GIF descriptions:

Nicholas Angel — introduced as the ultimate overachiever in the Met police service. In full tactical gear, he is shown barging into a room and shooting someone down with a gun.

Klaus Hargreeves — self-proclaimed “sexy trash”, ranked Number Four of seven siblings by their rather uncaring adoptive father. He is shown drinking out of a canteen and chilling in a dumpster. There is a white bracelet around his left wrist.

that quote like “god gave us transness for the same reason he made grapes but not wine; yeast but no loaves — so we may partake in the divine act of creation”

- Julian K. Jarboe, quoted in Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery

[ID: a picture of a passage from a book, it reads “As my friend Julian puts it, only half winkingly: “God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason God made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine, so that humanity might share in the act of creation.” End ID]

me and the girlies watching the government collapse

(ID: a digital illustration of a dragonite, a dragonair, and many dratini in a simple, cell-shaded style. They are all flying above the clouds, out of which the dratini are poking their heads. The dragonite is smiling with its eyes closed, blissful. The whole illustration has a blueish tint. End ID.)

Inside the World’s Only Surviving Tattoo Shop For Medieval Pilgrims

The Razzouk family has been inking religious pilgrims in the Middle East for 700 years

A tiny shop, almost dwarfed by its prominent sign, lies across a quiet cobblestone road. If you didn’t know anything about the incredible, centuries-long history of the family who runs this particular shop, the sign’s tagline might cause you to do a double-take: “Tattoo With Heritage Since 1300” it reads. Read on

@camelot1967

boys trip

Dziady / Zaduszki / Pominki - remnants of an ancient Slavic feast celebrated in Poland to commemorate the dead. Dziady are usually translated as “Forefathers’ Eve” in the English langauge.

The old customs have merged with the celebrations of the Christian All Souls’ Day (in Polish: Dzień Zaduszny or simply Zaduszki), held on the 2nd November, a day after the All Saints’ Day. During those two significant days the Polish people travel even to the other side of the country just to pray and light a znicz (grave candle) on the graves of their relatives and friends.

The custom dates back to the pre-Christian times and the old-Slavic traditions of the ancestor worship, the cult of the dead and of the afterlife. Even in the 19th century numerous Polish ethnographers were describing that the common people were “still believing” in the death being just a natural form of a transition into the outerworld, seen as interwoven with the world of the living. Souls were seen as eternal and never perishing, being able to move between the worlds freely in certain conditions. People were looking after and praying to their relatives’ souls above all, and believing in a certain form of a return that could be compared to reincarnation - souls being able to come back within their ród (a word meaning roughly a bloodline / kinship / tribe) - another sign of the strong connection of the worlds of the living and the dead in the Slavic spirituality. Many people would also pray to the “abandoned” souls, which were spirits of those people who didn’t have anyone living left on the earth to look after them. 

People were very particular about preparing the right form of the parting ceremonies, but also about the wellness of the souls - for example greeting them during the many forms of the Dziady feasts throughout the year, in hope for their supervision or guardianship. And in the very complex Slavic spiritual world and folklore there was a lot to guard from.

Sickness and unfortunate events were feared more than the death itself. Souls of those people who passed away in an “unnatural” death or too early (in a very young age), and also souls of the various criminals, all were considered restless spirits, unfullfilled or unclean ones. Slavic folklore is full of such mythological creatures - for example the well-known rusałka or topielec, who were the souls of the drowned; boginka, who was a soul of a woman died during the labour; wampir or strzyga, who were people that e.g. died by suicide or weren’t buried or burnt properly after the death.

Fear of the restless forces was constant and so strong that some smaller protective rites were common even in the everyday life. People believed that any kind of spirit / soul should be taken care of, and any good or bad one could be appeased by gifts but also enraged by the mistreatment or forgetfulness.

The meaningful Dziady feasts were dedicated solely for the souls of the relatives and the name Dziady itself could be translated as “Forefathers”. Originally, Dziady were held at least 4 times a year - during the new moon around the winter & summer solstices and the autumn & spring equinoxes. These four dates were seen as very powerful in the nature-oriented Slavic spirituality and the new moon was the best time for the souls to arrive, not to be troubled by the strong moonlight.

The fixed date of 2nd November, combined with the Christian feast of the All Faithful Departed, had begun to be established around the 14th century in Poland, but even in the 19th century or early 20th century many people were still performing the old rites. Naturally, over the centuries under Christianity the rites were slowly getting detached from their original meaning. Later the feast was called Zaduszki (translated as a feast for the souls - “dusze” or “duszki”) or in some regions of Poland: Pominki, Wspominki or Wypominki (derived from the word “pamiętać” = “to remember”). In some parts of Poland it was also believed that the strongest time for the incarnation of the visiting souls - the real night of Dziady - would be the the Eve before the All Saints Day, the night between the 31st October and 1st November.

During the Zaduszki, that special transitional time of the year, souls of the dead would return freely to the world of the living. They would often visit the places where they used to live, wander around their favourite locations or just around the cemetery, they would also visit various old places of cult (for example churches). People were getting prepared for the souls’ visit - cleaning up the houses, leaving small treats of food and drinks, also placing lit candles around in order to help them warm up. A way to a destination would be often lit with many candles arranged in a row along the path. Satisfying those basic needs of the souls was meant to comfort them but also to ensure their assistance or counsel in the future.

An interesting aspect of the souls’ visit was ther “materiality”. People believed that the souls could sometimes appear looking like the living humans. They could try to get inside the buildings as semi-material beings, for instance through the cracks in the walls. People would often leave the doors or windows slightly open during the Dziady rite in order to help the souls get inside. 

After Dziady the conductor (usually the oldest and wisest person) would often sweep the floor to “remove” the remaining souls who didn’t want to go back to the outerworld. Some souls would even “hide” in the furnitures though, preferably in the main dining table where the whole family gathered, and people would sometimes “keep” them if feeling that they are friendly. The most common remnant of that custom in Poland is the popular “odpukiwanie w drewno” (“knocking on wood”) - unwittingly, the Polish people would usually knock on the underside of the wooden tabletop. In the old days it was a way of “waking up” the soul hidden there, a protective spirit meant to help preventing the negative factors.

On pictures:

My sources / book recommendations [in Polish only].

having bartimaeus and nathaniel share a mind & body in the last part of ptolemy’s gate leads to such like narrative fun, fun with the structure of the writing (i dont know how to describe it properly) but like the words on the page, its structure no longer becomes just descriptors/ a tool, its all their thoughts and feelings they can read and understand its what they experience. you have nathaniel’s pov which is 3rd person, but while the narrator is describing his thoughts you have bartimaeus respond to them as if nathaniel said them. even with bartimaeus, his descriptors, his thoughts and footnotes that you expect are outside of nathaniel’s perception, only the reader and bart himself privy to them, but nathaniel responds to those too.

idk if this makes any sense (probably not) but stroud took the coolest parts of his style the whole outsider/insider perspective of the books and had so much fun with it in the last part. nathaniel can audibly perceive bartimaeus’ footnotes (while in nat’s perspective! they bleed over) and they stymie him, his brain cant cope with barts consciousness going two directions. nat even shouts at bartimaeus to stop mentally footnoting.

and the growth of their connection is also reflected in the writing, where obviously not used to their new state of being, nat and barts thoughts are more separated and they dont even communicate well via the mind, nat responding outwardly to bartimaeus’ thought dialogue (to say nothing of how they fail to command nats body as one). but as it goes on they feel each-other’s emotions, they begin to take actions on the other’s behalf, the trust in their movements becomes whole and they more and more become one being, totally synchronous in all aspects (mind, body n soul)

and it all comes to a head in the last bit of the book, and of course in the last paragraph. and its so much fun to read and experience