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Nov. 7th, 2016 10:43 pm* "Let me tell you a story about Hillary Clinton.:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/152855655477/so-if-i-understand-these-presidential-elections
* "US court rules that asylum seeker can’t be bisexual because he married a woman:" http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/08/20/us-court-rules-that-asylum-seeker-cant-be-bisexual-because-he-married-a-woman/?utm_source=PNFB&utm_medium=SocialFB&utm_content=FBJM&utm_campaign=PNFacebook
* The Hollow Crown, Season 2:
Like pretty much anyone with any kind of background in late Medieval English History, I have Feelings about the War of the Roses. Yes, I was a 14th century specialist, but frankly the 14th and 15th Century political and social history are particularly logical to clump together because of the way events fell out and long term stuff like Recurrent plague's effects on demographic trends and thus society, economics, art, the legal status of peasants, etc; the Hundred Years War (which was longer than that and more lots of little connected wars); and the whole complicated situation set up by Edward III having so many wives and descendants and the subsequent long term dynastic in fighting. (I used to occasionally be asked to explain the War of the Roses.
I could generally give a satisfying answer in about an hour, but I required paper, a writing utensil, and to start with Edward III and his children. I'd sketch out the family tree and with that as a visual aid could get us all the way to Henry VII in a coherent narrative that skipped details like battles, but explained the whys and the major players which is what most casual questioners want anyway).
Anyway, I've seen people descend to name calling and the occasional fist fights over the board game, Kingmaker. Emotions run high over York vs. Lancaster and nearly everyone who cares even a little bit about this stuff takes sides. You can generally tell which side a historian is on pretty easily, because Historians especially have Feelings about this. I have Feelings too. It's just mine are a bit above average complicated. I'm that weirdo who can simultaneously adore Eleanor of Aquitaine and be terribly fond of Henry II. I'm that oddball who has massive sympathy for Edward II AND Isabella of France. I am all about the open eyed embracing of problematic fave going way the hell back into my childhood, and I happen to be the sort of person who loves the historical Margaret of Anjou and Richard III both. No really. Because the historical personages are both pretty fucking amazing.
Which brings us to Shakespeare, who is writing these three plays under a Tudor sovereign. He is not writing about the historical Richard III who's fall was really mostly about him being a reformer who championed Justice and rights of ordinary people in a way that pissed of nobles who were used to riding rough shod over the land rights in particular of commoners. No, Shakespeare's Richard is based off some Tudor propaganda written long after the fact to justify their overthrow of a King who was at the time fairly popular with ordinary people. They had to blacken his image as part of the attempt to solidify their rule after literally decades of extreme turmoil that had killed off a lot of people, and because it was well above average deadly for nobles created a lot of political disruption on top of the usual economic and human misery levels. When I say based off the work of a Tudor apologist, I mean a specific dude writing on the payroll of a Tudor King as part of a very well designed propaganda campaign that also employed visual symbolism and pageantry. Tudors were very modern when it came to full scale multiple medium propaganda commissioned and designed to create and reinforce legitimacy, much as Louis XIV was to do later in 17th century France in response to a whole lot of problems and disruptions. This is one of the reasons why the accession of Henry VII makes a good place to put the start of the early Modern era in England, if one is assigning them. (Periodization is an arbitrary thing, but that's a whole other long discussion).
So what we have is not an Historical Richard III, but one designed to please the Tudor monarch who's good graces were required if Shakespeare wanted to keep writing and acting in plays, and the Henry VI (pt 1 & 2) plays need to both work as plays, but lead to a place where Henry VII was a good and necessary end to all these troubles under the Houses of Lancaster and York. The dissonance between the people I know from history and the characters in the play can make these a little hard for me to watch.
( Review Under the Cut: )
* Stalin thought this was perverted. I think it is marvelous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWR0awymyY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMs1EHYTWN4
* "Sunday Sweets: Light & Airy Wedding Cakes:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/11/6/sunday-sweets-light-airy-wedding-cakes.html
* Doctor Who Hartnell rewatch: The Keys of Marinus: The Velvet Web" is actually rather good,I've started enjoying this, to my surprise.
* Walking Dead (Spoilers, Abuse, Torture):
I've written before about Carol and Darryl as abuse survivors and how that informs their responses and survival strategies in the post apocalyptic world. There are a whole lot of things the walking dead fucks up, particularly lately. I think their abuse survivors isn't one of those. I looked at Carol in Alexandria wearing her Junior League Homemaker Mask and I saw resilience and a re-purposed survival skill. My skill set is rather different given the nature of my abuse and the way so much of it was interrogation and psychologically based, but I look at that sort of adaptation and deliberate and intelligent use of survival techniques and I admire the hell out of it. It's why Carol is one of the few threads still holding me to the show after the latest debacles.
I think it's time to talk about it again in the case of Daryl in light of this week's episode. ( TW Discussion of Torture and Abuse: )
Darryl is a Survivor and one I can believe in, the way Carol is a survivor and one I can believe in, and I think it is with these characters that some of their strongest writing and characterization lie. So I think I'll stick with it a little longer even though I have no fucks to give for Rick Grimes and I'm still pissed at the twin botches at the end of last season and start of this.
*****
* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources
* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help?
Haitian local charities: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154561836757433&set=a.84340697432.97916.713622432&type=3&theater
Doctors Without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/country-region/haiti
Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* "US court rules that asylum seeker can’t be bisexual because he married a woman:" http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/08/20/us-court-rules-that-asylum-seeker-cant-be-bisexual-because-he-married-a-woman/?utm_source=PNFB&utm_medium=SocialFB&utm_content=FBJM&utm_campaign=PNFacebook
* The Hollow Crown, Season 2:
Like pretty much anyone with any kind of background in late Medieval English History, I have Feelings about the War of the Roses. Yes, I was a 14th century specialist, but frankly the 14th and 15th Century political and social history are particularly logical to clump together because of the way events fell out and long term stuff like Recurrent plague's effects on demographic trends and thus society, economics, art, the legal status of peasants, etc; the Hundred Years War (which was longer than that and more lots of little connected wars); and the whole complicated situation set up by Edward III having so many wives and descendants and the subsequent long term dynastic in fighting. (I used to occasionally be asked to explain the War of the Roses.
I could generally give a satisfying answer in about an hour, but I required paper, a writing utensil, and to start with Edward III and his children. I'd sketch out the family tree and with that as a visual aid could get us all the way to Henry VII in a coherent narrative that skipped details like battles, but explained the whys and the major players which is what most casual questioners want anyway).
Anyway, I've seen people descend to name calling and the occasional fist fights over the board game, Kingmaker. Emotions run high over York vs. Lancaster and nearly everyone who cares even a little bit about this stuff takes sides. You can generally tell which side a historian is on pretty easily, because Historians especially have Feelings about this. I have Feelings too. It's just mine are a bit above average complicated. I'm that weirdo who can simultaneously adore Eleanor of Aquitaine and be terribly fond of Henry II. I'm that oddball who has massive sympathy for Edward II AND Isabella of France. I am all about the open eyed embracing of problematic fave going way the hell back into my childhood, and I happen to be the sort of person who loves the historical Margaret of Anjou and Richard III both. No really. Because the historical personages are both pretty fucking amazing.
Which brings us to Shakespeare, who is writing these three plays under a Tudor sovereign. He is not writing about the historical Richard III who's fall was really mostly about him being a reformer who championed Justice and rights of ordinary people in a way that pissed of nobles who were used to riding rough shod over the land rights in particular of commoners. No, Shakespeare's Richard is based off some Tudor propaganda written long after the fact to justify their overthrow of a King who was at the time fairly popular with ordinary people. They had to blacken his image as part of the attempt to solidify their rule after literally decades of extreme turmoil that had killed off a lot of people, and because it was well above average deadly for nobles created a lot of political disruption on top of the usual economic and human misery levels. When I say based off the work of a Tudor apologist, I mean a specific dude writing on the payroll of a Tudor King as part of a very well designed propaganda campaign that also employed visual symbolism and pageantry. Tudors were very modern when it came to full scale multiple medium propaganda commissioned and designed to create and reinforce legitimacy, much as Louis XIV was to do later in 17th century France in response to a whole lot of problems and disruptions. This is one of the reasons why the accession of Henry VII makes a good place to put the start of the early Modern era in England, if one is assigning them. (Periodization is an arbitrary thing, but that's a whole other long discussion).
So what we have is not an Historical Richard III, but one designed to please the Tudor monarch who's good graces were required if Shakespeare wanted to keep writing and acting in plays, and the Henry VI (pt 1 & 2) plays need to both work as plays, but lead to a place where Henry VII was a good and necessary end to all these troubles under the Houses of Lancaster and York. The dissonance between the people I know from history and the characters in the play can make these a little hard for me to watch.
( Review Under the Cut: )
* Stalin thought this was perverted. I think it is marvelous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWR0awymyY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMs1EHYTWN4
* "Sunday Sweets: Light & Airy Wedding Cakes:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/11/6/sunday-sweets-light-airy-wedding-cakes.html
* Doctor Who Hartnell rewatch: The Keys of Marinus: The Velvet Web" is actually rather good,I've started enjoying this, to my surprise.
* Walking Dead (Spoilers, Abuse, Torture):
I've written before about Carol and Darryl as abuse survivors and how that informs their responses and survival strategies in the post apocalyptic world. There are a whole lot of things the walking dead fucks up, particularly lately. I think their abuse survivors isn't one of those. I looked at Carol in Alexandria wearing her Junior League Homemaker Mask and I saw resilience and a re-purposed survival skill. My skill set is rather different given the nature of my abuse and the way so much of it was interrogation and psychologically based, but I look at that sort of adaptation and deliberate and intelligent use of survival techniques and I admire the hell out of it. It's why Carol is one of the few threads still holding me to the show after the latest debacles.
I think it's time to talk about it again in the case of Daryl in light of this week's episode. ( TW Discussion of Torture and Abuse: )
Darryl is a Survivor and one I can believe in, the way Carol is a survivor and one I can believe in, and I think it is with these characters that some of their strongest writing and characterization lie. So I think I'll stick with it a little longer even though I have no fucks to give for Rick Grimes and I'm still pissed at the twin botches at the end of last season and start of this.
*****
* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources
* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help?
Haitian local charities: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154561836757433&set=a.84340697432.97916.713622432&type=3&theater
Doctors Without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/country-region/haiti
Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com