Tuesday 27 January 2009
This is how I wished I tap danced...
These guys are bloomin' marvellous! This is what we lack in the dancing world at the moment. No offence some of my gay dancing bruvs but we definitely need some defined masculine/feminine style dancing- why should we be able to tell what sexuality you behold from how you dance? And believe me, us girls really can tell from how you dance. It is not necessarily a bad thing... but sometimes, us girls do like to see a bit of 'man' about things. Anywho.... wondering off the track here... We also need to bring dancing from the heavy drudgery that history has entailed upon it. I love history, as you well know probably, but come on! Dance needs to keep evolving otherwise *YAWN* we all get bored! Tap dancing to HipHop music sounds strange to me- it is no Glenn Miller that is for damn sure, but hell! It fits, as well it should I guess.
Bloomin' marvellous :D
Monday 26 January 2009
On a lighter note...
I do feel happier for previous rant and am now going to limber up for dance because I am not called the English Oak for nothing at dance! haha!
I did enjoy watching the European Figure Skating Championships yesterday in bed whilst having an uber long day in pjs, and this guy (one hottie Italian called Samuel Contesti) below really stood out for me! He was amazing! I wish I could skate like that. I have howevr found out that I can skate so if I ever became James Bond and the need arose for me to be able to skate then I could cut my way across the ice without too much mortal peril!
I did enjoy watching the European Figure Skating Championships yesterday in bed whilst having an uber long day in pjs, and this guy (one hottie Italian called Samuel Contesti) below really stood out for me! He was amazing! I wish I could skate like that. I have howevr found out that I can skate so if I ever became James Bond and the need arose for me to be able to skate then I could cut my way across the ice without too much mortal peril!
A tear in my skirt
Now it may seem daft to begin this blog with a tear in my skirt, but the day really did just sprial downwards from there. Despite the moments of nearly touching contentment, I never fully reached it today and that is odd for work. Because never mind how slow the day goes by with fewer and fewer visitors, it is vary odd that you should have a bad day at work. And it did all start with a tear in my skirt.
I have put on considerable amount of weight from my skinnier days of my first year of uni! Please if only I was a size 8/10 again!! And that really isn't that small, but definitely smaller than how I am currently existing. It is not like I am an uber drama queen, only an amateur one for a few seconds while I blog away my troubles before my dancing lessons tonight.
Ok, so I put on my skirt this morning in a rush because I spent far too long making mini stuffing balls to go in my salad for work and on bending over to heave my huge bag and I mean a HUGE bag onto my shoulder and almighty wrenching rip sounded. Shit. Ok, well this skirt is my no means first hand, and probably not even second hand and it has torn before but not round my bum! haha so I speedily checked to make sure it was decent-ish before I ran out- it was, the lining was covering my pants and my coat was long enough to cover it and so I dashed to work, slightly late!
Then there was the usual comments about the size of my salad which is in an enormous tub for granted but to be fair, about 70% of the salad is water! (apart from the chicken and mini stuffing balls I was talkign about ealrier!) I was mortified with the earlier skirt related incident and general "meh-ness" about my weight.
Then on a conversation with another colleague the discussion of why pretty people go out with uglier people, something I wise I hadn't have pondered on. Now in this analogy we (my colleague and I) were the ugly ones... great! but I was told to be up beat because the pretty ones will go out with us to make them look even better! Well, it sure made me glad! Pfft! There is hope for us all apparently.
Then following this incident on being offered a pasty by a real nice bloke who knows I love my food commenced a series of joks etc about my affore mentioned salad and how I didn't need a pasty- but said in a way that made me think it was slightly nastier than just a referral to my salad. So humph.
Now I have a medical tomorrow at work, which involve weighing and stuff and doctors telling me I am overweight. I guess though I can be glad that unlike many third world countries' children, I can eat an overabundance and be overweight, unlike them who starve. And also on a lighter note, I have dance which will hopefully help shed some black clouds above my head! And as my dad said, there is nothing I can really do now about losing weight for tomorrow. And I suppsoe if I want to lose weight it ought to be for me.
So the love/hate... mainly hate relationship with food continues... *with a Catholic guilty induced moment of thinking that perhaps an extra wo roast potatoes for Sunday dinner yesterday might not have been a great idea in light of today* :D
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Marie Stopes, Social Revolutionary and Feminist, or an Intolerant Eugenicist: A Brief Summary
“I will be canonised in 200 years time”, scribbled Marie Stopes in a margin of a Catholic pamphlet. Marie Stopes, undoubtedly, was her own biggest fan, but the public hype she built around herself and her work, although exaggerated at times, was essentially well-earned. She had transformed society, but to what scale? Her publicising and popularising of sexual equality in marriage, birth-control and voluntary motherhood combined with her class prejudiced, eugenicist jargon that infiltrated all her ideology made her both a much loved and hated figure. One cannot deny that her books, articles and clinics caused a stir, which opened up the separate spheres of men and women so they could communicate to find an effective solution for fertility limitation and a better marriage. Sexual knowledge and birth-control had been things strictly limited to males and ‘lewd’ women, whilst female sexuality was something that had never been contemplated separately, or indeed seriously, from women’s ability to procreate. Stopes produced a remarkable ideology that, if not practiced, surely opened social and cultural barriers in society to allow the free dissemination and discussion of such ideas.
Stopes’ ideology was rather contradictory. In some ways it was revolutionary in that it promoted female liberty and sexual pleasure in marriage, but it was still conservative advocating only heterosexuality and marriage. Her notion of sexual equality did not extend to include the idea that women could dominate sexual relations. However, Stopes idea of equality within marriage no longer allowed women to be sidelined as the weaker sex. Stopes was particularly revolutionary in comparison to many of her feminist contemporaries. Although Stopes agreed with feminists that marriage should not give the husband ‘conjugal rights’, she rejected the idea that women were passionless. Stopes depicted women as sexual beings and introduced her theory of the ‘Law of Periodicity’, which gave them the right to refuse or accept their husband’s sexual advances without been seen as “frigid” or “depraved”. Husbands wrote to Stopes to ask for advice on how to control their erection, for example, so they could satisfy their wives. These men were actively trying to implement Stopes’ idea of equality and mutuality within marriage, which transformed the marital relationship. However, Stopes’ marriage manuals were aimed mainly at the middle-classes. While some of the ideas may have diffused into the working-classes, the absence of such female rights in cheaper pamphlets like A Letter to Working Mothers indicates that such ideas were meant only for the ‘respectable’ classes. Stopes was not as revolutionary as she could have been, but her policies were radical for the time, which had a definite impact on middle-class women.
Stopes succeeded somewhat in dispelling the ignorance of those women who had come into contact with her through her newspaper articles, her books or her clinics. She disseminated sex and birth-control information in a time when doctors were unable or unwilling to provide their patients with such information. Accessibility and availability was one of the problems Stopes tried to overcome. Setting up a mail-order service from her London Mothers’ Clinic and ensuring her name was constantly in the press, she guaranteed that the majority of society at least knew who she was and what she was fighting for. When knowledge on some topics were limited and highlighted by individuals in their correspondence, Stopes reacted, sometimes publishing another edition of her books to include the missing information. The accessibility of such information reduced sexual ignorance as well as empowering women with the knowledge of how to control their fertility. Although Stopes’ message reached the working-classes, few of her recommended methods were adopted. Middle class women were able to adopt her methods because they had the money to spend on her Racial Cap. They were more receptive to change, unlike working-class women.
Stopes had to overcome the social and cultural barriers of the working-classes, but her middle-class status combined with her own ignorance meant that she did not understand their needs and problems the working class people faced. Although she did recognise on some level that she had not succeeded to have an impact on working-class women, she failed to alter her strategies to overcome the social and cultural barriers, which would have enabled more women (especially the working-class women) to use her recommended artificial and reliable contraceptive methods rather than abstinence and withdrawal. Despite the class differentiation on the practical application of contraceptives, the knowledge of birth-control was made open and available to all classes.
Her aims: a superior race and happy, healthy mothers and children, were intertwined and inseparable. Although it is impossible to distinguish her motives behind her promotion of birth-control, we know that Stopes gave women of all classes some amount of knowledge to help end numerous childbirths that resulted in needless waste of life of the child and mother. Whether eugenicist principles or feminist principles were behind it is secondary to the effect Stopes had on infant mortality and society’s awareness of it. All women were helped and no woman was spared from Stopes’ eugenicist ideal. According to her working-class women were degenerating the race and middle-class women, the good stock, were expected to have more children that were fit and strong to create a good, healthy race. To some degree, Stopes was successful in creating a better ‘race’ through her propagation of happy and healthy families. The combination of equality in marriages, voluntary motherhood through birth-control and sexual knowledge gave rise to the understanding of female sexuality and the knowledge of how to use birth-control effectively.
Stopes had constructed a complex ideology, which based each notion on the following... To have a successful marriage, Stopes argued that the mutual orgasm was the solution. To ensure women could enjoy sex without the fear of pregnancy, birth-control would have to be used. Birth-control was the double-edged sword, as it was central to Stopes’ ‘constructive’ eugenicist ideology as well as protecting women from numerous pregnancies. Culmination of which is a successful marriage. All of Stopes’ ideas were combined and indistinguishable from each other. It was an exceptional and very progressive ideology, but it was inherently flawed.
The reason Stopes was unsuccessful in revolutionising society was because she did not propagate her idea of equality in marriage and female sexuality to the working-classes, which meant that they could not follow Stopes’ ideology as she had envisioned. No doubt the indistinguishable nature of her feminist and her eugenicist motives made many working-class women wary of adopting her ideology in case they were allowing themselves to be manipulated to her eugenicist interests. Alas the working-classes needed revolutionising the most. The middle-classes had already limited their fertility and women had gained the vote. The feminist movement was mainly a middle-class phenomenon and women were expanding their sphere of influence of which Marie Stopes herself was a living example. Essentially, the working-classes were excluded from this ‘social revolution’.
The overall conclusion is that Stopes was a social reformer, not a revolutionary. She helped women, but not uniformly. Class differentiation meant that Stopes led a piecemeal revolution that generally excluded working-class women. She remained rather conservative in some of her aims, but she provoked controversy with her policies. Her ideology set middle-class women on the long road to a sexual revolution, which working-class women would join later.
Stopes’ ideology was rather contradictory. In some ways it was revolutionary in that it promoted female liberty and sexual pleasure in marriage, but it was still conservative advocating only heterosexuality and marriage. Her notion of sexual equality did not extend to include the idea that women could dominate sexual relations. However, Stopes idea of equality within marriage no longer allowed women to be sidelined as the weaker sex. Stopes was particularly revolutionary in comparison to many of her feminist contemporaries. Although Stopes agreed with feminists that marriage should not give the husband ‘conjugal rights’, she rejected the idea that women were passionless. Stopes depicted women as sexual beings and introduced her theory of the ‘Law of Periodicity’, which gave them the right to refuse or accept their husband’s sexual advances without been seen as “frigid” or “depraved”. Husbands wrote to Stopes to ask for advice on how to control their erection, for example, so they could satisfy their wives. These men were actively trying to implement Stopes’ idea of equality and mutuality within marriage, which transformed the marital relationship. However, Stopes’ marriage manuals were aimed mainly at the middle-classes. While some of the ideas may have diffused into the working-classes, the absence of such female rights in cheaper pamphlets like A Letter to Working Mothers indicates that such ideas were meant only for the ‘respectable’ classes. Stopes was not as revolutionary as she could have been, but her policies were radical for the time, which had a definite impact on middle-class women.
Stopes succeeded somewhat in dispelling the ignorance of those women who had come into contact with her through her newspaper articles, her books or her clinics. She disseminated sex and birth-control information in a time when doctors were unable or unwilling to provide their patients with such information. Accessibility and availability was one of the problems Stopes tried to overcome. Setting up a mail-order service from her London Mothers’ Clinic and ensuring her name was constantly in the press, she guaranteed that the majority of society at least knew who she was and what she was fighting for. When knowledge on some topics were limited and highlighted by individuals in their correspondence, Stopes reacted, sometimes publishing another edition of her books to include the missing information. The accessibility of such information reduced sexual ignorance as well as empowering women with the knowledge of how to control their fertility. Although Stopes’ message reached the working-classes, few of her recommended methods were adopted. Middle class women were able to adopt her methods because they had the money to spend on her Racial Cap. They were more receptive to change, unlike working-class women.
Stopes had to overcome the social and cultural barriers of the working-classes, but her middle-class status combined with her own ignorance meant that she did not understand their needs and problems the working class people faced. Although she did recognise on some level that she had not succeeded to have an impact on working-class women, she failed to alter her strategies to overcome the social and cultural barriers, which would have enabled more women (especially the working-class women) to use her recommended artificial and reliable contraceptive methods rather than abstinence and withdrawal. Despite the class differentiation on the practical application of contraceptives, the knowledge of birth-control was made open and available to all classes.
Her aims: a superior race and happy, healthy mothers and children, were intertwined and inseparable. Although it is impossible to distinguish her motives behind her promotion of birth-control, we know that Stopes gave women of all classes some amount of knowledge to help end numerous childbirths that resulted in needless waste of life of the child and mother. Whether eugenicist principles or feminist principles were behind it is secondary to the effect Stopes had on infant mortality and society’s awareness of it. All women were helped and no woman was spared from Stopes’ eugenicist ideal. According to her working-class women were degenerating the race and middle-class women, the good stock, were expected to have more children that were fit and strong to create a good, healthy race. To some degree, Stopes was successful in creating a better ‘race’ through her propagation of happy and healthy families. The combination of equality in marriages, voluntary motherhood through birth-control and sexual knowledge gave rise to the understanding of female sexuality and the knowledge of how to use birth-control effectively.
Stopes had constructed a complex ideology, which based each notion on the following... To have a successful marriage, Stopes argued that the mutual orgasm was the solution. To ensure women could enjoy sex without the fear of pregnancy, birth-control would have to be used. Birth-control was the double-edged sword, as it was central to Stopes’ ‘constructive’ eugenicist ideology as well as protecting women from numerous pregnancies. Culmination of which is a successful marriage. All of Stopes’ ideas were combined and indistinguishable from each other. It was an exceptional and very progressive ideology, but it was inherently flawed.
The reason Stopes was unsuccessful in revolutionising society was because she did not propagate her idea of equality in marriage and female sexuality to the working-classes, which meant that they could not follow Stopes’ ideology as she had envisioned. No doubt the indistinguishable nature of her feminist and her eugenicist motives made many working-class women wary of adopting her ideology in case they were allowing themselves to be manipulated to her eugenicist interests. Alas the working-classes needed revolutionising the most. The middle-classes had already limited their fertility and women had gained the vote. The feminist movement was mainly a middle-class phenomenon and women were expanding their sphere of influence of which Marie Stopes herself was a living example. Essentially, the working-classes were excluded from this ‘social revolution’.
The overall conclusion is that Stopes was a social reformer, not a revolutionary. She helped women, but not uniformly. Class differentiation meant that Stopes led a piecemeal revolution that generally excluded working-class women. She remained rather conservative in some of her aims, but she provoked controversy with her policies. Her ideology set middle-class women on the long road to a sexual revolution, which working-class women would join later.
I have forgotten one of my resolutions already...
On flicking back through my posts recently, I realised that I had not stuck to my NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION to learn something new. So here it goes. Instead of things I have learnt each day, here are twenty things (to represent 20days) I have learnt recently...
1) On sibling rivalry: This is not restricted or limited to me and my brother. It is nice to know that although you get on so well, you can still bicker and get annoyed with them and it is ok, and you can still be friends. AND you don't need to know everything about them. Something i always feel very guilty about. I needn't, but I perhaps should make a more concerted effort.
2) I learnt how to parallel park and not mount the curb.
3) Masters are bloody hard to apply for and have far too much paperwork. But on the other hand, if it is worth doing, it is worth taking the time over.
4) That my ex-lecturer is pregnant and still remembers me (I asked her for a reference for my Masters!)
5) That Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII's time, built Hampton Court and gave it to Henry as a gift. Nice gesture.
6) Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn for 3years. I thought it was longer. Apparently she pissed him off sooner than I imagined...
7) For more Henry related facts: Catherine Parr was only married to him for a year as an intellectual companion and a year after she married him, he died and a year later after marrying John Seymour (I think it was) who was said to be the love of her life, died.
8) The Alexander Technique= ??? still a mystery but I learnt it :)
9) I am still emotionally available apparently! I thought I was going to remain celibate forever, but I think I may have found my lust again! YAY! This is good news by the way folks haha! I thought I was cold and lofty. Now I know how nuns live, I know I can survive... I feel a rendition of "I will survive" right about now!
10) I can emergency evacuate a disabled person down stairs now using a fancy chair thing.
11) Essex University's History Department is apparently second in the nation in its historical research! haha! And I learnt there! Up yours posh places.... Not that I am bitter!
12) Charles Dickens had a secret mistress and she lived in Slough for a short while.
13) On a similar note, Slough has a record office... I see work experience/future employment there??? Possibilities...
14) That spiders been given LSD make more symmetrical and better webs than those on caffeine, the human world's biggest drug, used daily. What does that say about our daily work? Go QI!
15) On a similar note on the creature world... let's call it our creature feature... snakes don't respond to the music snake charmers make, but the snake charmer's body actions. Although snakes do have the ability to hear (despite popular belief), they are not charmed by this music.
16) I did not realise the song from Moulin Rouge *one of my all time favourites* called The Show Must Go On was by Queen. I should have known since all the songs from Moulin Rouge are spoof-like/rougey-copies of very popular songs such as Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nivana and various Beatles songs *shakes head in shame*. But on the plus side, I was very excited on hearing it at the theatre on seeing "We Will Rock You"!! I was singing along a lot! :) And now has surpassed the Moulin Rouge version for me!!
17) And subsequently, I did not know that Freddie Mercury was called Farrokh Bulsara originally and came from Zanzibar, his parents originally from British India. So there we go... Queen suffering somewhat from overkill in our house at the moment through the greatness of firstly their music of course, and also the hit west end show- aMAzing!! In the words of Craig Revel Horwood or whatever his name is off Strictly Come Dancing!
18) That the Disney film, The Sword In The Stone, was actually a book. Well, I think I did, because i found it on a list I made of books to read *oh yes I am that cool*. Well, I found it in my Oxfam bookshop and have read it. It is BLOODY BRILLIANT!! It is better than the film *of course* and its anachronistically funny, has historically references to the time it was written eg. comments like "the bloody reds" "the Bolsheviks" etc! Great, great!! Merlyn is an ace character to and really shows human interaction of Wart the young boy, with Kay (an older brother-like figure and semi-bully). The J K Rowling of the early 20th century!
19) Entspann Dich = Relax (I am trying to pick up a little German, most of which I have seemed to forgotten in fours years...) Auf bitchen- to get tarted up for a party apparently...
20) Redest du mit mir? What are you looking at?
Mach den kopf zu! = Shut up.... not quite as short and sharp as English...
1) On sibling rivalry: This is not restricted or limited to me and my brother. It is nice to know that although you get on so well, you can still bicker and get annoyed with them and it is ok, and you can still be friends. AND you don't need to know everything about them. Something i always feel very guilty about. I needn't, but I perhaps should make a more concerted effort.
2) I learnt how to parallel park and not mount the curb.
3) Masters are bloody hard to apply for and have far too much paperwork. But on the other hand, if it is worth doing, it is worth taking the time over.
4) That my ex-lecturer is pregnant and still remembers me (I asked her for a reference for my Masters!)
5) That Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII's time, built Hampton Court and gave it to Henry as a gift. Nice gesture.
6) Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn for 3years. I thought it was longer. Apparently she pissed him off sooner than I imagined...
7) For more Henry related facts: Catherine Parr was only married to him for a year as an intellectual companion and a year after she married him, he died and a year later after marrying John Seymour (I think it was) who was said to be the love of her life, died.
8) The Alexander Technique= ??? still a mystery but I learnt it :)
9) I am still emotionally available apparently! I thought I was going to remain celibate forever, but I think I may have found my lust again! YAY! This is good news by the way folks haha! I thought I was cold and lofty. Now I know how nuns live, I know I can survive... I feel a rendition of "I will survive" right about now!
10) I can emergency evacuate a disabled person down stairs now using a fancy chair thing.
11) Essex University's History Department is apparently second in the nation in its historical research! haha! And I learnt there! Up yours posh places.... Not that I am bitter!
12) Charles Dickens had a secret mistress and she lived in Slough for a short while.
13) On a similar note, Slough has a record office... I see work experience/future employment there??? Possibilities...
14) That spiders been given LSD make more symmetrical and better webs than those on caffeine, the human world's biggest drug, used daily. What does that say about our daily work? Go QI!
15) On a similar note on the creature world... let's call it our creature feature... snakes don't respond to the music snake charmers make, but the snake charmer's body actions. Although snakes do have the ability to hear (despite popular belief), they are not charmed by this music.
16) I did not realise the song from Moulin Rouge *one of my all time favourites* called The Show Must Go On was by Queen. I should have known since all the songs from Moulin Rouge are spoof-like/rougey-copies of very popular songs such as Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nivana and various Beatles songs *shakes head in shame*. But on the plus side, I was very excited on hearing it at the theatre on seeing "We Will Rock You"!! I was singing along a lot! :) And now has surpassed the Moulin Rouge version for me!!
17) And subsequently, I did not know that Freddie Mercury was called Farrokh Bulsara originally and came from Zanzibar, his parents originally from British India. So there we go... Queen suffering somewhat from overkill in our house at the moment through the greatness of firstly their music of course, and also the hit west end show- aMAzing!! In the words of Craig Revel Horwood or whatever his name is off Strictly Come Dancing!
18) That the Disney film, The Sword In The Stone, was actually a book. Well, I think I did, because i found it on a list I made of books to read *oh yes I am that cool*. Well, I found it in my Oxfam bookshop and have read it. It is BLOODY BRILLIANT!! It is better than the film *of course* and its anachronistically funny, has historically references to the time it was written eg. comments like "the bloody reds" "the Bolsheviks" etc! Great, great!! Merlyn is an ace character to and really shows human interaction of Wart the young boy, with Kay (an older brother-like figure and semi-bully). The J K Rowling of the early 20th century!
19) Entspann Dich = Relax (I am trying to pick up a little German, most of which I have seemed to forgotten in fours years...) Auf bitchen- to get tarted up for a party apparently...
20) Redest du mit mir? What are you looking at?
Mach den kopf zu! = Shut up.... not quite as short and sharp as English...
Wednesday 7 January 2009
The Story of Susanna
The story of Susanna is told in the Apocryphal Book of Daniel and Susanna. (As an aside, "Apocryphal" books of the Bible, which are received by some Christians as an authentic part of the Holy Scriptures, but are rejected by others. There are 14 such books, formed part of the Septuagint. The Council of Trent included all but three in the canon. The German and English Reformers grouped them in their Bibles under the title Apocrypha, as not having dogmatic authority, but being profitable for instruction. The Apocrypha is now commonly omitted from the King James Bible and most other English versions of Scripture.)
Susanna was brought up by religious parents, married Joakim- a rich man of Babylon at whose house the Jewish elders met and where they held their trials. Joakin had a walled garden at this house and it was to this garden that his beautiful wife would resort when the elders came. Two of the judges became obsessed with Susanna because of her beauty and lusted after her. Although they were too ashamed to admit their feelings, one day they each snook into Joakim's house to spy on Susanna and discovered their mutual lust. Resolving to seek an opportunate time, they kept a close eye on Susanna and waited for a chance to catch her alone.
One very hot day, Susanna and her two maids went into the garden and Susanna decided to take a bath. She sent her two maids out for soap and olive oil and bade them to lock the gates until their return. The two elders, who were already inside the garden, ran up and demanded that Susanna yield to them: "'If you refuse, we shall give evidence against you that there was a young man with you and that was why you sent your maids away.'
Susanna groaned. 'I see no way out. If I do this thing the penalty is death; if I do not, you will have me at your mercy. My choice is made: I will not do it. It is better to be at your mercy than to sin against the Lord'"
The elders promptly shouted down her cries for help and accused her, shocking everyone, for her reputation was spotless. The two elders proclaimed their story and demanded her death. The people believed the judges and assented to her death, but as she was being led away, affirming her innocence and appealing to God.
Daniel, young though he was, was inspired by the Lord to come to Susanna's aid. The rest of the elders accept his authority, seeing that 'God has given you the standing of an elder', and Daniel proceeded to have the elders separated and questioned them about the details of their story. When they disagree, he proclaimed their crime and the people turned upon them and they were stoned to death according to the law of Moses.
The story gives a chance for artists to show the Susanna's faith and her trust that God will save her, the depravity of those who wold use the law for their own personal profit, and perhaps also to draw a comparison between Susanna and Lucretia who, in a similar situation, did not resist in the face of Tarquin's threat to kill her and a servant and tell everyone that she was taken in the act of adultery, leaving no one alive to tell her story and prevent her reputation and that of her husband from being stained.
(NB. The painting of Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder is amazing and should be checked out. It also shows that the story of Lucretia and the story of Susanna were simultaneously going through a popular spurt in art in the Renaissance and Baroque period, although earlier depictions can be found.)
Without a doubt, the artists were more than happy to explore the theme of Susanna (and Lucretia) because of the possibilities it offered for a prominent nude female within the painting itself, particularly the bathing scene. What can I say but pervy men, eh? heehee
But seriously check out some of the picture above and see for yourself the artisty involved in just one story.
As another aside to this rather random blog, I have come to love these 'stories', as I shall call them, concerning women and how they upheld their virtue for their husbands, for society and most importantly (often) for God. This says a lot about the time and society in which these pieces of art were painted. Thank you Classical Civilisation A-Level...
(Ok, the uploading pictures seems to be malfunctioning at the moment! I will keep trying though! See here for the early art on Susanna and here for another collection. Hopefully tomorrow this function will be back up and running!!)
All That I Owe the Fellows of the Grave
All that I owe the fellows of the grave
And all the dead bequeathed from pale estates
Lies in the fortuned bone, the flask of blood,
Like senna stirs along the ravaged roots.
O all I owe is all the flesh inherits,
My fathers' loves that pull upon my nerves,
My sisters tears that sing upon my head
My brothers' blood that salts my open wounds
Heir to the scalding veins that hold love's drop,
My fallen filled, that had the hint of death,
Heir to the telling senses that alone
Acquaint the flesh with a remembered itch,
I round this heritage as rounds the sun
His winy sky, and , as the candles moon,
Cast light upon my weather. I am heir
To women who have twisted their last smile,
To children who were suckled on a plague,
To young adorers dying on a kiss.
All such disease I doctor in my blood,
And all such love's a shrub sown in the breath.
Then look, my eyes, upon this bonehead fortune
And browse upon the postures of the dead;
All night and day I eye the ragged globe
Through periscopes rightsighted from the grave;
All night and day I wander in these same
Wax clothes that wax upon the ageing ribs;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
Then look, my heart, upon the scarlet trove,
And look, my grain, upon the falling wheat;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
Ever since I have watched The Edge of Love about Dylan Thomas' life during the Second World War I have since dug out my book of wee Welsh poems! In it I stumbled across All That I Owe The Fellows Of The Grave. It struck me today because after reading Jenah's blog here I am fully disillusioned with the world. Ok, ok, I was probably really disillusioned before, but I did come to realise this by reading this poem last night before work with a glass of (I would like to say wine but I was a classy bird and drunk a glass of...) Lambrini (leftover Christmas goods- it would lose its fizz if I didn't drink it!) He wrote this- what? Seventy years ago about a war that was "for good" to get rid of the "bad". Whether that war was right/wrong, necessary or not I am not venturing into. A lot of live lost, but with this thing going on in the Gaza strip... well, what can say? What has changed? How have we as human beings changed?
This poem I imagine in my head is how those families of the three little boys who had died and the sisters, and all the people killed in this mess feel... but I wonder when all those who have committed crimes will ever feel like this?
And almost as a post-script today I heard a little story from one of my colleagues who takes groups of visitors on tours. He took a group of Americans from the state of Georgia when 'prompted' by my colleague's comment of how our state works i.e. monarchy and parliament rather than a presidency as par of the tour, they made a solemn promise to him that they would kill the recently-elected-soon-to-be President Obama within six months. My colleague exclaimed he did not know what to say! He looked like he was munching on lemons from what I could tell. Again, the disillusionment I felt was staggering. In this age of 'liberalism', 'freedom' and 'modernity' we still uphold in some places in the world bigotry, stasis and evil. Exclamations of "gee you have them here too", to which the majority of us would say "Who?" I guess we can already guess the answer would be "n*****s", but the shock is not any the less. How much has this world changed? Really?
Answer: In many ways, lots, but in the fundamental ways we still ahve a long way to go, which the past week's news bulletins show. Disillusionment, sadness and pessimism summarise my feelings today.
And all the dead bequeathed from pale estates
Lies in the fortuned bone, the flask of blood,
Like senna stirs along the ravaged roots.
O all I owe is all the flesh inherits,
My fathers' loves that pull upon my nerves,
My sisters tears that sing upon my head
My brothers' blood that salts my open wounds
Heir to the scalding veins that hold love's drop,
My fallen filled, that had the hint of death,
Heir to the telling senses that alone
Acquaint the flesh with a remembered itch,
I round this heritage as rounds the sun
His winy sky, and , as the candles moon,
Cast light upon my weather. I am heir
To women who have twisted their last smile,
To children who were suckled on a plague,
To young adorers dying on a kiss.
All such disease I doctor in my blood,
And all such love's a shrub sown in the breath.
Then look, my eyes, upon this bonehead fortune
And browse upon the postures of the dead;
All night and day I eye the ragged globe
Through periscopes rightsighted from the grave;
All night and day I wander in these same
Wax clothes that wax upon the ageing ribs;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
Then look, my heart, upon the scarlet trove,
And look, my grain, upon the falling wheat;
All night my fortune slumbers in its sheet.
Ever since I have watched The Edge of Love about Dylan Thomas' life during the Second World War I have since dug out my book of wee Welsh poems! In it I stumbled across All That I Owe The Fellows Of The Grave. It struck me today because after reading Jenah's blog here I am fully disillusioned with the world. Ok, ok, I was probably really disillusioned before, but I did come to realise this by reading this poem last night before work with a glass of (I would like to say wine but I was a classy bird and drunk a glass of...) Lambrini (leftover Christmas goods- it would lose its fizz if I didn't drink it!) He wrote this- what? Seventy years ago about a war that was "for good" to get rid of the "bad". Whether that war was right/wrong, necessary or not I am not venturing into. A lot of live lost, but with this thing going on in the Gaza strip... well, what can say? What has changed? How have we as human beings changed?
This poem I imagine in my head is how those families of the three little boys who had died and the sisters, and all the people killed in this mess feel... but I wonder when all those who have committed crimes will ever feel like this?
And almost as a post-script today I heard a little story from one of my colleagues who takes groups of visitors on tours. He took a group of Americans from the state of Georgia when 'prompted' by my colleague's comment of how our state works i.e. monarchy and parliament rather than a presidency as par of the tour, they made a solemn promise to him that they would kill the recently-elected-soon-to-be President Obama within six months. My colleague exclaimed he did not know what to say! He looked like he was munching on lemons from what I could tell. Again, the disillusionment I felt was staggering. In this age of 'liberalism', 'freedom' and 'modernity' we still uphold in some places in the world bigotry, stasis and evil. Exclamations of "gee you have them here too", to which the majority of us would say "Who?" I guess we can already guess the answer would be "n*****s", but the shock is not any the less. How much has this world changed? Really?
Answer: In many ways, lots, but in the fundamental ways we still ahve a long way to go, which the past week's news bulletins show. Disillusionment, sadness and pessimism summarise my feelings today.
Thursday 1 January 2009
Top Ten Films of the Season That Aren't Seasonal...
These are some of the best films that I have seen recently, some for the first time, others for the millionth time, some new, some not so new!!
1) Mamma Mia
After dragging my brother to the cinema to see this and embarrassing him horribly with my loud, amazingly out of tune voice and dance moves, I find it almost needless to say that I loved it! I was working with two other ladies today, who both received this film for Christmas too and we were having a bit of a sing song at work which was nice... and breaks up the monotony of working on New Year's Day (which is appeased also by the gorgeous smell of beef wafting up the stairs at home and me now in bed with my pjs on listening to the repeated DVD menu soundtrack of The Edge of Love!!)
I feel another urge for Mamma Mia to be put on for that ultimate feel-good factor. You may not be able to bottle it, but you sure can put it on a DVD!!
2) Wilde
Having already mentioned a bit about this film before, I shan't say too much except that Stephen Fry is an absolute legend and it is has spurred me on to read Oscar Wilde which I am ashamed to say I have never read before. I have just read Lady Windermere's Fan!! haha i loved it- It is really very easy to read and because it is a play you flick through it and it moves very fast! (gawd, I love my xmas presents this year!!)
3) Blood Diamond
I have also mentioned this film before. Although I wasn't entirely sure I was convinced by Leonardo DiCaprio's accent (I am naff on really knowing whether an accent is right, except for American/English, and especially when it is supposed to be British and it is clearly very American... anyway I am deviating...)
This film is dark, sad and pessimistic, but it is rivetting and really opens up one's eyes, whether it is entirely factual or not... Human nature is seen at its worst and at its best in this film. Based in Sierra Leone and set during their dreadful Civil War something, which if you hadn't been alive or old enough to understand at the time, has now missed the younger generation's notice. It was truly educational as Hollywood gets. Great movie though... drama, love, violence, action, etc... great film...
4) The Dark Knight
I have succumbed the greatness of this film. My brother got it for his brithday in the end and I was astounded. Excellent performance by Heath Ledger as everyone has commneted but the plot of how far can you push the law, how moral is it to do this, that or the other... is it worth it to stop crime? The morality and psychology of it was compelling and of course, with the late Heath in it... just watch it!
5) Under the Tuscan Sun
A daft RomCom that I bought my mam for Crimbo- we had seen adverts for it and said we should see it... It is about a woman who's marriage falls apart and goes randomly on a gay trip of Tuscany, buys a villa and learns how to live her life. It just shows that life will work out eventually but not always in the way you expect. You will find what you wanted does come to you, but in a different way tha how you thought. Just a nice exotic film, which slightly reminded me of A Room With A View in the sense that you have to mature and live life... Lucy certainly learnt to do so in Italy (in RWV).
6) The Edge of Love
Beautifully shot, set in London/Wales during the Second World War starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in, it is based on Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, broadcaster and short story writer's life. Although it was "too dark" for my mam's tastes, I really enjoyed it. How it is shot though is lovely... cliched as it may sound breathtaking at times...
7) Goodnight Mister Tom
Classic!! Enough said! Read it then watch it! You will cry everytime!!
8) Chocolat
Johnny Depp. Again probably enough said (!), but I will elaborate. Based on Joanne Harris's book of the same name this film does what the book doesn't do for me. Resolve. All the way through the book and the film, Vivien is trying to resolve her life through resolving other's misfortunes (with chocolate I may add!) as has been her family's calling for generations. In the book, she scuttles off with the North Wind, never finding that inner peace and sense of belonging that she had hoped for, but in the film she does find it and stays in this once-bigoted-now-suddenly-liberated village through her chocolate. Good film, not so great book. Another book to join the "Charlotte Gray" list (see for analysis my blog here, where the film is way better than the book!!)
9) The Departed
Good modern gangster/police film!! Leonardo DiCaprio again as an Irish American acting as a spy for the police in the Mafia. Matt Damon also stars as the gangster disguised as a cop to be a spy for them!! Genius plotting and a great ending, though very shocking and abrupt!! Not for the faint hearted!!
10) August Rush
A sweet family film with some wicked music included. It is about a young boy who doesn't know his parents and ends up busking with Robin Williams (a role model, albeit a bad one) to earn money. He has an amazing natural ability to play instruments and understand music and he is doing it to find his parents. A bit twee I will grant ya, but I watched it and fell in love with it! The guitar solos (ok, done by an amazing adult guitarist in real life) are awesome! The kid who played Charlie in the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is August Rush, and the hottie who plays a very unrealistic looking Henry VIII in The Tudors is his dad! yum... probably one for the girls... but my brother was the one who was watching it when i sat dow to watch it... but this is from the guy who got me hooked on High School Musical!! haha... gawd bless him for that! Summary of August Rush: Cheese balls covered in cheese on a cheese stick!
1) Mamma Mia
After dragging my brother to the cinema to see this and embarrassing him horribly with my loud, amazingly out of tune voice and dance moves, I find it almost needless to say that I loved it! I was working with two other ladies today, who both received this film for Christmas too and we were having a bit of a sing song at work which was nice... and breaks up the monotony of working on New Year's Day (which is appeased also by the gorgeous smell of beef wafting up the stairs at home and me now in bed with my pjs on listening to the repeated DVD menu soundtrack of The Edge of Love!!)
I feel another urge for Mamma Mia to be put on for that ultimate feel-good factor. You may not be able to bottle it, but you sure can put it on a DVD!!
2) Wilde
Having already mentioned a bit about this film before, I shan't say too much except that Stephen Fry is an absolute legend and it is has spurred me on to read Oscar Wilde which I am ashamed to say I have never read before. I have just read Lady Windermere's Fan!! haha i loved it- It is really very easy to read and because it is a play you flick through it and it moves very fast! (gawd, I love my xmas presents this year!!)
3) Blood Diamond
I have also mentioned this film before. Although I wasn't entirely sure I was convinced by Leonardo DiCaprio's accent (I am naff on really knowing whether an accent is right, except for American/English, and especially when it is supposed to be British and it is clearly very American... anyway I am deviating...)
This film is dark, sad and pessimistic, but it is rivetting and really opens up one's eyes, whether it is entirely factual or not... Human nature is seen at its worst and at its best in this film. Based in Sierra Leone and set during their dreadful Civil War something, which if you hadn't been alive or old enough to understand at the time, has now missed the younger generation's notice. It was truly educational as Hollywood gets. Great movie though... drama, love, violence, action, etc... great film...
4) The Dark Knight
I have succumbed the greatness of this film. My brother got it for his brithday in the end and I was astounded. Excellent performance by Heath Ledger as everyone has commneted but the plot of how far can you push the law, how moral is it to do this, that or the other... is it worth it to stop crime? The morality and psychology of it was compelling and of course, with the late Heath in it... just watch it!
5) Under the Tuscan Sun
A daft RomCom that I bought my mam for Crimbo- we had seen adverts for it and said we should see it... It is about a woman who's marriage falls apart and goes randomly on a gay trip of Tuscany, buys a villa and learns how to live her life. It just shows that life will work out eventually but not always in the way you expect. You will find what you wanted does come to you, but in a different way tha how you thought. Just a nice exotic film, which slightly reminded me of A Room With A View in the sense that you have to mature and live life... Lucy certainly learnt to do so in Italy (in RWV).
6) The Edge of Love
Beautifully shot, set in London/Wales during the Second World War starring Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in, it is based on Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, broadcaster and short story writer's life. Although it was "too dark" for my mam's tastes, I really enjoyed it. How it is shot though is lovely... cliched as it may sound breathtaking at times...
7) Goodnight Mister Tom
Classic!! Enough said! Read it then watch it! You will cry everytime!!
8) Chocolat
Johnny Depp. Again probably enough said (!), but I will elaborate. Based on Joanne Harris's book of the same name this film does what the book doesn't do for me. Resolve. All the way through the book and the film, Vivien is trying to resolve her life through resolving other's misfortunes (with chocolate I may add!) as has been her family's calling for generations. In the book, she scuttles off with the North Wind, never finding that inner peace and sense of belonging that she had hoped for, but in the film she does find it and stays in this once-bigoted-now-suddenly-liberated village through her chocolate. Good film, not so great book. Another book to join the "Charlotte Gray" list (see for analysis my blog here, where the film is way better than the book!!)
9) The Departed
Good modern gangster/police film!! Leonardo DiCaprio again as an Irish American acting as a spy for the police in the Mafia. Matt Damon also stars as the gangster disguised as a cop to be a spy for them!! Genius plotting and a great ending, though very shocking and abrupt!! Not for the faint hearted!!
10) August Rush
A sweet family film with some wicked music included. It is about a young boy who doesn't know his parents and ends up busking with Robin Williams (a role model, albeit a bad one) to earn money. He has an amazing natural ability to play instruments and understand music and he is doing it to find his parents. A bit twee I will grant ya, but I watched it and fell in love with it! The guitar solos (ok, done by an amazing adult guitarist in real life) are awesome! The kid who played Charlie in the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is August Rush, and the hottie who plays a very unrealistic looking Henry VIII in The Tudors is his dad! yum... probably one for the girls... but my brother was the one who was watching it when i sat dow to watch it... but this is from the guy who got me hooked on High School Musical!! haha... gawd bless him for that! Summary of August Rush: Cheese balls covered in cheese on a cheese stick!
Happy 2009!
I guess I ought to do something as cliched as to make resolutions. I do tend to stick to them, which is probably why I do not make them!
1) My first resolution of 2009 is to lose weight. Despite my endless talk of "I should go on a diet" etc I never do. I don't really believe in diets. I eat healthily enough, I just need to moderate the portions and exercise more.
2) Second resolution: To pass my driving test. Definitely easier said than done. Ask the 15 year old cyclist for a reference on this point.
3) Do my Masters. :)
4) Learn something new everyday and keep a diary of it.
5) To just be me, not let anyone boos me around or feel inferior... and to stop moaning. I have got a lot going for me at the moment. What more can I want? I am young, I have a job, I have a roof over my head, I have no terminal disease, I have food, I don;t have to walk twenty miles to collect dirty drinking water, have bombs falling on my head, etc etc... I included a lot i this one, because it is more about my outlook on life rather than separate things...
Yeah, so I will let you know how that is progressing!! haha...
1) My first resolution of 2009 is to lose weight. Despite my endless talk of "I should go on a diet" etc I never do. I don't really believe in diets. I eat healthily enough, I just need to moderate the portions and exercise more.
2) Second resolution: To pass my driving test. Definitely easier said than done. Ask the 15 year old cyclist for a reference on this point.
3) Do my Masters. :)
4) Learn something new everyday and keep a diary of it.
5) To just be me, not let anyone boos me around or feel inferior... and to stop moaning. I have got a lot going for me at the moment. What more can I want? I am young, I have a job, I have a roof over my head, I have no terminal disease, I have food, I don;t have to walk twenty miles to collect dirty drinking water, have bombs falling on my head, etc etc... I included a lot i this one, because it is more about my outlook on life rather than separate things...
Yeah, so I will let you know how that is progressing!! haha...
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