tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81666071261496862852024-02-18T17:58:18.080-08:00Band of Wild PetticoatsPeeking at the underthings of literature Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-90860735802308250442014-10-28T18:04:00.001-07:002014-10-28T18:09:58.040-07:00The Life and Afterlife of Things<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPXfDFS5TruTagt0nsaKDUk4FwCWnXg2ZH_g2mJ6EQ9tklv0M0XEoaz3FTJq-UU1Pp9HqI8q2kZTV5F_J_hDbmicmXC5sfwHubkRLgUAcaTeF0uYco0rNH2_dxrtu22VpJjYu794PzBK0/s1600/washing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPXfDFS5TruTagt0nsaKDUk4FwCWnXg2ZH_g2mJ6EQ9tklv0M0XEoaz3FTJq-UU1Pp9HqI8q2kZTV5F_J_hDbmicmXC5sfwHubkRLgUAcaTeF0uYco0rNH2_dxrtu22VpJjYu794PzBK0/s1600/washing.jpg" height="588" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things, and the preservation of things, was as important in the Middle Ages as today. Image from a 15th-century edition of Boccaccio's <i>Decameron. </i></td></tr>
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A network of medieval scholars from multiple different departments here on campus organized an incredible event that took place this last weekend. The <a href="http://events.colorado.edu/EventList.aspx?view=EventDetails&eventidn=22839&information_id=115939&type=&syndicate=syndicate" target="_blank">Medieval Materialities</a> conference brought together a huge variety of academics who, as the conference's title implies, are all working on projects that approach medieval history through specific objects or bodies, presenting ideas about the "life and afterlife of things."<br />
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The conference opened with what was for me the highlight of the event: a plenary discussion by the esteemed professor, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Bynum" target="_blank">Caroline Walker Bynum</a>. I had just begun reading what is considered one of Bynum's most important books, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Feast-Fast-Significance-Historicism/dp/0520063295" target="_blank">Holy Feast and Holy Fast</a> </i>(1987)<i>, </i>a book that recounts the fascinating role of food in medieval religious practice, particularly among women. After reading only the first chapter of this text, I knew I wanted to hear her speak in person, and am so glad I had the opportunity - Professor Bynum delivered a dynamite presentation. </div>
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Her talk began with a paradox: the world's best preserved Catholic reliquaries and altars are to be found today, not in Rome or Castile, but in Protestant Saxony. While it is true that Rome's and other historically Catholic countries' museums are bursting with medieval objects of devotion, they are no longer <i>in situ, </i>a fact which changes their context and thus our ability to observe how medieval communities interacted with these objects. To illustrate this point, Bynum traced the histories of three particular objects of devotion that reside today in their original medieval location, Saxony, beautifully preserved. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1r4R2ykYAetY1cXj4mJc-x3EA4J5LTfU38togX8Ezzlr47bnoEN0dOMXD2Zwb1C0IL8E0mdf45Wcf4RQ6gilbPI8u4TR6kEwIihN5ZfOqcw-a8wHbfXVi75bkpTmD9qkM_A5o8ZuBmCM/s1600/altar-of-the-holy-blood-21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1r4R2ykYAetY1cXj4mJc-x3EA4J5LTfU38togX8Ezzlr47bnoEN0dOMXD2Zwb1C0IL8E0mdf45Wcf4RQ6gilbPI8u4TR6kEwIihN5ZfOqcw-a8wHbfXVi75bkpTmD9qkM_A5o8ZuBmCM/s1600/altar-of-the-holy-blood-21.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Holy Blood Altar" in Rothenburg. The center<br />
cross contains the relic. <a href="http://reliquarian.com/2013/03/02/the-altar-of-the-holy-blood/" target="_blank">Image source</a>.</td></tr>
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She began in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the location of the "<a href="http://reliquarian.com/2013/03/02/the-altar-of-the-holy-blood/" target="_blank">Holy Blood Altar</a>." This magnificent altarpiece was hand carved in the 15th-century by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilman_Riemenschneider" target="_blank">Tilman Riemenschneider</a>, and features Judas as the central figure. The monstrance of this altarpiece was at some point replaced with a cross, delicately constructed to hold a crystal receptacle containing a small amount of Christ's blood. The continued and undisturbed presence of this relic as part of a main altarpiece complicated previous periodization theories of Protestantism's entrance into Saxony. </div>
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Bynum explained that some scholars have ventured explanations for this curious persistence of Catholic practices in Protestant areas of Europe throughout early-modern history by studying Martin Luther's teachings. Luther believed that objects had no inherent sacrality and that likewise, images (art), were indifferent. This objection to the use of religious iconography as an integral part of worship accompanied by a staunch opposition to any form of iconoclasm. This has lead several researchers to posit what they consider a particularly Protestant method of "accidental" preservation: as the image is neither sacred nor a source of conflict, they must simply be left where they were found. </div>
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Bynum's talk put forth a more nuanced theory by demonstrating that while the "let it be" theory seems satisfactory on the surface, it begins to lose ground when applied to Catholic objects that were preserved, not by Protestant indifference, but by continued and intense interaction with these objects through worship. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRF-AoYAuTF5TGdSlJa-R3mATnDWBuGwvue2eJ-sCLcVIStLVM0HFSUuEvnE_lS7ryRgG-sbX1GsUp4OfBJPlsLIFUZmCoRobDZMnkWyLsYUdiZ56PlzvG19PXL7K6mgcWgb_dFagfLWg/s1600/grave+christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRF-AoYAuTF5TGdSlJa-R3mATnDWBuGwvue2eJ-sCLcVIStLVM0HFSUuEvnE_lS7ryRgG-sbX1GsUp4OfBJPlsLIFUZmCoRobDZMnkWyLsYUdiZ56PlzvG19PXL7K6mgcWgb_dFagfLWg/s1600/grave+christ.jpg" height="456" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Holy Sepulcher in the Wienhausen cloister church. Ignore the little red circle on the tomb - this was the only image online I could find! <a href="http://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2012/07/images-of-saint-thomas.html" target="_blank">Image source</a>. </td></tr>
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In the Wienhausen cloister in lower Saxony, a figure of the dead Christ with exposed wounds rests in a decorated tomb. The Christ figure was made around 1290, when it came into the possession of the nuns of the Wienhausen cloister, and remains there today. Several marks and even medieval graffiti on the figure indicate to art historians that this Christ was approached from the right-hand side by the congregation, on a very regular basis, for devotional practices including the anointing of his forehead. Though nailed down now, the figure is hollow and believed to have been processed in performative styles of worship. Furthermore, there is evidence that a reliquary bundle had been inserted into his head. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFpa-OToJYbEm4CF1PTy5QMxcJVlpFmdTQg0GxRcWWzY6RhRhHVfR2EFid6DqDr52QDAdQiKXhFGFzoiOCeBK2qaGwYKbXV4KiUlTItDUgFJwCnuWd5ZcdyEoBseR1saZhBmTyR3aikE/s1600/saint+barbara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFpa-OToJYbEm4CF1PTy5QMxcJVlpFmdTQg0GxRcWWzY6RhRhHVfR2EFid6DqDr52QDAdQiKXhFGFzoiOCeBK2qaGwYKbXV4KiUlTItDUgFJwCnuWd5ZcdyEoBseR1saZhBmTyR3aikE/s1600/saint+barbara.jpg" height="640" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Barbara, painted in the 15th<br />
century by the Master of Frankfurt</td></tr>
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Bynum had examined multiple historical documents from the cloister which revealed the intensity with which the nuns protected this figure and fought to keep it in their church. Several abbesses outright defied the direct orders of Protestant bishops, who had told the sisters to send the statute to a museum. The abbesses cited the strong devotion of the community as their reason for noncompliance. The continued use and vehement defense of this statue problematizes not only the periodization of Protestantism's entrance into Saxony, but also the reasons for the preservation of certain Catholic devotional objects and practices. </div>
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Towards the end of her talk, Bynum highlighted the practice of sewing and embroidering clothes for statues of saints and angels, a devotional practice surviving in parts of Saxony long past Protestantism's supposed entrance into the region. She displayed images of the beautiful garments, full of ornamental embroidery, created by the nuns of the cloister for their church's statuary. Each saint and angel had several different outfits, reserved for different feast days and special moments in the liturgical calendar. Tags were sewn into the garments with the saint or angel's name and the day on which they were to dress the statues with these particular articles of clothing. (Unfortunately, for all the wonders of the Internet, I was unable to find images of the beautifully detailed garments professor Bynum showed. She did, however, mention the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Madonna-115th-Street-Community/dp/0300042647" target="_blank">Madonna of 115th Street</a> as a modern example of a similar practice.)</div>
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In the end, Bynum pointed to a fundamental disagreement people had then and continue to have today over the meaning of objects and our interactions with them. While one school of thought proposes that, in dressing and manipulating objects in the ways described above, we subject them to our authority and demonstrate their lifelessness by exerting our power over them. On the other hand, the contrasting school of thought believes that these practices enhance the mystery and aura of an object, giving it more life than they would've had without our interaction and, in some cases, turn the objects into a material connection to the divine. This question, Bynum indicated, is at the heart of the debate over medieval devotional objects and that our ability to reconcile the two polar opposite schools of thought is likely related to our understanding of performance. </div>
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The remainder of the conference exposed the vast array of intellectual interpretations of medieval materialities, some related to devotion and others related to daily life: literature, architecture, gifts, birthmarks (!), pastimes. I believe, though, that each panel related back to professor Bynum's initial plenary session, by asking the question which ultimately needed to lay at the heart of a conference on Medieval Materiality: "What does the object <i>do </i>and, more importantly, what does it <i>make me do</i>?" </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXm2Q2THuFh2kAqToGidAlpO_Er_zg9jY5RtxEh6IZCPibYUp2HwpeNMjoAonLfpI1OjD62YXGNAA8_5-cQltO6IdhHH_omtltkzs0vlhDWyOpIawKurhoSoJTxUoXknFvwle9n7N3gO4/s1600/fighting+knight+puppets,+hortus+deliciarum+end+12th+c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXm2Q2THuFh2kAqToGidAlpO_Er_zg9jY5RtxEh6IZCPibYUp2HwpeNMjoAonLfpI1OjD62YXGNAA8_5-cQltO6IdhHH_omtltkzs0vlhDWyOpIawKurhoSoJTxUoXknFvwle9n7N3gO4/s1600/fighting+knight+puppets,+hortus+deliciarum+end+12th+c.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></a></div>
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The conference was full of so many engaging discussions - hopefully a few more of them will make it onto the blog! </div>
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Until next time - keep rustling!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-28411478096357383062014-10-21T07:00:00.000-07:002014-10-22T10:51:47.125-07:00Painted Geneology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As will happen while obsessively pursuing details about the life and posthumous fame of a single historical figure, a moment of pure serendipity has granted me a rare look at a beautiful (and relevant!) illuminated manuscript. As I was preparing my <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-scent-of-roses.html" target="_blank">post last week on Saint Isabel</a>, I searched for images of her online to help tell her story.<br />
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The two XVII-century paintings I found, little did I know at the time, turned out to be a part of a never-completed pictorial genealogy of Portuguese kings and queens. Thanks to the expediency of digital technology, I was able to easily track down the manuscript and happily find its digitized version on the British Library website.<br />
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The images in this post are my own screen-captures of that manuscript which, although unfinished, boasts several gorgeous and richly detailed miniatures and full-page paintings. There are large blank spaces where the text would have gone, but as the manuscript was never completed (that we know of), these 11 leaves provide an interesting look at the process of illumination, including unpainted drawings.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmJpyNF6lsY9-e8kqJs_rd313F9_jZa33VmgNbgR8D8JiWWY-WrECI7VJL4kGoCnk8vsjfQEYcEf9iZCOsYfhUbN_5RgrPjiAdYa1o_TX6T_ae28jdIvDZCrY0_SFoOWpwiNLc7c678s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-20+at+4.58.13+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmJpyNF6lsY9-e8kqJs_rd313F9_jZa33VmgNbgR8D8JiWWY-WrECI7VJL4kGoCnk8vsjfQEYcEf9iZCOsYfhUbN_5RgrPjiAdYa1o_TX6T_ae28jdIvDZCrY0_SFoOWpwiNLc7c678s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-10-20+at+4.58.13+PM.png" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
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I invite you to look closely at these incredible leaves, available on the British Library site <a href="http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_12531_f001r" target="_blank">here</a>. To find the images of Saint Isabel, you will find them on the Recto side of the 9th leaf - she is down at the very bottom of the page, elaborated with surprisingly precise and prolific detail, in spite of being quite tiny.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjlO87rmtW0aTNTC8570VjSpKjpopf7rBmbuqyv21SDlLmAYuFgVBduMsY4CqVtVhq8Hzc68_uMuitp7CirHeZ6taqKU-p3hzFke34q-S-FodRurHoeq1LbOjPQtgm40aNHkEVidbgDU/s1600/D._Dinis_I_de_Portugal_-_The_Portuguese_Genealogy_(Genealogia_dos_Reis_de_Portugal).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjlO87rmtW0aTNTC8570VjSpKjpopf7rBmbuqyv21SDlLmAYuFgVBduMsY4CqVtVhq8Hzc68_uMuitp7CirHeZ6taqKU-p3hzFke34q-S-FodRurHoeq1LbOjPQtgm40aNHkEVidbgDU/s1600/D._Dinis_I_de_Portugal_-_The_Portuguese_Genealogy_(Genealogia_dos_Reis_de_Portugal).png" height="320" width="176" /></a></div>
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Until next time -- keep rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-32971228423187787992014-10-20T15:09:00.001-07:002014-10-20T15:09:30.297-07:00Sorbus Domestica<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzyYwIN7hua8q_YnvevKmb5y30mGAYGH5x30ky5qjC70p7doIBPaKSHTbyt3hjNtX9vS9yw4_BTUbOBF0SrKewQ3SR77BgFgzsI8RLB7j4s9vZMm-ZQtpzOV2Bw9F3nFjRPf5QxJAGr2g/s1600/1024px-Sorbus_domestica_FruitsLeaves_BotGardBln0906a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzyYwIN7hua8q_YnvevKmb5y30mGAYGH5x30ky5qjC70p7doIBPaKSHTbyt3hjNtX9vS9yw4_BTUbOBF0SrKewQ3SR77BgFgzsI8RLB7j4s9vZMm-ZQtpzOV2Bw9F3nFjRPf5QxJAGr2g/s1600/1024px-Sorbus_domestica_FruitsLeaves_BotGardBln0906a.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blooming <i>Sorbus domestica</i></td></tr>
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Over the weekend, I indulged in some well-deserved pleasure reading. A new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-King-North-Oswald-Northumbria/dp/1781854203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413838735&sr=8-1&keywords=the+king+in+the+north" target="_blank"><i>The King in the North </i>(2013)</a>, by Max Adams, details the life of VII-century warrior king, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_of_Northumbria" target="_blank">Oswald of Northumbria</a>. As a young boy, Oswald had fled his homeland in the midst of heavy fighting and carnage. As a man, known as Whiteblade, he returned with a force of his fellow exiled Northumbrians as a Christian warrior-king to reclaim his kingdom and take back his seat on the throne. In c. 634, he and his men succeeded in destroying the Welsh host occupying Northumbria.<br />
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I originally became interested in this history because Oswald of Northumbria was apparently the historical figure upon which <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-gray-pilgrim.html" target="_blank">JRR Tolkien</a> loosely based Aragorn, one of the main characters in the <i><a href="http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/the-lord-of-the-rings/9780618517657" target="_blank">Lord of the Rings</a> </i>trilogy.<br />
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While I have only just begun reading, I am already being treated to various unexpected historical details. One such detail concerns the <i>Sorbus domestica, </i>or "service tree."<br />
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In the first chapter of his book, Adams uses the Sorbus domestica to illustrate the rich and complex array of medieval beliefs that, though may initially seem strange, turn out to be no stranger nor any less real than the world in which we live today: <br />
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<i>One of the Wonders of Britain, from a list written down at the beginning of the ninth century but surely recited to children and kings for hundreds of years before and after, was an ash tree that grew on the banks of the River Wye and which was said to bear apples. Such poetic imaginings are easily dismissed by academics as fancy; and yet the distinguished woodland historian Oliver Rackham has recently shown that the famous tree in question must have been a very rare </i>Sorbus domestica, <i>the true service tree, which has leaves like a rowan or ash, and which bears tiny apple- or pear-shaped fruit. In 1993, one was found growing on cliffs in the Wye Valley in Wales. Early Medieval Britain was full of such eccentricities ... </i><br />
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I love this small, yet relevant, example of the infinite world we study when we look into history; not a distant and unknowable collection of places and people, but rather, a part of our own continuing human drama. The magic and mystery of the past remains part of our lives today, hovering in the bows of rare and common trees alike, waiting for us to once again pay attention to it. I am reassured by this little episode that all of the reading I am doing for my thesis, about great battles and modest miracles, will reveal a small but significant piece of magic from both Saint Isabel's world as well as from my own.<br />
<br />
***<br />
Until next time -- keep rustling!<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-8606917251452816112014-10-15T11:51:00.003-07:002014-10-15T12:01:52.348-07:00The Scent of Roses<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlDa_kJCp4BVllNNl73JEB0uSaiM8vVzjckqLAkej1BXBMIYwWnqVW1KqB87dUZnfbnrJs8krog98Rx6wRxdnQWHKnGFtdCm7pxj8HNFl7Hq5TpISMC5Pkszayrw4VUh-qv53LOFamO8/s1600/A_Rainha_Santa_Isabel_em_peregrinac%CC%A7a%CC%83o_a_Santiago_de_Compostela.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGlDa_kJCp4BVllNNl73JEB0uSaiM8vVzjckqLAkej1BXBMIYwWnqVW1KqB87dUZnfbnrJs8krog98Rx6wRxdnQWHKnGFtdCm7pxj8HNFl7Hq5TpISMC5Pkszayrw4VUh-qv53LOFamO8/s1600/A_Rainha_Santa_Isabel_em_peregrinac%CC%A7a%CC%83o_a_Santiago_de_Compostela.png" height="292" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isabel de Aragão, Queen of Portugal, arrives at Santiago de Compostela after completing a long pilgrimage on foot.<br />
Painting by Antonio de Hollanda, c. 1530</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtiMwWw4dZUhHd0FqjYXHUsNEfFI-EmFfv6pJYc18vSxuc4NCJ8Jcney4RByzibXlvRYVJMxSu_lkxzC7CIPOrjoFRjgLj95XChlyvKRglMTcSFjMsu7oWZ9mlGVEGE1jxn54om04uMA/s1600/Santa_Isabel_de_Portugal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtiMwWw4dZUhHd0FqjYXHUsNEfFI-EmFfv6pJYc18vSxuc4NCJ8Jcney4RByzibXlvRYVJMxSu_lkxzC7CIPOrjoFRjgLj95XChlyvKRglMTcSFjMsu7oWZ9mlGVEGE1jxn54om04uMA/s1600/Santa_Isabel_de_Portugal.jpg" height="320" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Isabel depicted with roses.<br />
Painting by <br />
Francisco de Zurbarán, c. 1635</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">My reading has taken on a particularly intense focus, now that I have a definitive dissertation topic and am able to read daily with the beautiful backdrop of the <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/10/autumn-hues-at-ivory-tower.html" target="_blank">autumn campus</a>. I have begun research on a 14th-century queen
of Portugal, Isabel de Aragão. Isabel was first made queen, then became a
mother, and two centuries after her death, was made a saint through the official canonization process of the Catholic Church. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Of the miracles attributed to her, the most popular among her devotees seems to have been the tale of how she discovered roses, all around her, during a season in which it was impossible for them to grow. After her death,
her tomb and incorruptible body were said to give off an intense and pleasant aroma that resembled roses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Roses are not in bloom here on campus, but I sense the
power of her story all around me. Her life, told and retold in many different ways over the centuries, offers a unique perspective on
medieval Queenship, motherhood, sainthood, female identity, and most importantly, how all of these
things could be brought into harmony under very specific, very dire
circumstances... <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9nQrBDxsvOcb-tw9u5B7aCrbiyJJCzPhBsB6YKmWV3EV5oCB7B0gQuRpQe49QF9ZM3nMIWTgpal9aLvZ5qWfbDDvAr0QgE1KBTZLHSuoSIySFVrdUf4o-HIx-t_IXE25d6hv8E2VheCc/s1600/A_Rainha_Santa_Isabel_deposita_a_sua_coroa_aos_pe%CC%81s_do_Arcebispo_de_Santiago_de_Compostela.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9nQrBDxsvOcb-tw9u5B7aCrbiyJJCzPhBsB6YKmWV3EV5oCB7B0gQuRpQe49QF9ZM3nMIWTgpal9aLvZ5qWfbDDvAr0QgE1KBTZLHSuoSIySFVrdUf4o-HIx-t_IXE25d6hv8E2VheCc/s1600/A_Rainha_Santa_Isabel_deposita_a_sua_coroa_aos_pe%CC%81s_do_Arcebispo_de_Santiago_de_Compostela.png" height="342" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Queen gifts her crown to the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela. Antonio de Hollanda, c. 1530</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">The 14th-century was witness to a particularly
catastrophic confluence of events. The rampant spread of plague led to the
underpopulation of huge swaths of rural land. This lead to both economic
downturn as well as easily disputed borders between territories; fighting to
maintain hard-won land often resulted in dismayingly high death tolls which
only served to further weaken the populations of the countryside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWdFfykxcbsck-T7-Z_7SXQz0Y0R7LSxRRTn3MluoPVyUGNMUAKioRBLiFwzDlj7fEqDgC4RslUBQAL0anFXF3h4DFS9djNGfwUPk1JSplqYYYUBhl4aSl0QlfV5JlZqmm5oDebT-ngM/s1600/Goya_y_Lucientes,_Francisco_-_Saint_Isabel_of_Portugal_Healing_the_Wounds_of_a_Sick_Woman_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjWdFfykxcbsck-T7-Z_7SXQz0Y0R7LSxRRTn3MluoPVyUGNMUAKioRBLiFwzDlj7fEqDgC4RslUBQAL0anFXF3h4DFS9djNGfwUPk1JSplqYYYUBhl4aSl0QlfV5JlZqmm5oDebT-ngM/s1600/Goya_y_Lucientes,_Francisco_-_Saint_Isabel_of_Portugal_Healing_the_Wounds_of_a_Sick_Woman_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isabel Queen of Portugal heals a woman<br />
on the Camino de Santiago.<br />
Francisco de Goya. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">The sometimes tenuous claims to the Portuguese
throne also exacerbated conflict within the kingdom. Isabel de
Aragão's own son, for instance, launched a civil war against his father, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_of_Portugal" target="_blank">King Dinis</a> and one
of the king's illegitimate sons who was rumored to have been favored as heir. Through
all the turmoil, Isabel must have appeared as a beacon of hope: her
impressively calm and rational demeanor (traits typically associated with men
during that time) made her much beloved by the Portuguese people, who called
her saint even before her death and canonization. And yet, i</span>n spite of her socio-political and mythic importance to people throughout Portugal, her native Aragon, and neighboring Castile, her story has more recently been relegated to the archives.<br />
<br />
For centuries following her death, she was depicted in poetry and theater, celebrated as a popular hero and saint on what became her feast day (July 4), and ascribed a powerful position in the collective Iberian memory. In the late 17th-century, the chapel she built and the order of Clarisas (Franciscan nuns) that she founded was flooded by a river that had outgrown its 14th-century banks. The basement of the church was filled with water and left to rot for a small eternity: it was not until the 20th-century that the church was finally cleared out and restoration began. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isabel de Aragão's tomb in Coimbra</td></tr>
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Her tomb had of course been previously removed, to a second church of the same order, but nevertheless the original 14th-century church that lay in disrepair, all but forgotten, had at one time contained important artifacts and documents pertaining to Isabel's life. How can it be that the material legacy of this beloved woman was left unattended for so long by those who loved her? </div>
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Isabel's story fascinates me. She is the daughter and mother of kings, and granddaughter of another queen-saint (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_Hungary" target="_blank">Elizabeth of Hungary</a>). She was powerful, but considered poor and humble; she was a mother, but considered chaste and holy; she was an important stateswoman, remembered for her peacekeeping efforts, but also for her transcendence of terrestrial powers, owing to her connection with the divine. Isabel performed very few miracles when she was alive, but she was called saint by all who knew her during her life nonetheless. After her death, her popularity continued strong for centuries and then seemed to abruptly decline. What explains this dramatic rise and fall in the popular imagination? </div>
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In a recent conversation with my advisor, I remarked on how small and humble the miracles were that Isabel had performed during her life. I marveled at how strong the devotion was to her in spite having almost no high profile miracles. "You're right," began my advisors reply, and with her sparingly-used droll sense of humor, "only a queen, mother and saint. Why wouldn't she have had time for more miracles?" </div>
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***</div>
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Until next time -- keep rustling!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-31662336954055648442014-10-14T12:59:00.000-07:002014-10-14T15:26:24.039-07:00Autumn Hues at the Ivory Tower<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This morning I brought my camera with me to the university campus to document the gorgeous display of autumn foliage, to which I am daily treated, as I walk along the path to my office and to the library. It has never been possible for me to distract myself so completely with the stresses of deadlines and research that I cease to notice the beauty of this campus. Flowers in bloom dot the walkways, running streams cut between stone buildings, and a glance to the west offers a view of the Flat Iron mountains.<br />
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Sun filters down to the campus through an auburn canopy which has tinted the light gold. There is a satisfying crunch of leaves underfoot and the occasional snap of a crisp mountain breeze, which sweeps up the corners of scarves and threatens to bring snow down from the high peaks, whose white caps are now visible over the shorter mountains still covered with evergreen.<br />
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Everything about the campus seems to be burning in one final blaze of color before the whitewash of winter sets in upon us. Vines creep up the trees towards the dwindling light next to old staircases that twist up the sides of buildings; water reflects the bright trees standing around it; wool sweaters and hot tea turn the wind into a welcomed friend, refreshing and reviving students reading on the grass. It is truly a beautiful season - one in which I have been getting much reading and imagining accomplished...<br />
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***<br />
Until next time -- keep rustling!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-78628121807217729682014-10-13T15:58:00.000-07:002014-10-13T15:59:10.423-07:00From the Desk to the Great Beyond of Books<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi39_Cr1yJE_PUVpAWqRc4nsxrJSB7d74ZSmB0wepV98XZJAr22U_IFS_MbQpp1Z2RTMpRTeULUngGfVRGncVscInHRRbMcJDITbr7Roz1W3gkcjjJCrPfJO_gAdfRafBK1rL2oR68ZQo/s1600/IMG_6984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi39_Cr1yJE_PUVpAWqRc4nsxrJSB7d74ZSmB0wepV98XZJAr22U_IFS_MbQpp1Z2RTMpRTeULUngGfVRGncVscInHRRbMcJDITbr7Roz1W3gkcjjJCrPfJO_gAdfRafBK1rL2oR68ZQo/s1600/IMG_6984.JPG" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A good place to imagine a medieval world</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is the chair in which I read a great deal about the denizens of medieval Europe and imagine, in as much detail as possible, the minutiae of their world: their gestures, their speech, their petty grudges and their epic grievances. The work of visualizing this world often prompts me to sit, looking out the window next to my chair, and muse on many of the details omitted from or glossed in historical texts.<br />
<br />
Though it now seems an obvious and necessary facet of visualizing medieval culture, one of the things that I had not envisioned was what <i>I </i>would look like in this world. I spend my days bent over a computer, a notebook, or a book, mostly working from this chair or the kitchen table. But scribes and scholars of the premodern era had different furniture for studying and writing, which necessarily made their work look and feel differently.<br />
<br />
So - how <i>did</i> medieval academic work look and feel? This weekend, <a href="http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lucas/turning-over-a-new-leaf/researchers/kwakkelf.html" target="_blank">Erik Kwakkel</a>, of the <a href="http://medievalbooks.nl/2014/10/10/medieval-desktops/" target="_blank">Medieval Books</a> blog, posted a most enlightening article addressing this very topic, describing a variety of medieval and renaissance desks and study practices (with pictures!).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXX0kP8XUM7V9LZcW_BXY_jxcZxOq6P_EFwLb1aA-h-w10TbrXKowbyejLBi_HOSALFaCMjyEn2y_o9TMFsKgXJKBIY79GCPrJdB4CCp6z8-0xzePBmLtv-fQbn0HsNKOOE0ztdvLOP0/s1600/dc3bcrer_erasmus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxXX0kP8XUM7V9LZcW_BXY_jxcZxOq6P_EFwLb1aA-h-w10TbrXKowbyejLBi_HOSALFaCMjyEn2y_o9TMFsKgXJKBIY79GCPrJdB4CCp6z8-0xzePBmLtv-fQbn0HsNKOOE0ztdvLOP0/s1600/dc3bcrer_erasmus.jpg" height="550" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of Albrecht Dürer's 1526 portrait of Erasmus. Image from <a href="http://medievalbooks.nl/2014/10/10/medieval-desktops/" target="_blank">Medieval Books</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Like the space I use at home for my own studying, medieval study spaces tended to be limited and allowed for only one book to be in use at a time, as seen above. Kwakkel explains, however, that these limitations were readily circumvented by various space-saving inventions.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHAQlQDqrdwqq3u42kZne4yr2twFCkBHx_7b1RVbhkscDim3OVvm55yaeVUh30gg4Z25BvPJQrM7uPz62bMT3TEnusOZDmYet6OgXYnBzJVr3o60K3lu7RvjPb5bUr36z45FS7YsOEt0/s1600/bookwheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHAQlQDqrdwqq3u42kZne4yr2twFCkBHx_7b1RVbhkscDim3OVvm55yaeVUh30gg4Z25BvPJQrM7uPz62bMT3TEnusOZDmYet6OgXYnBzJVr3o60K3lu7RvjPb5bUr36z45FS7YsOEt0/s1600/bookwheel.jpg" height="400" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rotating book wheel. Image from<br />
<a href="http://medievalbooks.nl/2014/10/10/medieval-desktops/" target="_blank">Medieval Books</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Scribes would have a stacked desk, with the manuscript to be copied perched above the scribe's own copies. Others would have long desks, allowing for side-by-side reference of several books. In both cases, the desks were tilted to almost a 45 degree angle, likely to assuage wrist cramping or back discomfort caused by hunching over a text.<br />
<br />
In my opinion, the most ingenious of these desk arrangements were those that rotated, like a lazy-Susan, enabling the reader to view multiple open books at a time without taking up more space than would a regular desk. This design was rendered, in the 17th century, into a rather large rotating book wheel (see image at right) that permits the simultaneous browsing of many books.<br />
<br />
As much as I would love to use a desk that revolved and allowed for easy use of 5 or more open books at a time , I also appreciate the way limited space narrows my focus and forces me to deeply read a single volume, operated solely by my hands.<br />
<br />
The reading technology of today allows for an almost infinite number of books to simultaneously appear on one's "desktop," but I suspect that the practice of envisioning precise details and specific emotional contexts of medieval people and events could be damaged by an over-commitment to too many sources simultaneously.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggx9zIzm99wp_n-rz6eZSuIFxKxO9_-YC5uHBD8L2PX3O9CKvx5lZyJoNAxl6Pe5YB4UYo5xaKUNEJLgyUK2frp4P6hAD9ENcHEZjimnB8xjrBdqJTI8jxCWiPCrqLQbFPDXEhjQUxvvE/s1600/IMG_6986.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggx9zIzm99wp_n-rz6eZSuIFxKxO9_-YC5uHBD8L2PX3O9CKvx5lZyJoNAxl6Pe5YB4UYo5xaKUNEJLgyUK2frp4P6hAD9ENcHEZjimnB8xjrBdqJTI8jxCWiPCrqLQbFPDXEhjQUxvvE/s1600/IMG_6986.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One book, one chair, one dog. It's a good ratio.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the intense weeks of actually writing an article, books lay open all about the house, covering any available surface (like they do in the image of Christine de Pisan below). But this is only after I have looked closely at each one individually and am able to see the cover and know the sights and sounds of the world contained within.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgYA5FdLD31EIJx_2XBHRg2kcT3jgMKVhKFTTJGu5RlaiNdWhc7Wr1Wfmi867i86jvVExu_Y8273vJFg4aT68V3BaFMlzC4FO7sWoRc9TXBQU4t6oBvrN-u0dYtx4Gem46548EKqQsDXc/s1600/brussels_bibliothc3a8que_royale_9009-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgYA5FdLD31EIJx_2XBHRg2kcT3jgMKVhKFTTJGu5RlaiNdWhc7Wr1Wfmi867i86jvVExu_Y8273vJFg4aT68V3BaFMlzC4FO7sWoRc9TXBQU4t6oBvrN-u0dYtx4Gem46548EKqQsDXc/s1600/brussels_bibliothc3a8que_royale_9009-11.jpg" height="333" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine de Pisan applying the classic method of propping books open all<br />
over her desks. Image from <a href="http://medievalbooks.nl/2014/10/10/medieval-desktops/" target="_blank">Medieval Books</a>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have been doing so much reading lately, for both work and pleasure, that it makes sense to reflect on the mechanics of how that reading gets done. If we owned a couch, I am sure I would prefer to stretch out there. But for now I am happy to sit in my comfy chair, with two of my most loyal companions: my dog and a good book.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9QNedEFsaUx3Hp1rpepf4Zqcl6Ln9sHRfKJx6ChH9ucclFTvhSHtKqLlmJvUx-mKlAnuEvZpVLB5crjEKa2hSd4rX3yLnPCjhH3eu0oJNmrf0hsWpz5S0FL1yrgyGyPm3n0xFr1gLsQ/s1600/IMG_6991.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV9QNedEFsaUx3Hp1rpepf4Zqcl6Ln9sHRfKJx6ChH9ucclFTvhSHtKqLlmJvUx-mKlAnuEvZpVLB5crjEKa2hSd4rX3yLnPCjhH3eu0oJNmrf0hsWpz5S0FL1yrgyGyPm3n0xFr1gLsQ/s1600/IMG_6991.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." -CS Lewis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
***<br />
Until next time - keep rustling!<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8166607126149686285%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-RKGrAXH2UT0%252FVDxYoJAF79I%252FAAAAAAAACb8%252FOMB79neI-iw%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6991.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&xm=h&xv=sa1.35&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2973px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8166607126149686285%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-RKGrAXH2UT0%252FVDxYoJAF79I%252FAAAAAAAACb8%252FOMB79neI-iw%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6991.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&xm=h&xv=sa1.35&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2973px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8166607126149686285%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-RKGrAXH2UT0%252FVDxYoJAF79I%252FAAAAAAAACb8%252FOMB79neI-iw%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6991.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&xm=h&xv=sa1.35&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2973px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D8166607126149686285%23editor%2Fsrc%3Dsidebar&media=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F1.bp.blogspot.com%252F-RKGrAXH2UT0%252FVDxYoJAF79I%252FAAAAAAAACb8%252FOMB79neI-iw%252Fs1600%252FIMG_6991.JPG%26container%3Dblogger%26gadget%3Da%26rewriteMime%3Dimage%252F*&xm=h&xv=sa1.35&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2973px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-67861417988311764982014-07-21T17:10:00.001-07:002014-07-21T17:10:35.063-07:00The Weight of Mountains<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I used to believe that there were only two kinds of places one could end up: a place near the sea or a place in the mountains. For years I scoured the dark reaches of my soul trying to discern if I was "of the mountains" or "of the ocean." </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJX68n81I7Dp-RO2R-R5SSsvTaISJbKFfDig-3QGIbHk-WAYJdVUTgxW8z9RjNlAqO_kKsbsB8z0oBn6KG8_RwDa047Qb2zWzXq9KZ7ZNEBVOgH4MDnYD7HlL8yvYVlF-j6rkpCx9-Lo/s1600/100_8775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJX68n81I7Dp-RO2R-R5SSsvTaISJbKFfDig-3QGIbHk-WAYJdVUTgxW8z9RjNlAqO_kKsbsB8z0oBn6KG8_RwDa047Qb2zWzXq9KZ7ZNEBVOgH4MDnYD7HlL8yvYVlF-j6rkpCx9-Lo/s1600/100_8775.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colorado, USA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Through my adolescence and early twenties, I was convinced that my heart needed the constancy of waves, my feet baptized daily in salt water. I was convinced that I had been born "of the ocean" and this notion was partly responsible for my relocation to a costal town in western Costa Rica at age 18.<br />
<br />
There I lived a mere 8 degrees off the invisible line of the equator, about 50 feet from the high tide of the Pacific Ocean. The sun rose every day at 6am and set every afternoon at 6pm; a dry season was mirrored by a wet season. Once in a while, I would wake up to a crimson beach: the red tide, a cycle of blooms in under the water's surface. There was a balance of life there that revolved around the rhythm of the ocean. I had fallen effortlessly into that rhythm and thought I'd never leave.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXmcn8xF9dOobOGOfi_Z8iMY3umCZwvlBvK7tfjKfBOgQ03TW9zkfwv3GpgzFQUGIoaVjHwzlzccZoC_v4aBcjZ6xjUNveBfwfwryzMEuQHsvXuI7RCzDKyk8K4m3fyoXmJKtXcJcABmk/s1600/tamarindo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXmcn8xF9dOobOGOfi_Z8iMY3umCZwvlBvK7tfjKfBOgQ03TW9zkfwv3GpgzFQUGIoaVjHwzlzccZoC_v4aBcjZ6xjUNveBfwfwryzMEuQHsvXuI7RCzDKyk8K4m3fyoXmJKtXcJcABmk/s1600/tamarindo+2.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guanacaste, Costa Rica</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It has been a year since my feet touched seawater and almost ten years since my last trip to Costa Rica. I now live along the foot of a mountain range - in the dry shadow of the green-felted, pine covered Rockies. The mountains have their own rhythm: bears come down the slopes in spring and retreat along with the flower blossoms, with the first crisp wind of winter. The vertical orientation of the landscape draws my eyes upward, towards the deep, open sky.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Since arriving in Colorado, I've had to revisit my decision and ask myself again: of the sea or of the mountains? </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
...And then yesterday I saw this <strike>documentary</strike> poetic masterpiece:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="213" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/87651855?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"The Weight of Mountains" is a short documentary on the life cycle of mountains - a thing I'd never considered before. Temujin Doran is the creator of this film and here he has delicately balanced geological data with prose, still images of tall and far-away mountains with close-up shots of tiny movement covering these giants. Please watch full screen.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After watching this, it seemed that there aren't only two places a person can end up. Probably, in fact, there are many, many places you can end up. But that anywhere I find myself, I am either traveling to or emerging from sea or the sky, pushing upwards against rock or sliding gently into dark blue water. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
***</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Until next time - keep rustling!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-68246903597255461752014-07-20T14:31:00.000-07:002014-07-20T15:28:28.189-07:00On Horse, In SaddleAfter almost four full months of silence I am finally back on the horse, firmly in the blogging saddle, grasping the reigns of recreational writing. Several significant life events have kept me away from the blogosphere for these past couple of months, but I have missed it so much and am really glad to now be back!<br />
<br />
By way of reintroducing myself after this lengthy hiatus, I thought it would be fun to share some of what I've been reading recently - both for pleasure and for work. I hope you find something that interests you!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP1nq_ygQ2uUkZ8T5GUWv1nkZdOqiJhLHfcx8rBun9vY86V-M66BxxOE9jk742fVyqzcLfcbHNFT-E4CBLkJG9UcpUI1cN_HdVedKPhFhqnBK8v2GGTv7nrf_DAlnm_KJQAmu38ql3xV8/s1600/IMG_6942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP1nq_ygQ2uUkZ8T5GUWv1nkZdOqiJhLHfcx8rBun9vY86V-M66BxxOE9jk742fVyqzcLfcbHNFT-E4CBLkJG9UcpUI1cN_HdVedKPhFhqnBK8v2GGTv7nrf_DAlnm_KJQAmu38ql3xV8/s1600/IMG_6942.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our kitchen table, on any given morning...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Research for my dissertation has been taking some interesting twists and turns. I've been looking at various accounts of journeys to the afterlife, composed by writers from across the Mediterranean region. The way in which these cross-cultural narratives intersect seems to provide insight into Mediterranean perceptions of the afterlife and, in particular, the extent to which these divine spaces of the afterlife were accessible to the living.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAj1QPpet2KOa1dTWuRPRsN7RcQ2g-88bBhQMap-IbIji4k5FKV0ynQnQt4mSToI-QwiphRefwo-xqqVxR-L-bFqGs9a3-lpUM-QF1T2hqDMMKr2TnTBWyNFGvaOmz33u3TFBRKHPFMg/s1600/IMG_6949.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAj1QPpet2KOa1dTWuRPRsN7RcQ2g-88bBhQMap-IbIji4k5FKV0ynQnQt4mSToI-QwiphRefwo-xqqVxR-L-bFqGs9a3-lpUM-QF1T2hqDMMKr2TnTBWyNFGvaOmz33u3TFBRKHPFMg/s1600/IMG_6949.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new best friends.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One medieval narrative of divine space seems of particular interest, as it extends across several geographic and linguistic communities. The narrative, retold throughout the region and down through the ages, leads the reader into a dark and mysterious cave in the northeastern region of Ireland.<br />
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The cave was known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Patrick's_Purgatory" target="_blank">Saint Patrick's Purgatory</a> and was said to have been the earthly site of Purgatory. This concrete physical location became a vastly important pilgrimage site for both natives of Ireland as well as curious travelers. These pilgrimages continue to take place, and in fact <a href="http://www.loughderg.org/" target="_blank">you can go yourself</a> if you like, although the cave itself was filled in during the mid-XVIII century and replaced with a chapel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgkAH_Btn4WhY9-p1LBPiJPvmO2DGegayWpVbyzS8x1T2EuT8dF5sOGmu1wNpSCsJpVwmOGt3Mbpqyox70m0iIsg6313LZi3fwP0kbCMvXPa6qfEoEFU0WHUOPAUgccNRucXotRgVAPs/s1600/IMG_6938.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgkAH_Btn4WhY9-p1LBPiJPvmO2DGegayWpVbyzS8x1T2EuT8dF5sOGmu1wNpSCsJpVwmOGt3Mbpqyox70m0iIsg6313LZi3fwP0kbCMvXPa6qfEoEFU0WHUOPAUgccNRucXotRgVAPs/s1600/IMG_6938.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Books from left to right: <i>The Voyage of Saint Brendan - Journey to the Promised Land, </i>trans. John O'Meara<i>; Viaje al Purgatorio </i>by Ramón de Perellós; <i>Visions of Heaven and Hell Before Dante </i>by Eileen Gardener</td></tr>
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I recently read a version of this narrative that fascinated me, written by the Catalan diplomat, Ramón de Perellós, right-hand man to king <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_of_Aragon" target="_blank">Juan I of Aragón</a> (XIV century). Following the king's sudden death in a hunting accident, Perellós made the journey to the cave of purgatory in Ireland, in hopes of speaking with the deceased king and discovering the fate of his soul. This appeared to be, then, a diplomatic journey to Purgatory, aimed at settling a matter of State. The yellow book in the photo above is a modern copy of his 1397 account, <i>Journey to Purgatory</i> (my translation).<br />
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In spite of the stated purpose for the journey, Perellós' account of covers little of his encounter with the deceased king he successfully visited in purgatory, glossing over a brief conversation in which Perellós confirms that, indeed, the king died in an accident and was destined for paradise after purging the final stains of venial sins.<br />
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Perellós went into great detail, however, about the demons that accosted him, the dark and narrow tunnels he traveled through, the immense joy and relief he experienced upon arriving in the anteroom to heaven, and the dread and tearful departure he made from there, returning to the mouth of the cave and the rest of the world to go on living. Rather than recount a "diplomatic mission" (albeit a cosmic one), Perellós ends up with a travel diary that includes detailed descriptions of evil and divine space. <br />
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What makes <i>Journey to Purgatory</i> so different from Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i> is that Perellós' journey has been historically documented and was considered to be not a work of poetry but an autobiographical composition by a respected courtier. Perellós brought several companions with him, received several letters of recommendation from French and British monarchs, documented his expenses and the stops he made along the way; in other words, historians can confirm that he actually did travel to Ireland and actually did enter the cave thought to be the mouth of Purgatory. The way his work was read and interpreted would've differed greatly from the way people read and interpreted Dante. ...More on Perellós to come!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PXY3Xb73z_4ztBYPQKQrKRSVozS_d50YlLD-nrfDRaMDIon-dHL_yFxa7l0-tYM3sy893wGo1C5ynPPV2h399u_XdzM65-lHNIzmIKPD5coyp1sYxY73BeAXspOBaG58tdd9bCoI5kQ/s1600/IMG_6925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PXY3Xb73z_4ztBYPQKQrKRSVozS_d50YlLD-nrfDRaMDIon-dHL_yFxa7l0-tYM3sy893wGo1C5ynPPV2h399u_XdzM65-lHNIzmIKPD5coyp1sYxY73BeAXspOBaG58tdd9bCoI5kQ/s1600/IMG_6925.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beauty of painted vellum and historiated initial letters.</td></tr>
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When not reading about caves and demons, much of my pleasure reading has been centered on how medieval texts were made, stored, and circulated. I have subsequently spent a good deal of time in the <a href="http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/specialcollections/" target="_blank">Special Collections Library</a>, taking advantage of their collection of pre-modern manuscripts.</div>
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If you are interested in learning more about how manuscripts were made prior to the advent of the printing press, check out this fantastic video produced by the Getty Museum: </div>
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Finally, because making one's way through histories of purgatory and heaven and hell can be daunting, it is important to temper the heaviosity with puppies. That's right. PUPPIES. I'm not just talking about the adorable youtube snugglers that steal my heart on a daily basis, I'm talking about medieval pets. Thank goodness I found Kathleen Walker-Meikle's well-researched and thoughtfully written volume, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Pets-Kathleen-Walker-Meikle/dp/1843837587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405891281&sr=8-1&keywords=medieval+pets" target="_blank">Medieval Pets</a> </i>(2012). </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two of the books at the top of my pleasure reading stack.</td></tr>
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I wish I could read two things at once so that I could get to these all the many wonderful books I've collected before the summer slips away and the Fall semester takes over my life. The good news is that I will certainly not lack for good reading adventures to share with you, dear petticoat rustlers! More to come soon on the beauty of vellum, the foul stench of hell, the promise of purgatory, the lives of Portuguese clerics, the medieval Mediterranean identity, and of course, puppies.....</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book stacks unnumbered!</td></tr>
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Until next time -- keep rustling!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-38188363441162772562014-04-01T22:09:00.000-07:002014-04-01T22:22:00.314-07:00In Dog Years<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCrrbfEEzOzt8Qbx5TIn59mLDMTwUKoESaTiLQiIVBSeWA7WqCzB0gEeRzx19wVbZwVy9vunsCuuwKoY1k84KZMv5HVHtNdjSs-W6UtAbG_TrLShTzRn40M2bczXqn5QBotfvdv6VYZa4/s1600/booj+and+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCrrbfEEzOzt8Qbx5TIn59mLDMTwUKoESaTiLQiIVBSeWA7WqCzB0gEeRzx19wVbZwVy9vunsCuuwKoY1k84KZMv5HVHtNdjSs-W6UtAbG_TrLShTzRn40M2bczXqn5QBotfvdv6VYZa4/s1600/booj+and+me.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My dog and I, almost 10 years ago, walking into the Pacific Ocean. </td></tr>
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Today was my dog Buju's 10th birthday. This is a significant milestone - he's 70 in dog years! I met Buju while walking along the Pacific coast in Costa Rica what seems like several lifetimes ago. My life was very different then; I was 18 and just starting to learn Spanish. I was on my own for my first time, playing violin and waiting tables in a small coastal town. My world was full of uncertainty, a fact which lead to not a small number of missteps.<br />
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At 18, I allowed initial gut reactions to guide my decision-making process. This was a process that, although on the one hand had significant drawbacks, on the other hand had glorious and unexpected triumphs. Inviting Buju into my life was definitely one of the triumphant decisions I made because not only have I been able to watch him grow into the great dog that he is, but also because he immediately set about making me into a better person with his humble, unwavering presence.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcEvEmrBPAG-9QiEcCCD3uOPEI3HbYMoVjy1tPbB7XgOktitAAKGu0B9O0pyYE3kD9_91HozmuJpfvwcDobgfdTo1DOmd7jhBJEuzAz8UliBjv7SYDIeRVqral1fmZ1_FvU0UyNvN3R7U/s1600/puppy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcEvEmrBPAG-9QiEcCCD3uOPEI3HbYMoVjy1tPbB7XgOktitAAKGu0B9O0pyYE3kD9_91HozmuJpfvwcDobgfdTo1DOmd7jhBJEuzAz8UliBjv7SYDIeRVqral1fmZ1_FvU0UyNvN3R7U/s1600/puppy.jpg" height="508" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inquisitive nose, floppy paws</td></tr>
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Together, we have lived 8 degrees off the equator in Costa Rica, in the Arizona desert, and in my native Wisconsin. He has been a steadfast traveling companion, a watchdog over many sad nights filled with tears, and the comic relief in tense moments. He always wants to be near me when I am reading, which gave me the solace and fortitude I needed in the many late nights I spent in preparation for my Masters Exams last year.<br />
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His guileless gaze greets me everyday, his intense curiosity forces me to breath fresh air no matter what the weather. And that's Buju: making me better, no matter what the weather.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vzl7-dJ-8HrOVQaFmijwVKW6K8gOpY9iafLJ742hGsMa-qqT9njFqz-CQ2gqlWkoHjkJLuR8dLcdbdhYqRGv3RVBM1rGze2HEme_ZHbdoEl_wtmmd4p8lF6VDNQoRZhnSjsSwm0m3b0/s1600/sleep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1vzl7-dJ-8HrOVQaFmijwVKW6K8gOpY9iafLJ742hGsMa-qqT9njFqz-CQ2gqlWkoHjkJLuR8dLcdbdhYqRGv3RVBM1rGze2HEme_ZHbdoEl_wtmmd4p8lF6VDNQoRZhnSjsSwm0m3b0/s1600/sleep.jpg" height="640" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The art of the nap</td></tr>
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I wrote a lot of poetry as an adolescent and into my early 20s. I haven't written anything in a very long time, but I thought in honor of Buju's special day, I'd write a little something dedicated to him...<br />
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<i>The cautious tilt of earth<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>brings you closer to <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>a season <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>of shedding.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The lingering flavor of bones – <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>tiny deaths of squirrels<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>and memories<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>of autumn. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The persistent dents of your dreams<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>pressed onto the aging foam </i></div>
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<i>of </i><i>the raft </i></div>
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<i>on which you drift in sleep. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>The kettle in the morning –<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Whines before it whistles;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>A daily pricking up<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>of ears. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Your face observing my breakfast<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>from the rounding <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>and rounding<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>of my knee.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-61023885627993241922014-03-31T02:00:00.000-07:002015-09-10T21:16:21.258-07:00Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZhHjHsK4rPOBU_kaBCAA6bFnwZo-X9L52vGF3dBjas02Kof08FvKSUzLRROisP0x2W7_S7ScizoP6k6_n1nHpaO3DtBPjKW0FTkr3lsC8OewXYV8J4R4Og2K318ZrJqbtC6nVU5PzLyw/s1600/letter+o+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZhHjHsK4rPOBU_kaBCAA6bFnwZo-X9L52vGF3dBjas02Kof08FvKSUzLRROisP0x2W7_S7ScizoP6k6_n1nHpaO3DtBPjKW0FTkr3lsC8OewXYV8J4R4Og2K318ZrJqbtC6nVU5PzLyw/s1600/letter+o+.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matteo da Milano (active 1492-1523) - Getty</td></tr>
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The sturdy vellum pages of pre- and early- modern manuscripts will likely prove capable of outliving our current digital processing systems, which have already been reinvented several times in the span of the last three decades. Crafted with extraordinary skill and care, these old manuscripts have for centuries preserved images and texts essential to understanding our artistic and cultural heritage legacy. The materials used in their creation has allowed them to weather the passage of a significant amount of time without falling apart.<br />
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I remember going to the Special Collections library and, for my first time, touching a book from the 17th-century. I gingerly approached the cradle in which it rested, trying not to even breathe on it, for fear that I'd somehow ruin it. A professor who had arranged the trip to the library leaned in and said something to the effect of: "Go ahead, turn the page. These things are quite durable. Vellum: undoubtedly a superior technology." </div>
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It's true, of course, that vellum and rag-paper used in the early modern period remains a far stronger material than the thin sheets of paper on which books are now printed. These manuscripts were also hand-sown, hand-bound into leather, and sometimes even hand-painted with incredible miniatures. </div>
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Although the bookmaking methods of the early modern period may have resulted in more resilient book objects, the digital age has been making those texts more and more readily available for study and enjoyment. As an increasing number of medieval manuscripts are digitized and sent into the world via the Internet, the more opportunity there is for discovery. </div>
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Discovery of these digitized manuscripts is significantly helped along by museum websites and blogs dedicated to the subject. For example, if you're not following <a href="http://sexycodicology.net/blog/" target="_blank">Sexy Codicology</a>, you're missing out. Their blog highlights at least one manuscript a week, exploring it with high resolution images of the text and its miniatures. They also have a sister project, the <a href="http://digitizedmedievalmanuscripts.org/" target="_blank">Digitized Medieval Manuscripts Maps</a> (DMMmaps) project, which allows viewers to interact with maps and texts as well as contribute data, via their crowd-source format. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip5yeBjWtBx4jhNSYiGHaYKpeeH-Cwit9qV78bxcVgu3aG8TGHnQ6xAM83DwLz9lQe70GOhF9Rfj0I4n7d075mdBDqTA9_WZJOk4qbHMcozeaCzGnS5npSilbYUjpWnk4bnZdavo6sFEk/s1600/court+workshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip5yeBjWtBx4jhNSYiGHaYKpeeH-Cwit9qV78bxcVgu3aG8TGHnQ6xAM83DwLz9lQe70GOhF9Rfj0I4n7d075mdBDqTA9_WZJOk4qbHMcozeaCzGnS5npSilbYUjpWnk4bnZdavo6sFEk/s1600/court+workshop.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Court workshop of Ludwig I of Lignite - Getty </td></tr>
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Recently, over at the DMMmaps blog, they did a piece on the Getty collection of digitized manuscripts. It is a treat for the eyes, complete with images and video of some of the many incredible book objects the Getty has in its collection. </div>
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I am thrilled that modern technology allows for such an incredible level of accessibility to these manuscripts, but at the same time I resent looking at them on the computer (not least because it means universities are more apt to withhold travel funding now that texts magically appear on the Internet for free). Seeing these old books in person - smelling them, seeing their enormous physical weight, touching the binding where the hands of a 16th-century bookbinder sewed together the folios - its all part of the way the book is read. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloBxaTQpKk6pfdD8q9TLWD-xDoEr6XJ8E75V4jdCXxTbIVInl2to1P7CNvOgOk9yyd_OtPTUPnjRgOwwzhE1RAeJ5se3pjj9TfUgP07rDl828PcMuRTYiFj2BguRDGscbX-IcDiinYGU/s1600/beheading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhloBxaTQpKk6pfdD8q9TLWD-xDoEr6XJ8E75V4jdCXxTbIVInl2to1P7CNvOgOk9yyd_OtPTUPnjRgOwwzhE1RAeJ5se3pjj9TfUgP07rDl828PcMuRTYiFj2BguRDGscbX-IcDiinYGU/s1600/beheading.jpg" width="506" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unknown illuminator - "The Lamb Defeating the Ten Kings" (c. 1220-35) - Getty </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
I am grateful to have a world of images at my fingertips through my computer, but I am also increasingly aware that reading a book is more than making sense of the words and images on the page... it is reading what went into making the page, binding the pages together, where the ink came from and how it flowed out into words, how hundreds of brush strokes and gold leaf made an image, hiding inside a letter "R" come to life. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Recently, I watched a documentary on the making of museum-grade copies of one of the world's most treasured atlases, which hails from a slightly later time period than the texts pictured above. Nevertheless, I highly recommend taking a peek at this fascinating story, that tells of both the atlas' original creation and its modern re-creation in facsimile. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/K8PwLOXMX3w?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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There is an almost meditative quality about the slow and meticulous processes of producing a book you know will be able to last for a long time into the future. The original context in which the Atlas Blaeu Van der Hem was produced required hours upon hours of artists, working at their craft, traveling across oceans into completely unknown lands. I like that here, the folks reproducing the Atlas Blaeu go through a slow and meticulous process also, but in a completely modern way. They travel into the field of digital technology and emerge with a new/old book that has apparently married the last 600 years of bookmaking methods.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyzasCst2tZ2AR-9wCbTWKNKIg063c35K5Hl9LMVO1nNV7n1nt4n_E1DK8Rz6hu60qYJDQx_3naKqQ2HNLDVeycU5jW_O7K9F7dFzpaCKS4vXPzKSWI8-xs783BJGHwxhu_lUMeFXMW4/s1600/letter+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyzasCst2tZ2AR-9wCbTWKNKIg063c35K5Hl9LMVO1nNV7n1nt4n_E1DK8Rz6hu60qYJDQx_3naKqQ2HNLDVeycU5jW_O7K9F7dFzpaCKS4vXPzKSWI8-xs783BJGHwxhu_lUMeFXMW4/s1600/letter+b.jpg" width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unknown illuminator - <br />
"Inhabited initial letter 'B'" <br />
(c. 1153) - Getty </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This is one of those stories that gives me hope that the digital age is likely very compatible with the study and appreciation of medieval texts. Which is good news, because I've been drooling over the Getty images all weekend. </div>
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***</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What are your favorite old books? Have you ever had the chance to read from a book several hundred years old? </div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Until next time - keep rustling!</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-46997077804402383562014-03-30T10:56:00.000-07:002014-03-30T11:00:16.581-07:00Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhI463_DE_gRm1F2m8k9VWbpV15uY6bsfxfgA-E6GCZBzO4r2-tikEg1sXdRbhyphenhyphenTnhRg4I8bpppatAiCtR5byPYZIGRenmD6y1O0jYakO06Ov0bBoQgdUayAVZTH6THFhRzOxAOd3bhc/s1600/Allegory+of+Spring+Sandro+Botticelli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhI463_DE_gRm1F2m8k9VWbpV15uY6bsfxfgA-E6GCZBzO4r2-tikEg1sXdRbhyphenhyphenTnhRg4I8bpppatAiCtR5byPYZIGRenmD6y1O0jYakO06Ov0bBoQgdUayAVZTH6THFhRzOxAOd3bhc/s1600/Allegory+of+Spring+Sandro+Botticelli.jpg" height="414" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Allegory of Spring by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Spring is nearly upon us. To celebrate: e.e. cummings and Renaissance paintings featuring the spirit of the season. <br />
<br />
<i>"Spring is like a perhaps hand" - e.e. cummings</i><br />
<br />
Spring is like a perhaps hand<br />
(which comes carefully<br />
out of Nowhere) arranging<br />
a window, into which people look (while<br />
people stare<br />
arranging and changing placing<br />
carefully there a strange<br />
thins and a known thing here) and<br />
<br />
changing everything carefully<br />
<br />
spring is like a perhaps<br />
Hand in a window<br />
(carefully to<br />
and fro moving New and<br />
Old things, while<br />
people stare carefully<br />
moving a perhaps<br />
fraction of a flower here placing<br />
an inch of air there) and<br />
<br />
without breaking anything.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfKzvCpqxl0gwlIEH9khDuT0g8SPdUMwHms2sCzdums4pHsru0yIYB_b4o69qIdfnB23yT7C_UB_evwKJ7sPF46-SM9w_y24spnb8X88LAXcnmkfOmVYj8hte7GTe8kUQbZzEVahCH0k/s1600/Bruegel+P2+SpringC1600Vassar+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdfKzvCpqxl0gwlIEH9khDuT0g8SPdUMwHms2sCzdums4pHsru0yIYB_b4o69qIdfnB23yT7C_UB_evwKJ7sPF46-SM9w_y24spnb8X88LAXcnmkfOmVYj8hte7GTe8kUQbZzEVahCH0k/s1600/Bruegel+P2+SpringC1600Vassar+web.jpg" height="460" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spring by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, c. 1622-35</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>[in Just -] - e.e. cummings</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
in Just-<br />
spring when the world is mud-<br />
luscious the little<br />
lame balloonman<br />
<br />
whistles far and wee<br />
<br />
and eddieandbill come<br />
running from marbles and<br />
piracies and it's<br />
spring<br />
<br />
when the world is puddle-wonderful<br />
<br />
the queer<br />
old balloon man whistles<br />
far and wee<br />
and bettyandisbel come dancing<br />
<br />
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and<br />
<br />
it's<br />
spring<br />
and<br />
<br />
the<br />
<br />
goat-footed<br />
<br />
balloonMan whistles<br />
<br />
far<br />
and<br />
wee<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLlSwSaUNBl6dLAFyilthEUEbUUS6vaWfoqAp1qPYi75N_7WnY2ipAyXIXGT_rlItqMK1dL0Qs8Kq81EZcm9G8Jpijn4LG9cstgi5BTIrvGlrtw88uUIPeKC5OMRyzOF9Gxr7paAhfZA/s1600/nymph+of+spring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLlSwSaUNBl6dLAFyilthEUEbUUS6vaWfoqAp1qPYi75N_7WnY2ipAyXIXGT_rlItqMK1dL0Qs8Kq81EZcm9G8Jpijn4LG9cstgi5BTIrvGlrtw88uUIPeKC5OMRyzOF9Gxr7paAhfZA/s1600/nymph+of+spring.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nymph of Spring by Lucas Cranach the Younger, c. 1545-50</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
***</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Until next time - keep rustling!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-68851956360099084482014-03-29T11:00:00.002-07:002014-03-29T11:01:19.983-07:00Ghost Lovers <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczf0gKQ3pQloWFAOSkRG1i6dbtL3niipMOkWpb5zzVGb4ZyXckL1cIJSKWszdoz0ygokCiedc1VQdvU_wGL0eJYGjxItRBg5LbC3RxPN9NX9NpBvbCVfX8-RdwZJzC5qiXlv8WxJ9sE0/s1600/orpheus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgczf0gKQ3pQloWFAOSkRG1i6dbtL3niipMOkWpb5zzVGb4ZyXckL1cIJSKWszdoz0ygokCiedc1VQdvU_wGL0eJYGjxItRBg5LbC3RxPN9NX9NpBvbCVfX8-RdwZJzC5qiXlv8WxJ9sE0/s1600/orpheus.jpg" height="448" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orpheus and Eurydice by Sir Edward John Poynter (19th century)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The last couple of posts (<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/they-stand-on-earth-and-they-cast-their.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/chivalry-and-sentimental-novel.html" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/macias-lover.html" target="_blank">here</a>) have dealt with the way in which love and death are intertwined in Renaissance literature, provoking melodramatic <a href="http://youtu.be/3SA2KsY0ZRI" target="_blank">liebestod</a> finales to a host of 15th and 16th century narratives. In the process of considering these narratives in which the desire to love lead to a desire for death, however, I was reminded of the stories in which death failed to create an insurmountable boundary for the lovers. The surge in popularity of classical Greek mythology in humanist Renaissance Europe makes me think that it would not be a huge leap of faith to assume the tale of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus" target="_blank">Orpheus and Eurydice</a> was fresh in the minds of poets and authors composing sentimental romances.<br />
<br />
Orpheus is prepared to descend to the underworld to bring back his lover, not accepting death as the final act of his love story. But in his refusal to accept Eurydice's death, he confirms its permanence, looking back over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of her ghost materializing behind him. In popular folk narratives, stories in which lovers return from the grave for one final visit are not uncommon. This "one final visit," I believe, can be seen to function in two ways. On the one hand, the ghost returns to comfort their lover and properly say goodbye. On the other hand, it affirms the finality and permanence of death's grip, ending with the ghost vanishing back into the realm of the dead.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOuFZYRVj_BxJI4M0q3O7rLab6jv5qSJi9z7hInoZCZP-0q8UkSs3FKSKdACZRsW3niHBf3Jl7eNhYuKuPGyqh6i-bfy1n9Zyh-3hejT-oE20Ae-l8DgM89as6VMUzls5rO4b_7P7R5SA/s1600/Orpheus_SpencerStanhope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOuFZYRVj_BxJI4M0q3O7rLab6jv5qSJi9z7hInoZCZP-0q8UkSs3FKSKdACZRsW3niHBf3Jl7eNhYuKuPGyqh6i-bfy1n9Zyh-3hejT-oE20Ae-l8DgM89as6VMUzls5rO4b_7P7R5SA/s1600/Orpheus_SpencerStanhope.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orpheus and Eurydice on the Banks of the Styx by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (19th century)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Although none of the 15th century Iberian stories that I've looked at over the past week narrate a lover returned from the dead, I do recall an Irish folksong that my mother always used to sing when I was little. It is a night visiting song, in which the ghost of a young woman's lover who died at sea wakes her one night to say one last farewell.<br />
<br />
Here is a nice version of the song:<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IhWVp0cV3hY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
A similar tale is recounted in "The Night Visiting Song" by Luke Kelly:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/WMGvQ2v-ZRM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
These are potent stories that emerge across many cultures and historical periods. I recently stumbled across a cajun-French song from Louisiana, "Pa Janvier," performed beautifully by the <a href="http://fliartists.com/concert-collaborations/international-blues-express-cedric-watson-and-sidi-toure/" target="_blank">International Blues Express</a>. The song is a sorrowful appeal to Father January (Pa Janvier), the allegorical figure for winter, whose icy cold wind stole the health and life of a young woman. The song is the lament of the young woman's lover who has survived her, and he pleads with Father January to return to him his love.<br />
<br />
They were recorded doing the song by the <a href="http://the78project.com/" target="_blank">78 Project</a>, a husband and wife duo traveling the country recording traditional musicians on a 78 recording machine, very much in the style of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lomax" target="_blank">Alan Lomax</a>. Take a listen to these incredible musicians (who hail from the American Delta and West Africa) perform the doleful tune for their recording session:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/85146954?byline=0&color=f56740" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> </div>
<br />
***<br />
Do you know any night visiting songs? What are your favorite tales of ghost lovers?<br />
<br />
Until next time - keep rustling!<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-30397394703694106922014-03-28T11:53:00.001-07:002014-03-28T14:58:09.207-07:00They Stand on the Earth and They Cast Their Own Shadows <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zW0SZj6lYaJ7MVc_pIiyHtuUQvARTTRPJiqETnZROimgCcuBPo-gAwMXzjj4b2wrbZcmKDbp8nFqlq6PAYmgU_rkCXgNjAZZHEd1Xa7XvIebayXx9321ROQCnmbcJp95YuQN6iZD12E/s1600/Masaccio_-_The_Expulsion_from_the_Garden_of_Eden_(detail)_-_WGA14180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zW0SZj6lYaJ7MVc_pIiyHtuUQvARTTRPJiqETnZROimgCcuBPo-gAwMXzjj4b2wrbZcmKDbp8nFqlq6PAYmgU_rkCXgNjAZZHEd1Xa7XvIebayXx9321ROQCnmbcJp95YuQN6iZD12E/s1600/Masaccio_-_The_Expulsion_from_the_Garden_of_Eden_(detail)_-_WGA14180.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from Masaccio's painting of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve in the Brancacci Chapel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The many star-crossed lovers of <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/chivalry-and-sentimental-novel.html" target="_blank">yesterday's post </a>may have come from different literary traditions, but they were all unified by the way in which suffering and desire became hopelessly and fatally tangled in their stories. These tragedies, unfolding at the intersection of pleasure and pain, presented themselves as not only believable love stories but <i>natural</i> ones. The <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/macias-lover.html" target="_blank">sentimental romances</a> and lyric of the late-Medieval/early-Renaissance Mediterranean make it seem hauntingly natural that the birth of love should lead to the death of lovers.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMo0wXpfACko1OXVrsC6zmW23A6TvaOtDq-A1ZKoccYVJTgw-5n7O-9hLThUmbINO_tU63bEyvTWJXoYx5MvX5S8kGrwQQP9y6aBaD3BdbhB2yztpj0Yuy1iCqAjNsBj8zWRozMZidlY/s1600/masaccio+adam+and+eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMo0wXpfACko1OXVrsC6zmW23A6TvaOtDq-A1ZKoccYVJTgw-5n7O-9hLThUmbINO_tU63bEyvTWJXoYx5MvX5S8kGrwQQP9y6aBaD3BdbhB2yztpj0Yuy1iCqAjNsBj8zWRozMZidlY/s1600/masaccio+adam+and+eve.jpg" height="400" width="165" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Masaccio's painting of <br />
Adam and Eve in the<br />
Brancacci Chapel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In grappling with what makes death and desire so inextricably linked in the literary production of this time period, I decided my research needed to go back to the beginning - all the way to the beginning - in order to ascertain the origin of this link. And by "the beginning," I mean the book of Genesis.<br />
<br />
The story of Adam and Eve sheds a great deal of light on the connection of desire and death. As a result of their expulsion, they became mortal and died. But at this same moment death becomes their reality, they are born into their humanity and therefore sexuality. As Adam and Eve leave the garden, they experience a sudden awareness of their bodies. This awareness inspires both a tragic self-consciousness full of shame and a thrilling awakening to the possibilities of material connection with one another. In the story of Adam and Eve the origin of human death and suffering is also the origin of human sexuality.<br />
<br />
Although it was not the love Adam and Eve had for one another that caused their suffering, as is the case in the sentimental romances, their relationship was defined by the moment in which they became fully human and began experiencing together love, suffering, and death. This confused and terrible moment of leaving Eden unites Adam and Eve (archetypes of all women and men) in both love and death forever.<br />
<br />
Patricia Grieve, in her book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Desire-Spanish-Sentimental-Romance-1440-1550/dp/0936388226/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396030120&sr=8-2&keywords=desire+and+death+in+the+sentimental+romance+patricia+grieve" target="_blank">Desire and Death in the Sentimental Romance</a>,</i> has referred to love and death as the two great mysteries of humanity and thus as necessarily occurring side-by-side in literary representation: "As the two great topics of poetry - unsolvable mysteries both - it is no surprise that [love and death] should appear with great frequency in literature."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaccio" target="_blank">Masaccio</a>, the Italian painter of the 15th-century, had a profound influence on other painters of his century and on the Renaissance in general. His depiction of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brancacci_Chapel" target="_blank">Brancacci Chapel</a> eloquently narrates a scene of great suffering <i>and</i> great beauty, all embodied by the human form.<br />
<br />
When renowned art historian and critic, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Beckett" target="_blank">Sister Wendy</a>, contemplated this image, she noted how representational it was of the overarching ethos of the Renaissance. To the denizens of the Renaissance world, humanity was dignified, in spite of the suffering and grief with which it also constantly had to contend. "They stand on the earth and they cast their own shadows," Sister Wendy said, "that's what the Renaissance was about: humanity as upright, suffering but responsible."<br />
<br />
This insight, I believe, is crucial to understanding the link between desire and death in Renaissance works of literature. The overwhelming feelings of love experienced by the protagonists of 15th-century sentimental romances were invariably accompanied by a sense of immense responsibility owed to the object of their feelings. Love allowed the protagonist to encounter the eternal for the first time - feeling love was connecting with a never-ending current of human emotion. But the precarious business of ensuring that their love was fully requited by the object of their desire endangered their experience of the "eternal" nature of love. This caused great anxiety and suffering until it seemed their only recourse was to experience eternity in the only other bodily way available: death.<br />
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***<br />
To hear the rest of Sister Wendy's incredibly preceptive discussion of Masaccio's painting, watch this video from minutes 2:00 - 5:00. If you happen to have 30 minutes available, I highly recommend watching the entire episode.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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***<br />
Until next time - kept rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-57058457593846980612014-03-27T09:04:00.000-07:002014-03-27T09:40:31.364-07:00Chivalry and the Sentimental Novel<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaju5V5geIeqrv0M8o7Lycs9nGA5r-A7WTT8RCeV91uWsb1wVmRPnBQxk10oDT5bibUO_HuAp5-sRdmvjCcg4LTVZYotaPfSre4FORe4OMhnTI-17JyQ3g8nWAfzEQK3jsZkOjyTDxMHY/s1600/Leighton-Tristan_and_Isolde-1902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaju5V5geIeqrv0M8o7Lycs9nGA5r-A7WTT8RCeV91uWsb1wVmRPnBQxk10oDT5bibUO_HuAp5-sRdmvjCcg4LTVZYotaPfSre4FORe4OMhnTI-17JyQ3g8nWAfzEQK3jsZkOjyTDxMHY/s1600/Leighton-Tristan_and_Isolde-1902.jpg" height="556" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tristan and Iseult by Edmund Blair Leighton (1853-1922)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/macias-lover.html" target="_blank">Yesterday's post</a> began a discussion on the curious intersection of love and suffering in 14th and 15th century literature, specifically the sentimental romance. While we looked at the mythologized life story of Macías the Lover yesterday, today I would like to talk about some historical factors influencing the emergence of the genre.<br />
<br />
The literature produced in this genre generally had an extremely predictable plot, which in turn placed greater emphasis on the authors' ability to invent and describe new forms of love-induced torture for their characters. Some of the suffering was allegorical (for example, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_San_Pedro" target="_blank">The Prison of Love</a> </i>opens with the protagonist allowing himself to be lead by a wildman - symbol of loss of reason - into a tower where he sits upon a burning throne where he will always hurt but never be consumed - symbol of the burning passion of the heart and the fiery punishments for such passions awaiting him in hell). In other cases, the suffering was real and physical, and certainly the deaths at the end were always permanent. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnybXEqp0-mMGI1MY0lRsUlAcS_nREo7R4d2tjOHM7wl1zF5UqmT5vdA5kyakuRya_H_uQq58ERrOC3dN6rAF3-P2o4Vk-Du3Z9fpJrsli-XMb4jNRbPtbFbESng9fY6PhF99UGrgapA/s1600/carcel+de+amor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnybXEqp0-mMGI1MY0lRsUlAcS_nREo7R4d2tjOHM7wl1zF5UqmT5vdA5kyakuRya_H_uQq58ERrOC3dN6rAF3-P2o4Vk-Du3Z9fpJrsli-XMb4jNRbPtbFbESng9fY6PhF99UGrgapA/s1600/carcel+de+amor.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entering the allegorical <br />
"prison of love"</td></tr>
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</div>
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Unlike other European renditions of fated love stories (see the stories of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_and_Iseult" target="_blank">Tristam</a> or <a href="http://www.arthurian-legend.com/more-about/more-about-arthur-9.php" target="_blank">Lancelot</a>), the characters in Iberian sentimental romances never enjoyed any kind of physical union - there was no kissing or embracing and there certainly was no sex. Frequently, the lovers only occupied the same physical space for a few brief, fleeting moments. The pain and punishment resulting from those few moments came in spite of an utter lack of hope that love would've ever manifested itself physically. Truly, then, this is a genre of all pain and no pleasure. The desire, it seems, grows in the pain and not the temporary fulfillment of sexual fantasy. </div>
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In her book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9780820449937" target="_blank">Clio, Eros, Thanatos: The 'Novela Sentimental' in Context</a></i>, Theresa Ann Sears posits that a shift in social and economic relationships lead to such aesthetic trends in 15th and 16th century western European literature. "National monarchies had slowly undermined the feudal relationships based on exchanges of protection for goods and services," she writes. "Advances in weaponry were eroding the efficacy of troops of mounted, armored knights, putting greater emphasis on, on the one hand, a professional soldiery, and on the other, conscripted or hired infantries. Such changes resulted in an increasingly idle aristocracy that indulged (negatively) considerable social disruption and decadence, and (more ambiguously) in an aesthetization of its role." </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHKVFaPeaMIiVnI5mCsdvSIhkM5qAprFdLDqrIDlXGyJlva2NIDLlqWcY1FmsLUR7qHY5UgKLtAOh2UO9umRJ2A8EaMEwcRQC-QAJB_6SXkszyfznd9_aongtNdfazzpqw6enwkU6ZQc/s1600/rodriguez_montalvo_amadis_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHKVFaPeaMIiVnI5mCsdvSIhkM5qAprFdLDqrIDlXGyJlva2NIDLlqWcY1FmsLUR7qHY5UgKLtAOh2UO9umRJ2A8EaMEwcRQC-QAJB_6SXkszyfznd9_aongtNdfazzpqw6enwkU6ZQc/s1600/rodriguez_montalvo_amadis_1.jpg" height="308" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image of Amadis of Gaul, Spain's most beloved <br />
protagonist of a chivalric novel</td></tr>
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<div>
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These changes in social dynamics undoubtedly influenced artistic production. I believe that as the role of the knight became destabilized by changing strategies in armed conflict, a gap widened in the popular imagination of heroism. Slowly, the chivalric knight of the high middle ages faded - the noble and proud figure, mounted on his horse and prepared to suffer any hardship in service of his king, receded from reality into fiction. In the absence of a heroic cause for which to suffer and die, a different one was summoned to take its place: women. </div>
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<div>
The so-called "religion of love" integrated religious imagery with sexual metaphors, blasphemously elevating the "perfect" feminine to god-like status (think: Act 1, Scene 5 of <i>Romeo and Juliet, </i>in which Romeo convinces Juliet to kiss him by equating their lips to the hands of saints that press together in prayer). Knights needed to serve a higher purpose, and if their king had no urgent save-the-Christian-world errand on which to send them, they remained at home, surrounded by the people who had always remained home (women!). Women became the inspiration for "heroic" deeds and tragically "noble" deaths. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1_za8Fs0W60sF98Asky0IgU0H8vJuTUIEoKuYrRyGtL-G06nDnDN3XDWQ4itM1yf5yiBiYPF7lnuNwf3piKYLn0n4SHKxCixKQZg89jlcnCZoev86a3iK6YvGvz0-YD-RILZ-kgsElY/s1600/La+Celestina+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1_za8Fs0W60sF98Asky0IgU0H8vJuTUIEoKuYrRyGtL-G06nDnDN3XDWQ4itM1yf5yiBiYPF7lnuNwf3piKYLn0n4SHKxCixKQZg89jlcnCZoev86a3iK6YvGvz0-YD-RILZ-kgsElY/s1600/La+Celestina+1.jpeg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frontispiece of <i>La Celestina </i>revealing<br />
the text's ending</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course, this lead to some problems for women (see my <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/medieval-women-and-their-fans.html" target="_blank">previous post</a> on the wide-spread, public debate on women during this same time period). But this was also indicative of a growing problem for men. The masculine identity was in crisis, and I believe that the pain, torture, and deaths of the male characters in sentimental romances are indicative of this profound cultural crisis. Attempting to define themselves negatively (i.e. writing about the defining characteristics of women to indicate what men <i>are not</i>) only succeeded in turning the once-herioc male trope of chivalric novels into a purposeless, impotent, lost soul, pinning after little more than an affair.<br />
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Women were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_Mart%C3%ADnez_de_Toledo" target="_blank">lambasted</a> repeatedly and as a result the "religion of love." Clergy were scandalized by the idolatrous fascination with "perfect" women that were supposedly suddenly in abundance; other men of the court also rejected this idealized image of women. So the "religion of love" faltered - the perfect object of desire was now painted in popular imagination as nagging and emotionally unstable. Along with this debate, the sentimental romance genre waned in popularity until coming to an abrupt and definitive halt in 1499, with the publication of Fernando de Rojas' <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Celestina" target="_blank">La Celestina</a>. </i><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiesA263Fj4rVsLyOTYw0onKocg7P9se4vjzqjlCDhhn0xFQ3_9agrvFJ3G4hBYg1ZnIIMvhVWqf1uY9c_7lgG1PqH-kbvUvGKXPy2GW51dtOivhROKkbNy_7aOvZtMNxFd4IR7l_e8vBc/s1600/La+Celestina+5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiesA263Fj4rVsLyOTYw0onKocg7P9se4vjzqjlCDhhn0xFQ3_9agrvFJ3G4hBYg1ZnIIMvhVWqf1uY9c_7lgG1PqH-kbvUvGKXPy2GW51dtOivhROKkbNy_7aOvZtMNxFd4IR7l_e8vBc/s1600/La+Celestina+5.jpeg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Chapter 5 of <i>La Celestina </i><br />
Note: Celestina is depicted as a nun</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Written as if it were a play (though not necessarily intended to be performed), this text parodied all of the fundamental elements of the sentimental novel. The star-crossed lovers were not all that attractive, they were half-witted and decidedly uncharming, their servants found them pedantic and silly and made no effort to hide their disdain. Worst of all, rather than appealing to the "godliness" of the object of desire, the story appeals to the black magic of the <i>alcahueta </i>(go-between, procuress, "witch") who gives the work its name. (Interestingly, the title of the work was not originally <i>La Celestina, </i>but because this ugly, greedy, devil-consorting witch was such a great character, her name quickly replaced the original title to sell more copies).<br />
<br />
Much of <i>La Celestina </i>is quite funny but it comes to the same customarily tragic ending that all sentimental novels do. But the damage to the genre has been done - the successful parody of the entire pleasure/pain trope had been reduced to foolhardiness and superstition.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, <i>La Celestina </i>came at the end of almost a century of sentimental romance production. The proliferation of Macías' story alone in these novels, in lyric, in Spain, in Portugal, is enough to indicate that pleasure and pain have a natural alliance, in spite of Fernando de Rojas' parody of the sentimental genre. I am interested in finding out more about how that alliance worked in the minds and hearts of 15th-century writers and readers... so stay tuned!<br />
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***<br />
Until next time -- keep rustling!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-17909611662263510072014-03-26T12:36:00.001-07:002014-03-26T12:41:21.171-07:00Macías, The Lover<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcJJRDYrGt0kKnr-hq_xcTp0gTYQC9mYl_mO45yLUrlC0up1fTjGRz-NlUS-2Zr8DQsRYe_KzanDqJBghdy7qDAHTDA45VjZAxa1yuY9FGzFDggCsXwlepPIucXGo-hlAR1_G9_bE6qc/s1600/maci%CC%81as+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGcJJRDYrGt0kKnr-hq_xcTp0gTYQC9mYl_mO45yLUrlC0up1fTjGRz-NlUS-2Zr8DQsRYe_KzanDqJBghdy7qDAHTDA45VjZAxa1yuY9FGzFDggCsXwlepPIucXGo-hlAR1_G9_bE6qc/s1600/maci%CC%81as+.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of the 14th-century troubadour, Macías "The Lover," in Galicia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Reading literature aloud and listening to it recited offers such a <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/08/in-short-belly-dancing-and-oral.html" target="_blank">vastly different experience</a> with a story than does reading in silence. I cannot fathom why reading or reciting creative works aloud has faded almost entirely away from mainstream popular culture, especially since books are more portable and accessible than ever thanks to new reading technology.<br />
<div>
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<div>
In <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-gray-pilgrim.html" target="_blank">yesterday's post</a>, I encouraged you to read aloud from Tolkien's stories. I read several of the poems from the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings out loud, to the bewilderment of my sole audience member: my elderly dog. But oral recitation used to be one of the most important methods of narrative transmission. Mediterranean courts of the medieval period, for example, prized highly troubadours gifted with the ability to write and perform poetic works. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4NhbNxTCzLI4Apr2Dw7ngmshuPbg2iqlXcDb7ic7GP2U8fBu3iemC54dxjwO7Xy8AGNSkQJCsnlezVshDjLaR4KZLA5kaT9Yl2_bMtSB6niRanMLFA_eSpevkXrv0686-Bxk6Ozadlk/s1600/IMG_6339.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4NhbNxTCzLI4Apr2Dw7ngmshuPbg2iqlXcDb7ic7GP2U8fBu3iemC54dxjwO7Xy8AGNSkQJCsnlezVshDjLaR4KZLA5kaT9Yl2_bMtSB6niRanMLFA_eSpevkXrv0686-Bxk6Ozadlk/s1600/IMG_6339.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A far cry from Tolkien - the 14th-century poetry of Macías The Lover</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One such troubadour, Macías "The Lover" from <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Galicia/@42.7999285,-8.017728,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0xd2e7c868908156b:0xe1ac7930138c9642" target="_blank">Galicia</a>, was not only a gifted courtier poet, but he also posthumously became a character in poems, stories and plays all over the Iberian peninsula. His life became his greatest work of art; the legends that sprang up after his death were recited and performed more often than the poems he wrote. The mythologizing of this particular troubadour assured him eternal life in the creative circles in which he had worked, and in literary history in general.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJWjigEAyaoC4ltsQFF8c6Gw_UCaeJpF9rjmdaZwfRZGkIilft6htCSnqFt1LWizL6bkMoUWCok7bLpHTxkM_JzPG8lYsavR_ZsjWMxLDBZ1cPIenWId9LSC6kP1yticbxmPVz7ziTa4/s1600/IMG_6342.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJWjigEAyaoC4ltsQFF8c6Gw_UCaeJpF9rjmdaZwfRZGkIilft6htCSnqFt1LWizL6bkMoUWCok7bLpHTxkM_JzPG8lYsavR_ZsjWMxLDBZ1cPIenWId9LSC6kP1yticbxmPVz7ziTa4/s1600/IMG_6342.JPG" height="384" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some verses inspired by Macías' legend in a poem by Juan Rodríguez de Padrón, 15th-century poet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
The legend of his life is a tragic story of love and self-punishment. The story goes that Macías, hopelessly in love with a lady of the court, focused all of his verses on extolling her qualities, putting his all of his poetic talent in the service of her beauty and virtue. After a time, however, this lady was wed to another man. Macías had pledged to only love and serve this lady for his entire life, and he honored this pledge. </div>
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<div>
One day, as Macías lingered near a bridge, the now-married lady appeared on her horse. She wished to cross the bridge, but Macías asked her to dismount and speak with him for only a moment. Acquiescing to his request, the lady dismounted and listened as Macías reaffirmed his love for her and his pledge to serve her forever, even though it had to be from a distance. The lady was stunned by his words and, getting back on her horse, fled across the bridge. </div>
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<div>
Neither Macías nor the lady had been aware that nearby, hiding in some bushes, was the lady's husband. As soon as the lady had departed, the husband leaped onto the bridge and ran Macías through with his lance. As he lay in the middle of the bridge dying, Macías' last words were said to have been yet another pledge to the lady, this time vowing to serve her from the far-off reaches of death. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXM6NQV5C27RR-uRbPp2WSPiwBKW0W4jxLG_Yn49pGBl385DJKteBEmMChlbAWHWUbDvPuX0YtyG5HNRG6C8-9buJ566dlUXpgXkF3rRTUsGuwWdqpHdIW8sPRdt_7aY_lnHq6IGOncU/s1600/IMG_6340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKXM6NQV5C27RR-uRbPp2WSPiwBKW0W4jxLG_Yn49pGBl385DJKteBEmMChlbAWHWUbDvPuX0YtyG5HNRG6C8-9buJ566dlUXpgXkF3rRTUsGuwWdqpHdIW8sPRdt_7aY_lnHq6IGOncU/s1600/IMG_6340.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some verses from a poem by Macías - the poem starts out "Cruel and determined love"... </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
The real events of Macías' life have been so conflated with this legend that it is difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. Although that hardly matters, as the legend of his life is what became immortal and the inspiration for much subsequent literary production. I am interested in Macías' legend because it ended up playing an enormously influential role in the "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=mTwh7_R_XVsC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&dq=sentimental+romance+medieval+spain&source=bl&ots=4ms-mjqTBk&sig=cubmnQhqPfDnBDPiW61P8rT-Jn0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GA4zU6bqPMnXygHXloHgDQ&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=sentimental%20romance%20medieval%20spain&f=false" target="_blank">sentimental romance</a>" tradition, popular in 15th-century Iberia. The genre enjoyed huge reader success, reaching its apogee in 1492 with the publication of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_San_Pedro" target="_blank">Diego de San Pedro</a>'s work, <i>The Prison of Love. </i></div>
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The <i>novela sentimental </i>follows a narrative arch that is almost identical to the Macías legend. One young person falls desperately in love with another young person; for some reason they are not permitted to be together; both suffer physical and emotional trauma because of the intensity of their love (or the lack thereof); one or both lovers die a horribly tragic death, which is merely an anticipation of the eternal condemnation their restless soul will doubtless experience in its afterlife. </div>
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What interests me most about this genre is the way in which love and pain interact necessarily as part of the plot and character development. Here we have a genre of storytelling that reduces love to a rhetorical plot device, while pain takes center-stage and is explored on psychological, poetic, and social planes. It seems to me, then, that love was not the cause of suffering but rather an <i>excuse </i>to suffer. </div>
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I will be doing a series of posts on the interaction of pain and love in the coming weeks. This theme is, in fact, the central idea of one of the term papers I will be writing over the course of the next month. Check back often to see who is bitterly weeping tears of blood for a distant object of desire! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7v_nnnojAeeDz3G7Z5lAzGxXaME-ivpvnj_eMGv9E2k7q4e_pJBt0TQSS-O0F_bcgXxQw2XYOTZJeRG5gAf0h78le3EqIEK9G0DaucvbmkuIY4gi3nbgW4AX6zkQfmbNepJjVB7jX5w/s1600/IMG_6345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN7v_nnnojAeeDz3G7Z5lAzGxXaME-ivpvnj_eMGv9E2k7q4e_pJBt0TQSS-O0F_bcgXxQw2XYOTZJeRG5gAf0h78le3EqIEK9G0DaucvbmkuIY4gi3nbgW4AX6zkQfmbNepJjVB7jX5w/s1600/IMG_6345.JPG" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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***</div>
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Who are your favorite doomed lovers? Why do you think there is a necessary connection between pleasure and pain in tales of love? </div>
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Until next time - keep rustling! </div>
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{Note: all photos in this post except the first one were taken by me of a book called <i>Macías el Enamorado y Juan Rodríguez del Padrón </i>by Carlos Martinez-Barbeito, 1951 edition.}<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-31160518620369579482014-03-25T10:23:00.000-07:002014-03-25T14:41:17.327-07:00The Gray Pilgrim <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Frdkjehs2nA2eXqnbmWrHaHLf-YZAaN4fu2q4wFU3p1kzE7jWW-6M5TkEfjtn2ZTlF9GNClURNKCohravknNBnRY2Wo5ylxNGK3XT6T0Fjf_U7xKnS7PpUdC_-oCYV4sJmC0g5ZhWSk/s1600/jrr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Frdkjehs2nA2eXqnbmWrHaHLf-YZAaN4fu2q4wFU3p1kzE7jWW-6M5TkEfjtn2ZTlF9GNClURNKCohravknNBnRY2Wo5ylxNGK3XT6T0Fjf_U7xKnS7PpUdC_-oCYV4sJmC0g5ZhWSk/s1600/jrr.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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Today - March 25 - marks the day in which Sauron, the strongest lieutenant of Morgoth, was defeated in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Every year, this day is commemorated by fans and scholars of J.R.R. Tolkien as a day in which to read and reflect on his writing. The <a href="http://www.americantolkiensociety.org/home" target="_blank">Tolkien Society</a> has suggested that, as we read our favorite passages of Tolkien's writing today, we reflect on the theme "Hope."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_c0-jctpbDCVRrL81xFUhzlg14VgLvzSjphwud5AldCxusmb9RV3RHGrsOpT7A7YhZgYXsGPlPhVOy6_dd8e2Bj08MJ4j_zSAwTf7A9zRCA-5BISQXFmlC-2eoiVJqIbj5CNWtU8yXxg/s1600/IMG_6332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_c0-jctpbDCVRrL81xFUhzlg14VgLvzSjphwud5AldCxusmb9RV3RHGrsOpT7A7YhZgYXsGPlPhVOy6_dd8e2Bj08MJ4j_zSAwTf7A9zRCA-5BISQXFmlC-2eoiVJqIbj5CNWtU8yXxg/s1600/IMG_6332.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My reading material for today, a nice cuppa, and my husband's briar pipe</td></tr>
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The <a href="http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131024195737/playstationallstarsbattleroyale/images/5/53/Ian-mckellen-gandalf-the-grey-the-hobbit-pic2.jpg" target="_blank">Gray Pilgrim</a>, in my opinion, represents "Hope" more than any other character in the Tolkien canon. Known to the Valar as Olórin, to the Elves as Mithrandir, and to Men from the North as Gandalf, this gray-clad traveler roamed Middle-earth as its protector and friend. Gandalf was always getting up to something, checking on things, listening. He loved Middle-earth and its inhabitants, and countless times put his own life at stake to battle the threatening darkness of Sauron and his hoards.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiAlgW7W6K9qgUCkzaCztTrEt3zZQyZI6zSTAc10_P9JdsXK5qZm_dc8sW1VOAXhoxFlVkdmV8Zyw3mP8syQauwm8MqNtgF_rEqo5QWEuMwoGQdFwSgyE0lpHeMTqz-F7VgfCXTFELrs/s1600/IMG_6337.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiAlgW7W6K9qgUCkzaCztTrEt3zZQyZI6zSTAc10_P9JdsXK5qZm_dc8sW1VOAXhoxFlVkdmV8Zyw3mP8syQauwm8MqNtgF_rEqo5QWEuMwoGQdFwSgyE0lpHeMTqz-F7VgfCXTFELrs/s1600/IMG_6337.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Lord-Rings-Sketchbook-Alan/dp/0618640142" target="_blank">The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook</a> </i>by artist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lee_(illustrator)" target="_blank">Alan Lee</a>, open to the pages on Ganfalf </td></tr>
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Gandalf was equipped with great power, especially in the manipulation of fire, but chose to dress in a cloak the color of ash and display his power only for the mirth of the folk - in the form of fireworks - so that his influence never derived from fear.<br />
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Gandalf's qualities were unique among the Istari, the order of wizards from which he came, and he was the only one out of the 5 Istari who stayed true to their original mission. Tolkien writes of the order, and Gandalf's unique role in it, in an essay that first appeared in 1954 and is now part of the compiled works in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Tales-Lost-Lore-Middle-earth/dp/0345357116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395763444&sr=8-1&keywords=unfinished+tales+tolkien" target="_blank">Unfinished Tales</a>, </i>edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Here is a passage from that essay:<br />
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"Indeed, of all the Istari, one only remained faithful, and he was the last-comer. For Radagast, the fourth, became enamored of the many beasts and birds that dwelt in Middle-earth, and forsook Elves and Men, and spent his days among the wild creatures. ... And Curunír 'Lân, Saruman the White, fell from his high errand, and becoming proud and impatient and enamored of power sought to have his own will by force, and to oust Sauron; but he was ensnared by that dark spirit, mightier than he.<br />
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But the last-comer was named among the Elves Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, for he dwelt in no place, and gathered to himself neither wealth nor followers, but ever went to and fro in the Westlands from Gondor to Angmar, and from Lindon to Lórien, befriending all folk in times of need. Warm and eager was his spirit ... for he was the Enemy of Sauron, opposing the fire that devours and wastes with the fire that kindles, and succors in wanhope and distress; but his joy, and his swift wrath, were veiled in garments grey as ash, so that only those that knew him well glimpsed the flame that was within."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34Mcf_jv6NlQC7jcZoQMiRn2a9ViEbJvl0t7G81_CmydqHCDS47F9a8zBbOUjxqXxJODSTZvFivo9Y1bs1v825hHypRt5TOLHGq_QTRf8jtJTWZv-HOn6KVXlR4n-pWwRB3oTxVzIph0/s1600/Lee-Alan-Frodo-Gandalf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34Mcf_jv6NlQC7jcZoQMiRn2a9ViEbJvl0t7G81_CmydqHCDS47F9a8zBbOUjxqXxJODSTZvFivo9Y1bs1v825hHypRt5TOLHGq_QTRf8jtJTWZv-HOn6KVXlR4n-pWwRB3oTxVzIph0/s1600/Lee-Alan-Frodo-Gandalf.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from Alan Lee's painting of Gandalf and Frodo</td></tr>
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It was Gandalf's express purpose to provide council and hope to the good folk of Middle-earth, and not only did he do that, he also single handedly set in motion the events that would turn in to <i>The Hobbit </i>and the <i>Lord of the Rings </i>trilogy. Gandalf appears on the doorstep of Bilbo Baggins, revealing before anything else that he is funny, and soon begins to fluster the furry-footed Hobbit with wordplay and talk of adventures...<br />
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"By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion."<br />
...<br />
" -'I beg your pardon, I haven't asked for anything!" [said Bilbo]<br />
-'Yes, you have! Twice now. My pardon. I give it to you. In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me, very good for you - and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it.'<br />
-'Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea - any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good bye!' With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seem rude. Wizards after all are wizards. ... Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and laughing long but quietly. After a while he stepped up, and with the spike on his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit's beautiful green front-door. Then he strode away, just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had escaped adventures very well."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsHvVPxY4HZSN9hM7sYLNvLYH1ZEYGngWbOFkEKFHg8z-E3MdIJWpenIpwnZIAAaNGHf3Ys_9_mtmHHhT8AAKSndtfI8BDUwWHZ9AwYYnsJSKTUHy6aAOPT3qmJOJQOX0Nl26I9QaHaw/s1600/john+howe+gandalf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsHvVPxY4HZSN9hM7sYLNvLYH1ZEYGngWbOFkEKFHg8z-E3MdIJWpenIpwnZIAAaNGHf3Ys_9_mtmHHhT8AAKSndtfI8BDUwWHZ9AwYYnsJSKTUHy6aAOPT3qmJOJQOX0Nl26I9QaHaw/s1600/john+howe+gandalf.jpg" height="406" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Gandalf returns to Hobbiton" by John Howe</td></tr>
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Gandalf is my favorite Tolkien character - which is saying a lot, as Tolkien made sure his readers had no shortage of wonderful characters from which to chose a favorite. I like Gandalf so much because in spite of the enormous power he wielded as a result of his magic, he chose more often than not to use his wits and wisdom, the everyday "magic" of language.<br />
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Gandalf seemed to always understand when to use kind or harsh words; he knew when to remain silent and allow the truth to reveal itself. The hope and power that Gandalf brings to Middle-earth is contained in the everyday magic of language. By studying and respecting and practicing the magic of language, Gandalf helped defeat a looming evil power. Most importantly, he never abandoned Middle-earth, even after his "death." In many ways, Tolkien has done the same, providing generation after generation with a new worlds and languages to combat the encroaching apathy of the mechanized modern world.<br />
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I am fascinated by Peter Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien's most famed novels, in part because they use modern machinery and technology to enter into those worlds and languages in a new way. I adore the films and could think of no finer actor to <a href="http://youtu.be/ySiJ1zl6bkU" target="_blank">portray Gandalf than Sir Ian McKellen</a>. The second film installment of <i>The Hobbit </i>was released today to coincide with this special day of commemoration of Tolkien's work. This evening, after reading aloud from the books, my husband and I plan to watch this film (after only having gotten the chance to see it twice while in theaters).<br />
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I wish you all a happy Tolkien Reading Day, and hope that the magic of Gandalf's words provides you with some small but significant miracle today...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVj-wsBGAQczAx2HYbGwu85ZM_9LvXxzxAqtq5Q9Yb9ED9T_A_HBQpnTp4kQRzTo59NBtj-b2fb6pXYKcxN7bIOvdsC0E48-Sv-YXlDgONILLODPbfURJR9ktR3y1jQZ5uPvCohppNWoQ/s1600/IMG_6315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVj-wsBGAQczAx2HYbGwu85ZM_9LvXxzxAqtq5Q9Yb9ED9T_A_HBQpnTp4kQRzTo59NBtj-b2fb6pXYKcxN7bIOvdsC0E48-Sv-YXlDgONILLODPbfURJR9ktR3y1jQZ5uPvCohppNWoQ/s1600/IMG_6315.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waking up early to read from <i>The Silmarillion</i></td></tr>
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I will leave you with one final quote - this time from a letter Tolkien wrote - in which Tolkien himself discusses the way Gandalf gave hope to his friends by sacrificing the hope of his own personal fame or even survival:<br />
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"Gandalf alone [among the wizards] passes the tests ... For in his condition it was for him a <i>sacrifice </i>to perish on the Bridge in defense of his companions, less perhaps than for a mortal Man or Hobbit, since he had a far greater inner power than they; but also more, since it was a humbling and abnegation of himself in conformity to 'the Rules': for all he could know at that moment he was the <i>only </i>person who could direct the resistance to Sauron successfully, and all <i>his </i>mission was vain. He was handing over to the Authority that ordained the Rules, and giving up personal hope of success."<br />
(Excerpt taken from a letter written to Robert Murray, S.J. as printed in<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395768046&sr=1-1&keywords=the+letters+of+jrr+tolkien" target="_blank"> <i>The Letters of JRR Tolkien, </i>edited by Humphrey Carpenter</a>.)<br />
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***<br />
Who are your favorite Tolkien characters? What passages will you be reading this evening?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-153990674706980632014-03-08T17:38:00.002-08:002014-03-09T10:40:01.353-07:00Art and Voodoo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVGtEXeX3625aWkaSXuykm1PWr8l486NotTfWyn-WtmeGqhI_e5pW8KpWTq32AEmd_pA4UtZYirqC-X64-bgBoWVn6szdIMSx3PC3su1wTPGxUblOqsClD88OU9qjjfgL4UPAJ_BFCjQ/s1600/IMG_6279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGVGtEXeX3625aWkaSXuykm1PWr8l486NotTfWyn-WtmeGqhI_e5pW8KpWTq32AEmd_pA4UtZYirqC-X64-bgBoWVn6szdIMSx3PC3su1wTPGxUblOqsClD88OU9qjjfgL4UPAJ_BFCjQ/s1600/IMG_6279.JPG" height="492" width="640" /></a>Today was beautifully sunny and the smell of fresh spring grass filled the air. The optimistic sound of melting snow could be heard around every corner. The snow that was melting all day today, however, only fell just yesterday... it snowed all day yesterday! To beat the gloomy weight of the gray sky, my husband and I spent the day in Denver. We went to see the brand new exhibit at the <a href="http://www.denverartmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Denver Art Museum</a> called "Modern Masters." I'm so glad we went - the exhibit was fantastic and we spent an amazing day exploring the city. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5zlPQC3DjvZQggIZ9w8FXwUdNY3ok8TzTDiYGhyrWLGkta_PQoS_nAk8xOILMwnI9p5vU1FOo9uyqjgx9NQPzJn5vzkHTYAG3zMr4fXh0EK2SGKuwYF4eMhxKbxJtmfY3KQZTaHcSWQ/s1600/frida-kahlo-autorretrato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5zlPQC3DjvZQggIZ9w8FXwUdNY3ok8TzTDiYGhyrWLGkta_PQoS_nAk8xOILMwnI9p5vU1FOo9uyqjgx9NQPzJn5vzkHTYAG3zMr4fXh0EK2SGKuwYF4eMhxKbxJtmfY3KQZTaHcSWQ/s1600/frida-kahlo-autorretrato.jpg" height="320" width="234" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frida Kahlo - now on view at the<br />
Denver Art Museum</td></tr>
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The art exhibit displayed works that ranged from 1880-1980, demonstrating the trajectory of visual vocabularies throughout the twentieth century. Emiliano remarked that this exhibit would've been the "whole chapter" in an art text book on the 20th century, and I agree with him - all the canonical artists were there, from <a href="http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/" target="_blank">Georgia O'Keeffe</a> to <a href="http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Roy Lichtenstein</a>. There were several rooms filled with pieces from the early avant-garde of the 10s, 20s and 30s, and other rooms displaying pieces from the avant-garde's subsequent resurgence in the 60s and 70s. Art decorated room after room of gallery space, leading the viewer on a journey through some of the most iconic images of the last century.<br />
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I learned so much at this exhibit. For instance, I learned that I am a huge fan of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Dove" target="_blank">Arthur Dove</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyfford_Still" target="_blank">Clyfford Still</a>, of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soutine" target="_blank">Chaïm Soutine</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Balla" target="_blank">Giacomo Balla</a>. I also had the opportunity to see, for the first time in person, some works with which I already felt a great connection. One of those works was a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo. I had never seen her work up-close and personal before, and it was truly a different experience than looking at reproductions in books. To the chagrin of several other museum-goers, I stared at the piece for quite a long while... <br />
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Recently, my attention has been so focused on medieval art and writing; perhaps for this reason I found myself shocked and almost overwhelmed with surprise in this exhibit. I had a sense, as I moved from room to room, that the twentieth century was already a distant past of human history - no more distant or near to us as than the medieval. But how can that be? I was born in the 20th century!<br />
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The themes and techniques of the Modern Masters on display in Denver seemed, in many ways, to be of a bygone era. The 20th-century sensibility: informed by two world wars and a cold war, death and rebirth on national scales, the advent of the modern car, the dishwasher, the video camera, the home computer, and a moon landing. The demands on artists and art viewers seem to have been so different then - with artists often seeking deliberately to antagonize their viewers and their viewers frequently responding with defiant enthusiasm. The role of the academy even seems to have been more successfully eschewed by artists prolifically producing new aesthetics faster than the academy could appropriate and normalize them.<br />
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This feeling that the 20th-century was now a distant past became especially acute when I approached what became one of my favorite pieces of the entire exhibit: "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash" by Giacomo Balla (1912). The study of movement, reproduced in paint almost "frame by frame" in a pre-film art world:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycEhtQPmDh_kL01-suXVCZeYa7W4WKQIhZ_hYvz0C6n20FjvmI4Y8RMJ6LYPOAfyO4rNETu43NcotciFpy6YACEyULIhvCvWew96-QCiQEKjhwi6x4TzuwKk4_YYb69v9hGNbaLAhAL0/s1600/Dynamism-of-a-Dog-on-a-Leash-1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycEhtQPmDh_kL01-suXVCZeYa7W4WKQIhZ_hYvz0C6n20FjvmI4Y8RMJ6LYPOAfyO4rNETu43NcotciFpy6YACEyULIhvCvWew96-QCiQEKjhwi6x4TzuwKk4_YYb69v9hGNbaLAhAL0/s1600/Dynamism-of-a-Dog-on-a-Leash-1912.jpg" height="538" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giacomo Balla - now on view at the Denver Art Museum</td></tr>
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Yet at the same time, as I look again at this piece, I realize that maybe the concerns of 20th-century artists are closer than I think. Are we not still grappling with understanding how the world moves and how we witness that movement or mark our time spent moving in it? Isn't that what 21st-century performance art and installation art attempts to address, at least to some extent? What do you think?<br />
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While it is true that we now have tiny universes in our palms (smart phones) and that we can photograph or film anything we want whenever we wish, we are still astonished by our own movement, shadow, landscape, transparency, time. Painting is a technology, just like a tablet or a smart phone. We are still obsessed with putting our technologies at the service of artistic aesthetics, still using it to launch ourselves faster into the future of cultural production, evading standardization.<br />
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I have so many thoughts on the exhibit and plan to dedicate some future posts to artists that I discovered there. In the meantime, here are some photos from the rest of the day, which included wandering around the permanent collections, grabbing an amazing fish-fry, and then standing in line (in the snow) for about half an hour to experience the mind-blowingly delicious doughnuts of Voodoo Doughnuts.<br />
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Until next time - keep rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-6400420723885605532014-03-04T11:38:00.000-08:002014-03-05T18:12:36.561-08:00Medieval Women (and their fans)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAiFZxk6so9iErm1uYtozkpq26IMwl_WUkl2NPvFbHhjanb_ktqqApvH3-6EL-FfVDMpfzQmMLphXKyMH1TClxCPAKhyyo5tTOZ6xNQwQf4OldwtBdp9NlCRhJ0P5tx2hoJPlW8o2qc5g/s1600/woman+painting+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAiFZxk6so9iErm1uYtozkpq26IMwl_WUkl2NPvFbHhjanb_ktqqApvH3-6EL-FfVDMpfzQmMLphXKyMH1TClxCPAKhyyo5tTOZ6xNQwQf4OldwtBdp9NlCRhJ0P5tx2hoJPlW8o2qc5g/s1600/woman+painting+1.jpg" height="612" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miniature of a woman painting, from a 1440 manuscript of Boccaccio's "De claris mulieribus"</td></tr>
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The role of women in medieval mediterranean culture was the subject of a large-scale debate, carried out in the writing of various intellectuals throughout the XV century. Not only male intellectuals but also several women writers participated in the debate. Among the female writers who offered contributions to the discourse on women was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_de_Cartagena" target="_blank">Sor Teresa de Cartagena</a>. She suffered illness most of her life and subsequently penned the "Grove of the Infirm," a work which extolled the inherent virtues of women and the holiness of all those who suffered bodily sickness. Her stance is considered today (somewhat anachronistically) as "proto-feminist," although I think that a more appropriate designation would be "pro-women," as the term "feminism" tends to conjure up a repertoire of 20th-century issues and stances not present in the medieval mediterranean context.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-HW01WOGvCQOS93yWRhtKO3d-t6GvCIdSEVVflOY-gID3iMrMs14fWn7EQDu5Y9gykBWx-09P0MHcfPSw1ox0T7Vysv4ef5YTrFZD70pwXb_JjtMo3LFP0WKcnzsqVBISTyutvtS_vgM/s1600/woman+painting+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-HW01WOGvCQOS93yWRhtKO3d-t6GvCIdSEVVflOY-gID3iMrMs14fWn7EQDu5Y9gykBWx-09P0MHcfPSw1ox0T7Vysv4ef5YTrFZD70pwXb_JjtMo3LFP0WKcnzsqVBISTyutvtS_vgM/s1600/woman+painting+3.jpg" height="640" width="550" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woman painting self-portrait; from 1440 manuscript of Boccaccio's "De claris mulieribus"</td></tr>
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The work of the poet and humanist of the French court, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_de_Pizan" target="_blank">Christine de Pizan</a>, also circulated widely and was responsible for adding formidable arguments to the debate: she demonstrated both in her writing and in the example of her own life, the many ways women could enrich intellectual and political culture. <br />
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These women's voices were joined by male contemporaries, such as Diego Valera and Juan Rodríguez de la Cámara, who both defended the value and virtue of Christian women by revindicating the narrative of Eve, displacing to Adam any role in the Fall and the creation of Original Sin. Martín de Córdoba added to this chorus of male voices with his <i>El jardín de nobles doncellas </i>("The Garden of Noble Maidens"), which was written specifically for the soon-to-be Queen Isabel the Catholic.<br />
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A significant contributor to the debate over women was the courtier, Álvaro de Luna. The <i>Libro de las virtuosos e claras mugeres </i>("Book of Virtuous and True Women") is a collection of exemplary tales that he wrote about illustrious female figures from the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, and ancient history. He begins this work with the Virgin Mary, whom Álvaro de Luna writes is responsible for the reversal of Original Sin. He follows his marian narrative with the story of Eve, in which he relieves her of any guilt in the Fall, placing blame instead on Adam, in line with the reasoning of the other authors mentioned above. He continues to enumerate the exceptional lives of various biblical women (including <a href="http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/CSNs/CSNs_V_Penn_01.html" target="_blank">Judith</a>, one of my favorites).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmQDcQnUtc_rR3uszyXaNgn683sKNz9LZsegQaSG5lOCmGFRNJ7OQVc2Dccdhq_jzmN8yEj2BHObA3EW09D_rq8WB2xfVCyDQjyyBZOO1BA42FSP1psyrfaXc43AYEjtTscvC7IbSy2A/s1600/breastmilk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmQDcQnUtc_rR3uszyXaNgn683sKNz9LZsegQaSG5lOCmGFRNJ7OQVc2Dccdhq_jzmN8yEj2BHObA3EW09D_rq8WB2xfVCyDQjyyBZOO1BA42FSP1psyrfaXc43AYEjtTscvC7IbSy2A/s1600/breastmilk.jpg" height="264" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Paul Rubens, "Cimon and Pero" c. 1630</td></tr>
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Example after example of extraordinary women makes up the body of Álvaro de Luna's text. Like female Hercules they form a pro-woman narrative that makes women seem saintly, unerring, and ever-wise. In two short chapters, the author recalls the Classic stories of women who allowed their parents to survive dire circumstances by feeding them with their breast milk. The proliferation of stories of women doing whatever necessary to ensure the utmost moral conduct eventually begins to make the mere mortal female reader (such as myself) doubt her ability to ever live up to such expectations - or even wish to. The physical and psychological torment that many of these exemplary women experience makes it seem near impossible to live a comfortable life <i>and </i>be a virtuous woman. The women of the <i>Libro </i>are prepared to endure hideous torture and death to preserve their extraordinary virtue, guided always by their own moral compass and the hand of God Himself. Meanwhile, a contemporary text that addresses virtuous men, written by <a href="http://www.casadellibro.com/libro-claros-varones-de-castilla/9788437624051/1155620" target="_blank">Fernando del Pulgar</a>, offers a much more attainable vision of masculine virtue (think: "sure, he may have committed adultery a bunch of times... but he's such a great soldier!").<br />
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And yet Álvaro de Luna's enthusiasm for women resounds with an optimism for the future role of women in his society. His series of prologues offers the reader an important framework with which to understand the rest of his text. On multiple occasions, he notes that women are not "inherently" bad or good, they are a product of their habits and habitual actions, as are men. Last week I got the opportunity to discuss this work with my colleagues in a seminar and we all noted how modern Álvaro de Luna's thesis seemed to be. After discussing his <i>Libro, </i>we proceeded to read aloud several of his poems. ...They were so saucy! I can't say that I was surprised to read sensual poems about being hopelessly in love with women (including women other than his wife) from a man who vehemently defended his female contemporaries.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiESPqj8oV2wvbqQ72k8DPgoW1SjymWyj1OtN1UKI7F0AXWYDJPgxMwD03fwWIaLa8CWNc6nwQ0xJ4q-uJ5swbnOaczOVDl8j9OMVscE-HQOuVPjlQzQc_Ucd-Q9GSVppxJcjNFuWAoHo/s1600/woman+painting+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiESPqj8oV2wvbqQ72k8DPgoW1SjymWyj1OtN1UKI7F0AXWYDJPgxMwD03fwWIaLa8CWNc6nwQ0xJ4q-uJ5swbnOaczOVDl8j9OMVscE-HQOuVPjlQzQc_Ucd-Q9GSVppxJcjNFuWAoHo/s1600/woman+painting+4.jpg" height="640" width="611" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woman painting self-portrait from 1440 manuscript of Boccaccio's "De claris mulieribus" </td></tr>
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Álvaro de Luna's <i>Libro </i>was greatly influenced by <i>Di claris mulieribus </i>by Italian author, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boccaccio" target="_blank">Boccaccio</a>. Interestingly, Boccaccio wrote works that fit into both the pro-women and the anti-women categories. Of course, <i>Di claris mulieribus </i>fits into the former category. Although I have not yet read the Italian author's text, I plan to do so soon, especially after finding <a href="http://bjws.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/illuminated-manuscripts-women-artists.html" target="_blank">this article</a> which displays various miniatures adorning the original manuscript and depicts women as painters and sculptures!<br />
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Finally, in honor of today being Fat Tuesday, I leave you with a picture of my 9-year-old self at carnivale in Venice. Donning a mask my parents got for me earlier that day from a magical little mask shop perching above the glass-green water of the canal, I have my arms outstretched, as if trying to embrace the whole city, all of its masked inhabitants, and the women-loving tricksters that had populated its narrow streets since medieval times...<br />
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Happy Fat Tuesday!<br />
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Until next time -- keep rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-83207224925163604222014-03-03T11:17:00.002-08:002014-03-04T21:26:31.913-08:00Found in Translation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFsgZdWyUTHjdolwD5pwxUOEmaM4KDv26WR3LvoxizaifNd4Hk57_yHEt4RyFKl4KsgVKnFbw8Wn_uTqkMsvjwF4x4oWQ_quyVPSIswYelfGukQJ8SImph8N-_XrsvCSaArB1ROP40eU/s1600/Main+picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFsgZdWyUTHjdolwD5pwxUOEmaM4KDv26WR3LvoxizaifNd4Hk57_yHEt4RyFKl4KsgVKnFbw8Wn_uTqkMsvjwF4x4oWQ_quyVPSIswYelfGukQJ8SImph8N-_XrsvCSaArB1ROP40eU/s1600/Main+picture.jpg" height="404" width="640" /></a></div>
February was a month of discovery for me. I attended a symposium here on campus, called "Cultural Translation in Medieval and Early-Modern Studies," which brought together scholars from around the country (and even from exotic Canada!) to talk about themes and issues associated with medieval translation. The speakers included professors in religious studies departments, modern language departments (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French), history, art history, and classics departments. The talks covered a range of problems associated with medieval translation projects - from the way medieval Christian scholars translated the Qur'an to contemporary translations of Marco Polo's travel writing (originally written in the coiné, Franco-Italian).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marco Polo</td></tr>
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<a href="http://literature.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=sakinosh" target="_blank">Professor Sharon Kinoshita</a> gave the talk on Marco Polo, and I had the privilege of picking her up from the airport - an opportunity graduate students covet, as it provides an hour of one-on-one conversation with the professor. Her work is fascinating to me because she approaches medieval literature as part of broader process of cultural production, one that stretched across linguistic, geographic, and socio-economic boundaries. While she specializes in Francophone medieval literature, Professor Kinoshita (and a growing number of her colleagues) views the entire <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mediterranean+Sea/@38.2111855,5.2363254,5z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x131421b81c473c9f:0x2e93598afeccf840" target="_blank">Mediterranean region </a>as a highly communicative community of cultural production (see <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14236.html" target="_blank">her most recent book</a>). This community often shared interests and imagination and responded to one another's experiences through writing. This interaction is exemplified by translations of a diverse array of texts that circulated the Mediterranean region.<br />
<br />
Professor Kinoshita addressed one case in particular, Marco Polo's <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo" target="_blank">The Travels</a>, </i>a work for which no two translations seemed to be the same. In some translated versions, entire passages were changed to reflect local fears or perceptions of "the Other" (who, in this case, happened to be dog-headed cannibalistic Africans). In other translators' versions, the style was altered to enhance the literary beauty of the text (a controversial choice, made even by today's translators of the work-- see: the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Travels-Marco-Polo-Publisher/dp/B004OT3EC4" target="_blank">Penguin edition</a>). In the translation that Professor Kinoshita herself is elaborating, Marco Polo's repetitive style in the original Franco-Italian is more faithfully transmitted, allowing the reader to fully experience the barebones language of the coiné. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjib8HdHl5NHSGDS-8hbf2U4RjUZHg7nTzFzO62OWpqpY6h9AljnNTmsaJJeJxEQyOdG4u5Bc8ci_A3L1oB77XGw0xrUSb9c4_-ZIKw9ASCljg5ISc_Mx3NBgBhhDQ8SqiiBXmtm1V18dw/s1600/st+bernard+and+the+devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjib8HdHl5NHSGDS-8hbf2U4RjUZHg7nTzFzO62OWpqpY6h9AljnNTmsaJJeJxEQyOdG4u5Bc8ci_A3L1oB77XGw0xrUSb9c4_-ZIKw9ASCljg5ISc_Mx3NBgBhhDQ8SqiiBXmtm1V18dw/s1600/st+bernard+and+the+devil.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Bernard Vanquishing the Devil<br />
German, XV-century<br />
Metropolitan Museum of Art collection </td></tr>
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Side note: This summer, I'll be taking Italian lessons so that I too can approach medieval literary production as an element of a broader Mediterranean culture. I plan to develop a corpus for my dissertation which incorporates Castilian, Portuguese, and Italian literature - the tricksy devil character pops up all over the Mediterranean region in varying guises, responding to both local and universal perceptions of evil and punishment...<br />
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Another of my favorite moments from the symposium was Professor <a href="http://www.history.utoronto.ca/faculty/facultyprofiles/meyerson.html" target="_blank">Mark Meyerson</a>'s talk on ritual violence during Holy Week in medieval <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Valencia/@39.4637342,-0.3769608,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0xd604f4cf0efb06f:0xb4a351011f7f1d39" target="_blank">Valencia</a>. His talk featured a particular case dating back to 1380, a case that he discovered while researching in judicial archives. Apparently, every year during Holy Week (the week preceding Easter in the Catholic tradition), the Christian community of Valencia would engage in ritualized, performative acts of destruction and violence that consisted mainly of throwing rocks at the wall surrounding the Jewish quarter. In many cases, Christians and Jews were neighbors and friends, living in such close proximity that they even shared walls. Christian and Jewish families remained friends before and after Holy Week, in spite of this destructive ritual performance.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbAKobxtnNZrmHJfYsneycYleGan6EmXzeC0z3u4B-Y6jNnWn1u-NjhqrI4G-y-jtQoyOSjWUwhUu3GpU7l_8_nQNZqFJjDlmfRVqbAqN1lW4Vs8D0rp99z1XCPL1Ds7oJfJXCSu_milQ/s1600/passover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbAKobxtnNZrmHJfYsneycYleGan6EmXzeC0z3u4B-Y6jNnWn1u-NjhqrI4G-y-jtQoyOSjWUwhUu3GpU7l_8_nQNZqFJjDlmfRVqbAqN1lW4Vs8D0rp99z1XCPL1Ds7oJfJXCSu_milQ/s1600/passover.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from "Feast of the Passover" by<br />
Dieric the Elder Boutis<br />
circa 1465</td></tr>
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Rarely did Jewish families protest this ritual - only in extreme cases of injury, death, or property destruction did they bring complaints to the King. For the most part, this ritual was viewed simply as part of the collective judeo-christian calendar. Some scholars have understood the tradition as a performance that, rather than teach Christian children to hate Jews, taught them about the shared history of Christians and Jews and jewish custom, and served as a "release valve" for the Christian community during the most intense week of the liturgical calendar.<br />
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Professor Meyerson's talk detailed a special (and tragic) case from the year 1380 that he discovered in the archives. The story was preserved in the form of juridical documents from the proceedings of a murder trail, in which two jewish men were accused of causing the death of a young Christian boy. The accused men were thought to have perpetrated an act of retaliatory violence against the Christian community, in the wake of Holy Week activities.<br />
<br />
The distraught father of the deceased child levied accusations against Salamo and Mosae, jewish residents from his same neighborhood. According to the legal documents, witnesses informed the boy's father that they'd seen an arm throw a rock from the window the Salamo and Mosae's house. The rock struck the boy's head as he walked his dog below, and the head wound he sustained killed him several days later.<br />
<br />
Of the 20 witnesses for the defense, however, 17 were the Christian neighbors of the two young Jewish men. They testified that it seemed extremely unlikely to them that these stand-up citizens would be capable of harming a child. One of the Christian witnesses for the defense even displayed his knowledge of jewish custom claiming that, as the fateful event took place on the Sabbath, the young men's own religious tradition would have prohibited carrying out this work. The defense's explanation of the events posited that, as many rocks had been thrown at the house the day before the boy was struck, it was likely that one of the rocks had been up on the roof and was simply blown off in a high wind and fell accidentally on the poor boy's head.<br />
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Surprisingly, there was no lynch mob. In spite of heightened emotions during Holy Week, the two young men received due process and were defended by their neighbors, Christians and Jews alike. In the end, however, some damning evidence against one of the young men was brought forth and he was sentenced to death. Although we will never know if the sentenced man was truly guilty or not, the case provided many interesting details of quotidian life in Valencia in the late fourteenth-century - details about how Christian and Jewish children played together every night in the street, and how Christian families would have their fancy Easter clothes made and tailored by Jews who, the day before, had been targets of the Holy Week rock-throwing.<br />
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These are the kinds of cases that really make a girl want to dig in to some vellum archives! Which is why, since the symposium, I have been investigating the collections of different libraries' medieval texts. Through this research, I've found my newest fascination: the Merton University Library. Merton is the world's oldest, continuously active university library, located in Oxford, England. Take a look at its unparalleled beauty:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ThwhcQ3syYbw8j8PC1V9F_V29QKRjwup2KaXthfpAWGIa-1czZ9M6T1YqgMH0xOcRQBYIJrtDxHOssSwHE0S7mulbWyjfjrSdPJnaubT41Je31yyL3gDfN5LuJrmu2Tzwd5RDHX3rQA/s1600/merton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ThwhcQ3syYbw8j8PC1V9F_V29QKRjwup2KaXthfpAWGIa-1czZ9M6T1YqgMH0xOcRQBYIJrtDxHOssSwHE0S7mulbWyjfjrSdPJnaubT41Je31yyL3gDfN5LuJrmu2Tzwd5RDHX3rQA/s1600/merton.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can't imagine a more perfect place on earth. </td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/library-and-archives/history" target="_blank">Merton University Library</a> was constructed and began housing books in 1276 and has provided a space for scholars to read and learn since then. This week, I went to our campus library and checked out the (gigantic) index book of all the medieval texts Merton houses. I am looking through this index now, to try to find some relevant texts for my dissertation... I'm hoping there's a trip to Merton in my not-so-distant future!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe6XtQ7gs7SdbqHHMMoFc9qsHjuyP5qbEOltcX5c2l_EjBU5Iuiv2zTgnX2pPlQZIavMi0qKoCinAXH6oP83RT4YCLVw25F_x_eHM8DueABS9hr_aDpZ17Oe9bIG6FNuB8mucNz9ItoY/s1600/milking+sheep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZe6XtQ7gs7SdbqHHMMoFc9qsHjuyP5qbEOltcX5c2l_EjBU5Iuiv2zTgnX2pPlQZIavMi0qKoCinAXH6oP83RT4YCLVw25F_x_eHM8DueABS9hr_aDpZ17Oe9bIG6FNuB8mucNz9ItoY/s1600/milking+sheep.jpg" height="412" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luttrell Psalter, "Milking Sheep," England - circa 1325-1340<br />
British Library collection </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am riding a wave of inspiration from this medieval translation symposium, organized by my advisor, Professor <a href="http://spanish.colorado.edu/content/n%C3%BAria-silleras-fern%C3%A1ndez" target="_blank">Núria Silleras-Fernández</a>, and her husband, <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/religiousstudies/briancatlos/" target="_blank">Professor Brian Catlos</a>, and also included incredible talks by Professors <a href="http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/library-and-archives/history" target="_blank">Thomas Burman</a> and <a href="http://spanish.ucdavis.edu/en/people/profile/1341?destination=people/profile/1341" target="_blank">John Slater</a> (which each could've been the subject of an entire post!)...<br />
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***<br />
What have you been up to recently, fair petticoat rustlers? Where is your favorite library?<br />
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Until next time - keep rustling!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP4CxdpY-OrRFLSUkLig50urrhcdhinOsBw0Pa0z8wYdgHoHeLYMr7LgBtriXRgo0a_sFDfgcCUiSOiWyMRYCEG7PA0Z5QgdMDNFBT9lqaEQ6a8jeVctQ1qmDHxD1yr4PMp0-evrPXP8Y/s1600/IMG_6204.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP4CxdpY-OrRFLSUkLig50urrhcdhinOsBw0Pa0z8wYdgHoHeLYMr7LgBtriXRgo0a_sFDfgcCUiSOiWyMRYCEG7PA0Z5QgdMDNFBT9lqaEQ6a8jeVctQ1qmDHxD1yr4PMp0-evrPXP8Y/s1600/IMG_6204.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
As much as <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/p/about-band-leader.html" target="_blank">I love powerlifting</a>, I have missed practicing a martial art. The deeply personal and meditative experience of lifting heavy weights has gotten me through the most challenging and stressful moments of graduate school so far, and I would say has greatly contributed to my more creative scholarly breakthroughs. I will always practice powerlifting, because not only do I find it important to be physically strong in order to be mentally adept, but also because it is a solitary practice that involves toiling stubbornly and independently towards achievement - much like writing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi17avYa3GYGCEs_FpiT_WFEP3teU9gO1V52wiIjtepQXKSoVtDRk6tpssRgZ2DVSBJ5Iw1fj4JzQZBq_-3rEilJRm-g5EB01p9UgvlNGeB7Sef-w2D40MYTA7wxgite7o-sbOvPEMR-M8/s1600/IMG_6210.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi17avYa3GYGCEs_FpiT_WFEP3teU9gO1V52wiIjtepQXKSoVtDRk6tpssRgZ2DVSBJ5Iw1fj4JzQZBq_-3rEilJRm-g5EB01p9UgvlNGeB7Sef-w2D40MYTA7wxgite7o-sbOvPEMR-M8/s1600/IMG_6210.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a>But the spontaneous interaction that takes place during, say, a fencing bout is instructive, too. It trains the body to instinctually respond to the unexpected movements of others and to improvise with great rapidity. At the beginning of the semester, I joined the <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/StudentGroups/FencingClub/" target="_blank">CU Fencing Club</a> on campus and was embarrassed to discover how slow my reflexes were and how easy I was to stab, but delighted to be honing my martial instincts again (after not having trained any martial art for about 3 years).<br />
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During my first few fencing lessons, I did not even hold a sword. Instead, I was given a glove and instructed to try to whack my opponent on the chest in one lunge, while they were allowed to retreat one step. While that may sound like a pretty simple exercise, I assure you it demanded my full concentration and coordination. The glove game began teaching me how the sport of fencing approaches the problems of distance, timing, aim, defense, and trickery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngjZKMsZ6mwYNxhjtN2K7p0g9PnsFavcRWDfQSXKgRIEdRM-vafizWMVg67GXIEyzz4Cz_mvW03V4LOIZMw0fnf1AJvKxZdMqwz_1_xV4fyOXn-1aVLF7Echj7QLkjNLTuN9BKGA2508/s1600/IMG_6236.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngjZKMsZ6mwYNxhjtN2K7p0g9PnsFavcRWDfQSXKgRIEdRM-vafizWMVg67GXIEyzz4Cz_mvW03V4LOIZMw0fnf1AJvKxZdMqwz_1_xV4fyOXn-1aVLF7Echj7QLkjNLTuN9BKGA2508/s1600/IMG_6236.JPG" height="450" width="640" /></a></div>
Distance is important because over- or underestimating your opponents' reach (our your own reach) can prove to be a devastating error. Timing is just as crucial but perhaps more difficult to get a feel for. Aim, for obvious reasons, must be trained with great discipline, over and over, as the target area for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_(fencing)" target="_blank">foil</a> is limited to the torso. Good defense seems to be synonymous with good strategy, a lesson I learned firsthand when I finally got to replace the glove for a foil. In that first bout, I unleashed a flurry of entirely un-strategic attacks on my opponent who happily defended herself and used my state of constant attack (and therefore my constantly open torso) to calmly respond with her own well-timed attacks, leading her to win the bout 10-1.<br />
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And let us not forget the most elusive, yet most essential element of all in a martial encounter: trickery. The truly martial heart beats not with heavy seriousness, but with light, swift craftiness always capable of surprising and bewildering an opponent.<br />
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Fencing bouts are fought on "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fencing_practice_and_techniques" target="_blank">the strip</a>," (or "piste" in French) which is a narrow column of floor that confines the action to advances and retreats (and keeps you from running too far away from your opponent). You must alway face your challenger head-on, while you negotiate the best way to move dynamically in a straight line. Of course, this is a wonderful metaphor for approaching academic research: no matter how daunting a project may seem at the outset, you always stare directly at the task if you are to make any progress. You must advance whenever you can, but must also never be too stubborn to retreat, rearrange the distance, figure out the best timing for an advance, take careful aim, and conjure up all of your cleverness.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHcKt2tLxNmNusWWdFR-Wd8NF2qD0DsMX9LB4iWTLlIA52sQnIABWszBNtMZBvWk1VxZSxUGVSy2ZE4p_bVWadgG6bc45q37HovPs0JPxs_rZ6PJVtLZyV_5Xq2VI0OkM33Cycpb-tFzc/s1600/IMG_6232.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHcKt2tLxNmNusWWdFR-Wd8NF2qD0DsMX9LB4iWTLlIA52sQnIABWszBNtMZBvWk1VxZSxUGVSy2ZE4p_bVWadgG6bc45q37HovPs0JPxs_rZ6PJVtLZyV_5Xq2VI0OkM33Cycpb-tFzc/s1600/IMG_6232.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
Recently, I discovered that in order to advance on my dissertation work, I was going to need to retreat back to pre-modernity. That is, over the course of researching the history of <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/01/off-string-and-onto-wall-northeastern.html" target="_blank">Brazilian </a><i><a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/01/off-string-and-onto-wall-northeastern.html" target="_blank">literatura de cordel</a>, </i>I became more and more aware of (and interested in) its literary ancestors in medieval Iberia. I found myself drawn with increasing urgency to medieval texts and the polyphonous social, religious, and linguistic environment in which they were created. The <a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/01/trick-is-trade.html" target="_blank">Devil character</a> hobbles through many of these texts, wearing a variety of different guises and serving a variety of functions. My dissertation, then, will be centered around a corpus of medieval texts, and stalk the Devil character through stories from the entire Mediterranean region. (In retrospect it seems obvious that I was a medievalist all along....)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHaE3UghsobTWQQmfpGZd4j9vXhVB3CPpgbPuK7-3q0NM1nvfqyeqqKyjfTN9Fvd7UlBjbC1u1enXPw3-WMM9rTLuIK6CS9ckgaoy-4SIlK4BBEltgIPsgYJKgCc6TTIRUWBKRxEjUfQ/s1600/IMG_6230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHaE3UghsobTWQQmfpGZd4j9vXhVB3CPpgbPuK7-3q0NM1nvfqyeqqKyjfTN9Fvd7UlBjbC1u1enXPw3-WMM9rTLuIK6CS9ckgaoy-4SIlK4BBEltgIPsgYJKgCc6TTIRUWBKRxEjUfQ/s1600/IMG_6230.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a>Practicing fencing not only helps me train body and mind, it also lends me new perspective on fight scenes in texts I'm reading. (In fact, the oldest document on the sport of Western fencing is from a Castilian on the Iberian Peninsula - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fencing" target="_blank">Treatise on Arms by Diego de Valera</a>, circa mid-XVI-century.) The recent confluence of my physical and intellectual projects makes the "retreat" on dissertation progress totally worth it - I'm now ready to advance with a much keener aim and cleverness.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQXmPKvtlbCF2fr9l39r2XTai0WBGkclc7TvK4vxCqDPSpCqY2I6l_rKiZF4n1U906H3FFB_pR84R_fp4zzTT3zm6hRNGZLXnLHJiwCGiifvrKlbLNyj-SHxES-KWcE7V-weYpY4pgvM/s1600/IMG_6200.JPG" height="320" width="213" /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjToE16gIEVDO0DRiwsTtO7mnhsWxgSBIuLUr4vxAnUX2ZWOlfqX8ENBuK7kUzT07VjAjLnpH3HeDaaK9qNJecsM7ubp_RZQyJIC4DA99WcwnBzqSY5mAo4me7v1W72DIssoo-b-A23k/s1600/IMG_6197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjToE16gIEVDO0DRiwsTtO7mnhsWxgSBIuLUr4vxAnUX2ZWOlfqX8ENBuK7kUzT07VjAjLnpH3HeDaaK9qNJecsM7ubp_RZQyJIC4DA99WcwnBzqSY5mAo4me7v1W72DIssoo-b-A23k/s1600/IMG_6197.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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(See? I'm already happily stabbing away at colleagues in my department!) </div>
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***<br />
Have you ever fenced before? Who are your favorite swashbuckling characters? How do you reconcile physical and intellectual disciplines?<br />
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Until next time-- keep rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-91072091495507923192014-01-28T16:42:00.000-08:002014-01-28T17:07:18.628-08:00Tricksters and Devils<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNWuZoMQ9c21FHKCWkY1919SgLpIv6XJQtM7bMHTZQhrrhclooEzBwrOhg9q1BVo8v_mvuY_YlyVWtImLx9HGmjrVpSTdCChbjY_qMhqOyEsUbNxZZZCxvF0dEzPBB9Kf9wegbmbDYeE/s1600/commedia-dell-arte-during-carnevale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDNWuZoMQ9c21FHKCWkY1919SgLpIv6XJQtM7bMHTZQhrrhclooEzBwrOhg9q1BVo8v_mvuY_YlyVWtImLx9HGmjrVpSTdCChbjY_qMhqOyEsUbNxZZZCxvF0dEzPBB9Kf9wegbmbDYeE/s1600/commedia-dell-arte-during-carnevale.jpg" height="374" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.swide.com/art-culture/history/italian-folk-traditions-of-carnival-with-masks-and-the-commedia-dell-arte-italian-comedy/2013/02/09" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
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Recently my reading has focused on the evolution of the devil figure in mythic and folkloric narrative of the judeo-christian tradition. In order to understand how he came to be depicted in both the comical and moralizing verse in 20th century Brazil, I wanted to know how readers' or audiences' attitudes towards this figure evolved over time; what socio-cultural narratives may have contributed to the image of the devil found in modern <i>cordel </i>literature.<br />
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One of the devil's most important proxies is the Trickster. With the audacity to reveal our base human impulses, and with the wisdom to annunciate core philosophical realities of human experience, the Trickster is a near-ubiquitous character in folk narrative - from all over the world. There are striking similarities in the way in which the devil and the Trickster are portrayed. </div>
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Although I am but a beginner in Trickster studies, Professor Harold Scheub is most certainly not. His book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Hero-Characters-Written-Traditions/dp/0299290743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390955947&sr=8-1&keywords=trickster+and+hero" target="_blank">Trickster and Hero</a> </i>(2012), provides a global perspective on the Trickster figure... Here are some excepts from his fantastic book, which I've been simply devouring. Accompanying his insights are some images of the Zanni tricksters of the Commedia Dell'arte repertoire. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9m4ALBNzRoJawVb5Ypnj-rYcSjyae6WfWPLNsQD0n0gPlGo8TIZ_ipLSYkItJ7ZR-vlWBbUZASFqbmGuqHF3FvuzrTt4MBn5PvbbKuldQHJl0G7A27dLQnXavgmubLOjmpt16DdmvUa0/s1600/masks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9m4ALBNzRoJawVb5Ypnj-rYcSjyae6WfWPLNsQD0n0gPlGo8TIZ_ipLSYkItJ7ZR-vlWBbUZASFqbmGuqHF3FvuzrTt4MBn5PvbbKuldQHJl0G7A27dLQnXavgmubLOjmpt16DdmvUa0/s1600/masks.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jacques Callot (1592-1635) Engraving</td></tr>
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"The profane or earth-bound trickster is, like the divine trickster, obscene, aggressive, selfish, amoral. In this, he is closest to the basest of humans. ... Yet, in a way, the profane trickster does retain an echo of the divine connection, if tenuously: he also creates in the sense that he creates a world of illusion; he imposes his own corrupt sense of order on the real world. An agent of chaos, he disrupts harmony; when he establishes harmony, it is according to his own whim, his own sense of order. Trickster combines horror and glee: his is the comedy of the grotesque." </div>
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"The trickster through performance binds present and past. The tale is the moment in which past and present are blended in a performance." </div>
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"Trickster would have no existence, would have no meaning, would make no sense whatsoever if we did not understand the frame in which he operates. He is forever theatrical. He creates theater in the world that we know, the real world. Without that frame, Trickster's antics are merely obscene and silly But within that frame, he becomes significant and eternal. Trickster makes the flawed moment eternal." </div>
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"There are mighty forces, represented by God, Leopard, Lion. The weak cannot prevail over them, they have all the power. They create, they establish boundaries. But in the trickster tale, those boundaries are loosened, violated; the power of gods, of the great animals, is called into question, and chaos results." </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiCOK8l1TznJ2EKNCC13yLwhcC_zTBZBL_1n5wNfRkb41wjYdVjFF8x1y5yvWiLUjdMDRPKg8t0MwTs9LI_C6fjE7oNT4m_eSeIVUk9PFAWqIBzKthPu5ROrqCPW63VLQxx9r0T5X8L0/s1600/Zanni-Balli-di-Sfessania-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiCOK8l1TznJ2EKNCC13yLwhcC_zTBZBL_1n5wNfRkb41wjYdVjFF8x1y5yvWiLUjdMDRPKg8t0MwTs9LI_C6fjE7oNT4m_eSeIVUk9PFAWqIBzKthPu5ROrqCPW63VLQxx9r0T5X8L0/s1600/Zanni-Balli-di-Sfessania-1.jpg" height="260" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.camacana.com/tag/commedia-dellarte/" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
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Who are your favorite tricksters? What are your favorite books about the history of the trickster or devil? </div>
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Until next time - keep rustling!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-26035771983220287372014-01-25T10:56:00.000-08:002014-01-25T11:34:52.404-08:00Full Swing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Spring semester, now in full swing, has brought with it beautiful buds of new ideas and blossoms on some perennial ideas. My dissertation has taken a definitive shape, I'm applying for grants to do some travel this summer, and new projects and connections have been springing up unexpectedly. More posts to come on all of that!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdx0n_RY6QhWKhWCulwIofTrIGzEWiNxOkl13p8qfCyoxL5TYN296ylWN54MgXeveUSXeXBvAGvILNvbdLXH5jX2Gsl_qUoyqaW0fCKummyQVCphyphenhyphenDGRa9hCTEnbqcT9tWAFpG6W94Gws/s1600/IMG_6008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdx0n_RY6QhWKhWCulwIofTrIGzEWiNxOkl13p8qfCyoxL5TYN296ylWN54MgXeveUSXeXBvAGvILNvbdLXH5jX2Gsl_qUoyqaW0fCKummyQVCphyphenhyphenDGRa9hCTEnbqcT9tWAFpG6W94Gws/s1600/IMG_6008.JPG" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking through my boots to stock yards below</td></tr>
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In addition to the new semester, the sun here has been shining daily, with a renewed vigor, and the mountains are transforming from their white, snowy winter selves into bright green beacons of the fresh season.<br />
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Yesterday, my husband and I decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and enjoy a centuries-old Denver tradition: the<a href="http://www.nationalwestern.com/history/" target="_blank"> National Western Stock Show</a>. In 1899, Denver was host to growing numbers of stock shows and by 1905, the Denver Stock Yards were constructed on the South Platte River. We roamed through these same stockyards just yesterday, stopping to see yaks, longhorns, cattle, mules, and bison, horses, and the fluffiest, most adorable sheep.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSMG-Ynk4L4dOmkv8JuhghJt9DXl7dPT_EUv8fA4y2z7zyxSbp-wR2svaj7-IHlIy9A_s57U-RMM9m1XLMa830eOwNfN2rUDWNHlDo0PVf8ZBSCN3PEwBi8D2qmafu3vTx51MA3ZTA3w/s1600/IMG_5884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeSMG-Ynk4L4dOmkv8JuhghJt9DXl7dPT_EUv8fA4y2z7zyxSbp-wR2svaj7-IHlIy9A_s57U-RMM9m1XLMa830eOwNfN2rUDWNHlDo0PVf8ZBSCN3PEwBi8D2qmafu3vTx51MA3ZTA3w/s1600/IMG_5884.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ErNO6sLyUjtQ7cWV0wC3ubUfksDab14U7LsdnPK4eebyQelmcxps2vRlwwcck4bll_RrLDUOTSx7C8-EqKMTwEVc65JOsWMgIhEKSCDcp7Mn1-LQFizfytKGLuKa7AGHR73aJ-RjQSA/s1600/IMG_5893.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ErNO6sLyUjtQ7cWV0wC3ubUfksDab14U7LsdnPK4eebyQelmcxps2vRlwwcck4bll_RrLDUOTSx7C8-EqKMTwEVc65JOsWMgIhEKSCDcp7Mn1-LQFizfytKGLuKa7AGHR73aJ-RjQSA/s1600/IMG_5893.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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When the first official annual Stock Show was held in 1906, an estimated 15,000 people attending, coming from as far as Chicago and the east coast. In 2011, despite harshly cold weather, 644, 818 people traveled to the Denver Stock Yards--not just to buy cattle anymore, but now to see professional Rodeo shows, buy and sell farm goods, and watch animals get groomed, primped, judged and awarded.<br />
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The stock show remains a place for people to discuss all kinds of issues around farming, like how big herds should be, best-practices in animal welfare, techniques and tricks of the trade, and how best to educate the next generation of farmers. This takes place at the same time many people, like my husband and I, come to enjoy the "finished product" (burgers) and take in the courageous and skillful rodeo performers. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEmV6jcOD5CWfzcOFl8X1G68fWldrCUY164pK8bWR_0bjNP03PD4swtJ6X70w-5x-tR4QQCOt2aCjn-Dy4lmwo-JCKbr_D4uTU5kwvMaA68B5Di_9SOgRtznNnSEHDcFnq9pU6dNHTBc/s1600/IMG_5915.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEmV6jcOD5CWfzcOFl8X1G68fWldrCUY164pK8bWR_0bjNP03PD4swtJ6X70w-5x-tR4QQCOt2aCjn-Dy4lmwo-JCKbr_D4uTU5kwvMaA68B5Di_9SOgRtznNnSEHDcFnq9pU6dNHTBc/s1600/IMG_5915.JPG" height="490" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bareback Broc riding-- captured mid-toughbreak</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wfe7et8fLH_hC3J90Je1jlHnWA1gt_bICU0pEqCLa4HEyr7idAnb2ahbgmuZrEGvFvz6FbM1aJHw8CEKYX4jKW4FxwrzWKr2tT0QON7E6w9gsOpE6QegIHHjh4OGTECZMUzLdljb16M/s1600/IMG_5953.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wfe7et8fLH_hC3J90Je1jlHnWA1gt_bICU0pEqCLa4HEyr7idAnb2ahbgmuZrEGvFvz6FbM1aJHw8CEKYX4jKW4FxwrzWKr2tT0QON7E6w9gsOpE6QegIHHjh4OGTECZMUzLdljb16M/s1600/IMG_5953.JPG" height="320" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trained in the tradition of the slavic Cossacks, these young men did incredible tricks jumping on and off horses<br />
and even made a 19-man pyramid on 10 running horses (see here). </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj3kkBqc-NtEmfpcMXxEqkJQohmiulwFaUYYpAvr5W_5aM2UEXLypjWuwmFqQAkezYG-rMPMsROPsPi0k1RF1waIeiijzRp_8aLAZ1CVkefv25Bn8Tu6t8UEz5PkJs9TFINRKelvGpYVo/s1600/IMG_5932.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj3kkBqc-NtEmfpcMXxEqkJQohmiulwFaUYYpAvr5W_5aM2UEXLypjWuwmFqQAkezYG-rMPMsROPsPi0k1RF1waIeiijzRp_8aLAZ1CVkefv25Bn8Tu6t8UEz5PkJs9TFINRKelvGpYVo/s1600/IMG_5932.JPG" height="372" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"C'mere you" - In this event, the cowboy had to rope the steer and bind its legs in under 9 seconds to be competitive.</td></tr>
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Many of the photos of I took at the rodeo didn't turn out -- the bucking bulls, the barrel racers, the mutton-busting little ones, and the cattle roping events were filled with such fast movement that my camera just couldn't capture the excitement without being hopelessly blurred. I must say, however, that if you ever have the opportunity to go to a professional rodeo, I highly recommend it. It is a fascinating conglomeration of events, some with evident practical application for working cowboys and others that border on performance art. The modern expression of the cowboy narrative is being constructed at pro-rodeo events all across the country -- and especially at a national rodeo like this one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmDtfp0fdej4WHuxYnWA7cP4Mayslkm_YovdBbLZy9P2d24G5P2eu7-qOexR69OMKNbM7g7DqCvDNVJnR1Btf46eOBkVkFdRg8OPx4IdO0QhJSBcOw_COSiWvTF5ZZEzKbmoW-7FeQCOI/s1600/IMG_6000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmDtfp0fdej4WHuxYnWA7cP4Mayslkm_YovdBbLZy9P2d24G5P2eu7-qOexR69OMKNbM7g7DqCvDNVJnR1Btf46eOBkVkFdRg8OPx4IdO0QhJSBcOw_COSiWvTF5ZZEzKbmoW-7FeQCOI/s1600/IMG_6000.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yak!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsTVrcUeXwwj4edcpsSTwbdkUNttXh1UW_3EgYs2-8K10RsBivX-nh98u9-mVgl4zuOlD9AXRQV8wVfinwFsL36pLVhmOzQIeGaQ_Twi7qCRME-LE08pRoTmQyeSakFH9dbA-X5tPrd_0/s1600/IMG_6022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsTVrcUeXwwj4edcpsSTwbdkUNttXh1UW_3EgYs2-8K10RsBivX-nh98u9-mVgl4zuOlD9AXRQV8wVfinwFsL36pLVhmOzQIeGaQ_Twi7qCRME-LE08pRoTmQyeSakFH9dbA-X5tPrd_0/s1600/IMG_6022.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Longhorns in this historic stockyard</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting a haircut </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They can only come in on stagecoaches.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDn9X0rFSL4VwShm7uPva_xoZekgyihc5q81IM7zL4VzgKnoW4GHH_JCH3AkFL_85SsyLlQifN-hw4tKxZpx2oGDjYWwL3Twb-C_bSAKiVr-KAW4F3YRD6C9Y7d_FTRnXHgT6ffUHQhA/s1600/IMG_6052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDn9X0rFSL4VwShm7uPva_xoZekgyihc5q81IM7zL4VzgKnoW4GHH_JCH3AkFL_85SsyLlQifN-hw4tKxZpx2oGDjYWwL3Twb-C_bSAKiVr-KAW4F3YRD6C9Y7d_FTRnXHgT6ffUHQhA/s1600/IMG_6052.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from an vintage stagecoach</td></tr>
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I've written several posts on the cowboy narrative on this blog - check them out:<br />
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<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/02/let-er-buck.html" target="_blank">Let 'Er Buck</a> - historiography of the cowboy narrative<br />
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/06/ranch-women.html" target="_blank">Ranch Women</a> - review of a documentary on three generations of working cowgirls<br />
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-reason-behind-risk.html" target="_blank">The Reason Behind the Risk</a> - history of Bullriding and a review of the documentary "Rank"<br />
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/05/cowpuncher-poets.html" target="_blank">Cowpuncher Poets</a> - historiography of American cowboy poets, and clips of them reciting their work<br />
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/06/unbranded.html" target="_blank">Unbranded</a> - review of a project and forthcoming documentary on 4 men who rode last year from Mexico to Canada through all uninhabited country<br />
<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/05/anagua-is-portuguese-for-petticoat.html" target="_blank">Anágua is Portuguese for Petticoat </a> - photographs from photographer Luis Fabini, whose work depicts cowboys and their animals from all over the American continents<br />
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***<br />
Until next time - keep rustling!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-20200621619611233962014-01-09T10:42:00.000-08:002014-01-09T11:28:27.548-08:00The Devil on the Road Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Landscape with the Temptation of Christ," Pieter Bruegel the Elder; mid-18th century</td></tr>
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Yesterday's<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2014/01/antonio-jose-da-silva.html" target="_blank"> post </a>described the tumultuous public life of Antônio José da Silva, "The Jew," and offered a brief overview of his artistic production. This post will be dedicated to one of his works in particular: <i>Obras do diabinho da mão furada, </i>which can be roughly translated as: <i>Tales of the devil with the pierced hand. </i>Other versions of this story have surfaced in alternate re-copyings of the original manuscript under the title <i>Obras do fradinho da mão furada </i>which replaces the word "devil" with the word "friar."<br />
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Published in the early part of the 18th century, a time in which the Inquisition retained a strong and widespread presence throughout the Iberian peninsula and its colonies, da Silva's portrayal of the devil disguised as a friar both in the story and in the story's title was potentially quite risky -- especially given his already-tenuous relationship with the Holy Office. However, the devil dressed in a friar's robes was not without its precedent in Europe by the time da Silva wrote his tale.<br />
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In the German tradition, for instance, plays and pamphlets about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar_Rush" target="_blank">Bruder Rausch</a> ("Friar Rush") enjoyed several centuries of success. First appearing in the high middle ages, the story of this demonic trickster in holy garb was reworked and retold throughout Germany from the 15th-19th centuries, including a contribution from Stuttgart native, Wilhelm Hertz, who published a novel-length tale based on the Friar Rush lore in 1882.<br />
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Although it is difficult to say if these German tales were retold in Portugal, the devil-disguised-as-friar motif was undoubtedly widespread in Europe since as early as the 15th century. Manuscript marginalia produced by monastic scribes of the medieval period made healthy use of the motif. In her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/On-Farting-Language-Laughter-Middle/dp/0230100392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389289573&sr=8-1&keywords=on+farting" target="_blank">book</a> on humor in the middle ages, Valarie Allen has written about a recurring image of a wolf in Dutch marginalia: a wolf in friar's robes preaching to a flock of sheep. <br />
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Da Silva's devil-disguised-as-friar narrative, in spite of these possible influences, is truly unique thanks to the devil's supporting lead character. André Peralta is a broke and weary soldier, trying to make his home to Lisbon after almost a decade of continuous battle in Flanders. The story opens in the midst of a terrible nighttime storm; Perlata is on the road, still far from Lisbon, and desperately he seeks some kind of refuge from the tempest.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Soldiers in landscape," Pieter Bruegel the Younger; 16th century</td></tr>
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Before long, he comes upon what appeared to be an unoccupied house. After warming himself by a fire and consuming the last of his food provisions, he drifts off to sleep, only to be awakened at midnight. Standing before him is a hideous old man, dressed as a friar, with cloven feet.<br />
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After only a few minutes of conversation, Peralta figures out who his new companion is, and he is appropriately wary and guarded, trying at the same time not to anger the "friar" nor coalesce with his plans entirely. During their first conversation, the devil tells Peralta that he will accompany him on the rest of his journey home. Peralta quickly declines this offer, whereupon the devil makes the rain pour <i>inside</i> the house, as a warning.<br />
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The devil explains that because Peralta has chosen to take refuge the devil's own house, he must show the devil some respect. The devil adds, however, that he feels compelled by some "<i>causa secreta" </i>("secret cause") to help the poor soldier through to the end of his journey. This is a fairly transparent threat: the "secret cause" that inspires the devil to "help" Peralta is most likely the same impulse the devil has to meddle in anyone's life -- he wants to stir up mischief, hopefully leading to Peralta's downfall, and the devil will not be denied.<br />
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Without any other recourse, Peralta agrees, but makes it clear that he has made several promises to God that he will not break, considering the fact that it was God who helped him survive the hideous, endless battles. The pact is sealed. </div>
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From here, a series of fantastical encounters unfold along way home, each one affecting Peralta more and more. The first night, the devil hosts a meeting of witches where he praises them for having sucked the lifeblood from unbaptized children. The next night, Peralta has a Dantesque dream (which may be also understood as "reality") in which his devil companion leads him through Hell. </div>
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Unlike Dante's vision of Hell, there is no hierarchical organization -- things are quite chaotic and there is a lot of running around. Instead of orderly levels that descend into ultimate evil, Peralta seems to be making his way through a series of rooms or caves that have no particular order, a vision of Hell that recalls Spaniard Francisco de Quevedo's early 17th-century <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Francisco-Quevedo-Discourses-Hispanic-Classics-Golden/dp/0856683531" target="_blank">Sueños</a></i>.<br />
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Many of the condemned quarrel with their demonic tortures, requesting an audience with Satan himself, arguing that their punishment should be forgiven because their sins helped the cause of Hell. After a while, Peralta approaches the most graphically and painfully tortured residents of Hell, those who do not even try to grapple with their torturers. These poor souls, the devil informs him, are those who in life "judged others" and "interfered with religion" -- an overt allusion to the Inquisition. </div>
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I would argue, too, that an implicit critique of the Inquisition lies in the general chaotic nature of Hell itself. The self-righteous arguing of the condemned with their torturers, the requests to "see the boss," as if they'd be able to reach a deal if only they could talk to someone in charge -- all of these actions seem very, very like the way people (especially powerful people) interacted with the secular bureaucracy of the time. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"A peasant brawl," Lucas Vorsterman I, circa 1620</td></tr>
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When Peralta wakes up from this dream, the two continue their journey. Along the way, the soldier witnesses the way in which the devil sows mischief and anger everywhere he goes. He repeatedly insights townspeople to "<i>jurar,</i>" or "swear," with popular expressions of exasperation: "Devil may take it," or "Devil take you!" As people utter these curses, the devil collects what has been commended to him. These scenes are more funny than cautionary, full of scatological and sexual anecdotes, along with a favorite source of humor during the day, a woman's wrath. </div>
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In another folio, the devil shows Peralta a vision in a river that depicts palaces of the 7 deadly sins, personified allegorically as women, inviting sinners into their dwellings. The soldier is almost trapped permanently in this vision by Greed, who does not want to let him go. Her silent bodyguard, Midas, approaches Peralta with fingers outstretched, attempting to turn him into gold so his master can keep him forever. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Allegory of Greed," Pieter Bruegel the Younger, early 16th century</td></tr>
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What makes this scene particularly interesting, aside from the fact that da Silva has mixed medieval judeo-christian allegory with Greek mythology, is that in the first folio the devil helped Peralta dig up a forgotten chest of gold. Peralta sowed the coins into his clothes, so that the devil could not take them back. In a way, then, Peralta's physical person is already covered in "bedeviled" gold. This gold eventually serves to help Peralta escape his companion, when Peralta offers it all to a traveling priest's monastery if Peralta is allowed to take the cloth there.<br />
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In the end, Peralta succeeds in tricking the devil. He sneaks off one morning while the devil is settling a score with some boatmen (the devil had it in for the boatmen because he heard local people swearing that lot was worse than the devil, replacing their popular curses with "Boatman make take you!"). Peralta enters the monastery, thereby commending his own soul to God and the devil's gold to the service of Good. This ending reveals Peralta to be a more picaresque character than he initially appeared. The devil continues to wander in his friar's robes, recalling another classic trope, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Jew" target="_blank">Wandering Jew</a>, as he travels from town to town, never settling, alway meddling.<br />
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I find this story fascinating not only because of the political risks it takes but also its mastery of popular style, humor and wisdom. Da Silva deftly interweaves a complex Good and a complex Bad, refusing paradoxically to allow the archetypal characters to occupy 2-dimensional roles. His idiosyncratic portrayal Hell and even the allegorical figures demonstrates his intense creativity and the high literary merit of his writing. Although his life was short, his writing has become immortal and echoes da Silva's criticisms, jokes... and ultimately, his deepest fears.<br />
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***<br />
What are your favorite tales about the devil or other tricksters? How are they outwitted?<br />
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Until next time -- keep rustling!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-68578104896506068232014-01-08T19:32:00.003-08:002014-01-10T19:03:29.417-08:00Antônio José da Silva <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One of the books on my<a href="http://bandofwildpetticoats.blogspot.com/2013/12/five-for-fourteen.html" target="_blank"> Five For Fourteen</a> list was the early 18th-century story attributed to Antônio José da Silva, "The Jew." The book, <i style="font-style: italic;">Obras do diabinho da mão furada </i>(roughly: "Tales of the Devil with the Pierced Hand") is made up of a series of 5 folios written in dialogue-laden prose, interspersed with rhymed verse and popular refrains. The integration of these techniques gives rise to a text that maintains a comedic tone while simultaneously delivering a didactic narrative, full of popular wisdom. In fact, almost all of da Silva's work (the majority of which is theatrical) is considered part of the <i>joco-séria </i>genre (literally: "jocular-serious"). Like his writing, da Silva himself represented a fascinating combination of seemingly disparate phenomena: he was, in a way, both Brazilian and Portuguese, Christian and Jewish, Lawyer and Literati, Celebrity and Villain. This post will hopefully offer a very brief history of da Silva's life, by way of a broad overview of his artistic production.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_CFyq5YiVSmK12feIfv0ykkjI6JLw1ljy2C9YSzH-sNNpdUK1zqdvaPtTTTgQcfQi4X7SWfyBSFMT0W17FhDuEr6gMLxgEzGvUMTSTnd7eaFeyBiHd50bx1Qd2eAVD0BCttk-UZ23BY/s1600/050_diabo-i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk_CFyq5YiVSmK12feIfv0ykkjI6JLw1ljy2C9YSzH-sNNpdUK1zqdvaPtTTTgQcfQi4X7SWfyBSFMT0W17FhDuEr6gMLxgEzGvUMTSTnd7eaFeyBiHd50bx1Qd2eAVD0BCttk-UZ23BY/s1600/050_diabo-i.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Devil puppet, made for the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos' theater<br />
production of one of da Silva's plays (<a href="http://purl.pt/922/1/d-quixote/s-lourenco8.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) </td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It is not entirely surprising that several of the characters in <i>Obras </i>are heard using epigrams in Spanish, rather than Portuguese. This could simply be a symptom of the ongoing cultural and linguistic
exchange between Hispanic and Lusophone communities of the peninsula. But beyond casual interaction of neighboring cultures, I think it is possible to understand the pan-iberian linguistic references as evidence of da Silva's efforts to establish a cultural critique that extended beyond Portugal's borders. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywdSFttpNP-WUJD7AXBsp7usJM5fqnyOxZumaiFO1sRTm_NGob1C1W4pccz8YngCkVOCxsWwZSEdCDvEJwlsAZ16_OCjAUvE9aHlLXAw5M8FKBVsiU6w2y4tFmunqkCNzpx9jMC4wVRk/s1600/antonio+jose+da+silva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywdSFttpNP-WUJD7AXBsp7usJM5fqnyOxZumaiFO1sRTm_NGob1C1W4pccz8YngCkVOCxsWwZSEdCDvEJwlsAZ16_OCjAUvE9aHlLXAw5M8FKBVsiU6w2y4tFmunqkCNzpx9jMC4wVRk/s1600/antonio+jose+da+silva.jpg" height="320" width="183" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Antônio José da Silva, "The Jew"</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By including refrains of both Portuguese and Spanish (and Brazilian?) origin, da Silva reinforces the "universality" of the devil, a character who can trick in any language. Thus it becomes possible through this devil character to appraise a broader set of cultural features in western Europe and colonial American, chief among being the Inquisition. The use of multicultural epigrams critiquing the Holy Office are da Silva's attempt to align his criticism with what appears to be more "universal" grievances among Europeans and colonial subjects. When taking into consideration some of the more salient biographical details of Antônio José da Silva, this critique, and the techniques he uses in his writing, acquire even more significance. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In
1705, Antônio José da Silva was born--not in Portugal--but in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. During this time, Portuguese cultural, legal and theological
institutions represented an enormously influential element of Brazilian
society. (Brazil was officially a colony of Portugal until 1822, when it became
an equal member of the Portuguese United Kingdom; Brazil remained a monarchy
until 1889.) As a result of this influence, the Inquisition was capable of extraditing Brazilian residents back to Portugal to be tried for any allegations against them. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNWvXNW2pqK3N5mSYwD-aTCsXF0ywFuoA_q3dStSCHDz1ddKzyInBFlQwf0ywbMpCUhNqEe1EDJAVazV5cFcAadkkOnHdy0N7Y7RY-xLBMdT0493YwbC5bJLo0jLFsnTAonmt29v0WxU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-01-08+at+7.16.51+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNWvXNW2pqK3N5mSYwD-aTCsXF0ywFuoA_q3dStSCHDz1ddKzyInBFlQwf0ywbMpCUhNqEe1EDJAVazV5cFcAadkkOnHdy0N7Y7RY-xLBMdT0493YwbC5bJLo0jLFsnTAonmt29v0WxU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-01-08+at+7.16.51+PM.png" height="369" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puppets of Teresa (left) and Sancho (right) Pança - from the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos' theater production of da Silva's play about Quixote (<a href="http://purl.pt/922/1/d-quixote/s-lourenco3.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) </td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Antônio
José da Silva’s parents were unlucky enough to have experienced first-hand the far-reaching legal jurisdiction of the Portuguese Holy Office.
When da Silva was a mere seven years old, his "<i>converso</i>" family (newly converted to Christianity) was required to travel back to Lisbon where they were brought before the Inquisition for allegations of heretical “Judaizing.” These proceedings resulted in a conviction and punishment, which most likely consisted of having goods and property seized
by the State. This sudden lack of resources led the family to settle permanently in
Lisbon, where da Silva came of age and eventually died. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQIVUcakawqwJxMOfUGuuzj-hvYrgEQZVZO0jHsWHUfEq6Lw6Vjyojq6X55cNcPQWpWlQvw3XvA6xpUj-UYc-O4OoNfiYzrQCY8Qyy3qNe5sagTF9n2CXr5nuZa_iHZYyNbdkEQRJFLdU/s1600/65_d-quixote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQIVUcakawqwJxMOfUGuuzj-hvYrgEQZVZO0jHsWHUfEq6Lw6Vjyojq6X55cNcPQWpWlQvw3XvA6xpUj-UYc-O4OoNfiYzrQCY8Qyy3qNe5sagTF9n2CXr5nuZa_iHZYyNbdkEQRJFLdU/s1600/65_d-quixote.jpg" height="400" width="185" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Dom Quixote puppet, created by the</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Teatro Nacional de São Carlos</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">(<a href="http://purl.pt/922/1/d-quixote/s-lourenco1.html" target="_blank">Source</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Da Silva's writing career began -- and quickly reached its apogee -- while he was completing his studies in law in his 20s. During this time, he began publishing theatrical works that included musical elements and which he called "<i>óperas.</i>" These pieces were performed by puppets, rather than actors, in the Teatro do Bairro Alto. </span><br />
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"The puppets used at the time, made of cork and wood," <a href="http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1819" target="_blank">writes </a>Argentinian researcher and stage director, Jacobo Kaufman, "were relatively tall, about one and a half meters in stature, hanging and manipulated on wires." The puppets were a key element of da Silva's theatrical productions, Kaufman says, because they were "allowed to use foul language and say things an actor or singer would not dare utter on stage." The use of puppets, therefore, provided a presumably safe distance from which da Silva could lambast the rich and powerful -- although this strategy did not always work, as evidenced by the fact that "The Jew" became da Silva's nickname after a lifetime of being persecuted by Inquisitors. Eventually, in fact, the Holy Office condemned Antônio José da Silva to a public death in an <i>auto-da-fe </i>when the young intellectual was only 34 years old. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Da Silva had hoped that the use of puppets would successfully create a safe distance between the author and his critiques. And although that was ultimately not the case, it seems logical that the main character in <i>Obras do diabinho da mão furada </i>is the devil. The familiar trope of the devil can function in a way similar to the way the puppets function in da Silva's theater -- as a bulwark between the author and his chosen subject matter. The devil is, by his very nature, expected to refer to taboo subjects -- he is the father of bad behavior.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In this story, the devil does not disappoint, as he journeys alongside a hapless traveler, wreaking havoc on small Portuguese towns...and of course, getting all the most memorable lines!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">***</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Tomorrow's post will feature an in-depth discussion of the book that you won't want to miss!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Until then - keep rustling!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8166607126149686285.post-24770754864621936542014-01-06T15:00:00.000-08:002014-01-06T19:33:19.711-08:00La Belle et la Bête <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxHYny4YNr2qO-ozKQWbRpptLmZaC8sYjXAL-6W8PstYN-VpIG4K_aIYtzGfyr1Ru_X0gg0ceNFqT0HFjjouszZqLf6Gkm4T-WR-3dIe9eXRMuwtDFoWxy1hx0qZJ5ymr0YJrHQzD49A/s1600/beautyandthebeast2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxHYny4YNr2qO-ozKQWbRpptLmZaC8sYjXAL-6W8PstYN-VpIG4K_aIYtzGfyr1Ru_X0gg0ceNFqT0HFjjouszZqLf6Gkm4T-WR-3dIe9eXRMuwtDFoWxy1hx0qZJ5ymr0YJrHQzD49A/s1600/beautyandthebeast2.jpg" height="472" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beauty-and-the-beast-marianna-mayer/1000325110?ean=9781587171482" target="_blank">by Mercer Mayer</a></td></tr>
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As a child, I was read Marianna Mayer's beautiful telling of the <i>Beauty and the Beast </i>story. Her husband, Mercer Mayer, illustrated the book with gorgeous paintings that greatly influenced the way I imagined the story in my mind ever-after. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beauty-and-the-beast-marianna-mayer/1000325110?ean=9781587171482" target="_blank">by Mercer Mayer</a></td></tr>
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As an adolescent, I watched the 1946 Jean Cocteau film version of this French tale, encountering a new set of visual vocabulary with which to understand and imagine it. In the film, the dark corners of Beast's enchanted castle throw black shadows across the pale youthful face of Beauty, engaging simultaneously the magical-myterious and the realistic-dangerous elements of coming-of-age. At 14 years-old, I felt deeply the struggle between acting upon instinct and acting out of obedience; the benefits and pitfalls of acting solely out of either instinct or obedience are exemplified by the main characters. </div>
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I also watched Beauty attempt to establish a safe barrier between herself and her companion--a friend with whom she lived and who daily provoked the idea of marriage and thus physical union. As the Beast's voice grew more gentle to Beauty's ear, she found it increasingly more difficult to refuse experimenting with his touch and exploring the reaches of her love for him. Here is the scene from the film I think best attests to these feelings: </div>
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I love how here we see Beast's ears and eyes become riveted instinctually upon a helpless doe, in the middle of conversation with Beauty. Although Beast struggles to tame his animal impulses and appear to Beauty as a "civilized" and gentle creature, he unwittingly reveals the continued influence of the impulses of a predator. Beauty, then, goes to the fountain and invites him to drink water from her hands, reestablishing his domesticity and allowing herself to feel the touch of his lips, even if only on her hands.<br />
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Yesterday, my husband and I came across the trailer for a brand new film version of the story. The costumes look fabulous, and the highly evolved CGI technology promises to bring to life a particularly interesting Beast...<br />
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The film is scheduled to debut on February 12, 2014 in France. Although I'm not sure when it is set to arrive in American cinemas, I look forward to seeing this latest iteration of the beautiful 18th century tale.<br />
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For more information on the history of <i>Beauty and the Beast </i>and its many literary renderings, please see <a href="http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forbewty.html" target="_blank">Terri Windling's engaging article</a> on the subject.<br />
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***<br />
What are your favorite tales? What are the tales that have stayed with you through the years?<br />
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Until next time- keep rustling!<br />
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UPDATE: Just found a <a href="http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/will-you-be-able-to-love-me-yes-beast-i.html" target="_blank">great post</a> over at <a href="http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Once Upon a Blog</a> on this film! She has some really nice screen grabs of the trailer as well as the video of the film's theme song. <a href="http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/will-you-be-able-to-love-me-yes-beast-i.html" target="_blank">Check it out!</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07850956866087645857noreply@blogger.com6