Calembredaines & Coquecigrues
A postcard sent on June 18, 1928 by F. Scott Fitzgerald to African-American author Claude Mckay, which highly praises the latter’s work (calling McKay’s book “one of the two most worthy American novels of the spring”). What’s unusual about this postcard is not the text, but the image on the front.
The postcard is from the National League Against Alcoholism, and shows the liver of an alcoholic alongside a healthy liver. Even is you disregard the fact that Fitzgerald himself was an alcoholic, this still remains a terribly strange postcard to send to anyone.
“Ancient moon priestesses were called virgins. ‘Virgin’ meant not married, not belong to a man-a woman who was ‘one-in-herself.’ The very word derives from a Latin root meaning strength, force, skill; and was later applied to men: virle. Ishtar, Diana, Astarte, Isis were all all called virgin, which did not refer to sexual chasity, but sexual independence. And all great culture heroes of the past…, mythic or historic, were said to be born of virgin mothers: Marduk, Gilgamesh, Buddha, Osiris, Dionysus, Genghis Khan, Jesus-they were all affirmed as sons of the Great Mother, of the Original One, their worldly power deriving from her. When the Hebrews used the word, and in the original Aramatic, it meant ‘maiden’ or ‘young woman’, with no connotations to sexual chasity. But later Christian translators could not conceive of the ‘Virgin Mary’ as a woman of independent sexuality, needless to say; they distorted the meaning into sexually pure, chaste, never touched. When Joan of Arc, with her witch coven associations, was called La Pucelle-‘the Maiden,’ ‘the Virgin’ - the word retained some of its original pagan sense of a strong and independent woman. The Moon Goddess was worshipped in orgiastic rites, being the divinity of matriarchal women free to take as many lovers as they choose. Women could ‘surrender’ themselves to the Goddess by making love to a stranger in her temple.”
(Source: sacredwoman, via thymoss)
Little Shop of Horrors Skeleton by Tim Prince.
(Tim’s Tumblr Blog)
(Source: gaksdesigns, via thymoss)
Luca Nino Antonucci - Second Star to the Right (2010)
Artist’s statement:
“The study of astronomy is a practice that engages in a delicate balancing act between hope and truth. Our vision of the universe is a systematic categorization of existence. As inhabitants of our planet, we are all involuntary participants in the organization of the known universe and the exploration of the unknown.
One could say that an entire pattern of thinking comes from studying the delicate position of the human being in the universe. Somewhere between fear and romanticism, all rational thought is held and subjected.
And the truth, whatever it may be, is conditioned by our relative position
and our ‘rational’ thought, which is constantly and consistently subject to
romanticism.
These cards are intended as valentines to the universe, pointing out a personalized romantic relationship we all have with the cosmos. All of text is taken from scientific reports.”
(via borgevino)
Choi Xooang, The Wings
(Source: ryandonato, via glassphemy)
