where angels fear to tread

theology, mythology & classical studies / literature, art & the occult "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." (currently waiting to be unbanned)

[random-brushstrokes]

Jenö Haranghy - Young magpie (1920)

[havingapoemwithyou]

The World’s Loneliest Whale Sings the Loudest Song by Noor Hindi

[stigmatam4rtyr]

Professor Poirier with a Dissected Cadaver (1886) | Georges Chicotot

[filthyprotozoan]

incredible television

[stigmatam4rtyr]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers (between 1672-1675, oil on canvas) | Jan de Baen

[funeral]

The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

[adwellingplacefordemons]

@staff ????

[funeral]

Descartes’ demon, Kant’s deathbed sigh, Nietzsche’s mad laughter – if philosophy amounts to anything, it is a testament to the stark realization that thought is an aberration. We are mistaken if we think that thought serves us as human beings, our hopes and desires. Thought fails us – thought works too well for our own good. What hubris to think that thought is “inside” our cavernous, hollowed-out skulls…

Eugene Thacker, Infinite Resignation

[palant1r]

"this work is problematic because of how it handles [subject]": reasonable premise for media criticism

"this work is problematic because it depicts [subject]": do not pass go do not collect $200 this is, as a general rule, a functionally reactionary and conservative argument

[cantotallyeven]

I think even more importantly:

"this work is problematic and you should be critical of the viewpoints it presents while engaging with it": reasonable premise for media criticism

"this work is problematic therefore everyone who engages with it is evil": do not pass go do not collect $200 this is, as a general rule, a functionally reactionary and conservative argument

[lierdumoa]

We really need to bring back terms like: "clumsily executed" and "disrespectful to the subject matter" and "not well thought out" and "not tastefully done" I'm so tired of this New Hayes Code "this subject matter should be forbidden outright" bs.

[hwhwgwhnwnwbwbwg-deactivated202]

Undine, Rising from the Fountain, modeled ca. 1880–82. Marble. White marble seems to dissolve into rippling wet fabric as the water nymph Undine changes from liquid to human form. Abandoned by her husband, the heartbroken nymph is seeking revenge: an embrace that will drown him with tears

[adwellingplacefordemons]

i love this so much my eyes bleed

[dark-romantics]

[adwellingplacefordemons]

This is not, in fact, a quote from Virginia Woolf as the tags suggest, but Baal Shem Tov, the 18th Century Jewish philosopher, mystic, healer, & founder of Hasidic Judaism.

For more info, check out his wiki! (And please, reference your sources without whitewashing).

[adwellingplacefordemons]

Marie Høeg and Bolette Berg in a Boat, c. 1895 by Marie (Mary) Høeg

A proto-selfie of Norwegian suffragette and photographer Marie Høeg with her partner Bolette and their little dog, Tuss.

[papenathys]

Absolutely insane lines to just drop in the middle of an academic text btw. Feeling so normal about this.

[ A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. 1, Prof. David Daiches, first published in 1960 ]

[adwellingplacefordemons]

Ron Padgett & Tom Clark, in The Paris Review

[Text ID: “What's happening here/ is that the brain tissue is momentarily/ a noodle.]

[adwellingplacefordemons]

 Magdalena Ventura with Her Husband and Son Alt: The Bearded Lady/La Mujer Barbuda Jusepe de Ribera, 1631, Museo Fondación Duque de Lerma, Toledo, Spain.

The fifty-two-year-old Magdalena Ventura from Abruzzi with her husband and a newborn baby. To emphasise her femininity, Ribera included two symbols of womanhood atop the stone tablet with the inscription: a spindle and a shell. Ribera's inscription on the stone tablet calls her 'a great wonder of nature'.

[adwellingplacefordemons]

Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (detail), oil on canvas, 1628

[adwellingplacefordemons]

Vision of St. Francis of Assisi (detail), Jusepe de Ribera, 1638.