Once Upon A Time

“The world belonged to monsters and miracles, but it was younger then.” A sideblog for my story in progress, “And So Beloved”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

[h/t Guillaume Gris]

[sovushka-seraya]

Galina Ulanova and Nikolai Fadeyechev in Bolshoi’s ‘Giselle’, 1950s

[nemfrog]

The story of the sun, moon, and stars. 1898. Book cover.

Internet Archive

[andsobelovedbesoalone]

Nothing makes me so feral as a promise turned into a threat:

“I’m going to live, because of you”

vs

“I’m going to live in spite of you”

[russian-aesthetic]

[andsobelovedbesoalone]

“And so, beloved, you must go alone—traveling lands afar and paths unknown, facing perils great and trials small, until you arrive – east 'o the sun and west 'o the moon – to conquer the greatest grief of all.”

— Baba Priskeda, And So Beloved

[andsobelovedbesoalone]

“There was a darkness in him, so different from the brown bear; foreboding and cynical, as if he viewed the world only for the worst it could be, instead of choosing to look for hope.”

[andsobelovedbesoalone]

“We call them fairytales, and they persist because someone, somewhere, told the truth—but it was too horrible to be real.”