[7pleiades7]

Portrait of Urania, (Detail), (19th century), by the British School, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in), Private Collection

[ddestroyangels]

'La Vetta' by Cesare Saccaggi (detail, c.1898)

Location Florence, Italy

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Forever Love by 300ChickenNuggets

[fuskida]

"Bowl of Water with Night Sky" 2023 oil painting by David Stanger

[mutant-distraction]

[requiem-on-water]

(1) CHUTTERSNAP (2) Vino Li

[ddestroyangels]

Clara Novello by Edward Petre Novello, 1833

National Portrait Gallery, London

[solsticevoyeur]

[solsticevoyeur]

[charnel-grounds]

Richard Wells, “Lost Hearts”

linocut on paper, 2023

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

Discussions on white savior complexes and imperialism in Dune frustrate me because no one ever reckons with the full picture. They always leave something crucial out.

Firstly: the Missionaria Protectiva seeded the Panoplia Propheticus on various worlds as a general tool for Bene Gesserit interests. It was there to be exploited by any Bene Gesserit who needed to take advantage of a planet’s culture and gain power there for any reason. It was independent from the Kwizatz Haderach project and was probably exploited many times throughout the history of the galaxy. The Lisan al-Gaib is not the Kwizatz Haderach and could have been any old Bene Gesserit who found herself on Arrakis.

Secondly: the messiah legend is false, but Paul is not a false messiah. Because he happens to also be the Kwizatz Haderach, he is able to deliver on the false promises of the Panoplia Propheticus and he chooses to do so. I know people claim that Dune is ambiguous about whether or not his visions are “real” but I find that really unconvincing. He’s able to use his prophetic memories to navigate perfectly after he is blinded. They are materially real even if they are philosophically dubious.

Thirdly: Frank Herbert may have sought to critique the danger of heroes, but the reason Paul is portrayed as “bad” for the Fremen is because he literally does liberate them. He fully delivers on the messiah thing, ending their oppression and elevating them to power and status throughout the galaxy. Why is this bad? Well, because they are spiritually corrupted by material comfort, of course! Access to abundant water leads to their ~cultural degeneracy~ and they lose the noble savage status of their pre-Muad’Dib ways. They’re too sexy and relaxed and hydrated and this is a tragedy because they no longer expel their disabled into the desert to die and are thus racially diminished by their liberation.

It’s just like. Dune is a Matryoshka doll of eugenics and colonialism in ways that are constant overlooked and which I honestly find really interesting.

[apolladay]

Which notorious English class short story fucked you up the most?

* I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

*The King in Yellow

* The Lottery

* The Masque of the Red Death

* The Monkey’s Paw

* The Most Dangerous Game

* The Nameless City

* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

* There Will Come Soft Rains

*The Yellow Wallpaper

* The Veldt

* “you think those were fucked up? What about [X]!”

Which notorious English class short story fucked you up the most?

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

The King in Yellow

The Lottery

The Masque of the Red Death

The Monkey’s Paw

The Most Dangerous Game

The Nameless City

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

There Will Come Soft Rains

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Veldt

“you think those were fucked up? What about [X]!”

Voting ended onApr 30

[it-grrl]

Okay I have things I should be seeing to but I couldn't help myself. In case you, like me, have not read all of these stories and would like to be amongst the lucky 10,000 today:

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers*

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson**

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard O'Connell

The Nameless City by HP Lovecraft

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

Honorable Mention from the comments/reblogs:

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

*note: this is actually a collection of short stories and clocks in at about 72k words

**Originally published in the New Yorker in 1948; interestingly, the New Yorker still has this story archived on their website BEHIND A PAYWALL. CAN YOU IMAGINE.

[redstonedust]

if vampires existed in real life i think there would be shady companies advertising "organic blood" sourced from "willing donors" who are coincidentally all poor people being paid like $5 per blood donation. and like haughty vegan vampires who only drink a synthetic blood drink thats brewed in a way thats actively worse for the enviroment. and radical traditionalist vampires who go on tiktok and claim that true alpha chads have to drain and kill people and anyone who leaves their victims alive is a liberal cuck. enter the world of hypothetical insufferable vampire politics with me.

[annabelle--cane]

maybe I've been staring into the abyss of dracula paprika discourse for too long but what if the real answer to this mystery lies not in whether the paprika hendl itself was spicy or sweet or salty but in asking if it's a coincidence that this vampire novel with a lot of motifs of disturbed sleep starts off with someone getting so thirsty that he can't quench it no matter how much water he drinks, having terrible dreams all night which he directly attributes to this thirst, and then voluntarily going back to eat more of the dish that made him so thirsty in the first place

[pastelgothica]

[spookyloop]

Original art: Elysian Fields Wallpaper, designed by Dan Funderburgh (Source)

[lacetulle]

Sara Mrad | Botanical Alchemy

[mitakuye-oyasinn]

Set of three Coiled Snakes, Bronze, possibly Spain or Germany, 1570-1629, detail. © The Wallace Collection