heliocentria

a ghost story

[archae-heart-deactivated2021012]

Lappland

[floserber]

Gustave Doré, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

[heliocentria]

Before the end times.

[alraunahomestead]

Gretchen (@gretchenmgreer) 

[schoefisch]

[seabeck]

Stag

[lunaactias]

the difference between og fitzjames and amc fitzjames is that og fitzjames is "don't stop me now" and amc fitzjames is "somebody to love"

[oldfilmsflicker]

Documenteur, 1981 (dir. Agnès Varda)

[soracities]

“People call me a philosopher or a scientist or an anthropologist. I am none of those things. I am an anamnesiologist. I study what has been forgotten. I divine what has disappeared utterly. I work with absences, with silences, with curious gaps between things. I am really more of a magician than anything else.”

— Laurence Arne-Sayles, interview in The Secret Garden, May 1976, from the preface of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (via mythologyofblue)

[hickeywiththegoodhair]

[hirxeth]

Vagabond (1985) dir. Agnès Varda

[villainous-queen]

Succession + news headlines I stole from another post

[witchstone]

Celestial Mapping and Celestial Proportions by Tallmadge Doyle

[talvatis]

Sámi wedding – Photographer: Magnus Winbjörk

[takataapui]

as pointed out to me by @mizrashkiphardi, the now popular sea shanty ‘Wellerman’ is based on the Weller brothers who were Pākeha (European) colonizers and whale-hunters in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1800s.

They kept Māori people, my people, as hostages, and traded preserved Māori heads (which are considered sacred to my people). They “bought” land off Māori people (which always was 100% legal and consensual, totally /s). They contributed to the colonization, genocide, and harm of indigenous land and indigenous people.

this song should not be sung, it should not be shared.

most people probably don’t know the meaning of the song, or who it’s about, but it should not be spread. their names should not be spread, sung about, or celebrated.

[queerasaurolophus]

anyone have any non-colonialist sea shanties? there’s a lot of colonialism going on there (shocker… /s) and i’d personally love some alternatives

[diydumpsterdiving]

I may not be an expert in sea shanties, but I’m gonna be honest, finding anything from the height of colonialism that isn’t impacted by that colonialism is gonna be really hard. And I do enjoy a good sea shanty!

If anyone is more knowledgable than me, feel free to chime in, but the best advice that I can give you is to just have some basic understanding of these songs’ histories. There isn’t a magical list out there of 100% unproblematic sea shanties because they don’t exist. That doesn’t mean that sea shanties are bad all across the board and you can’t listen to them, but the joy of folk music is learning the histories of the songs you love and better understanding their context. Sometimes that makes the song more fun, other times it might ruin it. Mostly you just come to learn that colonialism has an uncomfortable way of seeping into everything.

Somebody else in the notes commented that “there’s no ethical consumption under colonialism” and that’s the best comment tbh. Colonialism will impact everything because that’s the kinda world we live in and, at least in regard to sea shanties, you should just be aware of the history and listen when colonized people bring issues like this to your attention.

[tam--lin]

For what it’s worth: the shanty tradition was hugely influenced by Black workers. Pay Me My Money Down (from Black stevedors in Georgia), The Sailor Likes His Bottle ‘O (early recordings from Guyana, sung by Black rowers), Shallow Brown (Carribean), and the chorus of Drop of Nelson’s Rum (which has also been passed down in gospel traditions as Roll The Old Chariot Along) are all worth a listen. Links: https://media.efdss.org/resourcebank/docs/RB217_Black_Sailors_and_Sea_Shanties.pdfhttps://www.npr.org/2020/07/25/895112760/breaking-down-the-legacy-of-race-in-traditional-music-in-america

[omgthatdress]

I’m sorry but this is funny. “There’s COLONIALISM in my AGE OF SAIL?! You mean the English navy didn’t just sing sea shanties to say hi to the natives and leave?!”

As a fashion history person, I can happily tell you history is fucked up. I have no idea how many of the dresses I post were made from cotton picked by slaves, but I fully fucking acknowledge that and appreciate it as a facet of fashion history and what makes it fascinating.

It’s fucking stupid to say “The Wellers were bad, sea shanties are CANCELED!” You can enjoy the music of sea shanties and know the full history behind them. It’s actually really important to talk about the dark history that created the history behind these harmonic bangers. Would I have known who the Wellers were is I hadn’t had “Soon May the Wellerman Come” stuck in my head for the past three days? Probably not. And I’m glad that I’ve learned. You have to learn about history fully to really appreciate it and learn from it.

[artist-kandinsky]

Blue segment, 1921, Wassily Kandinsky

[beggars-opera]

Ok, I’m not going to get involved in someone else’s argument, but I am going to say this: 

A lot of people who are new to historical songs are new to history in general. Know this: you are not going to find anything fun in history that doesn’t have a link to something problematic. History, including our own, is a constant, ever-changing stream of bigotry, slavery, colonialism, and war, and everything created by that world is shaped by those things. Everyone’s threshold for engaging with it in a lighthearted way is going to be different. Use this as an opportunity to read and learn about where we have come from so that maybe someday in the future we will be better. Overall, be kind to each other.