wouldn't it be loverly?

[bby-kush]

Malcolm x  Diggy x Jib

[mayumit]

LOVED this movie. Great writing, acting, cinematography, and soundtrack (obvi). I agree with the criticism that the three black women in the film are all the same shade. It was definitely a problem in this film, and most other films, and it’s just not acceptable any more.

[karcador]

So I’ve heard somebody wanted to see a gif of that moment when Brian Cox was ran over by Stephen Hawking. Here it is, I hope it loads.

[gowns]

the “lolita” covers

here’s a question: if vladimir nabokov’s “lolita” is truly the psychological portrait of a messed up dude and not the girl – let alone a sexualized little girl, as all of the sexualization happens inside humbert humbert’s head – then why do all the covers focus on a girl, and usually a sexy aspect of a girl, usually quite young, and none of them feature a portrait of humbert humbert?

here are nabokov’s original instructions for the book cover:

I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls. … Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically opposed to: any kind of representation of a little girl.

and yet, the representations of the sexy little girl abound.

i became driven by curiousity. why did this happen? why is this happening?

i am not alone – there’s a book about this, with several essays and artists’ conceptions about the politics and problems of representation surrounding the covers of “lolita.” this new yorker article gives a summary of the book and its ideas, and interviews one of the editors:

Many of the covers guilty of misrepresenting Lolita as a teen seductress feature images from Hollywood movie adaptations of the book— Kubrick’s 1962 version, starring Sue Lyon, and Adrian Lyne’s 1997 one. Are those films primarily to blame for the sexualization of Lolita? As is argued in several of the book’s essays, the promotional image of Sue Lyon in the heart-shaped sunglasses, taken by photographer Bert Stern, is easily the most significant culprit in this regard, much more so than the Kubrick film itself (significantly, neither the sunglasses nor the lollipop ever appears in the film), or the later film by Adrian Lyne. Once this image became associated with “Lolita”—and it’s important to remember that, in the film, Lolita is sixteen years old, not twelve—it really didn’t matter that it was a terribly inaccurate portrait. It became the image of Lolita, and it was ubiquitous. There are other factors that have contributed to the incorrect reading, from the book’s initial publication in Olympia Press’s Traveller’s Series (essentially, a collection of dirty books), to Kubrick’s startlingly unfaithful adaptation. At the heart of all of this seems to be the desire to make the sexual aspect of the novel more palatable.

here’s a couple of kubrick inspired covers:

which very well could have, after tremendous sales, have influenced the following covers:

…straying so far from the intention of nabokov that the phenomenon begins to look more like the symptom of something larger, something sicker.

after a lot of researching covers, it was here, in this sampling of concept covers for the book about the lolita covers, that i found an image that best represents the story to me:

[art by linn olofsdotter – and again, this is not an official cover]

but why aren’t all the covers like that? even the ones published by “legitimate” publishing companies, with full academic credentials, with no intended connection to the film; surely they must have read nabokov’s instructions for the cover. and yet, look at the top row of lolita covers: all legitimate publishing companies, not prone to smut. and yet.

my conclusion is that the lolita complex existed before “lolita” (and of course it did) – a patriarchal society is essentially operating with the same delusions of humbert humbert. nabokov did not produce the sexy girl covers of lolita, and kubrick had only the smallest hand in it. it was what people desired, requested and bought. the image of the sexy girl sells; intrigues; gets the hands on the books.

as elizabeth janeway said in her review in the new york review of books: “Humbert is every man who is driven by desire, wanting his Lolita so badly that it never occurs to him to consider her as a human being, or as anything but a dream-figment made flesh.”

isn’t that our media as a whole? our culture as a whole?

the whole lot of them/us – seeing the world through humbert-tinted glasses, seeing all others as Other and Object, as solipsistic dream-reality. as i scroll through the “lolita” covers i wonder: where’s the humanity in our humanity?

[beatonna]

pretty interesting read here

[beatonna]

Picture books that draw the line against pink stereotypes of girls

Don’t despair at the tide of cultural glitter swamping young girls today. There are still writers producing funky female characters who don’t get their knickers in a twist at the prospect of a difficult challenge

Glad to be included with some good looking books!

[doscerounocinco]

Karolin Klüppel

[danedavenport-deactivated201608]

1.01 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes x 7.12 Lost Horizon

[joy-ang]

Hazel from Brian Lee O'Malley’s Seconds

[mayumit]

From the genius minds and talented hands of two artists I love.

[joy-ang]

I couldn’t get these doors out of my head, so I painted them. Accompanying music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hwjQBQFIo .

[mayumit]

lovely piece by Joy Ang

[the-garden-of-delights]

[mayumit]

Can’t wait for Denise to leave Moray. She is far superior to him in every respect. You are too good for him girl!

[sunfishdunes-deactivated2019010]

Each week for a month, 5-year-old Lily and her mom teamed up to research the story of a famous black heroine — and then to re-create her portrait. In fact, the project’s turned out to be so successful, and so fun, that they’ve decided to continue the series. Toni Morrison, Grace Jones, Admiral Michelle Howard — and many more to come, they say.

[gwendabond]

This is fabulous.

[gimmegasoline]

[mayumit]

I have such a stupid crush on his idiot face.

[courtney-barnett]

Watch ‘Pedestrian At Best’ now, the first song off my new album ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’!! Pre-order the whole album here.

[nprmusic]

Ugh, so good. —Lars

[incidentalcomics]

From the archive: an unused book review sketch that still makes me giggle whenever I see it.

[antirecognition-blog-blog]

Probably the abject materials are too strong, too difficult to work with—the girly defiled witchy outcast hello kitty suicidal fairy whore—you think you can get some critical distance but you’re wrong, the materials are sticky, they’ll strike back, catch you up. Knowing this I still spend...

[comiques]

class portrait

[incidentalcomics]

Outside the Box

You can order poster prints of this Incidental Comic and many others at my shop.

[luzfosca]

Robert Doisneau

Leçon de vélo [Bike Lesson], 1961.

source