ryolithica

We do not live in a privileged reference frame. amateur botanist, aspiring dryland permaculturist, cosmopolitan localist, doomer optimist, MTBer  -  he/him   ryolithica.substack.com

[cyberbotanist]

The Secret of NIMH uses a variety of plant-related tropes to establish the areas of its miniature world. Agricultural machinery, sunset tones, and grasses create a Midwestern Gothic vibe both nostalgic and foreboding, while rose bushes are portrayed as infinite spirals of gnarled and thorny branches, and the prosperous rat sanctum falls within a ray of sunlight illuminating a riot of flowers. The movie’s aesthetic is often beautiful, though its approach is less realist than I think really behooves a movie exploring the magic of small plant-related spaces (it’s no Arrietty, for instance). 

[clawmarks]

Johann Falch - Forest floor with a snake, lizard, butterflies, and snails amongst weeds on a riverbank - before 1727 - via Christie’s

[cyberbotanist]

I featured Studio Ghibli’s Only Yesterday a few weeks ago for its lovingly detailed depiction of safflower cultivation and processing. But the movie also fills the rest of its shots with weedy plants scattered around the farm. I’m very fond of weeds and Only Yesterday gives them a nostalgic sheen that feels doting even for a Ghibli film. They are so often unappreciated, but they bring change and vitality to human spaces and they’re deployed wonderfully to that end in these shots. 

[ryolithica]

Terrestrial isopod crustacean Porcellionides "woodlouse"

[ryolithica]

this is a post to help twitter refugees from the doomer optimist community find each other and myself

[ryolithica]

do not mistake likes for popularity, young padawan. Therein lies the way to the dark side