taylor price
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tannertan36
One Nice Bug Per Day
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YOU ARE THE REASON
Stranger Things
KIROKAZE
Jules of Nature
blake kathryn
Andulka
⁂
i don't do bad sauce passes
tumblr dot com
Discoholic 🪩
trying on a metaphor
Origami Around
Not today Justin
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oozey mess
seen from Denmark
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@white-eyed-widows
From Tulane’s 1903 yearbook.
It’s been said that skulls are symbolic of the divine and the mortal, housed within the one vessel. Here’s a treasury of vintage skull imagery.
Wondering about this post? Wait for the dissertation (TBA). For now: Weblog ◆ Books ◆ Videos ◆ Music ◆ Etsy
I think this belongs here.
wife material right there
Top Tips for Clues, Red Herrings, and Breadcrumbs
One of the most important parts of writing MYSTERY is figuring out what to do with clues and red herrings - and how to use them effectively. Here’s some advice that’s never steered me wrong:
Hide the real clue before the false ones! Most people, so by extent your readers and your sleuth, tend to focus on the last piece of information presented to them. A good strategy is to mention/show your real clue and then quickly shift focus.
Do a clue cluster! Squeeze your real clue in among a whole pile of red herrings or other clues, effectively hiding it in plain sight. This works especially well with multiple suspect mysteries.
Struggling to think of what a clue could be? Try this list:
Physical objects: Letters, notes, tickets, emails, keepsakes, text messages, diaries, etc.
Dialogue: voicemail recordings, overheard conversations, hearsay, gossip, rumours. All of these can hold grains of truth!
Red herrings distract and confound your protagonist and your reader, so you should be careful not to overuse them. Well balanced, red herrings should lead your characters down false paths to create confusion, tension, and suspense.
Contradictions! Have characters claim they did so-and-so at such-and-such a time, but other characters have evidence that contradicts this.
Balance! Avoid a clue that’s so obvious it’s like a neon sign saying “Look at me, I’m a clue!” but don’t make it so obscure it’ll be missed entirely. A good clue should leave a reader saying “Damn, I should have noticed that”
Astrological signs and their relation to parts of the body. Aristotle’s works, illustrated. 1900.
Internet Archive
Victorian 9ct gold temperance charm with a pop up bone devil
I’m losing my mind over this guy. I’m looking for sources to learn more about it, but so far all I have found is this: “A rare and unusual antique charm from the Victorian (ca1880) era! This collectable piece consists of a 10kt gold capsule, which holds a small devil totem hidden inside. During the Victorian era, many jewelry elements were shrouded in symbolism and concealed meaning. This particular piece serves as a reminder of “temperance” (abstinence from alcohol, or moderation and self-restraint, particularly in consumption). Once opened, the head of the devil pops up quickly into view, protruding above the surface. The 3-dimensional detail includes carved facial features, white horns, and two sparkling rhinestones representing the eyes. A small mechanism at the side of the capsule releases the spring that allows the devil to pop up, or push securely back into place. Covering the surface of the capsule is a hand etched motif, including an ivy leaf at the base. The lid caps the top of the canister, and is attached with a strand of gold chain. A gold ring at the side of the charm allows it to hang sideways when worn. A unique and collectible piece, it would be right at home on a special charm bracelet!” (x) Oh, and the size of the capsule? Pretty darn small:
What even is this???
Victorian Tear Catchers
During the Victorian era, mourners sometimes collected their tears in gold decorated “tear bottles” to keep as a remembrance for the next of kin. It has also been said that the widows would go to the grave on the anniversary of the first year of death and sprinkle the tears on the grave to signify the end of the first year of mourning.
“The myth likely began with archaeologists and an oddly chosen term. Small glass bottles were often found in Greek and Roman tombs, and “early scholars romantically dubbed [them] lachrymatories or tear bottles,” writes Grace Elizabeth Arnone Hummel, who runs the perfume website Cleopatra’s Boudoir. Those glass bottles held perfume and unguents, not tears, Hummel explains. “Scientists have performed chemical tests on these flasks and they disproved the romantic theory.” But stories sometimes acquire their own momentum.”
It’s hard to keep a good story down when there’s money to be made.
Courtships in Old Graveyards “I don’t think there is as much genuine love-making in Saratoga nowadays as there used to be years ago,” said o
“No one wants to talk about the hilarity after death - the way the week my brother shot himself, his wife and I fell on the bed laughing because she couldn’t decide what to wear for the big day, and asked me, “Do I go for sexy or Amish?” I told her sexy. And we rolled around on the mattress they’d shared for eighteen years, clutching our sides. Meanwhile, he lay in a narrow refrigerated drawer, soft brown curls springing from his scalp, framing his handsome face. This was back when he still had a face, and we were going to get to see it. “Hold up the black skirt again,” I said. She said, “Which one?” And then she said, “You look so Mafia Chic,” and I said, “Thank you,” and it went on until we both got tired and our ribs hurt and now I don’t even remember what we wore. Only that we both looked fabulous weeping over that open hole in the ground.”
— “Dressing For The Burial,” Danusha Laméris, Bonfire Opera (via fierce-invalids)
19th century full tree calf leather bindings with marbled page edges and endpapers..
[Sold]
The Importance of Being Stylish
Knowing what to wear next season is as important as knowing what not to wear because it is last season.
Fashion, my dears, is a method of manipulation. You can dictate what people think of you simply by choosing to wear more stylish full skirts, or opting for a more narrow gown that is embarrassingly out of season.
bring back ghost autographs or perish.
for those of you that do not understand or know of ghost autographs it when you write your signature on the crease of paper and then fold the paper soest how it smudges and blots, looking like a skeletal system. [source]
This is!!! what I do!!
What does your Ghost Autograph look like?
Titled The Ghost of My Friends, it is a book of “ghost signatures,” the well-inked swirls of a cursive autograph transformed into strange, elegant, and devilish inkblots. The smudges and splatters found in a booklet are akin to that of a Rorschach inkblot, but the linear thin tracks of a fountain pen give these ghostly inkblots a unique look. (source)
Here are more examples:
Queen Victoria surrounded by her family: Prince Albert Victor (Duke of Clarence and Avondale), Princess Alix of Hesse (Empress Alexandra of Russia), Princess Beatrice (Princess Henry of Battenberg) and Princess Irene of Hesse (Princess Henry of Prussia), 1887.
Original picture.
when you accidentally reblog a post from your mother to the wrong blog
Shut up darling, you're embarrassing me
Portrait of a woman taken by Clementina Hawarden, UK, 1860s. Clementina Hawarden was considerate the first female fashion photographer. She usually used her daughters as her models. Married with Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden she had 8 childrens and unfortunately died in 1864 at the age of 42.
However she left more than 700 photographs that were donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
5-ITEM CHARACTER OUTLINE
1. CHARACTER A Character is made up of all their descriptors - their name, age, gender, sexuality, appearance, etc.
2. GOALS What is your Character trying to do, get, or achieve?
WIN - Battling against an opposing force and defeating it.
STOP - Trying to stop someone from doing something, or to stop something from happening.
ESCAPE - The character is trying to get out of one place/situation and into another, usually from danger to safety.
RETRIEVE - Trying to get something, or someone, whatever that may be.
3. MOTIVATIONS This is what drives your Character toward their Goal, making them do the things they do in your story. It is comprised of their Desire (what they stand to gain from accomplishing their Goal) and the Stakes (what they stand to lose if they fail).
4. CONFLICTS This is what gets between the Character and their Goal.
PERSON VS SELF is between the character and their own thoughts, feelings, ego, or body.
PERSON VS THING is between one character and something else, be it another person, object, or animal.
PERSON VS EXTRA-PERSONAL is between a character and the greater world or forces around them, such as society, nature, gods, or curses.
5. DEPTH We get to know the true nature of your Character when they are forced to act under stress. Regardless of who they appear to be, or who they think themselves to be, when they are forced to make difficult choices in pursuit of their Goal, the truth of who they really are is revealed.
“Pressure is essential. Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little. If a character chooses to tell the truth in a situation where telling a lie would gain him nothing, the choice is trivial. But if a character insists on telling the truth when a lie would save his life, then we sense that honesty is at the core of his nature.” - Robert McKee, STORY
the whole Victorian nipple piercing thing
you’ve probably seen it on a hundred “things your history teacher didn’t want you to know!!!!” posts:
“there was totally an 1890s trend of women piercing their nipples! omg those dirty, dirty Victorians!”
my take on this is that probably like two or three particularly bohemian ladies did it, the press got hold of the idea, and those stellar late 19th century journalistic standards blew it way out of proportion. and yeah, “a nonzero number” is still more Victorians than most people expect to have had nipple rings, so the reaction nowadays would likely be the same even if it wasn’t painted as a huge trend
but because I’m me, the idea of someone being Wrong About History On The Internet still gets under my skin. so I did some research
besides a few medical journals loudly decrying the practice, the most often-cited period source on “bosom rings” is a series of letters in the magazine English Mechanic and the World of Science
sounds like a steampunk Harry Potter book title. let’s venture
the April 1888 edition included a letter, allegedly from a Polish man named Jules Orme, about how he and a friend got their nipples pierced as teenagers. and one response letter claimed to be from a woman, Constance, whose fiance/cousin (ah, the 1880s) now wanted her to have hers done after reading Orme’s account
before we go any further, I have to talk about 19th-century tightlacing erotica
any pop history discussion of the corset controversy will undoubtedly include letters written to a variety of periodicals, mostly The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, by women laced down to 15″ or even 13″-waists who were quite fond of the practice. REALLY fond of it. using the phrase “delicious agony” fond of it. describing in detail the strict headmistresses and stern aunts who ordered them laced down and devised overly complicated ways of ensuring they couldn’t remove the corsets fond of it. and shortly thereafter, the same magazine started publishing very detailed letters about whipping maidservants and pretty young wives
if you’re thinking that sounds like BDSM porn, yes. yes, it does. and given the dearth of 13″ extant corsets that have been found, that’s probably exactly what it was. so there was a long tradition of using magazine correspondence pages as the proto-Penthouse by the time the nipple ring discussion commenced
“Constance” receives a reply from “Fanny,” a young lady whose nipples have been pierced for five years “at the request of an intimate friend.” allegedly this request and the piercing happened when she was 15, a detail which makes the letter read less “actual reality of a girl/woman’s life in the 1880s” to me and more “skeevy youth-fetishizing porn”
the conversation goes back and forth for a while, and then. and then.
“Constance” and her younger sister actually go to get their nipples pierced and describe the process in detail. allegedly.
this post is getting rather long, so click here for Part 2!
(source on the fetish letters in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. cw for mention, but no images, of illustrations fetishizing slavery)
(source on the nipple-piercing letters. take this blog with a grain of salt; I’m only using it for text, names/pseudonyms, and dates)
