the-artifice-of-eternity

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

How is anyone supposed to be normal after that. G-d looked back at me for a minute

#the heavenly spheres

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

everybody tweets like a social theorist these days, blaming their sad little lives on the commodification of art, decline of third spaces, hyperindividualism, and other such nonsense. I, on the other hand, know what's causing my misery--the demiurge's curse

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men

there is nothing more terrifying

#art #sacred and terrible

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

Petrarch recounts how he offended a friend by criticizing Marcus Tullius Cicero: May 13, 1351:

My writings found favor with some, who acknowledged that Cicero had been criticized justly. That venerable gentleman alone fought on and on with ever-increasing obstinacy. Being held captive by the splendor of the name and his love for the author, he preferred to laud even the shortcomings of Cicero, and to accept the vices of his friend together with his virtues. He did not wish to make any discrimination, lest he might seem to cast even the slightest aspersions on so praiseworthy an author.

He could make no other answer to me and the rest, except to oppose to all our arguments the mere splendor of Cicero's name. Authority had driven out reason. Stretching out his hand, he exclaimed time and again: "Have mercy on my Cicero, I beg of you; be more merciful." And when asked whether Cicero could be said to have erred at all, he closed his eyes as if struck by the word, and turning away his face groaned: "Woe is me! And is it my Cicero who is thus reproved?" as if he were speaking, not of a mortal but of some deity. Hence we asked of him whether he judged Tullius a man or a god. Instantly came the reply: "A god."

#italian renaissance #classics #this is what at least three of my mutuals sound like talking about cicero #update: scrolled for two minutes and saw a cicero post. unbelievable.

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

#you connected the dots

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

Merry Christmas sleepyheads !

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

Can you imagine if Peregrin Took had a smartphone

#gandalf CANNOT understand how the orcs are finding them #weeks later he realizes that pippin has been livetweeting their entire journey #the lord of the rings

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

critically jacking off to this problematic fic in a scholarly manner

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

nienna (1/2)

#the silmarillion #memento mori

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

I love me a pseudo-historical arranged marriage au but it always nudges my suspension of disbelief when the author has to dance around the implicit expectation that an arranged marriage should lead to children, which a cis gay couple can't provide.

I know for a lot of people that's irrelevant to what they want from an Arranged Marriage plot, but personally I like playing in the weird and uncomfortable implications.

So, I've been thinking about how you would justify an obviously barren marriage in That Kind of fantasy world, and I thought it'd be interesting if gay marriage in Ye Old Fantasy Land was a form of soft disinheritance/abdication.

Like, "Oh, God, I don't want to be in this position of power please just find me a boy to marry", or, "I know you should inherit after you father passes but as your stepmother/legal guardian I think it'd make more sense if my kids got everything, so maybe consider lesbianism?", or "Look, we both know neither of our families has enough money to support that many grandkids, so let's just pair some spares and save both our treasuries the trouble".

Obviously this brings in some very different dynamics that I know not everyone would be pinged by, but I just think it'd be neat.

#fiction #this is a much better solution than sending your shitty younger sons off to the crusades

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

don’t stop talking about what’s happening

#palestine

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

Not long before her death, Anna Kamieńska wrote what I think is her best poem (available in English, at any rate), a stark, haunting, and insidiously hopeful little gem called "A Prayer That Will Be Answered." The title is worth some stress, in both senses of that word: "A Prayer That Will Be Answered." Lord let me suffer much and then die Let me walk through silence and leave nothing behind not even fear Make the world continue let the ocean kiss the sand just as before Let the grass stay green so that the frogs can hide in it so that someone can bury his face in it and sob out his love Make the day rise brightly as if there were no more pain And let my poem stand clear as a windowpane bumped by a bumblebee's head (tr. by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak) This is an uncanny poem. It gives God all power (the continuance of the world) and no power (it was going to continue anyway). It is implicitly apophatic, you might say. That is, it erases what it asserts: it is a prayer to be reconciled to a world in which prayer does not work.

Christian Wiman, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair

#poetry #thick and dark like blood

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

there are many retellings & adaptional choices i really don't like when it comes to writing new stories about old myths, and that i feel are boring or ignoring interesting points & implications or unfamiliar with the topic or ancient cultural context in a way that rubs me the wrong way. BUT the way some people on here talk about myth retellings as if retelling them is in and of itself a bad thing, or that retellings are somehow 'staining' the 'meaning' of the 'original myth', and Particularly posts that just seem to be hating on the people writing these books not for any real constructive point but just because they think Change Is Bad is going to make me feel bonkers insane fr. come on guys

#fiction #against cultural purity

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

need to draw more half-orc ladies

#she is the love of my life

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

guys that only read self help books are so cringe. like bro all books are self help books the characters make the mistakes so you dont have to. After reading oediupus rex i knew to not do that

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

#an appointment with winter

[the-artifice-of-eternity]

Here we go again, greetings from Middle-earth: White horses at the ford and Rivendell just before sunrise, Eärendil shining bright, over the Hall of fire *_*

#the lord of the rings