"'Will Not Let Die': Debilitation And Inhuman Biopolitics In Palestine" In The Right To Maim, Jasbir

“Medea is very much concerned with the problem of woman’s place in human society […] Euripides is concerned in this play not with progress or reform but (as in the Hippolytus and the Bacchae) with the eruption in tragic violence of forces in human nature which have been repressed and scorned, which in their long-delayed breakout exact a monstrous revenge. The Medea is not about woman’s rights; it is about woman’s wrongs, those done to her and by her.”

— Knox, B. (1979). The Medea of Euripides, from Word and action: essays on the ancient theater. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.295-322.

toni morrison, sula // stephanie peters, fire // seneca, medea (trans. a.j. boyle) // david mcconochie, medea // peter russell, night the first // stephanie peters, roaring flame // hozier, arsonist’s lullabye // jackson pollock, the flame

One of the oldest goddesses in the historical record is Inanna of Mesopotamia, who was referred to, among other honorifics, as “She who makes a woman into a man, she who makes a man into a woman.” The power to alter such fundamental categories was evidence of her divine power. Inanna was served by at least half a dozen different types of transgendered priests, and one of her festivals apparently included a public celebration in which men and women exchanged garments. The memory of a liminal third-gender status has been lost, not only in countries dominated by Christian ideology, but also in many circles dedicated to the modern revival of goddess worship. Images of the divine feminine tend to appear alone, in Dianic rites, surrounded only by other women, or the goddess is represented with a male consort, often one with horns and an erect phallus. But it is equally valid to see her as a fag hag and a tranny chaser, attended by men who have sex with other men and people who are, in modern terms, transgendered or intersexed.

— Speaking Sex to Power: The Politics of Queer Sex by Patrick Califia

merricat by angie hoffmeister / merricat by william teason

Traditional Tibetan-style house in the Indian Himalayas.

by Drowster

A cobra is dangerous only when it is coiled, ready to strike in an instant; when its body is completely erect it is quite harmless. Similarly, the kundalini is dangerous only in its form of the diffuse life energies, which fuel the unillumined person's hankering for sensory and sensual experiences, entangling him or her ever more in worldly karma. When the serpent power is erect, however, it is not poisonous but a source of ambrosia, because it is erect only when it has entered the central pathway leading to liberation and bliss. As Jayaratha explains in his commentary on the Tantra-Aloka (chapter 5, p. 358), when one strikes a serpent it draws itself up and becomes stiff like a rod. Similarly, through the process of "churning" the kundalini stretches upward into the perpendicular pathway of the sushumna, reaching with its head for the topmost psychoenergetic center. Georg Feuerstein, Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy, Chapter 11: Awakening the Serpent Power.

you might've gotten this question before but I wondered, what are your favorite fairytales/myths? also just wanted to say i love your blog so much, scrolling through it feels like wandering in a magical garden 💚

apologies for answering this 3 days late! thank you so much for asking this, and for loving my blog… how lovely of you! i appreciate it, truly ♡

some fairytales i love:

bluebeard’s bride

death and the nightingale, by hans christian andersen. it’s about an emperor, a nightingale, a clockwork bird, and the grim reaper.

the goose girl

east of the sun, west of the moon -i’m linking a version with kay nielsen’s famous illustrations, because they add a lot to it!

i couldn’t find a text of this, and i know it’s obscure, but there’s this kashmiri folk tale called ‘the chinese princess’ that is about a lamia. i read it in ‘angela carter’s book of fairytales’ and it has stuck with me… i recommend hunting the book down digitally if you can!

my friend doe @rosedaughter once talked of a palestinian version of little red riding hood that i found so delightfully chilling and incredible… here’s the post where she recounts it.

this only loosely counts, but in the silmarillion by jrr tolkien, the creation myths - the music of the ainur, and how that fictional world was created - have stuck with me. i always found it wonderful to read. it’s called the ainulindale, it’s about the length of a chapter, and here is the text of it.

the frame story of 1001 nights - of sheherazade spinning tales every night to a prince and his court.

the crane wife / tsuru no ongaeshi 

the twelve dancing princesses …i really love this one, it always fascinated me.

loosely related to the 12 dancing princesses, there is an anime called ‘princess tutu’ that’s about fairytales and story meta and character trope subversion and it’s incredible and i can’t recommend it enough. and although linking a fic is probably odd, there’s a fanfic for princess tutu that rewrites the story of the 12 dancing princesses in such a stunning way. i believe you can enjoy it even if you don’t know the show. it’s one of my favourite pieces of writing ever, read it here.

the ballad of tam lin! it’s a scottish fairytale that resembles a beauty and the beast-type tale, and i love it very much. here’s the wiki for it, you can read the full text from the link there.

again, this only loosely counts, but the poem ‘goblin market’ by christina rossetti is so beautiful. i love it, it counts to me.

vasilisa the beautiful and her brief encounter with baba yaga.

swan lake, the ballet, in general.

cupid and psyche from greek mythology!

i hope you enjoy these!

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth

The Minotaur in the Labyrinth stands as one of the ancient stories that has survived the test of time and continuously appears in mainstream entertainment. Most understand that this concept began with the story of Theseus of ancient Athens and how he navigated the labyrinth and slayed the beast within, but many don’t know the inspiration of this idea.

Nearly a millennia before Classical Greece rose to the height of its power (500-350 BCE) the two leading cultures of the Aegean Sea were the Mycenaeans on the mainland and the Minoans on modern day Crete, and it is on this island that we find the labyrinthian structures of Bronze age Greece.

The Bronze Age Palace at Knossos: Plan and Sections by British archaeologist Sinclair Hood and Canadian archaeologist William E, Taylor, Jr., was published as Supplementary Volume No. 13 of The British School at Athens in 1981. It shows the archaeological remains of one of the many Minoan Palaces. Though mostly destroyed and crumbling, we can still see the complex layout of halls and rooms that twist, turn, and abruptly end. Beginning with the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, scores of theories have been raised about the purpose of such confounding architecture, from a form of defense to a means of controlling foreign visits.  

Besides the confusing architecture, though no depictions of minotaurs were found, Minoan Palaces such as the one at Knossos did contained several pieces of art that depicted bulls. Upon further inspection, the symbol of the Bull was quite prominent throughout the ancient culture from sports, such as bull leaping, to religious sacrifice.

When looking to those who lived in the past, one should remember that we are not the only ones who inquired about archaeological remains. These ruins would’ve been seen by the Classical Greeks, but by that time their imaginations about the great Palaces and Bull iconography of the Minoan civilization was transformed into the myth of the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.

View more posts on Ancient Greece.

– LauraJean, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Intern

Domestic by Catherine Opie - lesbian couples in their home environment across the United States

Image ID: An excepert, cut into two screenshots, from "The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland", by Marion Dowd, that reads:

DISAPPEARING UNDERGROUND

The idea that some ritual activities at caves involved people disappearing from view into darkness is powerful. In most cases only one individual or a small se- lect group could have entered caves at any one time. Thus the potentially public nature of early stages of some rituals, such as the entire community walking to a cave entrance, may have been juxtaposed by the secret activities that took place inside the cave involving just a few people. Witnessing this disappearance into darkness, and waiting for individuals to re-emerge, is likely to have been dramatic. The length of time spent inside a cave may have increased the feelings of anticipation, expectancy, anxiety, trepidation, fear or mystery experienced by those outside. People above ground were in the dark too. What was happening down there in the darkness? Who or what would be met in the cave? Why was the trip taking so long? Would s/he return? What would be the outcome?

These were religious and spiritual excursions into darkness that must have transformed those waiting outside but especially the person who had entered the cave. Such journeys may have conferred her/him with greater power, status, reverence or respect if caves were perceived as places of the Otherworld where it was possible to commune with the spirit world. Emerging from darkness and returning to the world of the living may have been seen as akin to a rebirth: emerging with new knowledge or insights, emerging as a new and transformed person.

/End ID