To All My Hoes And Nerds Out There: What Are The Best Sources For Orphic Myth? (@judiejodia?)

Source: Redefining Ancient Orphism: A Study in Greek Religion by Radcliffe G. Edmonds

FASCINATING stuff where this scholar on orphism argues that several texts on persephone explicitly (and the homeric hymn implicitly) claim that mortals pay the recompense (ποινη) for the grief (πενθος) that persephone underwent at her abduction. not hades, but mortals try to appease the goddess for her mistreatment, and in return they earn her favour and a blessed afterlife (or even next life). there's this irreconcilable problem here in that hades was culturally justified, but persephone as a goddess still warrants respect/pity/appeasement, and so mortals through rites and sacrifices console her.

Statuette of alabaster standing nude goddess, from Babylon, circa first century B.C.-first century A.D. (with movable arms, and ruby eyes and navel).CreditVincent Tullo for The New York Times

Commission for Johnicholas Hines! Based on this drawing

Fyodor Dostoevsky ― Crime and Punishment

merricat by angie hoffmeister / merricat by william teason

@onpyre asked if I knew any books about monster theory, and I decided to share my list with everyone. I haven’t read all of these, so please let me know if any of them is absolute crap.

Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (particularly his ‘Seven Theses’)

The Monster Theory Reader, ed. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (great introduction to a lot of different texts and ways of approaching this kind of study, so big rec!)

Ten Theses on Monsters and Monstrosity, Allen S. Weiss + this lecture

The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, ed. Asa Simon Mittman and Peter Dendle (particularly the introduction)

Monsters, John Michael Greer

Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, David D. Gilmore

Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale, Kirk J. Schneider

On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, Stephen T. Asma

Other related resources:

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, Edmund Burke (here)

The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud (here)

Abnormal, Michel Foucault (here)

Powers of Horror: Essays on Abjection, Julia Kristeva

The Monstrous-Feminine, Barbara Creed

Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States, ed. Michael E. Heyes

The Monster Show. A Cultural History of Horror, David J. Skal

Strangers, Gods and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness, Richard Kearney

Our Vampires, Ourselves, Nina Auerbach

Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, And The Middle Ages, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Frankenstein and the Language of Monstrosity, Fred Botting (here)

Theses on Monsters, China Miéville (here)

THE ART of GRACE SLICK

Grace Slick, formerly of Jefferson Airplane (and later Starship) who were one of Woodstock's monumental participants, has been involved in the visual arts scene lately in her life...

The Airplane, most notable for their psychedelic masterpiece 'White Rabbit', entwines the tale of Alice In Wonderland with lyrics advocating for the expansion of one's consciousness through hallucinogens as the ultimate solution; which, in opposition, dismisses the validity to the otherwise socially acceptable norm of the American pharmaceutical diet's true effectivity.

it's refreshing to see that, after many decades have passed, even though she chose to pursue a different artistic avenue than music—the thematics and probable integrity remain the very same.

included are just a few selections from her primary focal point, that eternal fascination with Wonderland; however, she has also paid homage to some of her fellow peers of the Revolution, by painting portraits of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, amongst many others.

Do you have a list or something of your favourite academic/theory books? 🥺

sure! all of them should be available on libgen, so enjoy 🧚🏻‍♀️ i did focus on cultural histories rather than theory, though, otherwise it would get too long. virtually all of them are published by the academic presses, and well-sourced and peer-reviewed. no pseudoscience in this household, no sirree! (also, none of them have anything to do with my actual field of study. i’m just like that)

— Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies, — Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages, — After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, — Darkness: A Cultural History, — Eccentricity and the Cultural Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Paris, — Angels & Angelology in the Middle Ages, — Enchanted Europe: Superstition, Reason, and Religion 1250-1750, — Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science, — The Extraordinary and the Everyday in Early Modern England, — Landscapes of Fear, — Strangers, Gods and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness, — The Severed Head: Capital Visions, — Gothicka: Vampire Heroes, Human Gods, and the New Supernatural, — Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, — When the Dead Rise: Narratives of the Revenant, from the Middle Ages to the Present Day, — Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History, — Religion and Its Monsters, — On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, — The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, — Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages, — Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art, — Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology, — From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, Or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends, — A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire, — Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and Other Airborne Females, — The Spectral Arctic: A History of Dreams and Ghosts in Polar Exploration, — Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds, — Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages, — Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, — Dark Tongues: The Art of Rogues and Riddlers,

etc, etc, etc. 

"'Will Not Let Die': Debilitation and Inhuman Biopolitics in Palestine" in The Right to Maim, Jasbir Puar

Alexa Demie in Fairy Tales (2020) Photography: Petra Collins