The Frogs Have More Fun...

Flowers



"All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, Fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames.
- These must all be Fairy names !"

(from Child's Garden of Verses
by R.L. Stevenson)


"Anyone can write a short-story.
A bad one, I mean."

(R.L. Stevenson)
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"Science without conscience is the Soul's perdition."
- Francois Rabelais, Pantagruel
- Acc to/above is citated from: Medical Apartheid. The dark history of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, by Harriet A. Washington (Doubleday ; 2006 ; p. 1.)

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"In the high society of the first half of the century, marriage, despite it's bestowal status upon the wife, was the most absurdity. Marriage, conferring instanteous rank or money, ... lost most of its prestige and moment right after the wedding. ...By the end of the century, spurred by Rousseau's moralistic Nouvelle Hèloíse, a contrary cult, that of virtue, arose. After 1770 conjugal and maternal love became not merely admissible, but, for some, moral imperatives. ...

[...]
...Rousseau, who sought for himself the crown of morality in ostensibly defending marriage, presents in his Nouvelle Hèloíse the most enticing and extended defense of illicit love ever penned. The root of the problem is that as the century progressed sensibility became confused with morality: passionate feeling, if expressed in a highly civilized mode with grace and nuance, makes us forgive the Rousseau of The Confessions, for example, his pettiness, his jealousies, his betrayals. This moral-amoral byplay, present already in the novels of Richardson, was to be more intense as the century unfolded."
-
Madelyn Gutwirth : Madame De Staèl, Novelist. The emergence of the Artist as Woman (10,15.)

;
"...As the social contract seems tame in comparison with war, so fucking and sucking come to seem merely nice, and therefore unexciting. ... To be 'nice', as to be civilized, means being alienated from this savage experience - which is entirely staged. [...] The rituals of domination and enslavement being more and more practiced, the art that is more and more devoted to rendering their themes, are perhaps only a logical extension of an affluent society's tendency to turn every part of people's lives into a taste, a choice; to invite them to regard their very lives as a (life) style." - Susan Sontag , on 'Fascinating Fascism' (-74; p 103;104-5 at Under the sign of Saturn)
; "Anyone who cannot give an account to oneself of the past three thousand years remains in darkness, without experience, living from day to day." (Goethe) - as cited by Sontag (on same compile; p. 137.)

;
"It is widely accepted that we are now living in the 'Anthropocene', a new geological epoch in which the Earth's ecosystems and climate are being fundamentally altered by the activities of humans. I loathe the term, but I can't deny that it's appropriate."
; (Goulson), Silent Earth : Averting the Insect Apocalypse (2021; p 47.)
;
"It is sometimes said that humanity is at war with nature, but the word 'war' implies a two-way conflict. Our chemical onslaught on nature is more akin to genocide. It is small wonder that our wildlife is in decline."
; (Goulson, 2021 ; 118.)
;
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"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." (Voltaire)
- Citated from; (Joy, Melanie), Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows : An Introduction to Carnism(2010; p. 95.)
;

"In the presence of the monster, you have eyes and ears for nothing else."
; (Flora Tristan) : London Journal of Flora Tristan: the Aristocracy and the Working Class of England ; 1842-edit. (tr: 1982. ; p. 71.)

;
"Every minority invokes justice, and justice is liberty.
A party can be judged of only by the doctrine which
it professes when it is the strongest."
Mdme de Staêl
(on) 'Consideration sur le Révolution de la Francaise' [1818]


7/17/15

'Unca Hitch' jawbone', Or, an interdisciplinary intermission from some (old) cinematics...


The goose-step began. Left, right. Left, right. Forward, march! 
The automatons moved. The squares disintegrated into fours. Into twos. 
… At twelve those children who by some accident had been a little minute 
or two late would have their first meal after five hours of work and so-called education. 
Discipline, it was called. ”
; of Quicksand, p. 12. (a novel by Nella Larsen, p1928)


; While I had some time lately, I watched quite a lot old movies. ...Don't know how those are actually described these days. (I think) some hobbyist, or, 'professionals' refer to them as the old cinema. (Or, just as the old flicks, meaning anything much dating back to that era prior-/post-war years, ie that means almost exclusively bw-films, etc.) ...Doesn't have any importance concerning my few observations at this instance. Also, of not having any especial hobbyism to film(s), I just call them for the old movies.


[ To the Right - Sylvia Sidney (on Fritz Lang's You Only LIve Once, 1932-film) ...(A bit) like Donald Duck she looks on that, don't ya think...? ]

Anyway, along w. the other "projects" of mine, I recently watched quite several old Hitchcock-movies. ...Occurred then that I came for to think rather differently than is – or, in contrast for – (maybe) the prevailed conception(s) about Unca Hitch's (Sir Alfred, 1899-1979, of course) old creations, or the classics of his career. (Notice: I'm not here discussing from all his films, obviously, there's a great number from those...filmed during the several decades, at least of 1930s, -40s, -50s, and even on 60s and 70s, I think. I've only watched some minor number of them, mostly the earliest.) 

; Usually the Hithcock after-war stuff appears recognized as the period when his most renown classic films were made and his cretivity was at best (Psyko, Vertigo, Rear window and Byrds the most appreciated some...perhaps.) Maybe it's quite justified to say so. However, I also noticed that Hitchcock's early times, rather surprisingly, seems (often) considered to consist period of early realism on his directions. (...And maybe that too is quite correct said, but..)

; ...Along the viewing I then came also from recognize that actually there is quite much variety on Hitchcock's early films, (probably) more than on the later some (ie: 'the classics') – For example, the films like the Secret Agent (-35), or even 39 steps (-36) are indeed quite typically some 'mystery-plot'-thrillers...Meaning, the murder- and a chase-type films, superficially (relative) conventional by structure, and from the main themes presented. But, fx the Lady Vanishes (-37) is itself completely surreal and different for the preceding mentioned (It's plot for example is 'stripped off' for to a minimum necessary needed.) It's probably 'classed' as some experimentation on the limits of the medium (film/cinema). Usually that (aspect) also, I guess, is considered from reflect the approached political instability and the closeness for a war-time atmosphere and anxiety. - To the level, that (apparently) the y. -38 filmed Sabotage seems mentioned in the GB's press of the time  blamed from an intention of stirring up peoples anxiety and public hysteria. ; ..Seems also said that all his films go on relative limited cinematic 'scope', almost each and every can be classified to the category from thriller. And that's why they've been so much imitated on the much from the later (popular) movies and tv. Not the least, because them often contained (again, superficially) quite easily reworkable basic theme and plots. (But I don't claim from having any especial familiarity from Hitchcock's whole career, or most his films, of course...)

; However, also seems - as  many of the Hithcock-films have been much psychologically and 'filmographically' studied - of many his creations after studies 'resurfaced', or found out certain (so called) 'signifier-objects'. (Term, means – probably, or so I understood – smtgh like, seemingly meaningles objects, which have a particular role on a story-plot, creating - again, probably - certain 'chain', associations btw the formerly presented pics-in-the-story and the moment it presented again. And while they're not any manner directly necessary, or not inexchangeable - considering the actual meaning, story told - them 'sort of' serve from to active viewers imagination..or smght like that [Check from the filmographies in particular if wish...] ...The key on Notorius (film from y. -45...?) seems perhaps the most 'cherished' example from. And, looking almost any Hitchcock-film one possibly/usually finds some such object.)

...But (as my own impressions, of shortly), while watching those old films I naturally came to think not so deeply for that kind (psychologizations) of that 'magical realism' from older Hitchcock-filmsMerely them felt (to me) not so much traceable to any that kind cinematic-tricks (Even if it really of some meaningfulness, I don't know...). But, what I can say the old "realism-period" Hithcock-films well from to show, is that a 'real trick' on movies is how to hide the 'message' within the lenght of the whole story itself – as result it resurfaces almost by itself, w. the little aid of the viewers imagination. (...Hitchcock famously imagined films of the future for smtgh like 'injected emotional narcotics' and (I think) it's actually not so far ahead by nowadays...(Unfortunately), most modern popular films are made using more simple technique - I-O-W it's forgotten, probably intentionally, that those 'signifiers' should have some basic meaning on the social and not just on the emotional level too.) 

; ...Just came for to think about these things 'cause - after all - cinema is an emotional medium. It's of course important what kind of emotions are presented, but even more important how them serve the story itself – just for to tear down (smtgh), or for tieing up some 'knots together'. And that's how you get some real meaning on the story presented.

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[ To the right: Sylvia Sidney w. a 'sailor suit' (screen is from 1930s film Sabotage).
Popular fashion at the time....but how well it fits her, don't ya think? ] 
However, reason to that I actually watched quite a bunch from those old films, possibly was, mostly, because of the old bw-era actresses. For some explanation (very briefly): Putting aside all the (possible) disrespects and conventionalisms typical to the old movies (...A'la the 1930s MGM-productions, the Big Money entering movie-industry, melodrama and overacting for some regular standards, not to mention the usual overt heroisms and -emotionalism likewise) - Still remains that on those old classics the acting (often) was so much better. (Besides, often the irony and certain 'grin behind tears' also was far better constructed...) ; ...Guess it's also, from some part, due of the nostalgics we now feel watching those old pictures. But the films, generally, were lot better too. And people goin' to movies – at least during 1920s, 30s - really expected the viewed from to contrast (/reflect) smtgh of their own lives. (No matter how imaginous and unrealistic adventurous were the stories presented. And even all the above listed cliches-of-the-era, conventionalism and the 'mass-brainwashing' considering...)

; ...So within this is we also picked a few screens of Sylvia Sidney's. (An actress Baldwin seems noted for his most favorite star from old Hollywood cinema. ...I guess that was on 'The Devil finds work' – if I happen recall correctly the name of that essay...) ; ...B-t-w; quite surprisingly I didn't find from her bio on Imdb any mention of the role on that You Only Live Once (-32, early gangster/crime-film). Of course, she perhaps played on that mainly as supportant to (Henry) Fonda - the usual standard for women on movies still at the time. (Fonda on the main role as a falsely accused and chased convict.) ; But let us now leave that for the mention (...Hitchcock seems also said to have possessed some eye for the particular characteristics of any actresses he used – quite so, at least on basis of our few selections...:)

; G-U-J.

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