Sexy Girls Have it Easy
Same girl, different outfit. It’s incredible what she gets for free.
Dorking out with the gothic
I’m preparing a presentation on the Gothic for my GRE study group and I found this really neat distinction between “horror” and “terror” that I’d like to share:
“The Gothic practitioner who reacts more creatively to sublime theory is Ann Radclife who, while largely Burkean, in a posthumously published essay moved to differentiate horror from terror: ‘terror and horror are so far opposite that the first expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; and the other contracts, freezes and nearly annihilates them.’ An example in her fiction would be the terror Emily St. Aubert feels in The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) before the uncertain secrets of the black veil, and the horror at discovery of what she believes is a dead body, and which causes her to fall senseless.”
-Alison Milbank, “The Sublime,” The Handbook to Gothic Literature
A Record You Can Believe In. Call me an optimist, but I can still muster chills remembering that this guy is President. The article is a little Over optimistic, but the idea that there are nice things at ALL to say about him is such an overwhelmingly wonderful, if very simple, thing. And I’m not discounting the awesomeness of Matthew’s Law, either.
An artist has put together actual skeletons of Looney Toons characters. Happy Hallows!
Open Letter to the Oprah Winfrey Show
Jack Mackenroth’s response to Oprah’s HIV show. It’s informative, well-written and justified - but what I find most fascinating and inspiring is all the comments from people who have been positive for the better part of 30 years. Amazing, that.
Orwell, comrade
If dystopian fiction is seen as a reflection of the authors’ own fears about the future world, I think George Orwell would be pretty terrified to find himself in Troy, 2009:
“There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There wil be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed.”
-1984
But really, this town is lovely :)
-Michelle
Say what you will about Madonna and Rolling Stone:I think this is a gorgeous photograph.
Maybe controversial, Definitely cool
OKCupid nerds strike again with a series of graphs demonstrating race preference in its users.
