On the occasion of the three hundred fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the epic poem, Benjamin Ramm writing for BBC Culture presents a compelling argument for revisiting John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Influence and legacy is to be found lurking everywhere, perhaps only second to Shakespeare’s inspiration in English traditions though references may not be readily apparent. Informed by the milieu of the English Civil War and republican age, the ten thousand lines of blank verse was indeed meant to “justify the ways of God to men” and help reconcile themselves to these turbulent and revolutionary times, championed of course by a menacingly magnetic Satan who is the most interesting character by far—and signals both allure and repulsion depending on the reader and the reading.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Friday 21 April 2017
sympathy for the devil
6x6
squeeze-box: Dear Leader finally delivers an enjoyable performance
venzone: an Italian hamlet rebuilt after being devastated by a recent earthquake declared most beautiful in the country
brick & mortar: complimentary to the retail apocalypse, urban centres are seeking relief from bustling mail order services
teach a man to fish: neurosurgeon visiting Tanzania trained a non-medical doctor how to operate on the brain, who in turn taught others, beginning to alleviate a critical shortage—via Super Punch
bespoke: tyre company soon to produce airless wheels for bicycles and other vehicular applications
pale blue dot: as a parting shot as the space probe prepares for its grand finale, Cassini captured an image of the Earth in between Saturn’s rings
Thursday 20 April 2017
exit through the gift-shop
Apparently chuffed from his recent claimed mandate after a referendum passed by a slim margin investing the office of president with executive powers, Recep Tayyip Erdoฤan has directed the Turkish Ministry of Culture to erect a museum dedicated to the victims of the failed coup d'รฉtat of last summer.
Some three hundred people died but it is unclear if those deaths were at the hands of insurrectionists or whether the other victims, the hundreds of thousands of civil servants, educators, artists and journalists that were purged, aren’t also deserving of memorial—and not just damnatio memoriรฆ. The Museum of 15 July: Martyrs and Democracy as it is to be known will have besides its permanent exhibits a library, cafรฉ and gift-shop.
imprimatur
Colossal showcases some of the newest apparel from the Berlin-based art collective Raubdruckerin (whom we’ve admired previously) produced by the commandeering of street elements in order to lift, create prints for shirts and accessories. The group is currently on a tour European cities, amassing more improvised and impromptu designs.
la course a l’elysรฉe
Just ahead of the first round of French national elections to take place this Sunday (Jour du Scrutin), Oliver Gee of the Local provides a handy guide to navigating the political jargon and labels for issues bandied about when speaking about the race. Fiercely proud of their language and idioms and rightly so, the only Americanism to bleed into this campaign is “fake news,” though one sometimes encounters a ribald accusation of fausses nouvelles.
animatic
The Calvert Journal has an interesting profile of the lesser scrutinised art form, relegated to children’s entertainment, of animation and the role that allegory communicated through this medium played in protest movements in Eastern Europe and Soviet satellite states, particularly in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The study with a gallery of examples (not the ersatz Itchy and Scratchy pictured) from the 1950s onward demonstrates the parabolic reach of the message (the animatic being the synchronised storyboard) considering that in most cases the state was the lone patron of cartoons, looking into the past when puppet theatre and other antecedents could be as covertly subversive, plus how contemporary artists are rediscovering animation as powerful form of commentary.
sending forces
Amusing Planet features a profile of the mostly abandoned town of Wรผnsdorf on the periphery of Berlin that once hosted the headquarters of the Soviet military in East Germany.
With large areas of restricted access, Wรผnsdorf was declared another verbotene Stadt, like the Colossus of Prora after World War II, and of course this was not the only installation to be mothballed with the Reunification and we’ve encountered quite a few former army camps in our travels. The stations of the Allies are much less dense these days (click here for a map that shows the coverage and saturation on both sides) but the Americans have remained.
Wednesday 19 April 2017
directors’ cut or good morning pyongyang
Via Gizmodo, we discover that in the North Korean capital, there is a daily morning broadcast on loudspeakers of a Theremin-sounding leitmotif that resounds throughout the city.
Although reporting appears rather dodgy and some handlers of visitors to the Hermit Kingdom disavow the existence of the routine—the implication being that they are so brain-washed that it no longer registers, this instrumental tune is a little reminiscent of the Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) soundscape composed by Vangelis and is possibly called “Ten Million Human Bombs for Kim Il Sung” but no one knows for sure. It seems eerie and oppressive at first blush but I wonder what message that North Korea intended to send.