I have long wanted an ancestral portrait painted in a German Expressionist style hanging in my entry when I greet weary travelers seeking shelter from a ferocious storm. They would evince surprise at the unnerving resemblance between that sinister visage and my own features or perhaps those of […]
At Fanbyte, David Murrieta considers the way Blasphemous might provide new ways of looking at difficulty in video games. “The aesthetic approach to difficulty can do away with the idea of ‘challenge’ and attempt, in the spirit of Blasphemous, to account for as many fortunes as possible, not […]
Genevieve Carlton writes about Renaissance cosmetics maker Giulia Tofana and her sideline–MURDER! “Tofana made it her mission — and her business — to help aspiring widows murder their husbands. During the Renaissance, in an era of arranged marriages that left no possibility of divorce, the only way out […]
At Americana, Katrina Powers writes about the paintings in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). “In the original 1960 trailer for Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock notifies us that the parlor of the Bates Motel was Norman Bates’ (Anthony Perkins) “favorite spot,” then suggests that we visit the parlor with him. Once […]
Mary Beard writes about gender, speech, and the depiction of the sound of women’s voices from Homer’s time until now. “I want to start very near the beginning of the tradition of Western literature, and its first recorded example of a man telling a woman to ‘shut up’; […]
BibliOdyssey shares images and text from Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance maps. (Thanks, @Kinetograph!)
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The Cultural Gutter 