~*Revue_Blanche*~

The Internet--I am here to learn.

Did you know that
in Europe there is a country of pagans?
Republic of Kalmykia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Kalmykia
is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). It is remarkable for being the only area of Europe in which the dominant religion is Buddhism. It has also become famous because its current government has made it the chess center of the world and built the biggest temple of Buddha, which has been visited by Steven Seagal and other Hollywood celebrities, incognito as mass media said. Tourists comment on the number of camels in the countryside--Kalmykia is the home to Europe's only indigenous camel. In the capital there is little traffic--hoping for greenies--however, as I think, representatives of Green Peace should come to this outlying corner of the globe to check up how the Kalmyks treat their camels.
A few words more on history. The Kalmyks was one of the repressed nations in the past, since in Soviet Russia there were the whole strata and nations subjected to repression and not only individuals. In Soviet times the Kalmyks that is many people were taken away to Siberia from their own homes--children, old men and women, cripples were transported by cattle-boxes--or simply killed. And after the historical facts like that some of my readers can say in some comments (now deleted) that Moscow never was the empire of evil. *shrug*
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*ekklesia_antinoou*--the group I belong to
the ekklesia_antinoou group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ekklesia_antinoou/
Description:
“The Ekklesia Antinoou has been established to continue on in the best traditions of the original intent of the core group of Antinoans, who began practicing this religion in the summer of 2002. The Ekklesia Antinoou ("Citizenry of Antinous") is a queer, Graeco-Roman-Egyptian syncretist reconstructionist polytheist form of mystical religion. The present group is the forum for discussion of issues, whether of worship or theology, myth or meditation, surrounding the worship of Antinous, the Divinized Boy of Bithynia, his historical cult and continuing scholarship about it, and his relevance to queer people in particular. Any who wish to discuss Antinous are welcome, whether in his ancient historical or mythological forms, or in more modern spiritual and scholarly appearances and possibilities. Discussion of ancient archaeology and textual studies, as well as modern culture, art, and gay politics and religious issues, are also welcome, but a statement of context must be given to highlight the relevance of each non-Antinoian-related topic proposed. True democratic process will be used at all points in discussion of issues and decisions on practice, and diplomacy and scholarly discipline should be observed whenever possible. No personal notes here, no spammers, no missionizing/proselytizing for any faith (including our own!), and no making of truth-claims for one's stated opinions or beliefs, nor statements of exclusive authority on religious matters.”
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*quotation from an old book:*
“[…] He hated the press--as well as advertising, commercials and television--as he hated any restless molestation, any hard-bitten thought-obtrusion and all the ploys of the 20th century mass media […] All he loved and admired was quite individual product. That’s why he now hated Dieter […] because of this denial all the individual in behalf of all the mass.” [my inverse translation](from Call for the Dead by John le Carre. The novel introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carre's recurring characters. Dieter Frey is an agent of East German intelligence, and a former wartime agent of Smiley's.)
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*a good quotation for this blog:*
“I’d let Oscar get Wilde with me.” (Unknown Author)
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*purely for my pleasure*
my list of the TV series, which I was able to watch and liked, has been updated:
http://ohlala007.blog.co.uk/2008/05/06/intermediation-4137004
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*for your pleasure*
here you can read the thriller A Garden of Earthly Delights by Ursula, in which you can meet some personages of X-Files:
http://nickzone.net/NickZone/html/earthlydelights.htm
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*internet--cosmos--afterlife*
to whom it may concern

Nostalgia is a killer, a tricky foe, often using poetic license to shape the past. I’m trying to manage with it myself. But I miss you, and there’s no help for it.
Do you remember that sunny day, impressed in this imperfect amateur snapshot? I am a child of three riding the tricycle. You’ve told me to turn round, and there is your shade on the sand of the pathway, that is a part of your shade, the head and shoulders of a tall man with the camera in hands over there beside the shade of the whitethorn in the nice public garden on the Left Bank. Whitethorns, lilacs, old lindens, phloxes, gillyflowers. What kind of bushes is at the background of the picture? Lilacs, as far as I remember. By the time of the snapshot the lilacs have stopped blooming, and time of lindens has come, that is the time when my birthday approaches. Do you remember? And now, when I write this, it’s June-July again. The summer heat. Pictures of the past rise before the mind. Is there any use to talk with the dead? Yes, there is, if only I could believe in possibility of the talk.
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*summer--literature--nature*
There is what is written about the famous Russian Writer Ivan Bunin (1870—1953) in one of his biographies. One day, in the company of his friends the talk turned on Gorki’s works. Everyone had more or less kind opinion. Now Bunin dropped his voice to a piercing whisper saying: “Only think… in his books the lilacs and lindens are blooming in the same time of a year!..” Note: Gorki is a representative of simple people, and Bunin is a representative of noblemen.

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“For the hours of thy happiness are over and joy is not gathered twice in a life, as the roses of Paestum twice in a year.” (Edgar Allan Poe)

in this issue--
Ancient Pages at Revue_Blanche

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is not my favorite artist, I only appreciate his etchings Vedute--the impressive Views of Rome and views of Paestum--and his series The Prisons simply horrified my imagination one day and I never wanted to see those masterpieces again. Thomas De Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1820) mentioned Piranesi’s most fearsome works:
“Many years ago, when I was looking over Piranesi's Antiquities of Rome, Mr Coleridge, who was standing by, described to me a set of plates by that artist ... which record the scenery of his own visions during the delirium of a fever: some of them (I describe only from memory of Mr Coleridge's account) representing vast Gothic halls, on the floor of which stood all sorts of engines and machinery, wheels, cables, pulleys, levers, catapults, etc., etc., expressive of enormous power put forth, and resistance overcome. Creeping along the sides of the walls, you perceived a staircase; and upon it, groping his way upwards, was Piranesi himself: follow the stairs a little further, and you perceive it come to a sudden abrupt termination, without any balustrade, and allowing no step onwards to him who had reached the extremity, except into the depths below. ... But raise your eyes, and behold a second flight of stairs still higher: on which again Piranesi is perceived, but this time standing on the very brink of the abyss. Again elevate your eye, and a still more aerial flight of stairs is beheld: and again is poor Piranesi busy on his aspiring labors: and so on, until the unfinished stairs and Piranesi both are lost in the upper gloom of the hall. ...”
De Quincey, Piranesi, the great English poet Coleridge. What do the names have in common with each other? The point is that all the three men were either drug-addicts or took narcotics. I am not sure concerning Coleridge, but Piranesi was a drug-addict, and I’ve been surprised seeing Wikipedia omit this generally known fact in the article, dedicated to Piranesi.

from views of Paestum:

Etching of the Pyramid of Cestius:

The Arch of Trajan at Benevento as it appeared in the 18th century:

all pictures
http://www.picure.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp:8080/e_piranesi.html

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Several pictures in the blog post don’t make the access to the web-page quicker, it's true, but I simply have nothing to write about. Therefore these pictures. À la recherche de Tadzio…

Young Boy with a Cat (1868) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919):

old photo:

Joey Seated by Felix d’Eon:

Obviously, this Greek boy is under the age of discretion, and this photo is a bright example of children pornography:

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