Sunday, November 20, 2005

Decadent

*Thinking better of it, Patroclus self-censors entire first part of this post...*

It wasn’t a completely decadent weekend though; I also managed to fit in a visit to Southampton City Art Gallery, which I’ve been meaning to go to since I had a big thing about the Pre-Raphaelites when I was about 17. It's a fantastic gallery; not too big, no one hassles you or insists on looking in your bag, the labels next to the paintings are actually informative, and they've got the whole of Burne-Jones's Perseus series. They also sell a nice little book that interprets these ten paintings as a kind of giant comic, with Perseus as the (rather waif-like, all the same) superhero, Medusa and the sea-monster (above right) as the evil baddies, and Andromeda as the damsel in distress (which obviously she is, being chained to the Rock of Doom and all).

I also found myself a tip-top new role model (take that, Seven of Nine!) in St Catherine of Alexandria, via a fantastic Northern Renaissance triptych (left) by Gossen van der Weyden. Apparently St Catherine was not only beautiful but also very, very intelligent, and all the best philosophers in the land couldn't outsmart her. Of course she paid the price for being a know-all by being put to death by the sword, but still, she clearly rocked.

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14 comments:

James Henry said...

Heh. Too late.

Juggling Mother said...

But the first part was the interesting bit. Give it back!

Please....

patroclus said...

Eeek.

patroclus said...

Mrs A: It's gone forever now, I'm afraid. Which is undoubtedly for the best. My colleagues read this stuff, you know.

Oh, the moral dilemmas of the internet self-publishing frontier. I may write a small monograph (or alternatively, a 16,000-word dissertation) on the subject.

Smat said...

glad I didn't miss it, and that you had a good weekend!

Stef the engineer said...

You had Seven of Nine as a role model?
I'm speechless!

patroclus said...

Hey, Seven of Nine is an excellent role model for modern businesswomen everywhere (er, except possibly in the clothing department).

She doesn't get waylaid by emotional things, she's relentlessly logical, she's got that fabulous bluetooth implant thing (God, how I want one of those, whatever it does), *and* she has the nicest line in withering conversation-stoppers I've ever witnessed. Perfect for those meetings that drag on too long...

Basically I just think it would be cool to be a cyborg.

LC said...

Janeway is a better role-model, because she's in charge of the whole ship, and she manages to keep her shit together without the need for Borg implants.

If Seven didn't have all that emotion suppressing Borg stuff, she wouldn't be able to go more than a couple of minutes without having some sort of emotional crisis about spandex jumpsuits making her bum look big, worrying whether people think B'Lana Torres is prettier than her. Janeway, on the other hand, is nails - if anybody said her bum looked big in that space-suit, she'd ram a couple of photon torpedoes in their face.

patroclus said...

Yeah, but Janeway has that ridiculous crush on Chakotay that she won't admit to. Seven, on the other hand, doesn't get distracted by menopausal hormones. Oh no. She's great.

Urban Chick said...

ah but i read it (and told your employer...oh, you are your employer, aren't you? damn)

BiScUiTs said...

Haha it's censorship gone mad!
Or not.
Is it censorship being normal?
I'm not sure I'm in fit mind to be posting.

Stef the engineer said...

What you said:
"Hey, Seven of Nine is an excellent role model for modern businesswomen everywhere (er, except possibly in the clothing department)."

What heterosexual males read:
"Hey, Seven of Nine ... excellent ... ... clothing ..."

surly girl said...

i have no idea what any of you are talking about. nope. none.

Justine said...

I sort of know what Surly Girl means.
That said, I think its censorship gone normal!
You know, I think if she really was that smart AND beautiful to boot, I'd want to kill her too ("smart beautiful bitch! its not fair!"). Or at least chase her away with a clump of garlic.