Eileen Maksym's Blog, page 19

Re-Animate Your FEET!

HELLO!!!

It’s been an age. This summer my family moved from Alabama to Massachusetts, which was quite a task, and took up all my time and attention.  Writing barely got done, and blogging, well, as you all can see, blogging didn’t get done at all.  But I’m back!  And there is much in store, including the October 30th release date for A Bleak New World, an anthology published by Raven International Publishing that features my short story “Incarnation.” There are some things in the works regarding this, so stay tuned!

For now, I’m going to kick off your October with music! Every day, from now ’til Halloween, I will post a YouTube video for a scary/spooky/creepy/macabre song that I love. Today, in honor of the re-animation of this blog, I give to you this fantastically over the top Euro-Techno gem from the movie Beyond Re-Animator. If you don’t want to put this on repeat and dance, then you’re dead inside, and, well, there’s a cure for that. MOVE YOUR DEAD BONES!

I got 99 problems and a witch ain’t one – even monsters get the blues

You think you got problems? Look at what these monsters have to put up with.

This is the best taxidermy I’ve ever seen

Check out their Facebook page!

The penguin you don’t know

This interesting bit of taxidermy is part of a 19th century sea captain’s cabinet, now on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.  Just looking at it tells you two things: one, the taxidermist had never even seen a penguin; and two, neither had the sea captain.  They obviously made it look the way they thought it should due to what they knew of other birds, and got it hilariously wrong.

I often think of this bird when I write about an experience I haven’t had, things I’ve never seen, people I’ve never known.  “Write what you know” is a cliche, but no less true for its overuse.  On one hand, it can be interpreted too narrowly.  I may only have first hand knowledge of a small sphere of human experience, but empathy, extrapolation, and imagination allow my knowledge to be much broader.  Still, when writing about something that necessitates a stretch of knowledge, I need to remember the penguin, do my research, and be careful of my own preconceptions.  For one thing, I don’t want to look foolish.  But more importantly, I don’t want to mislead people who might be basing their own perceptions on my work.  It’s important that I do right by the metaphorical penguins, and by the people who might look at my atrocity and be convinced that a penguin is really just a goose that can’t fly.

Projection

Photographer Ursula Sokolowska created this series to explore themes of an unhappy, isolated childhood, like her own as a Polish immigrant in the US.  The thing that strikes me in these works is the detachment between the stiff mannequin bodies and the faces projected on their featureless heads.  It says interesting things about the mind-body problem, that our consciousness can only be expressed through these awkward, flawed physical vessels.

Mermaid

This image is from photographer Seth Casteel’s series of babies underwater (click on the image for more).  I love the confidence that this little girl exudes.  She’s totally in her element, as if she starts off with infinite potential to be anyone and everything, even a mermaid.

Weightless dance

One thing about ballet that always takes my breath away is how the dancers seem to float.  It’s like they have conquered gravity, and it doesn’t apply to them anymore.  This series of self-portrait photographs by dancer and photographer Mickael Jou captures that aspect perfectly.  There’s an exquisite freedom to them, a sense of peace and power.  Check out more of his work by clicking on the image above.

Loving the unreal

The above photograph is by artist Jamie Diamond, and portrays a “Reborner,” someone who creates and cares for baby dolls.  In many ways, they treat them like real babies: they bathe them, comb their hair, and take them on walks.

This makes me think about the complexities of emotion and attachment.  It’s easy for us to dismiss these women as crazy, but I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that.  Their emotions toward the dolls is pronounced and specific, but most people have attachments to inanimate objects.  For instance, many of us believe on some level that toys have presence.  And sentiment keeps our closets, garages, and basements full of boxes and boxes of things we never use but can’t bear to throw away.  It’s arguable that the difference between walking a baby doll in a park and hauling around boxes and boxes of useless objects is mere semantics.

There’s also the question of human relationship with art.  When we create, we attempt to bring a fictional world to life in our own.  The aim of every artist is to stir emotion in the audience.  If we make you care, then we’ve done our jobs.  I think there’s definitely such a thing as caring too much, of becoming too invested, and I think these ladies are on the far side of that line.  It does, however, make me wonder exactly where that line is.  When I was in college, a debate society I belonged to once pondered the question of whether it was possible to truly love a fictional character.  They don’t really exist, but to what extent do any of us really get at the existence of another person?  At most we have our perception, which is always going to be incomplete, because we cannot fully know another person’s interior life.  It is arguable that it is impossible to truly know another human being.  All we know is a collection of actions and words, which is what we have of fictional characters.  A fictional character will never know of our love and will never return it, but one can truly love unrequitedly, even if the object of affection is never aware of it.  So we have to ask: if someone can truly love Sherlock Holmes, can they truly love a doll?

(For more images from this project, click on the photograph.  I highly recommend doing so.  Ms. Diamond has a number of fascinating projects that deal with similar themes of emotion and attachment.  The webpage is well worth your time.)

Book covers that grab you by the throat

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but of course that’s exactly what we do.  Regardless of the quality of writing, cover art can make or break a book.  Imagine seeing a book with the above cover.  I don’t know about you, but hot damn, I want to read that book! All the art in this collection of Mexican pulp cover art are worth a look, so click on the woman with the pig to go see.

My kind of fashion

Jay Briggs designs clothes based off of witchcraft lore.  They are dark and beautiful, and you should click the lovely lady above to see more.