i am soooo tired of “isn’t it ironic how jews—” no, not really, it’s really not ironic at all because i have an actual understanding of ashkenazi history and the history of zionism and other european nationalism movements. considering that jews were violently oppressed for the entire modern era, then subjected to the world’s first industrialized genocide, then were left displaced, given zero resources to reconcile their trauma, and then were handed guns and unlimited power by the most brutal and oppressive empire in human history, i actually think the reality of the zionist project makes complete and total sense. jews are not the first oppressed people to become oppressors and they won’t be the last. claiming irony indicates a lack of historical knowledge, an unwillingness to engage in cycles of violence and abuse on a macro scale, and is smug and douchey and incredibly pointed at diaspora jews who are not involved.
Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).
More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting
and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.
As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”
A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.
So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.
*****
We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm,
a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.
Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.
We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.
You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…
For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.
Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:
This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.
And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.
There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.
Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.
And here’s the effect it produces.
Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.
Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.
This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.
But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.
It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.
Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.
They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.
Here’s Jason Kingsley making one.
There was a book I read, possibly Emma by Jane Austen, where a poorer family could only use one half candle for light and make it last, but when they had fancy guests over they would switch it for new, tall candles to give the impression that they were rich enough to always have plenty of light.
Also, the glass globes (which I did not know were used then, but have used myself) seem like a great way to add more light to a room without a) using up costly fuel, and b) without adding more flame to an already highly flammable environment in an era where firefighters weren’t a vastly available service, and paramedics had yet to exist.
New queer rights around the world : 2023 edition 🏳️🌈✨️🏳️⚧️
Finland : adopted a law to facilitate transition, no longer requiring sterilization or psychological evaluations
Hong Kong : ruled in favor of the change of one’s gender identity without requiring surgery
Spain :
no longer requires a medical advice to transition
lowered the minimum age required to transition to 16 (12-13yo will need a judge’s authorization and 14-15yo will need to be accompanied by their parents)
banned genital mutilation on intersex children
banned conversion therapies
provided state support for lesbians and single women seeking IVF treatment
South Korea : ruled in favor of a gay couple demanding equal health insurance rights with heterosexual couples, recognizing the legal status of gay couples for the first time in the country
Slovakia : no longer requires a chirurgical procedure to transition
Cook islands : decriminalized homosexuality
Portugal : passed a law banning conversion therapies and reinforcing gender identity self-determination in schools
France : HIV positive people can now enlist in the army
Taiwan : opened adoption to same-sex couples
Mexico : issued its first non-binary passport
Cyprus : banned conversion therapies
Namibia : supreme court ruling recognizes same-sex mariages contracted in other countries
Estonia : legalized same-sex marriage
Nepal : legalized same-sex marriage
New Zealand : allows people to change the sex on their birth certificates with a statutory declaration
Belgium : banned conversion therapies
Switzerland : men who have sexual relationships with other men can now donate their blood without any discriminating period of abstinence
Hong Kong : recognizes civil partnerships for same-sex couples
Mauritius Island : decriminalized homosexuality
Japan : no longer requires trans people to get sterilized to transition
going to gay events where no one compliments my 8 stripe gilbert baker embroidered jeans fly like Look At My Crotch Boy
im not kidding . look at my crotch boy.
apparently this was my second most popular post this YEAR which is a little exciting because its something i made!!!!! happy new years everybody dykes hmu <3
The ineffable husbands as “Couple Dancing” by Leyendecker
Painting this was difficult but really fun and rewarding, I love the result!
(I’m @/noixtky on Instagram!)
EDIT: thank you soooo much for the support to this painting ❤️ I’ve gotten a few comments about getting this as a print so if you’re interested in that please read this ^^
ALT
