Shall we blow a bubble, boys, glittering to distend
There is something of a small, personal and perhaps entirely trivial pleasure in opening up the file of a review one is working on, thinking it needs a lot more work, and looking at it and realising that it's more nearly done than one supposed. Then tapping out a couple more paragraphs and deciding that, no, really, this is probably all that needs to be said, though I should leave it to marinate a bit before sending it off.
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I am not sure what this is - I am not sure there is not a certain schadenfreudey pleasure in seeing J Jones yet again revealing his id all over his art criticism (was a time when High Art even if it involved Nekkid Laydeez was at least supposed to invoke Highah Thortz and Feelingz than e.g. saucy postcards, but maybe that memo has been superceded?):
There’s nothing virginal about Hiffernan in Whistler’s 1862 icon Symphony in White, No 1. She stands above you confidently, and Whistler makes the supposedly modest dress suggest her nakedness underneath. That’s because she is standing on a bearskin rug whose soft fur leads your eyes to the rim of the dress, to picture her naked feet nestling in it - a traditional image of sensuality in sculpture that goes back to Renaissance images of the triumphant David with his foot in Goliath’s hair. The painting’s first audience may not have been prepared to imagine this[.]
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Possibly good news for hedgehogs, though not in the country, in the town: Survey reveals dramatic difference between state of urban and country populations, with rural numbers continuing to plummet:
the urban hedgehog seems to have stabilised and might even be starting to recover after having previously also been in freefall. So that’s a glimmer of hope.” The outlook for rural hedgehogs remains bleak, according to the report. While the east Midlands and east of England are home to some of the country’s largest population densities, they have also experienced significant declines, falling 74% and 35% respectively since 1994. In the last decade, the loss has been a third and a quarter of their respective hedgehog populations, according to the report. The mammals, which have been in Britain for at least half a million years, are primarily threatened by habitat loss and the accompanying lack of prey such as beetles and earthworms.
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Dept of AAARGH: point thahr, misst: 19 Things You Need If 'Read More' Is a Goal This Year: none of those things are books, and are using up budgetary resources that could, you know, be spent on BOOKS to read more.
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I was going here - ahem, WOT ABAHT THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN, EH? - What is ‘Gothic’? It’s more complicated than you think: Hidden in the architecture of some of the world’s most famous buildings is a cultural exchange between Europe and the Middle East. Was there no influence from Mogul monuments? - and, in a fascinating reverse act of cultural hybridisation, when I was traveling in those parts, I saw a significant number of public buildings in which Victorian Gothic and those roots had intertwined.
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