Category Archives: Immortality

If there is something that is common to a big number of people right now is fear. Fear is always there, of course, and it is part of our existence. But usually, fear is accompanied by the object of fear. I am afraid of The more specific the object of our fear, the more we could rationalize and gather strength to combat it. The less specific it is, the more difficult it becomes for us to organize ourselves to fight it.

For example, my grandmother was very practical about it. She was always religious, attending mass when she should and when her neighbors would see that she did. As a widow for over forty years, with two living children of the three that she brought to the world, she had to care for her social integrity as well as fending for her family. So, for most of her life, her relationship with God, death, afterlife, and all the rest, was more let us say, practical. She attended all the rites she had to, lit candles for her lost third child who died at the age of five of meningitis, for her husband and her in-laws. She fasted throughout the 40 days of Lent before the Orthodox Easter and never missed weddings, baptisms and funerals.

When she stepped into her 80s, she became more philosophical. Having attended only the first three years in a primary school, her reading capacity was limited. Yet, like all women of her age in their 80s, they know the New Testament almost by heart and there is nothing more that they need. The rest of her intellectual needs was fulfilled by her enormous capacity to recite rhyming proverbs and fairy tales full of poetic imagery and philosophical perceptions. It was during that period, the last decade of her life when she took death seriously. I mean as a logical possibility. And she devised a daily method of dealing with it, a method which was connected with the time factor. So, she started a ritual of daily prayers of thanks that she would do twice a day - one after waking up every morning to thank God for she is alive, and the second before she went to bed for having lived one more day. Even at her very end, she kept at least part of this ritual alive although her brain had already abandoned her.

Why did I think of her? Obviously, because of our current relationship with the fear of COVID-19, a constant underlying fear of being the next victim of this creature, which looks like a surreal colorful sea urchin, and can choose any of us at any moment to put an end to our life. And it is not a real fear that we feel. It is also not a deep feeling of the unavoidable human fate like the one that my grandmother felt and tried to exorcize through her daily prayers of thanks.

The worst is that we are not even afraid of being the next victim; we are in that middle-of-the-road situation where we cannot organize our psychology. We have become desensitized to it but are sure of our self-importance and immortality in this world, unlike my grandmother, who thought that every extra day in her life was a gift.

coronavirus,

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Reminiscing grandmother during days of coronavirus - Hurriyet Daily News

HE seemed like a demented ogre, massive and dangerous, looming over his hapless, emotionally battered wife. Talking through clenched teeth, his body about to burst forth in uncontrollable violence as insanity takes over completely, he growls: Ill make you happy, you said. You bloody didnt. The pitiless brutality, anger and madness in that little domestic scene is the terrifying and disturbing portrayal of an honest but flawed mans dark descent into insanity. This balding, middle-aged, slightly overweight man whom Sean Connery played with frightening authenticity in Sydney Lumets The Offence (1973) proved to be a turning point in the actors career.

It was hard to visualise that this same man had played the dapper, deadly British spy James Bond in the film just before this for the sixth time, the colossal hit Diamonds are Forever (1971). But he had had enough of the role. At the height of his popularity as Bond, with multimillion-dollar contracts for two more films awaiting his signature, he walked away and sought to shatter the typecast by playing a role like the one in The Offence. His abilities were never in doubt, but Lumets film put him firmly on the road to celluloid immortality. He had cast away James Bond just like the toupee he had been wearing for the part and was now ready for any role of his choosing.

But for many, Connery will always be the first and the definitive James Bond. His passing away on October 31 brought to an end an era he defined by his overtly masculine presence, impeccable style, prodigious talent and magnificently expressive eyebrows. He was 90 and is survived by his wife, Micheline Roquebrune, and son, Jason. Bond may have catapulted Connery into international stardom, but he was much more than that. He was a consummate artist who played a wide range of characters and established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. As a superstar, he was second to none.

Born Thomas Sean Connery on August 25, 1930, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Connery spent his childhood in abject poverty. As an infant, his crib was the bottom drawer of a wardrobe, and before he was 10, he was already an important earner for his family. In the mornings he would deliver milk and in the evenings he worked as an assistant to a butcher. School meant little to him in his situation. He joined the navy when he was around 16, learnt to box and was honourably discharged by the time he was 19 after being diagnosed with a stomach ulcer. By that time, he was an able-bodied young man, standing 62, with irresistible dark gypsy features. He flitted from job to job, working as a coal delivery man, a road construction worker, and a French polisher. At the same time, he took up bodybuilding in a serious way, which facilitated his first foray into the world of acting. Initially, he served as a muscular prop standing in the background and from there went on to get bigger roles.

His stage career may not have been much of a success, but it paid the bills and paved the way for bit parts in television series. One of his notable roles during this period of obscurity was that of the over-the-hill boxer Mountain McClintock in the play Requiem for a Heavyweight for the BBCs Saturday Night Theatre in 1957. This was the same role that Anthony Quinn would immortalise in the film version five years later, with the character renamed Mountain Rivera. Connery was no Quinn, but he was still good enough to be noticed and remembered. The performance did not yield immediate results as far as his acting career was concerned. He played whatever part came his way, including one of the villains in a 1959 Tarzan film who died ingloriously with an arrow pierced through his stomach.

After languishing in celluloid obscurity for several years, he got his big break when the producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli saw in him the James Bond of their vision. Interestingly, after Saltzman and Broccoli selected him to play Bond in the first movie of the franchise, Dr. No (1962), and sent some footage of Connery to United Artists, the production house got back to them with a terse cable that said: SEE IF YOU CAN DO BETTER. Even Connerys good friend Michael Caine was surprised at the choice. I was sure theyd give it to Rex Harrison because he was your living image of upper-crust good-living, Caine had said. But Saltzman and Broccoli had already made up their minds. They just loved the way Connery moved. United Artists precept was ignored, and almost from the very moment in the film when Bond introduces himself in a bored, deadpan tone, almost imperceptibly raising an eyebrow, a cigarette dangling laconically from his sardonic lips as Bond, James Bond, Connery as Bond became a worldwide sensation. If the author Ian Fleming created the character, Connery created the cult.

There have been other starsRoger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craigwho interpreted the role of Bond in their own way and to huge box-office success, but Connery remained the benchmark to judge all future Bonds. He was after all the first, the one who set the standard. He was also, arguably, the finest actor to play Bond. Connery was to play Bond seven times to huge popular acclaim. After Dr. No came From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967).

After playing the role in five consecutive films, Connery sought something different, and the part went to the Australian actor George Lazenby for On Her Majestys Secret Service (1969). Although the film was a hit, it was Connery that the public wanted as Bond again, and in 1971, he returned for the sixth time, in Diamonds are Forever. It would be another 12 years before a middle-aged Connery would reprise his role as the super spy for the final time, in Never Say Never Again (1983). It was a monster hit, earning $10,958,157 in the first four days itself, a record at that time for Bond films. Connery, then 52, showed that he could still teach the newer, younger audience a thing or two about old-school machismo.

But the interesting thing about Connerys Bond was that he was not just a macho action man. Although darker and more violent than Flemings creation, Connerys representation was also subtle, with an underlying sense of comic irony. At one level, it may even seem that Bond was mocking his own image. Lumet, with whom Connery did five movies, once said of his acting as Bond: Non-professionals just didnt realise what superb high-comedy acting that Bond role was.

Connerys Bond was also the hero at a time when unapologetic chauvinism on the screen was not unfashionable. Angry young men of literature such as Alan Sillitoe and John Osborne were creating unrepentant angry young men in the pages of books and for the stage: for example, the scornful, misogynistic Jimmy Porter in Osbornes Look Back in Anger (published and staged in 1956 and made into a movie starring Richard Burton in 1969), or the philandering, rebellious young Arthur Seaton in Sillitoes first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (published in 1958 and made into a film starring Albert Finney in 1960). In the given cultural scenario, nobody defined over-the-top masculine chauvinism more blatantly (sometimes, quite embarrassingly) than Connerys Bond. In You only Live Twice, when the Japanese character Tanaka informs him that the women in the spa (in the scene) were fascinated by his chest hair, Connerys Bond quips with a smirk: Japanese proverb say bird never make nest in bare tree.

Neither Connery nor his Bond was particularly known for political correctness. In an interview Connery gave in the 1960s in the midst of Bond mania, he said: I dont think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman, although I dont recommend doing it in the same way that youd hit a man. Even some 20 years later, when the world had changed, Connery remained steadfast in his point of view. I havent changed my opinion, he told Barbara Walters in an interview in 1987. Finally, after another 20 years, Connery put an end to the controversy by saying: My view is I dont believe that any level of abuse against women is ever justified under any circumstances. Full stop. Perhaps because it was Connery who made those comments, the public never made too much of them. Other stars would not have gotten away with it so easily.

After the success of the first Bond, it would have been easy for Connery to have gotten typecast. However, the actor in him could never be satisfied with stardom alone. In 1962, when he signed a five-year contract to star as James Bond, he was allowed to make one non-Bond movie a year. Connerys choice of films during that period demonstrated his need to expand his creative boundaries and challenge himself. In between the Bond movies, he played the scheming Anthony Richmond in The Woman of Straw (1964), the considerate and intuitive husband to Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcocks underrated classic Marnie (1964), the rebellious Joe Roberts in Lumets war drama The Hill (1965), and the gifted but psychologically disturbed poet Samson Shillitoe in A Fine Madness (1966). He also did a Western, Shalako (1969) with the French siren Brigitte Bardot. When Connery walked out of the Bond franchise after Diamonds are Forever, it shocked moviegoers of the time as the screen character was at the height of his popularity. However, it was only after he quit Bond that Connery came into his own as a multifaceted actor.

His first post-Bond movie, Lumets dark neo-noir crime drama The Offence, was a calculated risk that paid off. It was not a role bankable leading men of Hollywood would have chosen, but it established Connery as an acting powerhouse as well as a huge box-office draw. This was his third movie with Lumet. After making The Hill, he acted in The Anderson Tapes (1971) and went on to act in two more Lumet films: Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and the comedy Family Business (1989), where he played the loveable rogue Jessie McMullen trying to tempt his grandson into a life of crime.

Connery was one of a rare breed of actors whose star never showed any signs of setting. In the 1970s, he went on to act in such classics as John Hustons The Man who would be King (1975) and Richard Lesters Cuba (1979). He played an aging Robin Hood opposite the ever-elegant Audrey Hepburn in the unlikely hit Robin and Marian (1976) and Raisuli, the Arab chief of a group of insurrectionists, in the epic adventure movie The Wind and the Lion (1975) opposite Candice Bergen.

As he grew older, besides playing the lead, he comfortably shifted into doing important supporting roles. Just as he was brilliant as Father William of Baskerville, the detective priest in The Name of the Rose (1986)for which he won a BAFTA (the British Academy for Film and Television Arts) for Best Actorhe was equally great in his supporting role as Jim Malone in Brian De Palmas The Untouchables (1989). As Malone, he was tough, funny, sentimental and fiercely loyal. No one but Connery, with his gigantic frame and a sly humorous glint behind those honest eyes, could have done justice to the role. He won his first and only Academy Award (for Best Supporting Actor) for it.

Even in his sixties, he continued to deliver hit movies such as The Hunt for Red October (1990), Rising Sun (1993) and The Rock (1996). He could hold his own in action movies with contemporary stars such as Wesley Snipes and Alec Baldwin, and he could also steal the show with his inimitable comic technique as he did in Steven Spielbergs Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), in which he played Harrison Fords father. That same year, the 59-year-old Connery was voted The Sexiest Man Alive in People magazine, making him the oldest Sexiest Man Alive ever.

For all his fame and the accolades he received (an Oscar, a BAFTA, two Golden Globes, the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the AFI (American Film Institute) Life Achievement Award), he often took a pragmatic and professional approach to accepting roles. He did not immediately agree to acting in Dr. No as he was also contemplating a long-term contract for a television series at that time. The years of deprivation had taught him the value of money, and throughout his life he was careful in his investments and was never reckless. He even used to joke about his alleged money-mindedness. While accepting his Oscar, he said: I had decidedif I had the good fortune to winto give it [the Oscar statuette] to my wife but this evening I discovered backstage that there was $15,000, and now Im not so sure. From a nine-year-old boy earning money for his family in the slums of Edinburgh to being knighted and hailed as one of the greatest cinema stars of all time, the proud Scotsman had indeed come a long way.

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Sean Connery: Bond and superstar - Frontline

Its been quite the fall from grace for Liverpool striker Divock Origi.

Just over a year ago, we were parading the 25-year-old striker as a club legend after his goals helped fire Liverpool to Champions League immortality and it felt as if his Reds career had finally sprung into life.

His goals came on the biggest stage for Liverpool against Everton, Newcastle, Barcelona and Tottenham and it showcased he was deserving of more opportunities in the first team.

Such an unstoppable reign of form forced the clubs hand in tying Origi down to a new lucrative long-term contract at Anfield, and he has failed to kick-on since.

There have been a few forgettable performances during the Belgians five-year spell at Anfield, but few were as poor as the display we witnessed last night.

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What makes Origi stand out is that expectations have been sky-high since he hammered home that all-important winning goal in Madrid on June 1.

His failure to follow that up has hurt Liverpool, but more damage has been done on Origis part whose performances have failed to convince Jurgen Klopp and supporters that he can still have a lasting impact at Anfield.

Against Atalanta, Origi failed to land a single shot nor create a chance for his team. He touched the ball on just 22 occasions which was comfortably the lowest output in the team.

His failure to impact matches when called upon is surprising given how consistent he had become in delivering in the big occasions for his team.

He has clocked up 48 appearances since the European Cup final in Madrid scoring just seven goals in that period.

The quality of a striker is not just explosive play, its about having consistency.

This is something that has been worryingly lacking since Origi sent millions of supporters into raptures following his goalscoring exploits against Spurs.

Right now Origi needs to solve this just like the rest of the team need to respond following such a disheartening performance. When he ticks, Liverpool invariably are a better team.

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Josh is a sports journalist from the south who has previously reported on the Reds both home and away from the press box. His idol is Joel Matip while Madrid 19 to this day still remains a blur to him.

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Divock Origi has gone from unstoppable to invisible - Rousing the Kop

In Live Forever Sarahs world gets knocked off its axis when her mother suddenly dies of cancer, and as the young girl struggles with the loss, the temptation of finding a way to never lose someone again becomes too strong. When she discovers a formula that will lead to eternal life, she doesnt realize at first the dangerous problem shes triggering.

Written and illustrated by Raul Trevino, the story brings to life what anyone who has lost someone they care about struggles with. Why did that person have to die? Whether they were too young or their illness or accident too devastating, or even if they had lived a full life and you were just not ready to let them go, death is a hard pill to swallow. It is not uncommon to wish for immortality, at least for those closest to you, but as Sarahs mysterious neighbor Samuel explains, if every fish kept on living in the sea, thered be no room for new little ones.

The black and white art features splashes of red here and there to accent specific elements, mainly blood, which, as the story unfolds, is a key part of a formula that challenges death. For Sarah, is her grief so intense that she is tempted to mess with the natural order of things? She soon learns that while her grief can be quelled and shell keep those she cares for, the results of this action will lead to a much larger crisis.

Live Forever functions on a few levels, which is why it is such an appealing story. It taps into the pain and emotions we all face when someone dies. It is also a fantastic thriller/horror tale filled with mysterious characters and details that slowly reveal themselves as the story progresses.

The complete series is available to read on Webtoons now. Click here to begin.

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A Year of Free Comics: Immortality isnt all that it seems in LIVE FOREVER - Comics Beat

By Raj Das.

After his 222m move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2017, Neymar was heavily criticised. It was viewed as a downward career move by many, in what was the most heavily dissected saga in the history of football transfers.

The move may not have made sense on the surface, but how can any player deny a weekly contract of 600,000 a week? Would the critics themselves have been able to resist such an offer? That is of course if somebody made such an offer for them.

For the last three years, the road has been bumpy for the Brazil star. He took all criticism in his stride. Injuries also played a part in declining his stock and further propelling his downward trajectory.

Despite all the accusations hurled at him, Neymar has shown great maturity of late and has assumed greater responsibility. He has shown the performances that the PSG faithful have been clamouring for so long.

Reaching the Champions League final against Bayern Munich is a road to redemption for the 28-year-old.

In many ways, he has resurrected his career and is on track to making himself an immortal. Neymar may be Brazilian, but there is something romantically Irish about his resilience and fightback.

Everything looks rosy from the outside but it is difficult to live the life of a celebrity footballer.

The celebrity footballer is not a human, he is projected as a demi-god into our imagination. Perhaps we need to humanise Neymar and consider him as a vulnerable, insecure athlete.

Did Neymar regret his choice of leaving Barcelona? Absolutely. He regretted his move just a week after leaving the Nou Camp. He sought refuge in videogames to drown out his inner voice. That is when his great love for Fortnite began.

In life, we make choices and Neymar made his. What seemed to be the wrong move three years ago suddenly seems to be the right one today.

It is an interesting crossroads of sorts for the former Santos star. He is 28, and has now entered the stage when most footballers are at the peak of their powers. He feels confident, is in a positive mood, and has the results to show for it.

In 2015, he was among the three best players in the world but since his move to PSG in 2017, he disappeared from the centre of footballing conversations for a few years.

Now he has the chance to shine, to show the world that he is still one of the best.

The French media, especially the likes of Frank Lebouf, have always worried about Neymar casting a bad influence on their wonderkid Kylian Mbappe.

After Mbappe disrespected Thomas Tuchel after the head coach took him off in a match against Montpellier in which PSG were already 5-0 up, critics speculated that the youngster had picked up dissent from Neymar through osmosis.

It is true to a certain extent that Neymar indeed has a penchant for nightlife and partying. It is also true that during his last days at Barcelona, he had an altercation with assistant manager Juan Carlos Unzu when the Spaniard had warned him to mend his ways, or he would wind up like Ronaldinho.

Then, he has been called a spoilt brat, a showoff, a snake who left Barcelona for money.

What is interesting is that people have always shown false concerns. They have tried to correct Neymar. Even now when he is in the form of his life, his detractors, who are in their legions, have attempted to find faults with him.

But his Champions League performances since the restart of football has only proved his detractors wrong.

Against RB Leipzig we could see glimpses of the confident Neymar. There was the body swerve, the nutmeg and the magnetic ball control and dribble.

Perhaps his greatest achievement of the night was his sublime touch-assist to Angel di Maria that led to PSGs second goal of the night just before half-time.

It is ironic that for all their energy drink sponsors, it was Marquinhos who brandished the wings and headed in the first goal.

But Neymar was at his usual best, pulling the strings sometimes from the middle, sometimes from out wide. He became the old-fashioned enganche, the hook player who enjoined the midfield with attack. It was like a breath of fresh air.

A few days before the Atalanta match, he had told reporters: I am in the best form since I arrived in Paris. Looking at his performances, we can absolutely agree with him.

Despite massive criticism, he has actually been very prolific for the capital side this season.

In the Champions League, he has scored three goals and provided four assists in six games, playing 495 minutes. Thats a goal contribution every 70 minutes. He had also been prolific for PSG in Ligue 1. In 15 appearances, he scored 13 goals and provided six assists.

His statistics would have looked even more impressive had the league season not been curtailed midway through.

But more than his statistics, Neymar is a presence. He likes to take the ball to draw fouls and win freekicks. He likes to dribble past defenders in tight spaces; he enjoys playing incisive passes. He has unrivalled ball control and he looks to use that to his advantage.

There is a sense of leadership in his game, an awareness that this could finally be his year in Europe. He has seized the moment.

It seems that in a span of two months, he has resurrected his career. Winning the Coupe de la Ligue and the French Cup infused him with the confidence and belief to also put sublime performances in the Champions League.

Despite all his faults, Neymar has still been an incredible footballer. Now, after his sublime performances against Atalanta and Leipzig, he has become the centre of footballing conversations all over again. People are once again talking about the former Barcelona player in a positive light.

Neymar now has the chance to etch himself in the annals of PSG folklore if he can win the club their first-ever European Cup on the 23rd of August. It will not be easy by any means.

Bayern have been flawless under Hansi Flick, a team who look capable of scoring with every attack. They put eight past Barcelona, and three past a brave Lyon side who did everything apart from finding the back of the net.

Robert Lewandowski has fifteen goals this season in Europe, and will undoubtedly be the main threat for the Parisians. Yet, worryingly enough, Die Roten are not dependent on their prolific number 9. They have other contributors, most notably in Surge Gnabry who hogged all the limelight against Lyon.

Neymar will have to tussle with the likes of Leon Goretzka and Thiago Alcantara in midfield. He must then face Joshua Kimmich and Jerome Boateng further up.

Neymar must undergo the proverbial trial by fire. Immortality must come at a price.

It is not going to be easy to win the Champions League against Bayern Munich, but surely the footballing gods have created this script for the 28-year-old Brazilian for some higher purpose.

Surely it is divine intervention that has landed him this opportunity to wash away three years of criticism, anxiety and disappointment.

Neymar has the chance to create his own Ben Bulben in Lisbon. He will yet have a long and illustrious career. But victory against Bayern will provide him with a fitting epitaph, just as the great Irish poet W.B. Yeats did for himself:

Poet and sculptor do the work

Nor let the modish painter shirk

What his great forefathers did.

Bring the soul of man to God (Under Ben Bulben, 1938)

Neymar, PSGs chief poet and sculptor, must juxtapose the divine and the human, and play the greatest game of his life. His ancestral spirit blesses him and wants him to shine. From now on, there will be no pain and criticism; a win against Bayern will completely justify his move to France.

Just as Ben Bulben symbolises the towering aspirations of the Irish people, Neymar, too, has the chance to make Paris proud and immortalise himself in the citys folklore.

It is also interesting that like Yeats who was repeatedly spurned by his love interest Maude Gonne, Neymar too has craved love and respect. In Barcelona, he played second fiddle to Lionel Messi, the only love of the Blaugrana faithful.

But he has now found his love in PSG, just as Yeats found it later through his wife Georgiana Hyde-Lees.

If Neymar can inspire PSG in the Champions League final, his journey from footballing resurrection to immortality will be complete. It will be a fitting, folklore-like finale to an epidemic-laden season.

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Under Ben Bulben: Neymar And A Saga Of Resurrection And Immortality - World Football Index

Adult Swims irreverent science fiction animated series wrapped up its fourth season this year with an impressive finale. Before five new episodes of Rick and Morty drop on Netflix, some eagle-eyed animation fans noticed a strange continuity mistake with the Whirly Dirly during Rick and Jerrys theme park adventure.

Rick and Morty (both played by Justin Roiland) have kept fans entertained during the coronavirus lockdown with a new series of twisted sci-fi escapades.

Back in 2017, co-creators Roiland and Dan Harmon took audiences on one of Ricks darkest adventures yet in the season three episode, The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy.

Following the brief separation of Ricks daughter Beth (Sarah Chalke) from husband Jerry (Chris Parnell), Rick decides to treat his newly single and despondent son-in-law with a trip to a theme park in space.

In signature Rick and Morty fashion, this particular resort isnt quite as it seems as the whole park is surrounded by an Immortality Field, preventing the death of its guests.

READ MORE:Rick and Morty theories: Season three reveals both Beths are clones

Despite their temporary invulnerability, Rick still manages to run afoul of an old enemy who is out for blood and concocting a complicated assassination attempt.

Jerry comes across Risotto Groupon (Clancy Brown), an alien who holds a grudge against Rick for selling weapons to the enemies of his people, who were then enslaved.

Groupon explains a tiny section of the Whirly Dirly rollercoaster travels outside the Immortality Field, a perfect window of opportunity to assassinate the unhinged inventor.

Thankfully, Jerry declines to help, but their peaceful holiday takes a turn for the worse when Groupon sends his hitmen onto the ride to take Rick out themselves.

The coaster car appears to be flung off the track in what can be assumed to be a Whirly, but the number of Dirlys is harder to determine.

Plus, their ride may have been interrupted before the third Dirly, as Rick uses his exploding jacket to fend off oncoming assassins, causing the coaster to derail.

Rick and Morty is infamous for its frequent use of bizarre, made-up languages and names, often improvised on the fly by creator and voice actor Justin Roiland.

It may simply be that the writers came up with an amusing name for the fictional rollercoaster, without putting too much thought in making sure the action scene lined up with Groupons exact plan.

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Rick and Morty plot hole: Rick's ride on the Whirly Dirly creates huge immortality blunder - Express

The theme this week is, it seems, woodland, history, and its secrets.

Last June saw the publication of Emily Teshs Silver in the Wood. I missed it until now, with the publication of its loose sequel, Drowned Country, and Im not sure whether to be sorry I missed such a gem last year, or glad that I had the opportunity to read two gems back to back.

Silver in the Wood sets itself in the forest called Greenhollow. Its protagonist is Tobias Finch, a quiet, pragmatic sort of man. Bound to the wood, he does not dwell on the past, but tends with a profoundly practical insistence to such forest problems as arise: fairies, ghouls, murderously angry dryads. His only companions are his cat and Greenhollows non-murderous dryads, for to the world beyond the wood, hes a figure out of folklore, Greenhollows wild man.

But when the handsome new owner of Greenhollow Hall, youthful folklorist Henry Silver, arrives in Tobiass wood with endless curiosity and no notion that some secrets may be dangerous instead of wondrous, things change. Because Tobias, to his surprise, finds himself attached to Silver. And Silver is exactly the kind of man, come the spring equinox, to be the prey of the woods wicked, hungry Lord of Summer, who was once a manbut is a man no longerthat Tobias knew very well indeed.

Tesh has a deft ability to combine the numinous and the grounded: wildwood magic and the need to darn socks sit side by side. The arrival of the practical folklorist Adela Silver, Henry Silvers mother, into the narrative gives Teshs world, and the characters of Tobias and Finch, additional dimensions, making already compelling people more complicated and interesting. The novella as a whole is gorgeously written, well-paced, and thematically interested in regeneration and regrowth as opposed to the stagnant, parasitic immortality of the Lord of Summer.

Drowned Country, its sequel, is part katabasis, part reconciliation, and part study in temptation, selfishness, the crushing weight of isolation and loneliness and hunger

Perhaps hunger isnt the right word, but it has the right weight.

Henry Silver has taken Tobiass place. Bound to the woodbound to where the wood once was, as well as where it isand facing a kind of immortality, he is not dealing well with the new state of affairs. Especially since his own choices lost him Tobiass regard. When his mother asks, however reluctantly, for his help, he steps out from the confines of Greenhollow to the damp, grimy seaside town of Rothport with its looming abbey and long-drowned forest: there to find a missing girl, a dead vampire, and a road to Fairyland in the drowned echoes of the long-lost wood.

And Tobias Finch, whom Henry loves, and who Henry believes despises him.

For such a slender volume, it carries a great deal of freight. Teshs combination of practicality and feyness is just as well-paired here, especially with Henrya man with less talent for the practical than Tobias, and more inclination to be fey. Or to wallow in self-pity. Tesh mingles, too, humour and pathos, and a striking sense of narrative inevitability: the emotional and thematic climaxes have a very satisfying heft to them.

Well-recommended, these novellas.

The only fantastic element to Carrie Vaughns The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley is Robin Hood and all that ballad tradition mythos. But fantastically unlikely ahistoric historical personalities are a fine tradition in SFF and its adjacent works, and Vaughn gives us a version of Robinfor all that her novellas focus on his childrenthat feels grounded to a specific time and plausible in its outlines. The Ghosts of Sherwood sets itself immediately after the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215; The Heirs of Locksley, around the second coronation of the then thirteen-year-old Henry III at Westminster, four years after his first coronation at Gloucester. (Henry went on to have a relatively long life and reign.)

The language of these novellas reminds me of Vaughns striking, at times haunting, post-apocalyptic novels Bannerless and The Wild Dead (I dare not hope therell be other stories set in that world, because damn those are good): spare, plain, and perfectly sharpened to a point. Concerned with personal relationships, Vaughns pair of novellas are also interested in growth towards adulthood, and with living in the shadow of a story, or set of stories, that is larger than life: Mary, John, and Eleanor, the children of Robin of Locksley and his lady Marian, have to navigate a world thats different from their parents youth, but one where the story of their parents lives, and the myths of Sherwood, and (some of) the antagonisms of the past, remain live concerns for them.

I enjoyed these novellas immensely. And not just because Ive been brushing up on my medieval English history.

What are you guys reading lately?

Liz Bourke is a cranky queer person who reads books. She holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. Her first book, Sleeping With Monsters, a collection of reviews and criticism, was published in 2017 by Aqueduct Press. It was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Awards and was nominated for a 2018 Hugo Award in Best Related Work. Find her at her blog, or find her at her Twitter. She supports the work of the Irish Refugee Council, the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, and the Abortion Rights Campaign.

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Sleeps With Monsters: Into the Woods With Emily Tesh and Carrie Vaughn - tor.com

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Matthew Redmond, Stanford University

(THE CONVERSATION) Since her death in 1886, Emily Dickinson has haunted us in many forms.

She has been the precocious little dead girl admired by distinguished men; the white-clad, solitary spinster languishing alone in her bedroom; and, in more recent interpretations, the rebellious teenager bent on smashing structures of power with her torrential genius.

As the world continues to endure the ravages of COVID-19, another ghost of Dickinson steps into view. This one, about 40 years old, seems by turns vulnerable and formidable, reclusive and forward. She carries the dead weight of crises beyond her control, but remains unbowed by it.

It was while drafting my dissertation, which explores the meaning of old age in America, that I first encountered this Dickinson. She has been with me ever since.

The depths of loss

Most admirers of Dickinsons poetry know that she spent a considerable part of her adult life in what we call self-imposed confinement, rarely venturing outside the family homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. Less known, perhaps, is that the final 12 years of her life were passed in a state of nearly perpetual mourning.

It began with the death of her father. For all his stern comportment, Edward Dickinson had enjoyed a special relationship with Emily, his middle child. When her surviving letters declare him the oldest and oddest sort of a foreigner, one hears the affectionate annoyance that comes with real devotion. He died in 1874, away from home.

Loss followed loss. Favorite correspondent Samuel Bowles died in 1878. With the passing of Mary Ann Evans, otherwise known as George Eliot, in 1880, Dickinson lost a kindred spirit a mortal who, in her words, had already put on immortality while living. A very different loss was that of Dickinsons mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, with whom she enjoyed little or no rapport for much of their life together, but who became at least somewhat precious to her daughter on her deathbed. That was in 1882, the same year that took from her literary idol Ralph Waldo Emerson and early mentor Charles Wadsworth.

The following year saw the death of her cherished eight-year-old nephew, Gilbert, from typhoid fever, his illness having spurred one of Dickinsons rare excursions beyond the homestead. The year after that, Judge Otis Phillips Lord, with whom she pursued the only confirmed romantic relationship of her life, finally succumbed to an illness of several years and was wearily dubbed by the poet our latest Lost.

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Piling on

What impact did so much grief have on the mind of one of Americas greatest visionary artists? Her letters say little enough. Writing to Mrs. Samuel Mack in 1884, however, she frankly admits: The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my heart from one, another has come.

The word deep is an arresting choice, making it sound as though Dickinson is drowning in a pile of dead loved ones. Each time she comes up for air, yet another body is added to the great mass.

This is characteristic of Dickinson. If her imagination shrinks from visualizing breadth, it thrives on depth. Some of the most captivating images in her poetry are piles of things that cannot be piled: thunder, mountains, wind. During the Civil War, she uses the same technique to represent soldiers heroic and terrible sacrifice:

In describing her more personal losses of the 1870s, Dickinson seems to imagine yet another pile of human corpses rising before her eyes. Or maybe it is the same pile, her loved ones added to the dead troops whose fate she kept contemplating to the end of her own life. Seen in this light, the Dyings appear not just too deep but unfathomably so.

Life after death

At the time of this writing, the pile of lives that overshadows our lives is 800,000 deep and getting deeper by the hour. Dickinsons imagery shows how keenly she would have understood what we might feel, dwarfed by a mountain of mortality that will not stop growing. The same anger, exhaustion and sense of futility were her constant companions in later life.

Fortunately, she had other companions. As recent studies have shown, Dickinson was the best kind of social networker, maintaining profoundly generative relationships by correspondence from the family homestead. Her poetic output, though greatly diminished toward the end of her life, never ceases, and its offerings include some of her richest meditations on mortality, suffering and redemption.

These words resonate in the current crisis, during which protecting the daily mind has become a full-time job. News reports, with their updated death tolls, erode our intellectual and spiritual foundations. All seems lost.

But if strain and sorrow are palpable in this poem, so is courage. Dickinsons lonely speaker chooses to express what she has felt, to measure and record the burden of loss that life has thrust upon her. Beliefs, once bandaged, may heal. And while no man has ever been bold enough to confront the deeper Consciousness that so many deaths expose within the human mind, the speaker will not rule out doing so herself. There is still room in this blighted world for the kind of visionary experience from which hope not only springs, but flourishes.

Living in the shadow of death, Dickinson remained enamored of life. This, as much as anything, makes her a hero of our time.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/emily-dickinson-is-the-unlikely-hero-of-our-time-144262.

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Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time - Fairfield Citizen

The season finale of DC Universe's Doom Patrol ended on a massive cliffhanger, leaving the fate of the entire team in jeopardy.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the season finale of Doom Patrol Season 2, "Wax Patrol," available now on DC Universe and HBO Max.

Season 2 of DC'sDoom Patrol series recently came to an end with an unintended cliffhanger. Production of the series was forced to halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result, the final episode of the season couldn't be shot. So now, Episode 9, "Wax Patrol" serves as a finale one that leaves the fate of the whole team in doubt.

After learning of Niles Caulder's deceptions and true intentions, the team spent most of Season 2 grappling with the aftermath of his betrayal. He was responsible for the accidents which transformed each of them into freaks, but his reasons were complex. He was seeking a way to gain immortality so he could be an ever-watchful caretaker for his daughter, Dorothy.

RELATED: Doom Patrol: Danny's Transformation Could Pave The Way For ANOTHER Character

Introduced in Season 2, Dorothy is an ape-faced girl with incredible psychic powers. Able to manifest beings from her imagination and connected to a strong spiritual force, Dorothy is immortal and perpetually remains an 11-year old girl. Her powers are so great, she struggles to control them, and all season has been taunted by an entity called the Candlemaker.

A malevolent being who preys on Dorothy's fears when she's at her weakest, the Candlemaker can grant any wish Dorothy makes, but he always bends her wish to commit monstrous acts of violence. Niles feared what would happen to Dorothy without proper supervision, and thus began his journey for immortality, which resulted in the birth of the Doom Patrol.

RELATED: Catwoman Resurrects Doom Patrol's Most SUGGESTIVE Weapon

Unfortunately for Niles, he had to give up the talisman keeping him alive in order to save the team, and as Dorothy is exposed to the outside world, she has begun to grow up. With Dorothy losing control of her growing powers as she entered puberty, the Doom Patrol refusing to forgive Niles and his own health failing, hehas resigned himself to allowing his wizard friend, Kipling, to kill her.

Wanting to spend one last day with his daughter, Nilesbrings Dorothy to a fair. However, he and Kipling are too late, and, under duress, Dorothy is forced to unleash the Candlemaker. Not wanting people to be hurt, Dorothy sends her imaginary friend, a giant spider named Herschel, to warn the Doom Patrol. The team rallies at the fair, despite their feelings towards Niles.

The Candlemaker has taken over the fair, sealing people in wax. The team is separated and forced to confront their own imaginary friends, conjured by the Candlemaker. One by one they are defeated, with everyone, but Niles and Jane, sealed in the Candlemaker's wax. Cliff suffered the worst fate, being broken down into scrap before getting covered in wax.

Janeisout of commission too, but for different reasons. Stuck in the Well, the darkest part of her subconscious, Jane has been replaced by a former, primary personality, Miranda.However, as Miranda is called back to the Underground and questioned by the other personalities, Jane learns the truth. She finds the corpse of Miranda floating in the dark waters of the Well, and Miranda is in fact her abusive Daddy personality attempting to seize control of Jane.

RELATED: A Doom Patrol Hero Brings Another Piece of Watchmen Into The DC Universe

Meanwhile, Slava, Dorothy's mother, appears in a vision and urges her daughter to embrace her powers and face the Candlemaker alone. Despite Niles' desperate pleas, Dorothy conjures a weapon with her mind and moves closer. Before she can fight, she is snatched by the Candlemaker and pulled away, leaving Niles' devastated.

The end of Season 2 finds the Doom Patrol in incredibly dire circumstances. There's no telling what could happen to each character. No matter what, it seems their fate and the fate of the world rests on Dorothy.

Streaming on DC Universe and HBO Max, Doom Patrol stars Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele, Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane, Matt Bomer as Larry Trainer, April Bowlby as Rita Farr, Jovian Wade as Vic Stone, and Timothy Dalton as Niles Caulder.

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Ari David is pretty amazing. He writes and writes about Film, TV, Comics, and Games from his lair in Brooklyn. Check him out on twitter: @TheAmazingAri

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Doom Patrol Leaves the Fate of the Whole Team Up in the Air | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Dr. Alan Graham, M.D.

By Dr. Alan Graham, M.D.

Those of us who have parented teenagers tend to agree that it is not for the faint of heart I am currently in the thick of it with two teen boys at home. When you throw in a pandemic and my job as a pediatric ICU physician, things get even more interesting.

Teenagers are not known for making great decisions. They drive too fast, climb too high, experiment too much, and rarely consider the consequences before they act. The teenage body, at the top of its physical game, and the teenage brain, convinced of its own immortality, team up to create an extraordinary risk-taking human. As it turns out, biology is one big reason the Big Air categories at the X-Games are full of teens.

Unfortunately, the same things that make teenagers incredible extreme athletes can work against them in a pandemic. How can you possibly convince a teenager, who is biologically programmed to believe they will live forever, that they should wear a mask and stay 6 feet away from all their closest friends 100% of the time? You cant.

As we age, our brains develop and our bodies take longer to recover. We suddenly understand mortality in a way that we were incapable of when we were younger. We cannot and should not expect our kids to act like adults. They just arent there yet, so it is the adults job to protect them.

We understand this inherently and have difficult conversations with them about drinking and driving, promising to pick them up no matter what time they call.

But right now, during a pandemic that can insidiously spread and cause fatal infection without warning, by the time we get that call, it may be too late. They may have already contracted the virus and be bringing it home with them.

Our teenagers need us now more than ever and they need us to be their parents, not their friends. They need us to be strong and decisive. When they beg to go to a party because everyone is going, they need us to say No! They need us to actively limit their exposure to other teens. They need us to model social-distancing and mask-wearing. They need us to advocate for the safe reopening of schools, which requires all of us to control the virus in our communities that surround our schools.

A recent study showed children over the age of 10 spread COVID-19 as readily as adults. In the ICU, we are bracing for the influx of patients that we fear will arrive once schools are back in session, and we dread giving families the worst news of their lives.

We need parents to understand that once their child arrives in our ICU, we will do everything in our power to help their child as they fight the virus, but once they are infected, we cannot protect them from the ravaging course the coronavirus may take on their body. A far better plan is to prevent them from ever needing to go to the pediatric ICU in the first place.

If youre a parent, do not allow your teen to congregate in large groups and certainly do not facilitate these gatherings yourself. Insist that every family member wear a mask when youre around other people. Social distancing and mask-wearing are simple, straightforward prevention measures that are more powerful than any treatment we have in the hospital.

Your teen may roll their eyes and slam their door, but they are counting on you now more than ever.

You got this.

Alan Graham, MD is a doctor specializing in pediatric critical care.

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Parenting in a pandemic? Your teen is counting on you more than ever - Your Valley