iesika: “Nude women are only Art if

[potboy]

via https://ift.tt/2rolaw1

iesika:

“Nude women are only Art if there’s an urn in it,” said Fred Colon. This sounded a bit weak even to him, so he added: “Or a plinth. Both is best, o’course. It’s a secret sign, see, that they put in to say that it’s Art and okay to look at.”

— Terry Pratchett, Thud!

Comments

[potboy]

Yes! I got rid of the big 'image deleted' bubble :)

[21st_century_flapper]

Does that mean that if we photoshop an urn or a pillar into our porn, we can keep it in the open? XD

Terry Pratchett has always spoken the truth. I'm still sad he's gone. I'll always be sad.

(Also, do you know Black Sails? If not, the next thing won't make sense, but in case you do: "Fruit, fruit. Tits, tits. Plant, plant. It's the fucking same!"

[potboy]

I don't see why not! It works for stodgy old classical artists whose pictures hang in art galleries, so why not for us?

One of my favourite Terry Pratchett quotes is "Things that try to look like things often do look more like things than things." That's so true :) He was a pretty extraordinary guy.

I watched a few episodes of Black Sail, but I think I get the gist :)

[nassima]

Chiming in to say that the first episodes of Black Sails are something you have to go through in order to get to what it truly is about. Which is not so much about tits than about... Ah. Suffice to say that I went from yeah, nice prequel to Treasure Island if only they could get rid of the Michael Bay-esque elements to WOW I didn't think any US show could reach that level of awesome.
(This is the show that invented the unbury your gays trope, after all. Among other things)

[potboy]

Ah right. I've seen people enthusing about Black Sails on Tumblr, but I couldn't really get past all the women being gang raped etc in order to get to the good stuff. I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to on screen sex full stop, and also just don't want to watch any level of sexual threat even if it's a kind I'm supposed to enjoy, so it's tricky. I might give it another try when I'm on my own sometime so at least I don't have to watch it with other people in the room.

[nassima]

Past season 1 there's no other rape scene and no gratuitous sex (although there *is* definitely explicit sex). There are very violent scenes throughout the whole show (a keelhauling among other things) but I wouldn't call them gratuitous and they're not that frequent.

The show is incredible in that there are no good guys (in the sense of morally perfect) and yet you understand them all and side with quite all of them at various moments. For me there was only one psychopath that had no redeeming qualities, one bad guy who was quite evil (but had one soft scene), one character siding with the good guys that was dangerously amoral and one major character whose motivations I could understand but that clearly was the bad guy. All the others might do horrible things, and yet they, well, maybe not redeem themselves as much as show that as flawed as they are, they are worth being understood, liked, or more.

Also it is very political in a way I didn't think possible in a US show. And the female characters, past the first season, are getting better and better and very central to the plot.


Black Sails is a small fandom with incredibly dedicated fans, if you still hadn't noticed - we're all trying to convert the world and are all aware that the first season isn't helping our cause! A fellow cosplayer tried to recruit in the London streets last year while we were coming back from a convention (she was Captain Flint, I was Miranda Barlow, which makes for a great way to talk to strangers in the streets.)

[potboy]

That's very reassuring. I might try it again, then. I actually love programs where you learn to care about people without requiring them to be perfect. Torchwood was my first exposure to that style of storytelling where *everyone* was a bit of a jerk and an idiot, but over time you got to absolutely love their dysfunctional little family.

(I think that's why I like villains - it's just so hard to believe in perfect heroes.) And I'm a huge Age of Sail fan ever since Pirates of the Caribbean, so I can at least look at the ships.

I'll give it another try and wait until I'm half way through season 2 before I make a decision this time :)

[nassima]

Singing Pratchett's praise and adding a Black Sails quote in the same comment: if I hadn't already added you I'd to it on the spot!

[nassima]

This is the perfect quote for the circumstance and the kind of post that makes me realise that for all I've been acutely missing the LJ kind of social media during all the time I've been on tumblr, there are times when all I want is reblog!

[potboy]

Reblogging and liking are definitely things I would add to this site if I had the ability :)