Victorian Paradise Now

Today was another day of classes so this is probably going be another kind of boring post for some people. Just giving you fair warning. I actually thought both of my classes were very interesting today, if that counts for anything.

In Islam vs. the West, we spent half the class learning about the Israeli/Arab conflict. Now there is a convoluted and complicated topic. Wow. I know I say this all the time about all of my classes, but man, I did not know one thing about Israel. We talked mostly about recent history (1900 to now). The circumstances of the founding of Israel are very tenuous and I can really see both sides. One of the things that really surprised me was how it is often portrayed that the Israelites are smaller and less powerful than the Arabs in the region and are sort of the David to the Arab's Goliath. It's really the opposite. After years and years of US aid, the Israelites are quite powerful militarily. Hearing about all the refugees and displaced people because of all the violence is very sad. It is a rather bleak future for the whole area still. Israel is blockading Gaza and there are still tons of suicide bombings and such. Really sad. The worst part is that there is so much history and tension, it seems hard to find a good solution. Neither side seems to budge at all. Anyway, that's what we talked about. The second half of the class was spent watching a movie made in 2005 called Paradise Now (movie poster picture 1). It's about two friends from the West Bank who are chosen to be suicide bombers in Israel and their struggle with it. I don't really want to say more about the plot because it was really well done and you should just watch it. It really made me think about what life is like for all the displaced Arabs. I am NOT saying suicide bombings are good and neither is the movie. Actually it basically says the opposite. Just rent it if you can and see for yourself. All the dialogue is in Arabic so hello subtitles. Like I said, very well done and just a good story.

I came back and had some lunch and headed off to the Tate Britain. That is not to be confused with the Tate Modern. There is a group of 4 museums in England all under Tate control. The other two are in Liverpool and St. Ives. Tate Britain is located east of Westminster on the Thames. It houses all the British pieces of art that the Tate controls (obviously). There is a huge range of years, from the beginning of British art to modern stuff that isn't in Tate Modern. We focused on Victorian era paintings for the second class period in a row. We looked at a few paintings that focused on the early Victorian age which had a huge fascination with the Middle Ages and with telling stories in the paintings that have a moral. An example of the "telling stories in the paintings that have a moral" was The Lament for Icarus (picture 2) by Henry Draper. In Greek mythology, Daedalus and his son Icarus lived on Crete. Daedalus made some wings out of wax and feathers. He let Icarus use them to try and get off the island but warned him to not fly too close to the sun. Of course Icarus does and the wings melt and he falls to Earth and dies. In the painting, Icarus's dead body is being lamented by sea nymphs. The classic tale of "always listen to your parents". An example of the "fascination with the Middle Ages" is Claudio and Isabella (picture 3) by William Holman Hunt. Its a story from Shakespeare. Claudio is condemned to death for adultery and his sister, a nun, tries to plead his case to the husband to save Claudio's life. He says he will only do it if she sleeps with him. She goes back to Claudio to tell him that. The painting is this moment and them discussing what should be done. Its a moral dilemma. Victorians like moral dilemmas and talking about them.

The other stuff we looked at about the Victorian era was the late Victorian era. These paintings usually had no people and were not detailed and had no moral stuff. They were art for art's sake. My favorite of these was Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea (picture 4) by James Abbott NcNeill Whistler. It's a painting of the Old Battersea Bridge at night. I just like how hazy everything is and how it seems like a fairytale sort of even though it was a kind of grungy area at the time. I just think its very pretty. Reminds me a lot of the Impressionists who were painting in France at the same time. We are going to the National Gallery, yet again, to talk about the Impressionists next week.

After Art History, I came back and hung out (i.e. reading stuff online and books, eating, napping for just a little bit, etc.). Not much to say about my evening. I do have a little bit of exciting news which is that the week after Easter, when my mom is going to be visiting, I won't have any classes. All my profs said it would be fine if I missed class (made up work after/before and such). So I have another about 10 days of no class to go travel with my mom. Sweet!! We don't where we are going yet. Just thought I would let people know and have them be jealous of me. Haha.

Happy Tuesday!