Imperiused? Sneaks, Snatchers, Wise Men and Britain’s prejudice problem. By Cho Chang. Bageshot Press; 470 pages; 7 Galleons. 2005.
‘THE problem is highly overstated; prejudice among pureblood and half-blood witches against their muggleborn counterparts are at an all time low - those who areprejudiced, enough to participate in hate crimes, are far beyond our reach; pretending otherwise is naive.’ So argued the former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch Sr, in early 1981, while persuading the Wizengamot to allow the use of Unforgivables and other punitive magic when fighting against the Death Eaters. Ms Chang, however, disagrees with this position, calling it “nothing more than a smoke screen” in her new history of the second wizarding war.
…
Most historical writing about the second wizarding war is agreed on this one point at least - that You Know Who and his followers were exceptions to the rule, the result of years of pureblood inbreeding and mental instability fostered by the constant use of dark magic. Cho Chang takes a rather different approach in this book of hers, asserting that the problem lay not with the acts of ‘an exceptional few’, but with this very idea of exceptionalism itself, which, according to her, resulted in the disastrous Wizengamot vote of 1997.
In denial of this pervasive prejudice, she claims, the Wizengamot voted Charles Nott in as Minister for Magic despite his alleged previous ties with the Death Eaters - ties that he was acquitted of in 1982 after a trial that lasted nearly a year and ended with the Wizengamot concluding that he, like so many others, had been under the influence of the Imperius curse. This vote consequently paved the way for the establishment of the Muggleborn Commission. This too has been dubbed an exception, a mis-step of judgement, by historians writing on the subject, but Ms Chang argues that this was not onemisjudgement, but a symptom of a larger “disease” which declared purebloods trustworthy and fit for government, despite their past brush-in’s with the law - while muggleborns were frequently thrown out of office for infractions of the Statute of Secrecy.
…
Ms Chang paints a particularly bleak picture of wizarding Britain and in doing so, casts all of the wizarding world, but particularly purebloodwizards, as villains in this piece- willingly complicit in a genocide that took the lives of hundreds of muggleborn and half-blood witches and wizards. One wonders whether blanket statements are helpful - as Ms Chang insists they are - and if in these generalizations, they miss out on the finer nuances of the politics of the second wizarding war. Ms Chang, sadly, leaves those questions unanswered.
FromThe Wixenomist, September 16th - 23rd, 2005.
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Grindelwald on Trial: 50 Years Later. By Amanda Abbott; Foreword by Miriam Smith. Xenophon Press; 300 pages; 10 Galleons. 2005.
IN 1950, five years after after the horrific events of the Great Wizarding War, Gellert Grindelwald and his generals were put on the stand to testify about their war crimes. The Nurmengard Trials, as they would later come to be known, sparked a fiery debate over who was to be held accountable for the atrocities committed at Schloss Grimmshel. What shocked everyone most about those trials was how normalandcivilizedthese witches and wizards appeared on the stand; not at all the frenzied, bloodthirsty madmen the public had come to be acquainted with in the popular press.
Five years later, Amanda Abbott wrote the controversial first edition of Grindelwald on Trial in which she boldly asserted that no one could be held responsible for the torture of muggles at Schloss Grimmshel. In making this claim, she coined the much bandied about and even more frequently misused term, Apate, to explain how ideas gain lives of their own and how in spaces of uncertainty, these ideas come to fabricate realities that are then realized through the actions of wizards and witches.
Upon its release, the book sparked uproar with its unheard of suggestion that wizards and witches could be held not-responsible for having used dark magic, without being under the influence of dark magic themselves. Wizarding law, till then, made allowances only for the actions of magical folk who could prove that they had been under the influence of either the Imperiusor the Confunduscharm – and other similar spells. With the release of this book, however, Amanda Abbott forced the wizarding world to re-examine the relation between spellcasting and the constantly shifting uncertainties of belief and their implications for lawmakers. Could men and women be held responsible for torture when they truly believed they were following orders, whether those orders ever existed or not? In her book, Ms Abbott lays out a powerful case againstany one witch or wizard being held responsible – rather that das größere Wohl be held responsible, if anything at all.
…
Fifty years later, her ideas remain as provocative as ever and with a new foreword by Miriam Smith, provide a challenging means of thinking about the second wizarding war and its causes and consequences. Ms Smith does an excellent job of describing the trials of the first and second wizarding wars, where known Death Eaters claimed to have committed their worst acts of violence while under the influence of the Imperius curse. While Abbott develops her idea purely in relation to the diffusion of responsibility, Ms Smith pushes the idea of Apatefurther and talks of an Apate Imperius, where witches and wizards carried away by what she deems the “violence” of You-Know-Who’s propaganda, found themselves whipped into a frenzy that led them, almost as if Imperiused, to kill and torture.
While it might seem that Ms Smith is overreaching with her idea of the Apate Imperius, nevertheless she provides a succinct and strongly delivered challenge – admirable for an idea that is laid out in less than fifteen pages – to the way we think about the first and second wizarding wars and the frequently shaky testimonies of being under the Imperiuswhich saw so many acquitted in the few months following You-Know-Who’s first downfall. Fifty years later, Ms Smith proves that Amanda Abbott’s seminal work still has the power to shock and provoke serious critical thought about the ethics of the use of magic.
From The Wixenomist, August 12th - 19th, 2005.
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Memo from the Editor for Britain to the Editor-in-Chief of The Wixenomist
Really, Blythely,that’s the angle we’re going with? Purebloods writing in defense of unapologetic murderers (and the abhorrent mess that is the wizarding world) are ‘thought provoking’, while Cho Chang with her radical critique of the wizarding world ‘generalizes’ and ‘leaves questions unanswered’?
I’m disappointed in you.
M Prewett.
(Pics:1,2. Big thank you to essayofthoughts for help creating the terminology for the idea of Apate.)
Summary: After a fight the previous night, Drake surprises MC (Riley) early in the morning to make amends and things take a fortuitous turn.
Notes:This a fic requested by @fairydustandsarcasm from the Types of Kisses prompt list, #2: the early morning kiss. Thanks for the request, I hope you enjoy it! :-)
Thank you to everyone who requested a fic from this list! I’m now accepting requests from a New Kiss Fic List, so if you want to read something, let me know! Thank you for your requests! <3
The morning was still early and gray when Riley’s eyes fluttered open. She was disoriented, still half lost in a fading dream she couldn’t quite remember. It took a moment to realize someone was knocking on the door, a tentative rap rap rap on the wood.
“Come in,” Riley called as she forced herself into a sitting position, blinking sleep out of her eyes. The door opened and she saw the sleeve of his blue shirt before his face.
“Hey,” Drake said nervously, shutting the door behind him. “Can I talk to you?”
Riley let herself fall back on her pillows and patted the bed beside her. Drake crossed the room and sat down gingerly, like he was afraid she was going to throw him out at any second. She watched him with a raised eyebrow.
“I … I’m sorry,” Drake said as he stared at his hands, knotting and unknotting his fingers.
“You have to stop pushing me away,” she said.
“You deserve better than me.”
“Tough shit, I picked you,” Riley said. Her body was still exhausted, but she pushed herself back up to a sitting position in an effort to keep her eyes open.
“My god, why?” he asked. Riley pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Drake, I’m way too tired to have this fight with you again. God, what time is it anyway?”
“A little after five.”
“And this couldn’t have waited until later?”
“Riley,” Drake said quietly. The use of her first name stilled her the way it always did and she looked at him. “Some of these people … if you not being with me means you’re better protected from them, then I’m willing to do that for you. I want to do that for you.”
“Hey,” Riley said as she reached over and took his hand. “It’s you and me, always. Liam knows it, Hana knows it, the Beaumonts know it … you’re the only one who doesn’t seem to be on board.”
“I love you,” Drake said, looking her in the eyes for the first time.
“Then shut up and kiss me already,” Riley said. Drake smiled and leaned over, gently cupping her face in his hands before he lightly touched his lips to hers.
“I’m sorry I woke you up so early,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep after our fight last night, but I waited as long as I could before I came to your room.”
Riley smiled and pulled back the covers, patting the bed beside her. Drake opened his mouth as if to protest, but he changed his mind, kicked off his shoes, and climbed in beside her, pulling her close against his chest. Riley listened to the steady metronome of his heartbeat for a moment, deeply inhaling the comforting smell of the man she loved.
Riley had been so exhausted before, but now, with Drake so close to her, she felt very much awake. She tilted her face up towards his and kissed him again. His lips were warm and welcoming against hers. She slipped her tongue against his and he pulled her closer to him.
“I thought you were tired,” Drake said, trailing his hand down her side.
“You woke me up,” she replied with a grin. “In more ways than one.”
This pastry princess—check out that crown!—is from the Sally L. Steinberg Collection of Doughnut Ephemera in our National Museum of American History’s Archives Center. (Steinberg also considered herself a doughnut princess, as her grandfather Adolph Levitt was America’s original “doughnut king,” having developed the automatic doughnut making machine and founded the modern American doughnut industry.)
Cats didn’t need the internet to achieve feline fame.
Our@archivesofamericanart has a new exhibition, “Before Internet Cats: Feline Finds from the Archives of American Art,” which explores how cats are represented in rare documents like sketches and drawings, letters, and photographs from the 19th century through the early 2000s.
We decided to let the cat out of the bag…er, box with this collage postcard sent from fiber artist Lenore Tawney to filmmaker Maryette Charlton. Tawney’s postcards often featured intricate layers of found media and handwritten notes. Animals, especially cats, were a frequent motif.
While we think the whole exhibition is purrfect (we couldn’t help it), here are some of our favorite pieces from the archives:
Georges Mathieu, a French painter, embellished this oversize letter to painter Hedda Sterne. It’s among the cat-themed correspondence from Mathieu that are in Sterne’s papers.
Cats often make ideal studio companions. They serve as sympathetic critics and elegant muses.
In this photo, Pozy the cat watches muralist Edna Reindel work in her California studio. (Pozy is also the subject of the wall mural behind them.)
Photos of artists in their studios enhance our understanding of their stories and their working processes.
Reginald Gammon was known for his evocative portraits of prominent African Americans (and not cats) but in the mid-1960s he illustrated a children’s book that chronicles the friendship between a boy and a bespectacled cat.
Thousands of sketches in the Archives of American Art offer insight into artists’ creative processes. A 1948 sketchbook of watercolor studies by muralist and children’s book illustrator Emily Barto highlights the distinct personalities of several felines—here’s one taking a cat nap.
#BeforeInternetCats is on view through Oct. 29 in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery (the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery). You can also paw your way through the exhibition online.
It was the early 70’s when my paternal grandparents, Henry & Jo, surprised my mother with a used black AMC Rambler. My father was constantly MIA, leaving my mother without transportation and the responsibility of two young children. Grandpa Henry wanted her to have a vehicle to make her everyday life easier and “just in case of emergencies”.
When I spied this old Rambler sitting in a New Mexico junkyard, just viewing the distressed chrome emblems & dashboard brought on a rush of misplaced, happy memories.
A joyride/road trip down HWY 51 to Horseshoe Lake near Cairo, Il., to visit mom’s sister, Aunt Karen, Uncle Russell & Cousins, Kim & Kathy.
I’ll never forget
the smell of the dashboard’s push-in cigarette lighter making it’s first contact with mom’s Tareyton 100’s,
hand-cranking the passenger window down to feel and play with the air’s resistance as we drove down the highway, laying on the front bench seat, watching the rhythm & repetition of power-line poles whizzing by while mom hummed along to music from whichever radio station we could tune in best.
This will forever be a good memory, the simple bliss of independence and quiet content.
Casting sides for Carmen: we only have the first page, if you have the other five pages please DM us, we’d love to have them.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google -> slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google -> slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
*You can see all of the other scripts we have here. If you hit the Slideshare viewing limit, Google → slideshare ngelmat. To buy scripts we need donations, and the more people are involved the smaller the hit everyone takes. To help with this, we have set up a discord server. It is a fandom neutral zone so as many people as possible feel comfortable joining. Since the supply in eBay sellers’ inventories has dried up, we are also looking for folks willing to share PDFs (phone app PDFs are fine, e.g. Genius Scan) of scripts from their personal collections.
Gregory Nava’s El Norte will be rereleased theatrically for the first time since its original run 35 years ago. Thanks to a brand new restoration conducted by the Academy Film Archive and the Getty Foundation, audiences can see it in theaters on September 15—the first day of Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, which coincides with the independence days of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico.
Directed by Nava from a screenplay co-written by Anna Thomas, El Norte tells the story of two indigenous siblings who flee from persecution in their native Guatemala to follow the promise of a better life in the United States. Together Nava and Thomas attended the inaugural 1981 Directors Lab as part of a cohort of filmmakers invited by Robert Redford to develop their screenplays with the newly founded Sundance Institute. At the heart of El Norte is what Redford calls “the pursuit of a sense of place”—a struggle that resonates as deeply today as it did 35 years ago.
