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Quote –
“Ideas are more important than battles.” – Charles Sumner
(Yeah, OK BOS. Let’s see you defeat the ODSM with ideas alone. Even V for Vendetta had battles.)
Original Painting –
Les Amants (The Lovers I) by Rene MagritteThe Lovers I (1928), is one of a small group of pictures painted by Magritte in Paris in 1927-28, in which the identity of the figures is mysteriously shrouded in white cloth. The lovers I 1928 is in the Australian National Gallery; and the similarly titled, similarly dated and similarly sized painting The Lovers II is in the collection of Richard S. Zeisler, New York, in which the same shrouded heads of a man and a woman that appear in the Gallery’s painting attempt to kiss each other through their grey cloth integuments.
The origin of this disturbing image has been attributed to various sources in Magritte’s imagination. Like many of his Surrealist associates, Magritte was fascinated by ‘Fantomas’, the shadowy hero of the thriller series which first appeared in novel form in 1913, and shortly after in films made by Louis Feuillade. The identity of ‘Fantomas’ is never revealed; he appears in the films disguised with a cloth or stocking over his head. Another source for the shrouded heads in Magritte’s paintings has been suggested in the memory of his mother’s apparent suicide. In 1912, when Magritte was only thirteen years of age, his mother was found drowned in the river Sambre; when her body was recovered from the river, her nightdress was supposedly wrapped around her head.Magritte himself disliked explanations which diffused the mystery of his images. His matter-of-fact style deliberately eschewed the assumption that these images were simply the expression of personal fantasy or private neurosis. They are images calculated to unlock the darker side of the mind. In The lovers, a man and a woman press their together in a fond gesture, almost as if they were having their photograph taken. It could be a holiday snapshot, with glimpses of the green verdure of the Normandy coast and the sea beyond. But through the simple device of the shrouds that cover the lovers’ heads, tug back against their faces and curl like ropes across their shoulders, the spontaneous intimacy of this ‘holiday snapshot’ becomes a spectre of alienation, suffocation, even death. Outwardly so ordinary, even absurd, this image becomes chillingly real in the mind’s eye.
Note, there is also a ‘The Lovers II’ by Magriette. Same subject, but as if they’re kissing.
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Magritte himself disliked explanations which diffused the mystery of his images. His matter-of-fact style deliberately eschewed the assumption that these images were simply the expression of personal fantasy or private neurosis. They are images calculated to unlock the darker side of the mind.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THISTHISTHISTHIS.
So much this. -
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Magritte himself disliked explanations which diffused the mystery of his images. His matter-of-fact style deliberately eschewed the assumption that these images were simply the expression of personal fantasy or private neurosis. They are images calculated to unlock the darker side of the mind.
YEEEEESSSSSSSSS. (also I love this painting and its companion so very much!!)
Charles Sumner was an interesting dude. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sumner
Sumner was a close associate of William Ellery Channing, an influential Unitarian minister in Boston. Channing believed that human beings had an infinite potential to improve themselves. Expanding on this argument, Sumner concluded that environment had “an important, if not controlling influence” in shaping individuals. By creating a society where “knowledge, virtue and religion” took precedence, “the most forlorn shall grow into forms of unimagined strength and beauty.”
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The quote was said in response to the Gettysburg address. Here’s the whole thing: “That speech, uttered at the field of Gettysburg… and now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author, is a monumental act. In the modesty of his nature he said ‘the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what they did here.’ He was mistaken. The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself was less important than the speech. Ideas are always more [important] than battles.”
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Not to bring politics into this, but last year’s election encapsulates this quote. None of the battles, debates, or parts of the campaign mattered because several ideas took hold so strongly that they ended up basically determining the outcome (I realize there’s a degree or two of oversimplification there).
So now it’s seeing whose ideas are going to take hold, OSDM, BOS, or Briarberg.
I think the painting also highlights the power of ideas too, but in a different sense of the word. We don’t know what’s underneath those pieces of white cloth, so the idea of what their faces may look like or not look like is all up to the individual viewer. OSDM operates under a similar principle, layering truth and lies, giving out pieces of information here and there, all so the idea of the organization is even more terrifying than it may appear to be. (Not saying that they aren’t scary in their own right though.) Maybe at some point we’ll actually be able to pull the hood off of OSDM and find out what they really look like.
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Welp. I dunno about @winstonsmith, but I’m feeling slightly called out about our Christmas card photo from last year, especially since I was quoted earlier about fighting for ideas and not leaders.
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