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Posts tagged "historical fiction"
Soup Of The Day: With Author Jack Wolf
Helping me this morning is Jack Wolf – author of The Tale Of Raw Head And Bloody Bones, which Max and Collin reviewed a short time ago with their Morning Cuppa.
Good morning to you Jack! Thank you so much for coming to help me in my soup kitchen today, may I take your coat and hat? It is certainly very frosty out there today but the fire here in the bakery is lovely and warm. How was your journey here from your own dimension?
Not too bad – the skies were fairly clear and the traffic was ok.
I'm very glad to hear that! This cold snap seems to have the Skyway Men clinging to their fires which is a mercy! And have you brought some soup with you today to share with the orphans?
I make something called Bungitin Vegan soup, which is basically a load of chopped veg – 1 onions, 2 carrots, 1 tin's worth of tomatoes, 1 pepper, half to a whole tin's worth of chick peas and/or other legumes, and anything else I can find in the kitchen fridge – 1-2 courgettes are good. Add at least one clove of garlic or a teaspoon of garlic paste – this is really important – and a mix of herbs and spices to taste. The italian herbs are good for this, so oregano, basil and sometimes a little black pepper. I don't usually add salt, but you can, if you want. To cook, brown the onions and begin to soften the carrots by stir-frying in vegetable or sunflower oil for about 4-5 mins, then add everything else and about 3/4 pint of vegetable stock, and let it all simmer until everything is soft and it tastes really rich. Don't let it burn or get too dense, as this can make the flavour too strong – you have to keep tasting it.
Oh vegan soup recipes are always here, what with the dairy rationing and such, thankyou very much! Now while that is simmering away nicely, why don't you have a seat here by the fire and tell us about your book The Tale Of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, and its main character Tristan Hart? I see you have brought a copy with you to show the orphans..
The cover art is stunning! I confess to very much enjoying the book myself, not least because of the cunning use of magic, folk lore and the world of faerie to support the narrative – tell me, have you always had an interest in the relationship between our own everyday 'stories,' and the magical and mythological frameworks we use to make sense of our 'real world' experiences?
I've been drawn to faerie tales, and faeries in general, for a long time. I'm also fascinated by human psychology, and the idea that humans create our own conceptual worlds out of the stories – and I use that word extremely broadly – that we tell ourselves. To an extent, the 'real world' of our experience is something we invent – a story we tell ourselves every moment of every day.
And the story of Raw Head, that is a real British folk tale isn't it?
Yes and no. It's a recorded folk belief, but I haven't found any complete tales concerning it – with a beginning middle and end, and so on. It's likely that the original RH&BB is more a general bogeyman than a character, in the way that, say, the Wolf in the Three Little Pigs is a character. I think he was a personification of the threat of drowning in a culture where only a tiny minority of people knew how to swim, and nobody knew how to perform cpr on a drowning victim. The idea was, I think, that the fear of RH&BB would keep the kids away from the waterways in a way that a simple explanation of the danger would not. References to the figure seem to peter out in the UK after the 18thC, so I guess superstitions moved on.
But oddly enough, in the US the image seems to have persisted, and mutated – there's a legend in the Ozarks of RH&BB where a creature by that name appears as a monstrous pig. It may be co-incidental, of course. But I drew on this alternate image a little bit as well in the novel; Tristan's dread of Joseph Cox becomes focused on the fact that Cox works as a pig-keeper.
Ah yes! I didn't recognise that wonderful little twist but that certainly makes sense! I had also thought it reminded me of the La Lorona mythos and more localised 'Maggie O Th'Well' tales. Tell me, what particularly drew you to use that tale as the focal point for Tristan's story?
I'm fascinated by bogeymen, and the idea that one of the tools we use to keep ourselves safe is actually terror. But the name "RH&BB" is also a wonderful metaphor for what a human being is – mind and body brought together in this messy, contradictory way – and trying to make sense of that conundrum is Tristan's most prevailing obsession.
Raw Head is by no means the only myth you reference in the book, what other prominent faerie figures feature in the narrative?
Well, I also draw heavily on the idea of the Glanconer – the Irish Faerie seducer – or as we might now acknowledge, rapist. He's the dark Faerie who lies at the bottom of the myth of the Elf Knight, or as I call him in the book, the Goblin Knight. In numerous folk songs such as The Outlandish Knight and Steeleye Span's The Elf Knight (which was the first place I encountered him) he is a seducer and murderer of young women who lures them to their doom sometimes by drowning, like RH&BB, or more simply by stabbing or strangling them. But of course as a Faerie Knight he's also part of the court of the Faerie Queen, so she had to come into the book as well – and the image I've used to represent her is that of the shapeshifting barn owl. I've called her Viviane, of course, which is a nod to the Arthurian tradition.
Of course, and very nicely done indeed! Now, in some modern / mythpunk re-workings, the world these tales and archetypes belong to is something that is a step removed from the protagonist's reality but in your book the world of faerie doesn't just run alongside Tristan's human world does it?
Well, I don't see the worlds as being separate in the way that a lot of modern fantasy does. I'm much more drawn to the Alan Garner or Susan Cooper school of world building in which the two realms are in constant communication with each other. It's much closer to the way I experience the world, as well.
Well, I for one can certainly identify with that, Dear! I very much liked the way that, by giving each of the main characters both a human identity and, simultaneously, a faerie-self, you seemed to re-imagine (or perhaps 'release') some of those ancient beings in a way that made encountering them a very fresh, real and emotive experience.
Do you think that it is important to keep exploring these tales and releasing these characters into the collective consciousness?
Yes. I think it's vital, actually. In the last couple of hundred years, we have built an industrial society that demands that we deliberately reject older, deeper ways of thinking, and more intuitive ways of experiencing ourselves and the world around us, in order to be considered full, 'rational' individuals. It's a form of madness, I think – cutting off a very ancient, nourishing, and protective part of the psyche. We need to find stories that allow us to reconnect with who we really are as a species. I think faerie stories do have the capacity to do this.
I certainly think you are right on that point!
The book is set at an important liminal moment in British history – revolutions in the worlds of medical science and industrial technology are bringing a 'great awakening' of so called rational thought, but at that same time, aspects of the collective consciousness seem still to be slumbering in the 'dream world' of spiritual / magical understanding and superstition. Did you deliberately choose this time period as one that would reflect the turmoil within Tristan and some of the other key characters?
Absolutely. The period stands exactly on the cusp of the modern world – and Tristan, in particular, is a character who represents – even embodies – the confusing contradictions inherent in that historical moment.
The character Katherine Montague uses the story of Raw Head And Bloody Bones to communicate and cope with her traumatic life experiences and Tristan uses it to understand and make sense of his own fragmented reality… do you think that, to some degree, we are all prone to using the language of faerie / magic to feel secure and form an understanding of our often confusing or frightening world?
I think there is a human tendency to perceive the world through stories – and as I said above, I think that, right now, we need better ones than we currently have. It is a form of magical thinking, in a way – constructing one's own reality through images, words and ideas. But we don't all draw on the language of faerie to do this: we all construct our own stories out of whatever conceptual material we have to hand. In Katherine's case, this happens to be the language of faerie tales: the abused girl, the wicked mother, the stolen child, etc are all common tropes in the folk-awareness of her time. A modern character in her situation would most probably use different stories to try to make some sense out of the dreadful things that have happened to her, and around her. But a modern character would hopefully have more psychological support… Katherine literally can't speak about what she has gone through unless she displaces it onto a faerie tale – which both enacts and subverts another faerie trope, the magical silence. For her, magical thinking really is a survival mechanism.
For Tristan the situation's slightly different, because the whole thing goes so much farther – for him, the worlds of faerie, story and rationality collide in a way that is quite traumatic in itself. He may be using the story, but there is also a sense in which he is also being used – and abused – by it.
While this 'magical toolkit' for understanding the world may be useful to the individual utilising it, it can lead to fear, suspicion and ultimately persecution of individuals who are seen as liminal themselves – the 'outsiders' if you will, whose lifestyle or beliefs set them apart as 'abnormal' can't it?
We still don't live in a particularly tolerant society – even though in many ways it is, of course, much more accepting than it was in Tristan's time. But it's true that standing out from the crowd in ways that the crowd don't understand, or even fear can bring about terrible persecution – I'm thinking of Sophie Lancaster's murder here, but there are other examples.
When it comes to holding a magical or otherwise 'fringe' understanding of the world in some way, I have found that intolerance has tended to manifest as ridicule, rather than fear or violence. I am a panpsychist, for example (a highly unusual position here, but actually one that was most likely the norm throughout most of human pre-history, and which is still common in certain non-westernised societies), and most educated Westerners simply cannot grasp the principles behind it. So they mischaracterise and then dismiss it. The author Emma Restall Orr went through exactly this experience years ago on BBC Radio 4 with Michael Gove. She responded by writing The Wakeful World, which is a fairly decent introduction to the concept, I think.
Viviane, for example, is a character whose 'otherness' allows Tristan to see her as quite unreal and therefore excuse and 'explain' his misconduct towards her using the framework of faerie mythology. This use of faerie / magical lore against women (and often, as you highlight marvellously in the book, against Rromani women) is a very real phenomenon isn't it?
It was very much a problem in the 18thC, where it did become, in addition to other things, a cloak for racism against the Romani (not that the concepts of racism, or even sexism, existed then). It's less obvious now, and here, of course – that's thanks to the Enlightenment convincing the populace that magic is not real – but it still endures verbally in slurs – "Witch" etc – and in cultural assumptions about the overwhelming sexual allure of women's bodies. "She put a spell on me, your honour" isn't really that far from "she was wearing a short skirt," in my estimation. Both rely on the belief that a female body – a woman in a body – somehow exudes some sort of mystical aura that overcomes a man's ability to control himself, and provides him with the excuse to, as you say, explain away his misconduct.
But Tristan isn't deliberately demonising Viviane in order to take advantage of her, is he? He is genuinely grasping at the threads of, what for him is, a confusing multilayered reality and this manifests to those around him as a form of madness – demonising him, in turn.
Yes, Tristan is completely oblivious to the cultural programming that's going on beneath the surface; and he's certainly not demonising Viviane on purpose. As far as he becomes concerned, she is wholly the Faerie woman of his dreams and nightmares – if she ever had a real, human self, he can't acknowledge that.
Again, the demonization of those 'outsiders' who come to be labelled 'mad' is something that has always been a frighteningly real occurrence hasn't it?
Yes, it has – and it is still going on today. When I was writing Tristan I was very conscious of the stereotyping that leads to people with severe schizophrenia, or similar disorders, becoming objects of fear. People have been taught to expect the mad to behave like monsters. It's dehumanising – demonising. if you like. it's also statistically untrue.
Perhaps especially unsettling is the fact that what is termed 'madness' to one particular culture or at one point in history, can later come to be understood as a natural phenomenon – the hormonal surges of menstruating or pregnant women, for example, and those whose sexuality is anything other than heterosexual…
Absolutely – the boundaries of what is considered 'sanity' are shifting all the time. I really do believe that in a couple of hundred years – assuming any humans are still left by then – a lot of the beliefs and habits we hold to now will be seen as dangerously crazy. I don't, of course, know which ones these will be. I have my hopes, but I don't see history as an inevitable march of "progress", either technologically or culturally, so it may be that some very dark definitions of sanity/insanity will come to dominate. Hopefully we won't go back to a time when women were locked up for being disobedient, but it could happen.
I suppose it all comes down to who has the cultural upper hand at the end of the day? Here in Ire, for example, a person is considered dangerous and 'mad' if they crave a cup of tea or a slice of cake!
Now, you see, I think anyone who doesn't drink tea or like cake must be completely crazy.
Power is certainly a theme that you explore rigorously in the book isn't it? – The power we may have over the people, animals and natural world around us, the power others may have over us and that which we have over ourselves, our actions and our perceptions…
Yes, it's one of the major themes of the novel. It's connected with the idea of disconnection and displacement – that the less integrated we are as beings with each other and the natural world, the more our relationships become aligned along power lines: power over, rather than power with. Katherine's and Tristan's relationship is really an example of mutual power in flux, rather than power over, on either side, although it may not look like that superficially. The dynamic between them is nothing like, for instance, Jane and Barnaby's marriage, or the sibling relationship between Tristan's father and his sister.
The power that women have over their own bodies is something that you explore in a number of ways through the different female characters in the story, is this something you feel strongly about?
I'm very passionate, actually, about the right of a woman to inhabit and control her own body. It is still a shocking truth of our society that women aren't always accorded physical autonomy – look at the abortion debate, for example.
Looking at the #metoo phenomenon in your own dimension recently, it seems as though we are still very much in need of stories which explore this issue?
Very much so. We need, as a culture, to reclaim and then rewrite the ballad of the Elf Knight. I think we actually are trying to do something like that, in this historical moment, at least. I was delighted to read that in the latest production of Carmen, in Italy, Carmen shoots Don Jose, not the other way round – and there's also that new prize for Crime Fiction that doesn't focus on dead female bodies. There are other stories that can be told. When I started writing RH&BB, several of my early readers imagined Tristan was going to kill Katherine. Er, hardly! But that tells me how deeply embedded some of these unhealthy cultural assumptions about what love is, and what women can and should expect from men who love them, actually are. I was writing against those expectations then, and I will continue to write against them.
Such important subjects but oh my goodness! I do ramble on don't I? I must apologise, the kettle has long been singing at us and I haven't offered you a cup of tea! What is your poison, dear, and how do you take it?
Builders', soya milk, no sugar. Thanks!
Here you are. Now then, moving away from The Tale Of Raw Head And Bloody Bones for a moment, what can you tell me about your own involvement in the world of faerie and the enigmatic character of Lord Crow?
That's an interesting question. Of course, being bound by the laws of Faerie, I can't tell you very much! But I suppose in one way Lord Crow is an idea; in another he's a being-in-himself. I want to explore the possibility of writing from the point of view of the non-human, and he is my voice and my persona when I do that. I guess there are similarities here with the faerie co-walker, who is a figure I've come across occasionally in various modern "guide to faerie" books – though to be honest, I don't tend to read those sorts of books. The older stories speak to me much more clearly – and also, there's a tendancy in more modern writings to try to group faeries into species, or even races – which is a hangover from the Victorian obsession with scientific classification. The faeries I know – so to speak – would wet themselves at the thought that any human being should be able to classify them into any sorts of types – especially along such spurious lines as 'light' and 'dark'. They would also probably explode at the notion that they should show any real interest in helping human beings. Faeries are wild. Humans, on the whole, are not. Faerie, as I understand it – in a modern sense, moving away from some of the ways it has been perceived historically as a concept, place, or whatever – has its essence in the flow of energy through complex systems – it can't be fixed into any stable form. The best way I have found to get to know it is to get to know the natural world, and really fall in love with that – truly, madly, deeply, without reservation, fear, or any desire for power-over it.
I think Lord Crow is quite unlike me, personality wise, though other people disagree. He's wilder, darker, cleverer, less forgiving, and much less patient. Given the current state of our relationship to the natural world, I don't find this in any way surprising.
'Re-wilding' is an important concept that is, happily, growing in popularity as regards our physical relationship with the land isn't it?
Yes; it's a wonderful development, but it has a long way to go. I'm hoping that it represents the beginning of a tectonic shift in the terms of that relationship towards integration and respect and away from exploitation and power-over. It's great that people here are slowly becoming accepting of the idea that we should live alongside beavers and – to an extent – wild boar, but I also want to see lynx in every suitable habitat across the UK, and I think some research should be done into reintroducing the wolf in Scotland, to balance the red deer population and give the Caledonian forest regrowth a fighting chance. (And besides: wolves! Wow!) Just as importantly, I want to see a new 'wilding' of cities. Bath, where I live, is an ideal habitat for peregrine falcons, because of the many urban pigeons. It's also a breeding site for herring gulls, which are now in serious decline. People love the peregrines and loathe the gulls. I want to see the gulls welcomed alongside the more charismatic falcons. Urban foxes, too. For one thing, more foxes can mean fewer urban rats; and it's not so hard for the city to provide fox and gull-proof bins. For another, there's a moral case, I think, for opening up cities to creatures that can safely live alongside us.
Humans are a bloody invasive species. They need to learn to share.
That's Lord Crow, now, interrupting. I knew once he heard the conversation he'd be unable to resist joining in with it.
And a very warm welcome to you Sir!
Space-invaders! Manspreaders!
All right, Crow.
Do you think that it also concerns our spiritual or psychological relationship with the land as well?
I don't think one is achievable without the other. If we don't change our overall attitude toward the land, then we will never effect meaningful changes in our behaviour. This whole "man must overcome nature" narrative has got to change.
Or it will be changed.
Is that a warning, Crow?
Just an observation.
Well thank you so much, both of you, for coming to help out in the soup kitchen today, Jack, it's been wonderful to chat with you!
I know you are probably eager to be off and explore our wonderful Lancastrian Frost Fair that is just coming to an end at the moment but, before we start dishing up this wonderful-smelling soup, would you like to tell us about any of your current projects and where we can find more of your marvellous work?
I've got several projects on the go at the moment. I'm working on something with Lord Crow, of course, but obviously I can't say too much about that, especially now he's sitting in the kitchen with us. Faerie law. We'll see what develops. I've also finished my second novel, which is currently looking for a publisher. I'm actually quite strongly drawn to the idea of putting it out via Unbound, as I like the idea of having full editorial control over my own work, and Unbound looks like exactly the sort of model I think both writers and readers want and need – grassroots, down to earth, writer and reader-centred publishing, which doesn't have to pander to the rather limited tastes of the big London houses. But again, we'll see what happens. Watch this space!
We certainly will! And I hope that you will come back and talk to us about your marvellous work again soon. Well now, I must say that soup really does smell delicious. I think it must be about ready and the little urchins are starting to get fidgety so shall we start serving it up?
It's been lovely to visit! Thank you for the conversation, tea and cake!
And thankyou to you all for joining us in the soup kitchen today! If you would like to read more of Jack's wonderful works and keep up to date with his new releases, do visit his website and blog at: https://jackwolfauthor.wordpress.com/
February 14, 2018 | Categories: Soup of the day, Uncategorized | Tags: authors, Faerie, faeries, fairy takles, feminism, fiction, gothic, Gypsy, historical fiction, history, interviews, mental health, Pagan, pain, Panpsychic, psychology, religion, Romani, soup, Spirituality, witches, women, writers, writing | Leave a comment
Steampunk Gypsies: The many names of the Rromani People
If you've been following this blog for a while now you'll know that the word Gypsy (especially with a lower case g ) is a highly offensive word to most Rromani people. What you might not know is why it is so upsetting. You might also want to know the correct term to use instead and a google search might well leave you even more baffled on that score! So, hopefully this post will be a good resource for this subject and of course if you have any questions (or if you're fed up with me banging on about all this) feel free to leave your comments in the … er… comments section 🙂
In order to understand this subject clearly, you first need to understand a bit about our language and history…
The Rromani People are a displaced diaspora of India. Back around the time of the crusades, Rajput military units were formed to protect different regions of India from invading Muslim armies. As these soldiers and their families and attendants all spoke different dialects / languages, a military language had to be formed which all could understand. This language formed the basis of what is now the spoken and written language of Rromani people worldwide.
When we refer to the way we speak might say 'Romanes.' But that is not the name of our language. The word Rom (s) / Roma (pl) means 'a person / us / the people / (one of) the group / the family / ' so to speak Romanes means to speak 'in the way of the group / the family / the people / us / to speak in our way … it is not the name of a language and, strictly speaking therefore, 'Rom / Roma' is not the name of our people.. it just means '(one of) the people.' (It can also mean husband but not in this context – like the word 'man' can mean 'a man' or 'people in general.')
So, if you refer to Rromani people as The Roma or a Rromani person as 'A Rom' (which a lot of people do) you are saying 'The People' / 'The Group' / 'The Family' or 'One of the people / the group / the family'. That is absolutely fine, many Rromani people speak in that way, most don't mind it even if they don't use it themselves. It's certainly a polite, respectful way to speak to or about Rromani people.
Getting back to the Rajputs again, two groups were defeated by the Muslim armies and forced to leave their lands. Some were captured by Turkish armies and forced to join as slaves, those who escaped into Eastern Europe were immediately captured and enslaved for hundreds of years, those who fled west were unable to find a place to settle but continued travelling through Greece and eventually into the rest of Europe, using their military skills, skills in metal work and horse trading (as well as trades they learnt along the way such as entertaining, dancing and fortune telling – more about that in another post I think? ) to make money.
Obviously during this time The Group was forced to split many times. As each new splinter group moved through different countries, new words were added to the military language they all spoke – thus each clan now speaks a slightly different version of that first 'Language of The Group.' They also began to refer to themselves by different names, names that for the most part described their skills and trades much in the same way as surnames do the world over.
I belong to the Petulengros (Smiths) who are of the English clan known as Romanichals (which literally means 'Rromani Chaps' ) and the Kalderash (The cauldron makers / copper-smiths who turned their pots on fat posts hammered into the ground). Often a Rromani family have kept their clan name (or a version of it). Sometimes though they have had to change it in order to hide the fact they are a Rromani person and so allow them to avoid persecution and live an integrated, peaceful life with the rest of society.
So, some Rromani people don't like to be called Rom or The Roma – you can understand that now right? They don't want to be called 'One of the group' or 'The People' … they want to be called by their clan / family name (Like you might say 'I'm a Jones' or 'I'm a McGill') they prefer to identify as something related to who their family is and what they do / did.
If you think at this point that Rromani people seem incredibly fussy and it is all terribly difficult to know what to call them please look at it this way…
You might call yourself 'English' or 'American' defining yourself by your location.
If you do so / have ever done so, please take a moment to consider that it is a privilege to be able to claim a geographical location as an aspect of your identity. It implies that you are an accepted member of that place, you belong there, it is a part of you, it's your home.
Rromani people do not have that privilege, have not been permitted to join another nation and call it home, they have been refugees for hundreds of years and so they must find different ways of defining themselves. (And, I feel, this is food for thought for all of us when we consider the long term impact of our treatment of refugees and immigrants today.)
(It has been suggested that Rromani people reclaim their Indian connection and that is 'all well and good' but as many of us now have fair skin and hair and look anything but Indian, that idea seems a little laughable really! So we continue to be 'The Family' / 'That Group that left India together' because no other nation has welcomed us and we cannot now go back.)
There are so many Rromani clans in the world today (Wikipedia has a quite dreadful map showing a very few in simple blocks which can only act as a rough guide) many, as I say, call themselves Rom / Roma and some prefer their specific clan name.
So, there you have it – When referring to a Rromani person or people you can say…
Rom – One of the people
Roma – The People
Romany (/ Romani / Rromani / Rhomani ) person – A person who is of the group (spelling is dependant on dialect)
Romany (/Romani / Rromani/ Rhomani) people – The people who belong to the group
Or you can use the specific name of the clan the person / people belong to eg: Sinti, Kalderash, Kale, Romanichal etc…
My advice is to just be clear about what word / spelling you are using, what it means and why you are using it.
"But why not gypsy?" I hear you say … well, again we need to look at history and language…
The word is a shortening of 'Egyptian'. When Rromani people first fled into Europe their dark skin and hair caused people to mistake them for Turkish invaders and later either for Egyptians or people from Little Egypt (sources are unclear as to which). They were nick named 'gyptians' which soon became 'gypsies.' Obviously a homeless refugee population are powerless to dictate what they 'should be called'.
The word gypsy became so far removed from the word Egyptian that, rather than describing the mistaken place of origin of a group of people, it instead took on its own bizarre set of definitions. Various leaders including Vlad The Impaler, Henry The Eighth and Hitler, all used the word gypsy to justify the de-humanisation and murder of thousands of Rromani people. Rromani people were burnt with the 'gypsy brand' on their skin which marked them as belonging to animal rather than to human kind and having no right to existence. They were then tortured, sterilised or simply murdered.
At least 250,000 Rromani people were murdered during the Holocaust alone, at least 85% of Germany's Rromani population were branded 'gypsies' and exterminated because they were seen as sub-human.
During the industrial revolution, the notion of 'being a gypsy' was seen as a desirable alternative to the horrors of factory and inner city life. The dehumanisation of 'gypsies' at this time took a different turn as they were seen as wild, free, close to nature or at one with it, romantic, mysterious, magical, desirable, roguish, care free… writers, poets and artists failed to see the poverty and persecution suffered by a people who were not nomadic or 'free' , but shackled to a seasonal circuit of a few safe 'atching tan' ('stopping places') where seasonal farm work could be found, not allowed to own property, speak their own language or step foot inside shops. The Gypsy Law Society epitomised the attitude when they declared membership of their elite 'research group' required that the gentleman must first 'bed a gypsy.'
You can, I hope, see why nobody would want this label. Why it is distasteful, sickening and upsetting for a Rromani person to be called a gypsy. Is it any different with a capital G? I don't think so.
So, as writers and readers and steampunk enthusiasts who write and read and cosplay in an era where Rromani people were very visible and were habitually branded 'gypsies' how can we include the experiences of Rromani people of that time period without perpetuating the ongoing prejudice?
It might seem like a challenge but it's really a no-brainer – look at other oppressed groups of the colonial period. How should they be referred to / treated / spoken about in historical or punk fiction? You might for example have a racist or ignorant English character refer to an African character using the N word, but you wouldn't use the N word in the main text of the narrative to refer to that African person would you? You also wouldn't call them 'The N….' , you would use their name. Just consider the G word, exactly the same as the N word. Because, to Rromani people , it is the same.
( Some Rromani people do use the word Gypsy – either because they are trying to re-claim and re-shape it as a form of empowerment or because the word Rromani is so often met with confusion from non-Rromani people. Many cultures take words that have historically been used against them and turn them into a form of personal power – that, surely, is their prerogative. )
If we couple the respectful use of language to talk about Rromani people, with an accurate portrayal of their history and culture, hopefully we can move the image of Rromani people away from the fantastical / de-humanised 'gypsy' and back into reality.
I really hope this info has been helpful – I'm by no means a linguistic scholar or historian though so if you think that I've made a mistake anywhere do please forgive me and feel free to discuss it, we are all learning together afterall 🙂 And of course if you have any questions or want me to cover any more topics on this subject let me know,
Big blessings, Penny 🙂
February 12, 2018 | Categories: Notes From Penny, Steampunk Gypsy | Tags: cosplay, fantasy, geek, Gypsy, historical fiction, history, India, nerd, Roma, Romani, science fiction, steampunk, writing | 2 Comments
Morning Cuppa: The Tale Of Raw Head And Bloody bones
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, we ask that you be gentle with us this morning, no raised voices or glaring candle light please, we are very much sore-headed and delicate after a long weekend of carnival capers and masked-up mayhem and now want nothing more than to curl our aching tentacles around a marvellous piece of fiction and a steaming mug of tea…
The Tale Of Raw Head And Bloody Bones is one of our favourite books ever in the history of books. It is a love story of the most unique, raw and daring kind and at the same time it is an extremely dark fairy tale with all the exploration of psyche and self that hallmark a classic work of Gothic fiction. As a historical novel it explores the boundaries of class, affluence, education, mental health, culture, sexual and perceived moral behaviour to admirable depth making it a graphic, challenging and breathtaking read that will not suit everyone's taste. This is not a book for the faint hearted but it is heart breaking and absorbing and utterly, utterly wonderful with characters who leave us weeping every time we step back into these dark and beautiful pages.
Tristan Hart is obsessed with understanding and preventing pain, at the same time he is addicted, enthralled and excited by it.
Nathaniel Ravenscroft is delightfully delinquent, exciting and enigmatic and everything that Tristan would like to be. Possibly. Or possess. But something isn't quite right, there is a darkness lurking around that demonic smile, a secret or two that no one wants to talk about and when Nathaniel vanishes, does the key to his whereabouts lie in this world, or in the realm of fairies, daemons and an ancient half-remembered myth?
Katherine Montague is a troubled soul, beautiful and fragile, in need of Tristan perhaps as much as he is need of her… but is their love tonic or poison? Is their mutual obsession the key that will eventually help them both to find themselves, or is it a perversion that will eventually be their downfall?
An intensely compassionate, emotional and tormented soul, Tristan sees beauty where others see the grotesque and his days are a tense and brittle ice-path between the relationships of his physical world and the strange-woven mythology that inhabits the hearts and minds and landscapes that surround him. Who is this Raw Head? Who is Bloody Bones? Who, really, is Nathaniel Ravenscroft? Who is the monster and who the redeeming angel?
We wish you a perfectly restorative afternoon and swear we will be on better form to guide you around the frost fair tomorrow so, until then, please be always
Utterly Yourself.
January 22, 2018 | Categories: Morning Cuppa | Tags: fairy tales, fantasy, fiction, geek, gothic, historical fiction, mythpunk, nerd, sci fi, steampunk | 3 Comments


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The Salmson 4 AB.2, or SAL-4 AB.2 (AB.2 - Reconnaissance Bomber two-seat) was a two-seat bomber designed and built in France during the closing stages of World War I.

Design and development
A variant of the Salmson 2, the Salmson 4 was essentially an enlarged version with a greater wingspan, three bay wings of greater area, enlarged vertical tail surfaces and detail changes to the engine installation. Twelve aircraft were built for l'Aéronautique Militaire before the end of World War I, all of which were assigned to operational escadrilles in anticipation of widespread deployment following orders for mass production, which were cancelled with the end of the war. They were withdrawn in 1920.

Specifications (SAL-4 AB.2)

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

1910s French military reconnaissance aircraft
Biplanes
Salmson aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1918

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
CNY DIRTcar Circuit Touts Crate Motor Program
Weedsport, NY — January 22, 2008 – By Dan Kapuscinski, DIRTcar NE PR and Promotions Coordinator
Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Canandaigua Speedway and Rolling Wheels Raceway Park are fully committed to the crate engine program for many years to come, amidst false rumors that the factory sealed 350-horsepower #8602 engines will be eliminated by GM after 2008.
Bill Martens, Special Programs Manager for General Motors, has come forward after weeks of questioning to say that these rumors are absolutely false.
"GM Performance Parts will continue to supply factory-sealed 350 (8602), 355 (8603) and 400 (8604) horsepower circle track engines to the grassroots racing community in 2008 and into the indefinite future," Martens said. "The program has grown every year for the past five, and with expanded interest in 2008, we fully expect this pattern to continue for many years in the future."
Martens believes that simple rumors have spiraled out of control in recent weeks.
"We know that many of these rumors have been created by the same folks that have been trying to undermine the program, feeling threatened by the loss of customers who were no longer able to afford their products. What has been innuendo in the past has now moved to outright false statements."
Developed six years ago, the GM Performance Parts crate engine #8602 program has strived to keep racers in the sport that can no longer afford to, while also assisting new racers into the sport that may not have major sponsorship dollars.
Since 2005, DIRTcar Racing has seen the effect that the crate engine program can have on weekly competition, and as a result several northeast facilities including Cayuga County, Canandaigua and Rolling Wheels have made the affordable application mandatory in their DIRTcar Sportsman divisions for 2008.
"This program offers our current drivers options to stay in the sport for an extended period of time, and offers new racers an affordable means to get started," said Cayuga County, Canandaigua and Rolling Wheels General Manager Jack Deery.
For the first time, the 2008 Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Sportsman Series will also make the #8602 crate engine mandatory.
"Crate engines have literally lifted our Sportsman program from near ruins to a thriving short track racing series in just the last three years," said Cory Reed, DIRTcar NE Director of Series and Sanctioning. "I expect the same incremental gains to continue into the future. Cayuga County, Rolling Wheels and Canandaigua are just three examples of the success being felt throughout DIRTcar NE. It is sure refreshing to have DIRTcar sanctioned pit areas full of racecars while non-crate tracks, series and sanctions fight to maintain competitive fields."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Cheery little song, and a cute video to boot.
Aw - what a fun song. Put a little smile on my Monday!
Oh, now that's lovely! Thanks for sharing!
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is a retired Japanese female volleyball player.

She was part of the Japan women's national volleyball team at the 1998 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan.

References

External links
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-chinas-wang-lina-15-spikes-the-ball-to-score-a-point-past-blocks-by-118604875.html

1976 births
Living people
Japanese women's volleyball players
Place of birth missing (living people)
Asian Games medalists in volleyball
Volleyball players at the 1998 Asian Games
Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games
Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan


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Teresa Palmer, Game of Thrones' Michiel Huisman and The Railway Man's Sam Reid head the cast of 2.22, director Paul Currie's romantic thriller which starts shooting in Sydney on Monday.
The Dutch-born Huisman plays Dylan, an air traffic controller in New York who nearly causes a fatal mid- air collision at the strike of 2:22.
Forced to go on leave, he meets and falls in love with Palmer's character Sarah, who coincidentally was one of the passengers on the plane. To his horror Dyan realizes the same patterns in his life are happening every day.
Reid plays Jonas, a high profile New York-based artist who is an ex-boyfriend of Sarah's. The cast includes Richard Davies as a fellow air traffic controller, John Waters as Dylan's boss, Maeve Dermody as his ex-girlfriend, Kerry Armstrong and Remy Hii.
"We're creating a smart, stylized romantic thriller," Currie tells IF. Much of the film takes place at New York's Grand Central Central Station, which has been recreated on sets at the Fox Studios.
Creative studio Spinifex Group is creating an in-camera hologram using 3D projector mapping, which Currie says will create a 3D environment in 2D. The DoP is David Eggby.
Huisman's credits include World War Z and the TV series Treme, Nashville and Orphan Black. Palmer's busy slate includes Kriv Stenders' Kill Me Three Times, Terrence Malick's Knight Of Cups, Ericson Core's Point Break remake and John Hillcoat's Triple Nine.
This is Currie's second film as director; his first was One Perfect Day in 2004. His directing credits include episodes of TV's Twentysomething and the feature documentary Every Heart Beats True: The Jim Stynes Story.
He co-wrote the screenplay with American Todd Stein, who got the idea after meeting his future wife at a Buddhist retreat where no one spoke.
Currie's Lightstream Pictures is producing with Wild Eddie's Jodi Matterson, Walk The Walk Entertainment's Steve Hutensky and Icon's Bruce Davey. The EPs are Bill Mechanic, Todd Wagner, Ben Cosgrove, Jackie O'Sullivan, Stein, Garrett Kelleher, Charlie O'Carroll and David Whealy.
Icon will release in Australia, Good Universe is handling international sales and Currie's agent UTA is the US rep.


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text:
African Sexualities
Gender, Cultures, Politics and Fundamentalisms in Africa
Gender and Sports in Africa's Development
Gender in Higher Education in Africa
Gender in Contemporary Labour Markets
African Female Elites: Origins, Ideologies, and Practices
Gender in the Arts
Masculinities in Contemporary Africa
Gender in the Economy of Care
Gender, Science and Technology
⋄ Bibliography
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Links between culture, religion and politics reflect an extreme complexity, in a contemporary context where political and religious issues clash at both national and international levels. Whatever its origin and nature, religion is woven into culture and can provide a solid foundation both to the most basic acts of daily life (greetings, food, taboos, legal provisions, moral rules of conduct) and to political decision making of major world powers in the late 20th century, despite the obviousness of some economic and geopolitical interests. Regarded as a dimension of privacy in countries mostly described as secular, religion goes far beyond the public and politics. Africa, our area of reflection, offers a variety of situations: some republics claim to be Islamic, others make Islam a state religion. In other countries that are federations, there are some states which apply the Sharia. The vast majority of states with large Muslim populations have enacted family codes, based wholly or partly on Islamic laws. All these phenomena assume an assuredly 'political' dimension. In the name of the Muslim or Christian religions, states and various movements are organizing themselves, and taking decisions and actions described as fundamentalist, as they are considering a necessary return to fundamental principles. Such beliefs have been the cause of much cultural, political and military violence that has claimed many lives among populations, and women especially.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Communist regimes of the 1990s were indicative of the death of ideologies and the resurgence of religions in the Western world. But can we really speak of a resurgence of religions in the world, while many societies have never ceased to convey the values and religious practices that give meaning to their daily lives?
In Africa, religion, its cultural logics and its institutions have always been the foundations on which societies have developed and have been transformed. Societies have had religious experiences, based on cultural, cosmological and mythological constructions; on the cults of ancestors; and on symbolic, initiatory, syncretic, messianic, brotherhood systems, etc. Islam and Christianity have developed on soils rich in spirituality, mysticism and piety in local religions. One can talk of a return to the sacred, but quite largely of continuity, the strengthening of a religious and cultural heritage embodied in everyday life, which is easily
the bed of fundamentalisms.
It is therefore about being aware of the sensitive place of religion and its impact on culture in contemporary social and political transformations. This phenomenon has significantly contributed to the backlash against women's rights. While the secularization of laws has led to major progress in women's rights, reinforced by three decades of major international conferences (on women, environment, human rights, population, etc.), such progress has always been challenged by fundamentalist movements. This phenomenon is the corollary of the various cultural tensions, no less fundamentalist, in the name of African culture; the consequences of which have been especially suffered by women. In the name of the African values that underlie national identities, it is increasingly difficult to make a reasoned criticism of social and cultural practices that are yet constantly evolving into living realities.
Religion, culture and politics have so much intertwined actions and confused their effects in the daily lives of people that it is extremely difficult to disentangle the various sources of influence. If we have usually accused religious actors of being fundamentalists, we must today extend our analysis to other actors in politics such as the neoliberal system and its propagators. Indeed, denouncing only religious and cultural fundamentalisms could mean to sever the claims against a prevailing world order. This unequal world order not only monopolizes political power and exploits the global resources for its own purposes, but it deprives large sections of the population of the freedom to exist, and move around as free, individual citizens of the world.
The neoliberal system is not only an economic, but also a social and political system, with the resurgence of right-wing parties in the West. It is a corollary of neo-conservatism which conveys religious and cultural values that are as traditionalist, conformist and regressive as those it claims to fight, for example, in the Muslim world. There is a genuine alliance between neoliberal and neoconservative organizations. They seek to promote values that are opposed to current socio-cultural changes in the name of Christian religious values of the Bible and the Gospels. They reject any critical review of such original texts. The impact of these values is critical for the situations of women in the world and in countries of the South, including those in Africa.
Among the struggles waged by women over the past thirty years, sexuality and fecundity have been key elements. In addition to their rights as citizens, which they should share with men on principles of equality enshrined in most constitutions, there are specific rights that affect women's bodies, namely their physical, sexual and reproductive rights. Various provisions of criminal law, labor law or civil law governing relations between people, particularly between men and women, often wear the mark of gender difference, a difference that can be expressed in terms of inequalities. In the current context of women's struggles to eradicate such inequalities, they are reinforced by national and international policies promulgated in the name of religious morality. It is important, through a multidisciplinary and comparative approach, to conduct a critical review of the nature and role of these various fundamentalisms that are emerging as social phenomena, as political discourses and practices. How do these fundamentalisms use religion, culture and politics to influence gender relations and perpetuate the oppression of women?
Bibliography PDF 524.6 kb


HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, has announced that the new Nokia 3.1 will be available from Sunday at the Big C for Bt4,990.
The aluminium handset joins the Android One family, endorsed by Google. The Nokia 3.1 boasts an anodised machined metal frame and sculpted glass display.
Tanadet Chuangkeavisedd of HMD Global said: "The Nokia 3 has been an extremely successful part of the Nokia smartphone line-up in Thailand. With so many people enjoying it every day, we've had a tremendous amount of positive feedback and a real motivation to refine our fans' experience even further.