I still think that my favorite urban legend/folklore fact is that there are certain areas in New Orleans where you cannot get a taxi late at night not because it isn’t safe, but because taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts in those areas who are not aware that they are dead and disappearing from the cab before reaching the destination and therefore stiffing the driver on the fare causing a loss for the company.
An occupational hazard of cab driving I had not previously considered
I love that the nola problem here is not “ghosts in my taxi cab,” but “ghosts are FUCKING BROKE DEAD BASTARDS & I GOT BILLS”
Horror is when ghosts get into cabs and scare drivers
Magical realism is when cab companies have to develop policies to prevent ghastly fare-theft
In a book about the tsunami in Japan in 2011, the writer talked about how there was a huge increase in reports of ghostly activity. Apparently in Japan treating ghosts rudely is basically considered the stupidest thing you could possibly do. For months after the tsunami, taxi drivers would pick up a passenger only to have them give an address in one of the devastated areas. The cab driver often looked up halfway to the destination to find their fare had disappeared. Not wanting to be impolite to the person (even if they were dead) they’d drive to the address, open the door to let them out, then drive away.
I’m deep in the 19th century art hole and every time I think I’ve seen them all I find another painting that makes me go !!!!
?? you cant just say this and then not share the painting in question!!
you are absolutely right!!
Arthur Trevethin Nowell, 1887 - Captives
Honestly where do I start? The movement? The composition? The lighting?
Look how much more it seems like she’s leaning forward because the tree and the man curve away and around her? Like Tantalos who reached for fruit but the tree would bend away from him? That’s what this feels like. And then there are these other two, pulling her away into the opposite direction. So there’s a lot of movement! But what makes it even better is how he still stabilized the image with a lot of hidden vertical lines!
Also the contrasts? Fantastic! Like the one between the metal of his armor and her flowly dress or her light face vs the other faces kept in darkness or the light foreground vs the dark background,…
Also the edges are amazing! Everyone tells you corners are not important but here? Wrong! Her foot is like an anchor that stop the eye from falling out of the image so it’s a lot more rendered than the flower petals.
And don’t even get me started on the rendering…
Ok I’ll stop here tl;dr: BEAUTIFUL 10/10
you know what I’m not done, I found something else:
The reason why it doesn’t look like they’re senselessly pulling at her? Because the action is actually built up like a spiral, whoa! There’s a lot going on behind her back, but because of the spiral your eyes don’t linger there and instead are lead towards her body and then towards her head.
It’s not just the spiral, though, there’s another line of movement hidden in those hands:
And not only that, they’re grouped together in the shape of a pentagon! Simple shapes are easy to recognize, so it tells your eye where to go immediately.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
