Video: Hieronymus Bosch Butt Music

 In a segment on hell in Hieronymus Bosch's painting of THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS, there's a man with music notation on his butt. This has been transcribed and played by various artists. The version by James Spalink, played on lute, harp, and hurdy-gurdy, is creepy & cool.

History Book Review: Ritual, Gender and Narrative in Late Medieval Italy: Fina Buzzacarini and the Baptistery of Padua by Anne Derbes

This is a deep dive into the pictorial program at the Baptistery of Padua, redone in the 1370s, and the woman who commissioned it, Fina Buzzacarini.

The book has 6 chapters plus an introduction and conclusion. The chapters are: 1. Fina Buzzacarini in Carrara Padua, 2. Baptistery as Mausoleum: Ambitions and Motivations, 3. Narrative, Ritual, Exegesis: The Genesis Cycle, 4. Narrative, Ritual, Exegesis: The New Testament Cycle. 5. Narrative, Ritual, Exegesis: The Apocalyptic Cycle, 6. Gender Matters: Maternity, Sexuality, and Visual Rhetoric.

The author provides a good amount of background information about baptisteries as they were used in medieval Italy, the city of Padua and its ruling family (of whom Fina was an important member), and how her struggle to birth a male heir, and its eventual accomplishment, are immortalized in the frescoes.

I learned so much from this book about how baptism was performed in the medieval Catholic church (including gestures & some phrases) and about how medieval artists and theologians interpreted scripture to relate to the current day (Biblical exegesis). I’d always assumed Biblical stories were appropriate to church institutions due to their holiness. It never occurred to me that each individual story could be applied to the sacrament of Baptism. The author pointed out so many interesting nuances, not only with the exegesis in general, but its application to this particular baptistery: Eve being pulled from Adam’s side, people putting their hands on heads the way the priest would to the catechumen, the importance of the white robes of purity, etc.

The book is richly and gorgeously illustrated. There are abundant photographs of the baptistery in question with a good number of supplementary images comparing certain stories with those in other baptisteries or churches.

Even if you’re not interested in the baptistery of Padua, this book contains of wealth of information on medieval thought. The amount of input Fina apparently had when deciding the program is also fascinating. So many of the stories and poses pertain to her specifically. She’s even included in several frescoes.

I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in medieval art, Italian art, or Christian history.

Book Review: A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

Pros: great characters, detailed worldbuilding, twisty plot

Cons:

After the members of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Al-Jahiz are murdered in a mysterious manner, Agent Fatma and her new partner Agent Hadia, of the Egyptian Ministery of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, to solve the case.

This is a fun murder mystery that takes place in an alternate Egypt of 1912, where a portal to another world allowed djinn, ‘angels’ and other supernatural beings to come to earth. The worldbuilding is fantastic and extrapolates the politics of the time to fit these entities in.

This is the first novel, but there are a couple of short stories that preceed this story, introducing some of the characters (like how Agent Fatma and Siti meet), that while not necessary to understand the events of this book, are a lot of fun and give some more depth to the characters.

Agent Fatma is delightful and I loved her relationship with Siti. While I’m not generally a fan of the’ agent who doesn’t want a partner gets a new partner’ trope, it was handled well and I enjoyed seeing them learn to work together.

The murder mystery was interesting, with some fun twists. The ending was properly apocalyptic.

If you’re unfamiliar with Egyptian (and Nubian) food and clothing, there will be some new vocabulary to look up. I looked up some but not all of the terms, learning some interesting cultural facts along with my fiction.

I found this an enjoyable romp in a country I’d love to visit someday.

Video: WAKENER

When a derelict ship arrives at a space station orbiting Earth, one that has a nuclear engine, a soldier and a technician are sent to investigate.

This is a sci-fi Lovecraftian horror short film written and directed by Anthony Ferraro of Create Sci-Fi (website,  youtube channel). The sets are fantastic and the special effects remarkably good for a short indy film. The actors do a great job. It's worth the watch. 

Book Review: A History of Magic, Witchcraft, and the Occult by DK

Pros: lots of information easily digested, plentiful photographs, varied topics

Cons: I feel like there was more magic from the African continent that deserved mention

The book has 5 sections, each broken down into numerous subchapters going into more detail. The sections are: Ancient roots (prehistory to 400 CE), Curse or Cure (400-1500), Scholars and Sabbats (1500-1700), Secrecy and Ceremony (1700-1900), and Modern Magic (1900 onward). There is also a glossary at the back of the book. I was impressed by the number of subsections there were and how thorough the coverage is both in terms of history and geography.

Most topics got a 2 page spread, with a few getting 4 pages. Occasionally side information would get its own spread, like images of fetishes or amulets from different cultures or the meanings of rune stones and how to use them for divination.

I would have liked to learn more about indigenous African beliefs. The authors did a good job of trying to differentiate between magical practices, superstition, and religions still being practiced (which only showed up as they intersected with magical practices, like the Christian persecution of witches). I was impressed by the sheer breadth of information covered. Much of it I was familiar with, but there were sections, like Finnish native beliefs that I had never heard about.

There are a lot of excellent photographs and good use is made of box text diving into specific practices and practitioners that needed a bit more coverage.

I didn’t expect the modern sections to interest me as much as the ancient and medieval sections, but it was fascinating to see some practices return and others morph over time.

If you’re looking for a broad overview of magical practices, this is an excellent book.

Book Review: The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Pros: fast paced, fun characters

Cons: ending felt a bit underwhelming

Roboticist Tesla Crane and her new husband, Shalmaneser Steward, are enjoying their honeymoon on a cruise ship from the moon to Mars When Shal is accused of murder, Tesla must use her fame and money, and Shal’s experience as a detective, to try to clear his name.

The book is very fast paced, introducing just enough character and setting to get you going before the first murder takes place. Then it’s a whirlwind of the couple investigating and trying to figure out what’s really going on while not becoming victims themselves.

The characters are a lot of fun. Shal and Tesla are a sweet couple who flirt a lot and really want some alone time. Tesla had an accident that’s left her with chronic pain and PTSD. The book does an excellent job of showing how trauma works as well as a brilliant future device that allows her to ‘dial down’ her pain, though there’s real danger in her injuring herself more by doing so. Their dog is absolutely adorable.

While I liked Tesla’s determination, towards the end of the book her bullheadedness started to grate a little. She comments at times about how she’s using her money to push for things regular people wouldn’t be able to, and to an extent she uses this for ‘good’, but it does seem to go too far at times. From a novel standpoint, there isn’t much getting around this if you want to stay with a singular point of view character, as you need your reader to learn things too, but it did feel like she was getting too much access, especially at the end. I wouldn’t have wanted to be any of the service people she dealt with.

The secondary characters - and potential suspects - are all eccentric in different ways, that makes them fun to learn about.

The resolution left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. I’m not entirely sure why as there was a good actiony sequence involved.

Ultimately it was a fun mystery in space.

Book Review: The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Pros: brilliant world-building, interesting characters, fast paced

Cons:

Raised as a princess in one of the 6 remaining book eater houses in England, Devon Fairweather learns at her first marriage, that being pampered is not the same as being free. Now, she’s trying to escape the families along with her mind eater son.

The book alternates between scenes in the present with Devon on the run and scenes from the past that explain how she got to this point. The pacing is great and there is a mix of highly tense moments an downtime where you really get to know the main characters.

The world-building here is great. The book eaters are unique, and the mind eaters terrifying. The author does a great job of blending their curious and often antiquated style of living, with the modern day world. I also loved how she worked in knights and dragons.

Devon is a complicated woman. She loves her son, enough to get him humans to feed on, while also being scared of that need to feed. In some ways she’s suffered greatly, in others she’s still weirdly naive. I didn’t quite agree with some of her principles, but despite her crimes she still comes off as sympathetic and you still want to see her succeed.

It’s a strange book, telling about a strange people, and is wildly entertaining if you like darker urban fantasy.