Beauty in the apertures of pain

Greta Garbo in the MGM/Fred Niblo silent drama The Mysterious Lady, 1928.

New-York Tribune, New York, January 2, 1920

you’re upset because the abuser didn’t get to live happily ever after with the woman he abused, I’m wishing the characters of color got the development they deserved and that the woman hadn’t been made into a fascist sympathizer. We are not the same.

Ioanna Tsatsou, tr. by Jean Demos, from Collected Poems; “The Door Opened,”

Megan Grant, from Solitude & the Sea

Are you flirting with me or am I overanalyzing all of our interactions: a novel written by me

Gloria Anzaldúa

Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Vita Sackville-West

Isn’t that something other people let you know you have? Carol (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

Ok I haven’t seen this movie but

I scrolled past quickly and

Why did I think this was Eva Marie Saint?

Franny Choi, from “I Guess By Now I Thought I’d Be Done With Shame,” published in The Offing

I want someone to really want me. Make a big deal about me, tell me I’m on your mind way too fucking much but you kinda like it. Make it completely obvious that I’m the person you want. Tell me you can’t wait to see me; show me how you feel so I can feel it too. Make me feel something I’ve never felt before. Tell your friends about me & I’ll tell them about how you make butterflies swam my stomach. Want me as much as I want you.

Virginia Woolf, from The Complete Works; “Carlyle’s House and Other Sketches,”

don’t know what is going on planetarily but I’m having a real glass bones and paper skin moment

Katherine Mansfield, from a letter to Estelle Rice written c. January 1927

A tragic list of historical sites that were destroyed on purpose

1. The Buddhas of Bamiyan- A pair of 173 and 114 feet tall Buddha statues carved onto the side of a cliff in Afghanistan, which were created in 507 and 554 BC. They were attacked in 1221 by Genghis Khan; later on by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, then shot at with canons by 18th century Persian king Nader Afshar, and the faces were destroyed by Afghan king Abdur Rahman Khan. They were finally bombed to pieces by the Taliban in 2001.

2. Mephistopheles Facade- In St Petersburg, Russia; a century old statue of the demon was destroyed by Orthodox extremists in 2015.

3. The Cemetry in Julfa- A 10,000 grave medieval Armenian cemetery in Azerbaijan was destroyed by the Azerbaijani government throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, only to be replaced with a military firing range

4. The Babri Masjid- The Indian mosque was built in 1528, and was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu extremists.

5. The Singapore Stone- A fragment of a larger slab dating back to the 10th century, which was located on the Singapore river. It was demolished in 1843 by British colonialists to create a British military headquarters. The stone contains a mysterious text that is now impossible to translate since only the fragmented rock remains.

6. Lion of Al-lāt- The Syrian lion stood at the temple of the Mesopotamian goddess Al-Lat and was built in the 1st century AD. It was destroyed by ISIS in 2015.

7. Tikal Temple 33- The Guatemalan pyramid was built in 457 AD, and stood at an impressive 108 feet. It was destroyed in the 1960s by European archaeologists who wanted to take apart the pyramid to “see how it was built.”

8. Bash Tapia Castle- The castle was built in the 12 century, and was located on the western bank of the Tigris river. Already in disrepair from America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was finally bombed apart by ISIS in 2014.