5centsapound:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

What poet should I fight?

the short answer is: every poet. but here’s a brief (ok, that’s a lie. this is really long) list i typed up during accounting instead of learning about accounting for inter-corporate investments

John Donne Who wins: you look, most of donne’s repertoire is terrible love poems or terrible poems about religion, or both. someone needs to fight him, and you’ll probably win. the only problem with fighting him is that the entire time he’ll just be thinking ‘haha, who wilt be laughing when i livest eternally in the blessed light of the Lord???’ or something so fuck him.

Shakespeare Who wins: shakespeare shakespeare was an actor back when actor was one step up from thug, if that. if you fight shakespeare you will lose. the only things you get out of it is the knowledge that you touched shakespeare and the satisfaction of rubbing it in oxfordians’ noses just how wrong they are

Basho Who wins: who cares? why would you fight basho? he wrote quiet gentle poems about flowers and seasons. don’t fight basho. jump back a few centuries and fight sei shonagon and she’ll put you down in her list of things that annoyed her

Villon Who wins: villon Here’s what we know about villon: he wrote a lot of poetry (where are the snows of yesteryear??) and he did a lot of crime. i know the temptation to fight the french is strong, and the temptation to fight french poets is even stronger. but don’t fight villon. he’ll probably kill you.

Dante Who wins: you Dante can’t even get to hell without getting virgil to help him??? dante if a self-respecting poet can’t even go to hell without a guide what self-respect  can he really have (definitely fight virgil but the latin poets merit a whole other post on their own)

Blake Who wins: it’s a toss-up Really this depends on how buff and sexy you are. not because it’ll help you take him down easier. but given from blake’s loving depictions of sexy satan, i’m pretty sure if you’re swole enough and you flex he’ll be distracted enough for you to take him down easily

Alexander Pope Who wins: pope I get it. Everyone wants to fight pope. the guy wrote the frickin dunciad. on the other hand: pope literally poisoned a guy, and then wrote about it, just because the guy kept publishing his poems without permission. don’t fight pope unless you’re willing to sit through days of vomiting and nausea and potential death

Lord Byron Who wins: byron Byron also desperately needs to be fought. on the other hand: dude wanted to be an actual soldier and he fought in duels and shit, could probably take you in a fistfight. alternately if you want to take him down vicariously just read ogden nash ripping apart the destruction of sennacherib

John Keats Who wins: you Don’t fight junkets. he was a gentle soul, and he died young. be kind.

Wordsworth Who wins: you You’ll probably win this fight, considering how much time william spends thinking about flowers. on the other hand: dorothy will never invite you back for tea at their beautiful lake district home again, so is it really worth it

Anne Bradstreet Who wins: probably mistress bradstreet PLEASE fight anne bradstreet. her poetry sucks. on the other hand, her reaction to her house burning down was to write a poem talking about how she’s totally fine with it because it’s what god wants. this is a capital P puritan we’re talking about here. there’s no way you come out on top, but someone’s gotta fight her

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Who wins: DOES IT MATTER? (you) SOMEONE FIGHT TENNYSON reasons to fight tennyson: he’s a member of the british nobility. really that’s all you need but also i hate his poetry

Walt Whitman Who wins: you, probably Whitman could probably take you he tried hard enough but really he’s just here to have a good time

Emily Dickinson Who wins: you Why would you fight emily dickinson? why would you do that? she’s shy and she likes bugs. she uses - too many - dashes - but that’s hardly a reason to pummel a gal

Stephen Crane Who wins: crane crane wrote a poem about some dude in a desert taking great big bites out of his own bitter heart, so obviously hes got some repressed demons here. don’t fight stephen crane.

Rainer Maria Rilke Who wins: you, probably Rilke was a sad dude. he suffered, and he thought a LOT of time thinking about death. i mean, i think about death a lot, and rilke almost certainly thought about death even more than i did. so you’ll probably win this fight, but at what cost?

Wilfred Owen Who wins: owen look, owen was a fuckin soldier. don’t fight any of the WWI poets basically, they’ve all got ptsd and also lots of repressed anger at the government-bourgeoisie for sending them into battle in the first place

Sylvia Plath Who wins: no one here’s how this goes down: you’ll probably kill plath, which was her plan all along. so she’ll be dead, and you’ll go to jail. don’t fight sylvia plath.

Charles Baudelaire Who wins: toss-up it depends on how sober he is at the time. baudelaire was a layabout who spent his money on prostitutes and clothes and alcohol. his poetry is good, but anyone who titles anything “spleen and ideal” needs a good solid punch. pull yourself together, man!!! you have like seven STDs!!!!!!

Langston Hughes Who wins: hughes all of langston hughes’ poetry is about how the world is terrible to him but he’s still fighting. why would you fight langston hughes?? do you have ANY degree of reading comprehension?

William Carlos Williams Who wins: you this is just to say / i have read your poems / with the shitty sexual metaphors / forgive me / they were assigned reading in school / also your apologies suck

Shel Silverstein Who wins: him all i know about shel silverstein is from the pictures of him on the back of his books and im pretty sure they terrified all of us when we were young. his feet are SO BIG and he is SO BALD. don’t fight shel silverstein.

W. B. Yeats Who wins: you why would you fight yeats? look, the fact that you COULD doesn’t mean you SHOULD. yeats brought the western world gitanjali, yk. if you fight him you gotta fight tagore

Alan Ginsberg Who wins: who cares please fight alan ginsberg

Robert Frost Who wins: you Frost probably has some experience pummeling people but his adherence to rhyme scheme makes his moves predictable and weak

TS Eliot Who wins: does it matter? someone needs to fight eliot. he’s had it coming. so whoever’s going to fight him, HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

The recovery and restitution of stolen art after World War II. (X)

“I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters. That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said: ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.” — Keira Knightley

Tomoko Swada, ID400, 1998. (“Over a period of two years, Swada made visits to a photobooth disguised as different individuals. She admits to an inferiority complex and having self image issues, however her anxieties disappeared when she took on the disguises, forming a ritualistic habit.”)

Yes.

"What Now?" // Ann Patchett (via coffeestainedheart)

"Even Michaelangelo, the great Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet and engineer of the High Renaissance needed to eat. This illustrated grocery list, scrawled on the back of an envelope, was solely drawn to assist his servant in getting what he needed.”

Michaelangelo’s Illustrated Grocery List via laughingsquid

Where’s your head at?

In The City Of Sylvia (2007)

Wrapped in Mustard via eatsleepwear

I wish to leave Vienna, very soon. How ugly it is here. Everybody is envious of me and deceitful; former colleagues look at me with dissembling eyes, in Vienna there is only shadow, the city is black, everything is done by recipe. I want to be alone.

I wish to visit the Bohemian Forest. May, June, July, August, September,October; I have to see new things and learn about them, want to taste dark waters, to see crashing trees untamed air, want to look in wonder at moldy garden fences how they all live, young birch groves and hear the shaking leaves, want to see light, the sun and savor wet green-blue evening valleys, feel goldfish gleaming, see white clouds amass, to speak to flowers, flowers. Grasses, to look deeply upon pink people, know to say old dignified churches small cathedrals, want to run off without heed over round field-mountains through wide plains want to kiss the earth and smell warm marsh marigolds, then I will give shape with beauty-colorful fields.

In the early morning I wish to see again the sun rise and be able to watch the breathing earth glimmering.

Now then active being! I! be always eternal current. You me green valley, you look green water-air fills you, you.

I cry, out of half-open eyes red, large tears, when I can see you. You pain-eye; you feel the wet forest wind. You who can smell, how wonderfully you must breathe divine breath.

Friend, crying, I laugh.

Friend, I think of you.

In me there is you.

Lay there … until I hear. Buy me a panel that I sent to the hunting exhibit, I keep it that short, why say it any differently, for I want to be free as soon as possible. Everything oppresses me.