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Lady Of The Lake
Self-Help Books Are Not Just For Desperate Twits

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Diziet_Sma
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
It really irritates me that the Pre-Raphaelites are generally looked-down-upon by the artistic establishment. It's exactly the same in literary review circles with SF and crime. Me? I'll take romance, danger and escapism over 'reality' any day of the week. Magic rules.
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Rare Affinity
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
I shll now make sure I go to see the exhibition. That's what I love about Jezebel. It makes me aware of interesting things happening in my own back yard so to speak as well as in America.
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wednesdayam
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
LOVE Waterhouse. I have this one framed in my house (like, a real quality custom frame with glass, not the cheap plastic ones from Target), and I desire more:

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notheretomakefriends
06/24/09

@wednesdayam: that one looks like it was painted by the love child of Oskar Kokoschka and Alfons Mucha, so to speak. if you like this look, you might also like: [en.wikipedia.org] and [en.wikipedia.org]
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Rare Affinity
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
The Lady of Shalott is one of my favourite epic pieces of poetry which I love reciting every snce I first came across it as a schoogirl. The fact that she lives a solitary life and pines for the unrequited love of a man who only "mused a little space" when he finaly sees her corpse seems eerily prophetic of my own lovelife.
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CurtCole
06/24/09

@Rare Affinity: Absolutely, the entire time I was in college I felt like the Lady of Shalott, trapped in a tower, toiling away on my work, while life was actually happening outside.
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CurtCole
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
This is the wallpaper on my computer at work. Awesome.
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Ailatan
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
There is a Gabriel Rosetti painting of The Lady of Shalott, I never saw it. Anyone know which one it is?
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Flackette Goes Retro
06/24/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: [victorianweb.org] ?
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CurtCole
06/24/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: You might be thinking of William Homan Hunts, he did one of her tangled in her own web/loom. He is the only other Pre-Raphaelite that painted her that I know of. Rossetti might have done a sketch.
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Ailatan
06/24/09

@Flackette Goes Retro: Thank you!!! It was mentioned in Nice Work by David Lodge (one of the characters, a feminist, has a reproduction)
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notheretomakefriends
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
Victorian feminists, are they more like the la-di-da feminists, or the burn-the-bras feminists?
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Ailatan
06/24/09

@notheretomakefriends: Burn the whale bone corset feminists, they were hardcore.
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notheretomakefriends
06/24/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: take that, imperialist patriarchy! you may colonize the Indies, but as of 1884, I am no longer your chattel!
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BeckySharper
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
I am crazy for Waterhouse.

Another of his feminist icons is "Hylas and the Nymphs"

[www.mezzo-mondo.com]
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Kivrin
06/24/09

@BeckySharper: Same here. I don't know much about art, but I do know that I love Waterhouse.

I think I'll go home tonight and read "Anne of Green Gables" on the bed beneath my "Lady of Shalott" print. :)
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hfree
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
It's a feminist icon? Really? Now I don't feel so silly having it up on my wall in college.
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Kivrin
06/24/09

@hfree: I know, I bought/framed a print just because (a) the Anne Shirley thing, (b) the colors, and (c) Tennyson's poem is one of the very few pieces of poetry I enjoy. Had no idea it was a vaguely feminist painting!
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TheGuvnah
06/24/09

@hfree: I was just going to write, was there anyone who DIDN'T have this hanging in their college dorm?

Still love it though.
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ImDatNinja (loves her Red Sox)
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
Like Water for Harlots.

Not quite, but certainly for Jezzies.
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Opti-Miss
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
Beautiful? Check.

Complex? Sure.

Powerful? Yep.

But erotic it is not.
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BeckySharper
06/24/09

@Opti-Miss: Well, to Victorians the symbolism of a solitary woman with unbound hair and flowy drapery and ripply water was really hot stuff. It didn't take much back then.
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brinkswomanship
06/24/09

@Opti-Miss: She's letting the boat (phallic symbol) take her where it will. I can dig it.
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CurtCole
06/24/09

@Opti-Miss: I thought it had more to do with her expression. As a Pre-Raphaelite Waterhouse was interested in capturing the moment, and the underlying psychology of the subject. Which he did quite well here. I remember one critic saying it looked like she had smoked opium.
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SpiceMustFlow
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
That painting is impossibly gorgeous in real life, and it's BIG.

What I wouldn't give to fly to London right this very minute to see that exhibition...
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Kivrin
06/24/09

@fluffybudgie has an avatar: Me too! I love Waterhouse, and Lady of Shalott in particular is one of my all-time favorites. (I have a framed print at home; fiancé lovingly calls it "Crazy Lady in a Boat.")
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wtfox?!
06/24/09

In reply to Lady Of The Lake
Looking at that painting, I will never not think of Anne Shirley's reenactment of the Lady of Shalott's trip down the river.
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margareita metermaid
06/24/09

@wtfox?!: just came here to write the same thing. i think those of us who grew up on anne of green gables (tv series especially) are probably all thinking that.
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Ailatan
06/24/09

@wtfox?!: Friended for that!

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BeckySharper
06/24/09

@wtfox?!:
a href="#c13830341">Ailatan Hearts BabyJane:

Gilbert Blythe to the rescue!
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CurtCole
06/24/09

@wtfox?!: hearted for that!
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thecameralovesyou
06/24/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: That gave me warm fuzzies on an otherwise boring work morning. Anne always works! (and gilbert... MORE GILBERT!!)
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Ailatan
06/24/09

@thecameralovesyou:

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greeneyedfem
06/24/09

@wtfox?!: Whatwhat! God, I love Anne Shirley (although my other fave is Ilse from the Emily books -- I was pretty obsessed with all of L.M. Montgomery's books in midlle and high school). My sisters and I watched this miniseries dozens of times growing up.

"Fishing for lake trout." Oh, Anne.

The other association in my brain is Loreena McKennitt's haunting and lovely version of the poem that she set to music (spare, live version here:

+ Watch video

).

In high school art class, I did no less than 3 pieces about the Lady of Shalott. And I recited the whole poem for extra credit in English. Teen girl angst FTW!

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MizJenkins
06/24/09

@greeneyedfem: LOVE THAT SONG. I always loved that scene from Anne of Green Gables but didn't know the poem and it was kind of lost on me when I read it (at 9). Once I heard this rendition, I wanted to take a dramatic nap in a boat too.
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thecameralovesyou
06/24/09

@Ailatan Hearts BabyJane: YESSS! you delivered! he was my first real crush as a girl. Well him and Desi Arnaz (I was weird)
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rocknrollunicorn
06/24/09

@wtfox?!: I hung the poster of this above my bed in college. My college friends and I were hardcore addicted to lazy weekends spent with the 80s mini-series.
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Mkp-hearts-NYC
12/04/08

In reply to Self-Help Books Are Not Just For Desperate Twits
Also, "Why We Love" is amazing, as well as "Body Outlaws"
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RoseColette (fewer thorns; more coffee)
12/04/08

In reply to Self-Help Books Are Not Just For Desperate Twits
During a very difficult patch of life, I read the co-dependency books, Why Men Love Bitches, The Dance of Anger, and more New Age novels than I care to list. What finally did it was taking the time to journal and reading Shakti Gawain's Creative Visualization.
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