Let’s add the art historian explanation, which is in itself sexist as well as incredibly racist. Also, I want to add that the girl here was Gauguin’s adolescent, Tahitian bride. Fun!

First Gauguin revises Manet, reworks his blunt scene of a Paris prostitute into an imaginary vision of a Tahitian “spirit of the dead”. He inverts the figures, substitutes a black spirit for the black maid in Olympia, and replaces the white body of the prostitute with the black body of the primitive girl. Gauguin also averts her gaze (this is crucial: Olympia returns our gaze, stares the male viewer down as if he were a customer), and rotates her body so as to expose her buttocks (this, too, is crucial: it is a sexual pose that Teha’amana, unlike Olympia, does not control–the implied male viewer does).

Primitive girl? Are you kidding me? I can understand that artists of this period had the ignorance to use the terms ‘primitivism’ to describe they used influences not stemming from the West, but the art historian who wrote this? This further perpetuates the notion that anyone and anything stemming from a different culture is lacking in intelligence and civilisation.

“it is a sexual pose that Teha’amana, unlike Olympia, does not control”
So am I taking this too far or is Gauguin basically picturing/romanticising rape?

Now let me open up my art history encyclopaedia and school course (doesn’t matter which because 97 percent of the time you’ll find the exact same view represented without any sort of doubt or mention of misogyny. I admit this is not entirely necessary to mention in a encyclopaedia as you can easily see so for yourselves but as said, this alienates me as a woman. It feel like my gender and consequently I have never and will never have any place in the art world, whether as a viewer or as an active participant/artist. The whole of the Western art canon is riddled with accepting that an artist is by default a white man.)

“These allegorical figures of Truth, Justice, and Law hardly assist the male victim, who, surrounded by octopus tentacles, is at the mercy of three furies of punishment (one sleeps obliviously, one stares vengefully, one winks asif on the take). Here punishment appears psychologized as castration: the man is gaunt, his head bowed, his penis near the maw of the octopus.”

“His very defiance was tinctured by the spirit of impotence” – Schorske

Males are always the victims, eh?

I do love how Truth Justice and Law are represented (vengeful, sleepy, winking) but why are they women and why is the victim a man? Though this is only one example you can find many, not of Klimt alone. This doesn’t so much show personal misogyny but a whole zeitgeist of sexism.

Titus Groan is a tale riddled with an incomparable fantasy of an astounding encompassing imagination. Expansive but hardly ever trite. The Gormenghast castle is inhabited by the strangest, purest, sweetest, stupidest, funniest and most fascinating characters which are rare to find not only in daily life but in fiction as well. There is so much to be said about all of the impressive protagonists but I feel as if I’d start I’d never be able to end nor will I ever be able to astutely describe how wonderfully round and interesting they are. And funny. So funny.

Some quotes that I want to remember for reasons I shall never reveal :

At the mention of her father Fuschia closed her eyes.
She had herself searched – searched. She had grown far older during the last few weeks – older in that her heart has been taxed by greater strains of passion that it had held before. Fear of the unearthly, the ghastly – for she had been face to face with it – the fear of the madness and of violence she suspected. It had made her older, stiller, more apprehensive. She had known pain – the pain of desolation – of having been forsaken and of losing what little love there was.

‘Glorious’, said Steerpike, ‘is a dictionary word. We are all imprisoned by the dictionary. We choose out of that vast, paper-walled prison our convicts, the little black printed words, when in truth we need fresh sounds to utter, new enfranchised noises which would produce a new effect. In dead and shackled language, my dears, you are glorious, but oh, to give vent to a brand new sound that might convince you of what I really think of you, as you sit there in your purple splendour, side by side! But no, it is impossible. Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia. Dead words defy me I can make no sound, dear ladies, that is apt.’

…also know as the best compliment ever to have uttered everywhere in the universe and possibly several other dimensions. I also enjoy the criticism of the dictionary and how it imprisons language, deadens and stunts it. I feel the same, Steerpike. Albeit not to compliment two annoying and dim-witted creepy sisters.

…accompanied by a tide of white cats.

1.Mervyn Peak’s own cover design 2. Fuschia 3. Steerpike & Fuschia 4. Steerpike via (& also see more)

Sakata Kaidomaru struggling with a huge carp under a waterfall by Kuniyoshi (via)

Kintarō (金太郎?, often translated as “Golden Boy”) is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a mountain hag on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching Shutendouji, the terror of the region around Mount Ooe, he became a loyal follower of Minamoto no Yorimitsu under the new name Sakata Kintoki (坂田公時?). He is a popular figure in noh and kabuki drama, and it is a custom to put up a Kintarō doll on Boy’s Day in the hope that boys will become equally brave and strong.

Kintarō is supposedly based on a real man, named Sakata Kintoki, who lived during the Heian period and probably came from what is now the city of Minami-ashigara. He served as a retainer for the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu and became well known for his abilities as a warrior. As with many larger-than-life individuals, his legend has grown with time. (more)

Baku by Hokusai (via)

Originally from China, this fantastic beast is said to be composed from the parts of many different
animals, the most common description giving it the body of a bear, a trunk like an elephant, the eyes
of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, strong legs like a tiger’s, and a spotted coat.

The baku is most famous for its ability to devour dreams, and can be called upon by people
in the midst of ominous nightmares, whereupon the creature will consume both the vision and the bad
fortune it contains. But in addition to that it is also said to prey on the spirits of disease and
plagues. The image of the baku is often kept by the bedside as a talisman against bad dreams
and evil spirits, and supposedly if you make your bed from the skin of a baku (if you can
find such a thing) it will keep illness at bay. (via)

(via)

Odoro-odoro. A monster appearing in the Gazu Hyakki Yakō and various Edo Period yōkai picture scrolls. No description of it is known, but its name seems to be related to terms like odoro-odoroshii, an adjective describing something terrifying or eerie, as well as words like odoro-gami, a term denoting disheveled, bramble-like hair like that which covers the creature’s body. Otoroshii is also a Kansai dialect corruption of the common adjective osoroshii, or “frightening”.

Today, children’s yōkai books often describe the otoroshi as dwelling on top of the gates to temples and shrines, waiting for impious and evil-intentioned people to pass below so that it may pounce upon them. This behavior seems to stem from a fictional account in Yamada Norio’s 1974 book Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi, and was likely inspired by Toriyama Sekien’s depiction of the beast perched atop a torii gate with a bird in its claw. (via)

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Aonyoubou. In the ruins of an old imperial palace, one might encounter this female ghoul, who seems to be the ghost of an old-fashioned court lady with blackened teeth and shaved eyebrows. She is rumored to devour young men who visit her. (via)

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Kamikiri is a large, black, bear-looking creature that attacks women from behind with a “mogaaaaa!” cry. It was later depicted with a human body and the head of a crow. Kami-kiri are known for sneaking up on people and cutting all their hair off, particularly when they are unknowingly engaged to marry a youkai, spirit or other supernatural creature that is disguised as a human. These hair-cutting attacks are intended to delay or prevent weddings between humans and otherworldly beings, which are typically doomed to failure. (via)