2018-08-18

poliphilo: (Default)
2018-08-18 09:04 am

Battle Abbey School

Henry VIII gave Battle Abbey to his sidekick Anthony Browne and Browne demolished the bits he didn't need- like the church- and converted what was left- mainly the gatehouse and Abbot's lodging- into an elegant country house. The habitable bits of the Abbey are now a private school- and you can view them from the grounds (which belong to English Heritage) but you can't go inside.



poliphilo: (Default)
2018-08-18 09:21 am

Medieval Swordsmanship

There was a guy at Battle Abbey running little workshops in medieval living for the kids. Ivy got to play at jousting (using a hobbyhorse), learned how do two dances- a peasant one and a courtly one, and received instruction in carving an enemy up on the battlefield; "First you chop the right arm, then the left arm, next you chop the legs, then you stick him in the guts and waggle the blade about to cause maximum damage, and finally you deliver a massive downward blow to the head and cut him in half." Here she is practising her newly learned skills on the wooden sculpture of an impassive Norman knight.

poliphilo: (Default)
2018-08-18 11:09 am

Incels

There have always been incels- randy young men who can't get laid and don't see how it can possibly be their fault. Hamlet was an incel- or at least you can play him that way (the greatness of Hamlet is you can play him everywhichaway). Any poet who ever penned lines to his "cold" or "cruel" mistress was having an incel moment. Keats's La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is thoroughly incel. It's a phase. Most men grow through it.

All that's new is that the internet allows incels to flock.