The Artist Who Embraced the Occult and Defied the Surrealists: the first time I heard of Ithell Colquhoun was in China Mieville’s “The Last Days of New Paris” and I always meant to follow up but good Google Alert-fu got ahead of me and found this article about her embrace of the occult. Most of the surrealists had an interest in the occult but Colquhoun’s systematic study set her apart and ultimately alienated her from her artistic peers. I’m especially intrigued by her use of automatism – automatic writing, but with art. Now I definitely need to read up on her, along with Doreen Valiente, Rosaleen Norton, and other 20th c. women occultists.
Not an example of Colquhoun’s automatism, but one of the only public domain versions of her art I could find (courtesy Wikipedia). You can find more at Ithell Colquhoun’s officlal website.Archivist delighted to comb through mountain of late UFO researcher’s records: and I’m delighted to discover that late UFO researcher Stanton Friedman had the foresight to donate his records to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Nothing’s likely to be available for a while, at least online – the archivists have 300+ (!) boxes to wade through – but this means his years of research won’t mildew away in a forgotten garage or similar. Agree with Friedman or not, I’m all for the preservation of historical materials, particularly about unusual topics.
More Than 1 Million People Agree To ‘Storm Area 51,’ But The Air Force Says Stay Home – I’m amazed that Area 51 is still a “thing” on the pop cultural landscape this many years after “The X-Files” heyday, and while I suspect what people see there is bleeding edge human tech, I confess a curiosity about what lies beyond the black mailbox. I’m tickled that the Little A’Le’Inn is not only still in business but booked solid for that weekend, internet joke or not.
The ‘Inn in “Paul” wasn’t the real deal, but it appears they took pains to get the set right.
Madrid’s Prado Museum Will Spotlight Pioneering Duo of Female Renaissance Artists: Oooh, I wish I could go! I’m familiar with Fontana and Anguissola mostly through costuming because their portraits work as excellent visual sources, but both were truly revolutionary in their time: Fontana the first professional woman artist; Anguissola the court painter to Philip II.
See what I mean about the costume detail? “Portrait of a Young Lady” ca. 1580, Sofonisba Anguissola [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThe 20 Strangest Things Revealed in Declassified CIA Documents: old news but new to me, the countdown includes some things you’d expect (UFOs, spies) but some things I certainly didn’t (Dr. Zhivago smuggled into Soviet Union, poltergeists*).
A Mexican dog in an early modern menagerie: I knew the Xoloitzcuintli (say that ten times real fast) were ancient but didn’t stop to think about when they found their way to the Old World. Despite this painting’s fuzzy provenance I find it entirely plausible that it’s a painting of one belonging to Rudolf II – he collected everything else, why not hairless dogs? Unfortunate factoid: more than a few sightings of the cryptozoological chupacabra are likely pitiably mangy xoloitzcuintli.
Not a chupacabra, but certainly badass with its little doggie mohawk. Courtesy Tumblr.
Grieve The Capital: Derek Jarman’s Jubilee Turns 40: how sad is it that I’ve only ever seen fragments of this movie? Given that it has so many things I like (punk, Adam Ant, time travel, John Dee) and I find myself with free time perhaps the 40th anniversary is as good a reason as any to track down a copy.
Because you can’t write about John Dee for very long without addressing the Voynich Manuscript, the “book nobody can read”.
A page from the mysterious Voynich manuscript, which is undeciphered to this day. Courtesy Wikipedia.
In an early draft of the novel I had Edward Kelley stumble across this strange tome in Mortlake’s library, but I ended up cutting that scene because Dee likely never owned it. Bursting further myths, he didn’t create it either – it’s carbon dated to the early 15th century, well over a hundred years before Dee’s time. Nonetheless as a mathematician and steganographer he certainly would have found it interesting. Hell, I find it interesting and I’m just an ordinary schlub.
The manuscript got its popular name from Wilfred Voynich, the bookseller who purchased it in 1912. Before that it passed through many hands and it’s origin is unclear. It currently resides in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, and is available for viewing by appointment only (though they did loan it for an exhibit in DC, see below).
As such, speculation on what the text might be and by extension what the book is about runs rampant. CipherMysteries.com provides a rundown of the most popular theories, which include everything from blatant hoaxing to alien tech. Certainly it seems to have elements of astrology, herbals, and possibly alchemical recipe books (all those pipes), but doesn’t resemble any of these exclusively.
Decryption obsesses many – even the NSA (PDF) took a crack at it. In 2014 Stephan Bax at the University of Bedfordshire in England deciphered ten words for plants and an astrological sign. Just last week Gordon Rugg of the University of Keele declared it a hoax; other parties disagree.
I was fortunate enough to see the real deal when it was on display in the Folger Library’s Decoding the Renaissance exhibit. Somehow I thought the fuel for so much speculation would be bigger – it’s about the size of a modern hardcover novel. The vellum shows few erasures, so someone understood the strange text well enough to write it with few mistakes. The colors are still vivid even after ~600 years, but the illustrations seem hasty and awkward, particularly the human figures.
My own take is… I don’t know what to think. I’m no cryptographer so I’m not competent to judge the plausibility of the various theories (though I’m pretty sure aliens didn’t write it). If it’s a hoax it’s a good one to fascinate so many for so long. If it’s a code I have to wonder what the author(s) were hiding. In any case, someone went to a lot of time and trouble to create it. Again, the real story is about people and their motives and perceptions.
Those in the states, let the “eating season” commence!
Research:
Your Grandmother Is Lying (and Other Lessons of Historical Research: part 1, part 2 – how to find and evaluate sources.
Weird history:
New scans of the Voynich manuscript now available – “… recent conservation work addressed folds and curls that had previously blocked some pages, and new scanning equipment made the color more accurate…”
“Tremontaine” is another team effort started by Ellen Kushner as a prequel to her “Riverside” series. The first five episodes are available, next one coming out today.
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