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[img]https://i.imgur.com/YlXGc7I.jpg?1[/img]

                          I'd like an image of futility please

[Soniaslut]

Born in the beautiful Eastern Townships of Quebec and raised in Northern Ontario, Line Gauthier fell in love with Ottawa, where she received her B.A. with a Major in French literature. Now finding that oncoming golden years offer a very rich perspective on life and inspiration for poetry, she writes mostly free verse and micro poetry. She has published several photography/poetry books and has other works in progress. A member of Haiku Canada, her haiku has been published in various anthologies.

Local Idiot

V igilante wannabe
I ntentions always good
L ost causes are his nemesis
L oyalty his strength
A bysmally annoying
G auche socially to say the least
E gomaniac~ there’s one in every village

Line Gauthier

[Soniaslut]

                                            Bob Dylan
                                            Idiot Wind

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBLViMLws10

[img]https://i.imgur.com/9DCp5qs.png?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/AZ3Hl6A.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/KQwYaQ8.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/dJkAZ9l.jpg?3[/img]

[Soniaslut]

In Ancient Greece the word “Idiot” had a very different meaning than it does today. And the word has undergone several variations in meaning over time.
A little potted history of “idiot”…

The word “idiot” comes from the Greek noun idiōtēs, 'a private person, individual', 'a private citizen' (as opposed to an official), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill or layman'.
It was adopted into Latin by the Romans and “idiota” then took on the meaning of  'uneducated', 'ignorant', 'common', and in Late Latin came to mean 'crude, illiterate, ignorant'.
In French, it kept the meaning of 'illiterate', 'ignorant', but  'stupid' was added as a defenition in the 13th century.
In English, the inference to 'mentally deficient' was attached in the 14th century.

Many political commentators, starting as early as 1856, have interpreted the word “idiot” as reflecting the Ancient Athenians' attitudes to civic participation and private life, combining the ancient meaning of 'private citizen' with the modern meaning 'fool' to conclude that the Greeks used the word to say that it is selfish and foolish not to participate in public life. But this is not how the Greeks used the word though it is certainly true that the Greeks valued civic participation and criticized non-participation.

Thucydides quotes Pericles' Funeral Oration as saying :
“We regard him who takes no part in these public duties not as unambitious but as useless”.

But neither he nor any other ancient author uses the word “idiot” to describe anyone that failed to participate in public life.
In fact not in any derogatory sense at all. Its most common use was simply a private citizen or amateur as opposed to a government official, professional, or expert.
The derogatory meaning  came centuries later, and was completely unrelated to it's original political meaning.

Several authors have used “idiot” characters in novels, plays and poetry.
Very often these characters are used as an allegory to highlight something else.
A few examples of this can be found in William Faulkner's  'The Sound and the Fury', Daphne du Maurier's  'Rebecca' and William Wordsworth's 'The Idiot Boy'.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel  'The Idiot'.  the title refers to the central character Prince Myshkin, a man whose innocence, kindness and humility, combined with his occasional epileptic symptoms, cause many in the corrupt, egoistic culture around him to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence.
In 'The Antichrist',  Friedrich Nietzsche applies the word 'idiot' to Jesus in a comparable fashion, almost certainly in an allusion to Dostoevsky's use of the word : “One has to regret that no Dostoevsky lived in the neighbourhood of this most interesting décadent; I mean someone who could feel the thrilling fascination of such a combination of the sublime, the sick and the childish”.

According to 19th and early 20th century medicine and psychology, an “idiot” was a person with a very profound intellectual disability.
In the early 1900s, Dr. Henry H. Goddard proposed a classification system for intellectual disability based on the Binet-Simon concept of mental age. Whereby individuals with the lowest mental age level (less than three years) were identified as idiots; imbeciles had a mental age of three to seven years, and morons had a mental age of seven to ten years.
The term “idiot” was used to refer to people having an IQ below 30.
IQ, or intelligence quotient, was originally determined by dividing a person's mental age, as determined by standardized tests, by their actual age.
This concept of mental age has fallen into disfavor  in modern times and IQ is now determined on the basis of statistical distributions.

Currently, when defining the word idiot, The Oxford English Dictionary lists that an idiot is:
-most commonly “a person without learning; an ignorant, uneducated; a simple or ordinary person”
-less commonly “a person without professional training or skill”
-in psychiatry “A person so profoundly disabled in mental function or intellect as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct”.
The dictionary also notes that sometimes idiots are people that maintain low intelligence to amuse others by speaking in a stupid way like jesters or fools.

So, as you can see, the word “idiot” has undergone an almost complete reversal in meaning over time.

[Soniaslut]

In 1923, the U.S. got its first book of lesbian poetry : 'On A Grey Thread' by Elsa Gidlow. This is one from a later collection of hers, 'Sapphic Songs'.

For the Goddess Too Well Known

I have robbed the garrulous streets,
Thieved a fair girl from their blight,
I have stolen her for a sacrifice
That I shall make to this night.

I have brought her, laughing,
To my quietly dreaming garden.
For what will be done there
I ask no man pardon.

I brush the rouge from her cheeks,
Clean the black kohl from the rims
Of her eyes; loose her hair;
Uncover the glimmering, shy limbs.

I break wild roses, scatter them over her.
The thorns between us sting like love’s pain.
Her flesh, bitter and salt to my tongue,
I taste with endless kisses and taste again.

At dawn I leave her
Asleep in my wakening garden.
(For what was done there
I ask no man pardon.)

[Soniaslut]

                                                    JAIN        Come

                                     
                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDXOzr0GoA4

            [img]https://i.imgur.com/iojFaLr.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

                                      Alice Phoebe Lou
                              In A Manner Of Speaking

                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjRfFv-R8OQ

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cVsAMsa.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

                                                          AurorA
                                                          Warrior

                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CmcnWQ-754

        [img]https://i.imgur.com/05vhORh.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/x3SbTeY.jpg?1[/img]
                                   Alicia Christian “Jodie” Foster

I've been an admirer of Jodie's since I was at a sleepover at a friends house in the Summer holidays when I was 14 and we watched an old “teen” movie called “Foxes” (which also happens to star another lady I admire, Cherie Currie, former lead vocalist with 'The Runaways').
Her career began at age 3 and has spanned everything from modelling to acting, singing (a little), directing and producing.
She has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. For her work as a director, she has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
During her freshman year at Yale in 1980–1981, Foster was stalked by John W. Hinckley, Jr., who had developed an obsession with her after watching Taxi Driver.
(Hinckley attempted to assassinate Pres. Reagan in March 1981).
I can only imagine what amazing conversations might be enjoyed through the evening.

[Soniaslut]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Z92l20s.jpg?1[/img]

[Soniaslut]

February is LGBTQIA month

What you need to know and how to take part

With a grey and dismal January behind us, it’s time to celebrate the colourful history of the nation’s LGBT+ community.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/S0mWzlx.jpg?1[/img]

Every February the UK comes together to celebrate the history of its LGBT+ citizens, and this year’s schedule is jam-packed with fun and informative online events.

What does LGBTQIA mean?

LGBTQIA stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex and Asexual.

Outright International defines Questioning as a term for “someone who is not sure how they identify. Someone can be questioning their sexual orientation and/or their gender identity.”
It defines Intersex as “people who naturally have biological traits which do not match what is typically identified as male or female”.
Asexual is defined “an umbrella term used for individuals who do not experience, or experience a low level, of sexual desire”.

What is LGBT+ history month?

Launched by the Schools Out charity in 2005, the event is credited with increasing the prominence of LGBT+ matters and figures in the curriculum of UK pupils.
The event was created in the wake of the abolition of Section 28 which stated that local authorities “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality”. The act was repealed in Scotland in 2000, and repealed three years later in England and Wales.

The month-long celebration aims to increase the visibility of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, with schools encouraged to teach pupils about the history of related civil rights movements and current matters affecting the community.

The celebration has three taglines 'Claiming our past. Celebrating our present. Creating our future.’

Since 2014 the celebration has introduced the Faces For the Year celebrate the life of a famous lesbian, gay man, bisexual and trans person.

This year Lily Parr, Mark Ashton, Maya Angelou, Michael Dillon and Mark Weston are all being recognised as the 2021 Faces For The Year.

The theme of this year’s event is “Body, Mind, Spirit”. Resources relating to this year’s theme can be found here :                                   
                                  https: //lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/resources/lgbt-history-month/

A full list of events can be found at :  lgbthistorymonth.co.uk.

[Soniaslut]

The new song from Serj Tankian (some of you may know him from “System Of A Down”).
Even though I've only listened to it 3 times so far it already resonates with meaning.

                                      Serj Tankian
                                            Elasticity

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oMDAfUpWyQ

[img]https://i.imgur.com/XQQcSuc.jpg?1[/img]

Burp
Papapapapapapa where are you going bebebe, what are you saying Dadadadadadada
Naaaa.nana…nothing,

You blew you blew me baby out of the water bebe out of the water Bebe Dadadadadada
Naaa..nana..nothing,

I won’t be betrayed by you,
I won’t lie awake for today,
Right away,
I don’t need to pray to you
I don’t want to sacrifice my day, not this way.

Muppetmamuppetmuppet where are you going bebe , what are you saying Dadadadadadada
Naaaa.nana…nothing

You blew you blew me baby out of the water bebe out of the water Bebe Dadadadadada
Naaa..nana..nothing,

I won’t be afraid of you,
I won’t lie and beg for today,
Right away,
No more fun and games for you,
I don’t need to sacrifice my day, not this way.

Far and away, where the sorcerers have seen the lore,
Turning night into day,
With a fresh ratatouille of blood and gore,
Never will we tread on the weak and the frail,
Never will we switch the head for the tail,
Never will we drink the milk from her pail,
Never will we utter the word, Before.

Don’t you know revenge is upon the day,
Lovers have no remorse dancing right through the rains,

We must all kiss goodnight before they return again,
Bright esoteric lights for all of us but the vain,
No more searching for God when we are looking for the grains,
Rectifying the cross for the loss of the slain,
Now wipe the cane,

Far and away, where the sorcerers have seen the lore,
Turning night into day,
With a fresh ratatouille of blood and gore,
Never will we tread on the weak and the frail,
Never will we switch the head for the tail,
Never will we drink the milk from her pail,
Never will we utter the word, Before.

Don’t you know revenge is upon the day,
Lovers have no remorse dancing right through the rains,
We must all kiss goodnight before they return again,
Rectifying the cross for the loss of the slain,
Now wipe the cane.

[Author]

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