“When I write I don’t aim to shock people, and I’m surprised when I do.” ~ Tennessee Williams
It's likely that the new piece for Sirenia Digest #121 will involve the early and mid nineteenth-century British obsession with paintings depicting the global deluge recounted in the Book of Genesis. I have long found these paintings mesmerizing, unsung classics of weird fiction, masterful exercises in the evocation of awe and horror and the unknown. Michael Freeman's Victorians and the Prehistoric (Yale University Press, 2004) gives a good overview of these paintings. My favorite of the lot is probably Francis Danby's Deluge (1840)*:
Yesterday's trip to the market (well, markets) was unremarkable, but I took two photos from the Point Street Bridge, going and then coming back:
Heading east, the hurricane barrier and the mouth of the Providence River. View to the south. This is, by the way, the first winter – so, eight winters – since I've been in Providence that the river hasn't frozen over.
Heading west, a view of downtown. View to the north.
At least I left the House. Oh, yesterday I reached 4,000 "friends" on Facebook.
TTFN,
Aunt Beast
* The painting is in the collection of the Tate, London.
