Art of the Insane

A consistent theme that's informed my choice of road trip destinations is the creative works of the mentally ill, or at least mentally...divergent?... in some way. So when we weeded this book at work, I snapped it up immediately. It should be fascinating reading.

The Discovery of the Art of the Insane.

This pioneering work, the first history of the art of the insane, scrutinizes changes in attitudes toward the art of the mentally ill from a time when it was either ignored or ridiculed, through the era when major figures in the art world discovered the extraordinary power of visual statements by psychotic artists such as Adolf Wlfli and Richard Dadd. John MacGregor draws on his dual training in art history and in psychiatry and psychoanalysis to describe not only this evolution in attitudes but also the significant influence of the art of the mentally ill on the development of modern art as a whole. His detailed narrative, with its strangely beautiful illustrations, introduces us to a fascinating group of people that includes the psychotic artists, both trained and untrained, and the psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, critics, and art historians who encountered their work.

Devil's Causeway

This is the Devil's Causeway that I'm going to hike and have been talking about. Unless I get there and have a change of heart...

Look at the folks with their dogs!

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(no subject)

I'm not, generally speaking, looking at news these days. It's too depressing and infuriating. I do, usually, read through Hillary Harbor's fact-checked updates. She has an anti-Trump editorial bias, but that bias pales in comparison to egregious acts of ignorance and greed committed by Trump.

Having dinner with a few people this weekend, one person was talking about the SCA (the Society for Creative Anachronism). One of the great things about the SCA, zie said, is that matters 'mundane', outside the world of reenactment, are left outside. It is, in that sense, welcome political escapism.

As I've said more and more lately, I just can't do it. I cannot, will not, put these things aside. If someone is a Trump supporter (not just a Republican but a Trump supporter) I will not have any relationship with them that extends beyond necessary professionalism. If someone supports an obviously racist, sexist, homophobic person who is happy to pander to a racist, sexist, homophobic base by taking civil rights away from me, people I care about, and anyone whose skin is "darker than a latte," fuck them. I will not even support them having a social life.