"The Order That Our Mind Imagines Is Like A Net, Or Like A Ladder, Built To Attain Something. But Afterward

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvgdtF3y0Ss)

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYa3_Ph7nHc)

Ladies of the Zenana (Womens Quarters) on a Terrace at Night - 17th Century Rajput Painting

Artist : Ruknuddin

Ruknuddin was active at the court in Bikaner ca. 1650-97. especially under the patronage of Anup Singh. Ruknuddin was a master of color and patterns. In this work, the exquisitely rendered folds of Vishnu’s robe, the semitransparent fabrics of the women presenting gifts to the divine couple, and the subtle shading of the faces are obviously reminiscent of Mughal painting. Beautiful women, even in a secular context, were among Ruknuddin’s favorite subjects. If one compares such pictures from the 1660s and 1670s as a group, one is particularly struck by the porcelain-like treatment of the faces that recurs in works of this period. Ruknuddin accompanied the rulers of Bikaner on their military campaigns to the Deccan, which were conducted as part of their contractural service to the Mughal court. He is associated with a number of portraits painted there in a distinctly Mughal manner, reflecting his exposure to further currents of influence. (via)

Egalite for All. Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution (PBS) PBS documentary on Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution.  It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas — liberté, eqalité, fraternité — and used them to create the world’s first Black republic. It changed the trajectory of colonial economics…and led to America’s acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France. “It” was the Haitian Revolution, a movement that’s been called the true birth moment of universal human rights. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution was a hurricane at the turn of the nineteenth century — traumatizing Southern planters and inspiring slaves and abolitionists, worldwide.

Alice Munro: “The Bear Came over the Mountain” : The New Yorker

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony took it into its head to catch up with Europe. It has been so successful that the United States of America has become a monster where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.”

— Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

Miriam Makeba interview, 1969

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 10 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist. She actively campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. As a result, the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of return. After the end of apartheid she returned home.

“Incantation. A prayer for apps and the latest whatever, sung by “the witch”. New things to try, a desperation, an automation to it. A heaviness, as if being joined by a yoke to our technology, it’s dragging us, making us pay per download. We’re it’s slave.”

Leah Kardos’s album “Machines”, a song cycle based on themes of technology, loneliness and the human condition, with lyrics derived from spam emails. (via Tom A.)