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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️

@joiedevivre9.bsky.social

1.1K followers 560 following 2.1K posts

avid reader w/focus on womxn writers • virgo sun sagittarius moon • my library is an archive of longings • feminist #NYRBWomen25 #AContinuation25 Pacific Coast • joiedevivre9.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 2d

#NYRBWomen25 Eve Babitz starts tomorrow! Here's the page guide. 🎉🎉

Cover of I USED TO BE CHARMING by Eve Babitz (NYRB Classics).

Page guide for I USED TO BE CHARMING by Eve Babitz (NYRB Classics). #NYRBWomen25

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Reposted by Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️

Jacob Wren @jacobwren.bsky.social · 6h

“I read through everything I wrote and I feel very disappointed. But what can I do. I wrote it. It’s there.”
– Chantal Akerman

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 9h

If only it were that easy!

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 9h

Lol, yes, please!!!! What is the magic spell for that?

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

And finally, an interesting post on doll making, magic & witchcraft. "The history of doll making is a rich tapestry woven through the threads of play, spirituality, and magic." www.jungle-beauty-goddesses-museum.com/doll-making-...

Doll Making, Magick, & Witchcraft | Mysite

Doll making is an ancient practice that transcends cultures, serving various purposes from playthings to powerful symbols of spiritual beliefs. In some traditions, dolls have been closely linked with ...

www.jungle-beauty-goddesses-museum.com

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

And a departure from those images -- an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, The Four Witches (1497) -- which bluesky might actually tag so here’s a link just in case. www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-arti...

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

This article is also interesting about how mass-produced woodcuts helped forge the archetype of the broom-riding crone. publicdomainreview.org/essay/woodcu...

A woodcut: Witches presenting wax dolls to the devil, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720)

Title page of A Most Certain, Strange and True Discovery of a Witch (1643)

First woodcut in the pamphlet Newes from Scotland, as reproduced in an 1816 facsimile.

Frontispiece to Matthew Hopkins’ Discovery of Witches (1648) showing two witches calling out the names of their demons while Hopkins watches above.

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

I did a bit more reading about Christian IV of Denmark (1588–1648) who introduced an ordinance ‘against witches & their accomplices’ in 1617, and about the 17th century world of witchcraft. Here’s an interesting blog post. salemwitchmuseum.com/2021/12/17/t...

The 17th Century World of Witchcraft - Salem Witch Museum

By: Jonah Hoffmann This blog series focuses on specific countries or regions of the Early Modern European world during the 17th century when scholars believe the peak period of witch...

salemwitchmuseum.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

Looking up poems also led me to this one by Sylvia Plath.

“I inhabit / The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.”

allpoetry.com/Witch-Burning

Witch Burning by Sylvia Plath - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry

Comments & analysis: In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks. / A thicket of shadows is a poor coat.

allpoetry.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

...as well as the song Björnenby by Sara Parkman. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS47...

Sara Parkman - Björnen [Offical music video by Palmer Lydebrant]

YouTube video by Sara Parkman

www.youtube.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

A few poems are obliquely referenced in THE WAX CHILD: ‘Advent’ by Gillian Clarke, ‘Detail of the Woods’ by Richard Siken, and ‘The Glass Essay’ by Anne Carson...

poemanalysis.com/gillian-clar...

poets.org/poem/detail-...

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48636/...

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

This interview is in Lithuanian so I used the translator tool to read it. Ravn talks about how witchcraft & magic appeared in her life, her work in archives, spells she discovered & tested, language. “Reading archives, exploring historical sites, is a kind of listening.”
www.lrt.lt/naujienos/ku...

Apie raganas rašanti Ravn: man patinka, kad vien žodžiais galiu paveikti skaitytojo kūną

Viena įdomiausių šiuolaikinių rašytojų ir kūrėjų Šiaurės šalyse laikoma danė Olga Ravn – asmenybė, kurią sunku įsprausti...

www.lrt.lt

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

In the above conversation, ‘The Fisherwoman's Daughter’ by Ursula K. Le Guin and ‘Variations on the Right to Remain Silent’ by Anne Carson are mentioned which inspired me to pull a few books off my shelf.

DANCING AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by Ursula K. Le Guin

WITCHES, WITCH-HUNTING, AND WOMEN by Silvia Federici

CALIBAN AND THE WITCH by Silvia Federici

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

This conversation between Olga & @davidnaimon.bsky.social is FABULOUS!! Explores how witch hunts & trials were important to creating the notion of state, family & self that we still live under today; folk magic & alchemy; animating the archive thru ritual & imagination.
tinhouse.com/podcast/olga...

Olga Ravn : The Wax Child - Tin House

Set during the 17th century witch trials in Denmark, and relayed to us through the voice of a magically animated wax child of one of the accused, Olga Ravn’s new book, which creates something uncannil...

tinhouse.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

Olga Ravn has a SubStack(!!) & she shares a little about her research for THE WAX CHILD in this post. “Writing this novel I taught myself to card & spin wool, to clean a herring & to make wax figures. I didn’t need to teach myself how to drink since I already knew that.”
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Entering people's dreams

Writing this novel I taught myself to card and spin wool, to clean a herring and to make wax figures. I didn’t need to teach myself how to drink since I already knew that.

substack.com

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 10h

I finished THE WAX CHILD by @olgaravn.bsky.social earlier this week (tr. Martin Aitken, published by @ndbooks.bsky.social) Such a strange & beautifully crafted tale. Also a book that lends itself to going down many rabbit holes.

A thread 🐇🧵 …

THE WAX CHILD by Olga Ravn (tr. Martin Aitken)

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 13h

I was just reading this poem yesterday! 🧙

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Reposted by Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️

Leonora Carrington @lcarrington.bsky.social · 13h

Portrait of the Late Ms Partridge https://www.wikiart.org/en/leonora-carrington/portrait-of-the-late-ms-partridge-1947

"Portrait of the Late Ms Partridge" by Leonora Carrington depicts a surreal figure adorned in a vibrant orange outfit, with a head of wheat-like hair and a large bird wrapping around the figure, embodying Carrington's dreamlike style. The painting reflects her mastery of mythology and symbolism, evoking themes of transformation and mystery common in her work.

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 13h

Happy Friday! In addition to group reads, I’m reading SEA, POISON by Caren Beilin.

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 13h

Brookner! 💛

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

I agree, but she has some really great prose & she’s so entertaining. Nobody writes L.A. the way she did.

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

I just started the DIDION & BABITZ as well!

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

“Reading [Babitz] is like looking at Ed Ruscha’s gas station paintings. She makes you reconsider things you might have dismissed as ugly, strange, or even boring […] Everything Babitz writes is both pop & intellectual, shiny but deep” (intro by Molly Lambert) #NYRBWomen25

Text: Ed Ruscha has long been fascinated with the American landscape, particularly the scenes that define everyday American life. His artistic vision is deeply rooted in the exploration of American culture, utilising a minimalist aesthetic to present scenes that are often overlooked. Ruscha’s gas station series stand out as a defining element of his oeuvre; these works encapsulate the essence of the vast American landscape, characterised by its openness, mobility, and the ubiquity of car culture. Through his deliberate focus on these everyday subjects, Ruscha positioned himself as a vital figure in both Pop Art and conceptual art movements.

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

🫶🫶🫶

Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

Reading it now. Wish I could be there!!

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Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️ @joiedevivre9.bsky.social · 1d

Used copies are ridiculously expensive.