











From The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti. Cinematography by Rudolph Maté. Via FilmGrab.












From The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti. Cinematography by Rudolph Maté. Via FilmGrab.

Verliebtheit (Infatuation), 1969 by Konrad Klapheck (b. 1935)

Freudian Woman, NYC, 1947 by Louis Faurer (1916-2001)
In this short Life that only lasts an hour
How much – how little – is within our power
Emily Dickinson (poem 1287)


Head of a Woman, 1946 by Maruja Mallo (1902–1995)

The Plan Maker, 2018 by Salman Toor (b. 1983)

Michaelmas Term, 2016 by Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985)

Azorka, 2018 by Tilo Baumgärtel (b. 1972)

Barry Moser’s illustration for Lynne Reid Banks’s “The Hare and the Black-and-White Witch.” From The Magic Hare, Avon, 1994.

Mostryn, 2020 by Rosa Loy (b. 1958)

Opportunity, 1993 by George Petrovich Kichigin


Green Hell, 2018 by Ryan Heskha (b. 1970)
[Editorial note: The following citations come from one-star Amazon reviews of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye. Reading through these “reviews” has made me want to revisit Morrison’s debut, which I haven’t read in a dozen years (tellingly, many if not most of the reviewers fail to realize that the novel was published in 1970, not in 2000 when it was featured in Oprah Winfrey’s book club. I’ve preserved the reviewers’ own styles of punctuation and spelling. More one-star Amazon reviews.]
TRASH
f-words
b-words
Its sooooooo dirty!
unrelentingly grim
filled with sexuality
Call me a simpleton, but
politically correct posture
I felt dirty after reading it
over-the-top racial themes
Just another…(never mind)
horrible with no hope at all
full of cruel unlikable character
decorate her work with profanity
Did OPRAH actually read this drivel?
wallowing in the garbage of humanity
the gross aspects of sex and femine hygene
Granted I am a guy, a white guy at that, but
This author must be a good friend of Oprah’s
I loved To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Toms Cabin.
I like to read something that doesn’t pollute my mind
Sadly Toni Morrison has kept to her very low standards
write a letter to the school board to have them remove it
Evreythig revolved over sex and a lot of other horrible things
I read the book in one day hoping that it would eventually get better.
Good book packed intelligibly in a huge box with 2 32oz bottles of shampoo.
Half the time I didn’t even know what character they were writing about until I was well into the chapter.
my very well read and well travelled daughter said she was shocked by these stories
The author was very uneducated in her writing. She did not make since
I am an educated caucasian woman with a masters degree
we all live in the gutter and mix with the dregs of society
It just made me feel guilty just cos I’d been born white
I live in a town that has many African Americans
the appalling Common Core Curriculum
Common Core exemplar reading list
As highly educated as we both are,
random trashing of Dostoevsky
sexually explicit perversion
a very disturbing feeling
Common Core reading list
common core curriculum
common core standards
new CCSS(common core)
Common Core program
at times perverse
nothing but hurt
Oprah’s choices
“social justice.”
not literature
garbage
Phooey!
porn
VILE

Tipping Point, 2020 by David Lyle (b. 1971)













































From Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 1984. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Cinematography by Koji Shiragami, Yukitomo Shudo, Yasuhiro Shimizu. and Mamoru Sugiura. Via Screenmusings.