1700s - Blog Posts

1990 vmas Madonna

EYNHALLOW by TIM McGREGOR (REVIEW) 

quickly: a late 1700’s irish housewife has her humble island life disrupted by a strange and inimitable scientist from afar, dr. victor frankenstein: (anatomy as an art / unexpected arrivals and departures / empty graves and ocean caves / heartbreaking decision making  / ghosts are just faded memories / mysteries of midwifery / medical malpractice / overly tall people need love too / ogres, trolls, and monsters on the beach / sad sex with your drunk husband vs. empowering sex with a stranger / secrets in a locked room / stories of abandonment / sea salt and stone / telling your true love goodbye / true grief never dies / waiting on lost lovers by the sea).

Meet the overly tall, overly compassionate Agnes. Her father made her denounce her true love because he was poor. Then her evil stepmother orchestrated her marriage to an old man because ‘no one likes overly tall women’. That is how the young Agnes came to be Mrs. Tulloch, the island housewife of the drunkard idiot Mr. Tulloch, who spends his either time beating and berating Agnes, or trying to spoil her with more children.

Island life is hard. The wind blows cold, so Agnes keeps the hearth fire burning. Meals are often meager, but Agnes keeps the pot full (with four children and an oaf of a husband, mind you). She goes to church on Sunday, and she tends to her pregnant best friend Katie when she has the time. Her skill for keeping houses warm and fed (as well as being the only woman on the island not pregnant or elderly) makes her the prime candidate as a temporary cook for the strange new scientist conducting odd experiments on the island. One bowl of stew leads to another, and soon Mrs. Tulloch is entangled in the dark world of Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Delightful!

This was such a DELIGHTFUL well-paced period-piece horror story, at only 174 pages, with overtones of romance, sci-fi, and mystery. It was part fable, part wormhole transporting me to a misty brackish island at a time and place far out of reach. Not to mention, the writing was full of charming 1700's-1800's slang. Agnes, our kind host, is warm and benevolent, reminiscent of the Beloved Piranesi. Unlike Piranesi however, her curtailment by men’s expectations will reach its limits. Her wrath will be the result of an irreversible change in her compassionate nature, and it will lead to irreversible changes to the island community itself.

Yusupov Palace, St Petersburg, Russia,

David Burdeny Photography

角屋（島原・京都）Shimabara, Kyoto 

Thanh Toàn tile-roofed bridge, Thủy Thanh village

Located in Thừa Thiên-Huế province in central Vietnam, this historical countryside bridge was built in 1776 under the patronage of Mrs. Tran Thi Dao. A local philanthropist and a wife of a high-ranking court official, Mrs. Dao sponsored the bridge to be built to make it easier for the villagers to cross the canal to the fields on the other bank. Her enterprise was received with praise from the emperor and in 1925 King Khải Định decreed an altar to be built her honor at the center of the bridge.

The structure itself is supported by 18 wooden pillars and is divided into 7 room-like compartments. The stone bridgeheads are pigmented with yellow that is associated with prosperity and royalty in Vietnamese culture, and embellished with flower-themed and angular spiral reliefs with a poem written in Chinese characters on each side of the archway. The top part of the entrance features classical symbols and red, which in turn symbols good fortune and celebration. The roof is ornamented with traditional reliefs at the ends of the green glazed roof tiles and intricate roof decorations depicting dragons over the two entrances and a pair of phoenixes spreading their wings and facing the sun at the center.

The bridge is acclaimed for the high artistic, cultural and historical value it possesses and nowadays it's a popular site for festivals and tourism with hundred-year old banyan trees and traditional Vietnamese lanterns lining the location.

Recently in February 2021 a restoration process for the bridge was completed. The monument was given a fresh layer of paint, the most noticeable change being the vibrant red colour being added to the pillars, bridgeheads and interior roof. In addition golden details to the altar and silver decorations on the outside were restored.

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