Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud

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Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
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                                    all photos by Foredgefrost

The Disappearing Art of Vanishing
Fore-Edge Painting... 4
Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
2B2| ARTS & TRADITION                                                                                                                                                                TUESDAY, Week
                                                                                                                                                                                              APRIL14,
                                                                                                                                                                                                    2, 2019                                        Week 14, 2019                                                                                                                                          ARTS & TRADITION                    |3

                                                                                           all
                                                                                           ALL PHOTOS
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Essence

                                                                                               photos by
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         of

            What Our
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         China

                                                                                                      BY Ahron
                                                                                                         AHRON R. Foster
           Readers Say:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Qingming Festival:

                                                                                                                  FOSTER
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Tomb-Sweeping Day in Honor of Ancestors
    It’s the only sane newspaper                         It's bringing morality
       amidst all this insanity.                          back to newspapers.                                                                                                                                                                              ‘Be pure and bright,’ the loyal official advised the king
              STAN K., PASTOR                                   LISSA T., BUSINESS OWNER
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Thiti Tan/shutterstock
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Duoyu Zhong & Tanya Harrison                     who had betrayed him but now supported

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           M
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            him. However, he forgot Jie.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        any Chinese will be visiting           When Chong Er finally remembered Jie
       It's the only paper that                           You're presenting the                                                                                                                                                                                         the tombs of their ances-           and his sacrifice, he was filled with regret.
      I know of right now that                             facts and letting the                                                                                                                                                                                        tors on April 5 to pay their
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        respects, as the Qingming
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            He sent a messenger to find Jie and invite
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            him to the palace. But Jie had already moved
    actually gives you the honest,                            reader decide.                                                                                                                                                                               Festival, also called Pure Bright Day or         with his mother deep into the forests of
     old fashioned journalism.                                  TERRI B., BUSINESS OWNER                                                                                                                                                                   Tomb-Sweeping Day, falls on that day
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           this year.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Mount Jin (in the northeast of China). The
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            king personally went to the mountain to
           DRUE L., BUSINESS OWNER
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Qingming is an important traditional           look for Jie but failed to find him.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Chinese festival celebrated on the 15th day         When a minister suggested that they set
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           after the spring equinox. It’s not only a day    fires on three sides of the mountain to force
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           for honoring one’s ancestors but also a time     Jie to come out, Chong Er agreed. The fires
           Everything I read in it is fair and balanced,                                                                                                                                                                                                   to celebrate spring.                             raged for three days, but there was still no
                compared to other newspapers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                The origin of the Qingming Festival can        trace of Jie and his mother.
                                     JUNE V., RETIRED BANKER                                                                                                                                                                                               be traced back to a legend recorded in “Zuo         Jie was later found dead, leaning against
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Zhuan,” one of the earliest Chinese works of     a large willow tree. In a hole on the side of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           narrative history, which covers most of the      the half-burned tree, there was a note writ-

          $1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 B.C.).         ten with blood on a piece of cloth. It read:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           A Solemn, Stirring Story                           Cutting off my own flesh to respectfully
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           As the legend goes, Chong Er (697–628 B.C.),       present to my monarch, offering loyalty
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           once the crown prince of the state of Jin,         with all of my heart,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           was driven out of the state by Liji, who was       Only wishing Your Majesty will always                                          when you think of me.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           then his father’s favorite concubine. During       be pure and bright.                             Celebrating the Qingming       Your minister in the underworld died
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           his 19-year exile, Chong Er lived in extreme       Dead under a willow tree and seen no              Festival at Longshan         with a clear conscience,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           poverty, with only a few faithful men to           more,                                                                          Be diligent in governing the country so that
       FIRST MONTH!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        serve him. One of them was Jie Zitui.              Better than accompanying my monarch
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Temple in Taipei City, Tai-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               wan, on April 4, 2018.        purity and brightness will be renewed.
                                                                                                                           (Top) Anne (Isabelle Huppert)
                                                                                                                                  and her husband, Peter                                                                                                      One day, close to death from starvation,        as a remonstrating minister.
                                                                                                                                (Chris Noth), have grown                                                                                                   Chong Er lost consciousness. To save his           Your Majesty, if you have me in your heart,                                   Tears rolled down Chong Er’s cheeks. He
                                                                                                                                     apart over the years.                                                                                                 life, Jie cut a piece of flesh from his own        Frequently reflect on your shortcomings                                       was so sad that he cried aloud. He tucked
                                                                                                                                    (Above) Anne and her                                                                                                   thigh and prepared a bowl of soup for his                                                                                        Jie’s note in a sleeve pocket and vowed to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       SL Chen/shutterstock
                                                                                                                            beloved son (Justice Smith).                                                                                                   master.                                                                                                                          be a pure and bright king for his people.
                                                                                                                              (Right) Anne and her son’s                                                                                                      Chong Er was deeply moved and prom-
                                                                                                                              girlfriend (Odessa Young).                                                                                                   ised to repay Jie in the future. Jie insisted                                                                                    King With a Righteous Heart
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           he wanted no reward; his only wish was                                                                                           Jie was buried under the willow tree, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           for Chong Er to become a king who had a                                                                                          in his memory, Chong Er ordered that no
                                                                    Subscribe @                                                                                                                                                                            pure and bright heart while governing the                                                                                        fire or smoke be allowed on that day. That
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           state of Jin, keeping it peaceful and orderly.                                                                                   day was called Hanshi Day (Cold Food Day)
                                                               ReadEpoch.com                                                                                                                                                                                  After Chong Er ascended the throne, he
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           summoned the people who had stayed loyal                                                             The burning of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            because without fire, the people had to eat
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            cold meals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           to him and generously rewarded them. As                                                              offerings during the
                                                                                                                                                             Theater
                                                                                                                                                             THEATER Review
                                                                                                                                                                     REVIEW                                                                                the new king, he even rewarded the people                                                            Qingming Festival.          Continued on Page 12

                                     TRUTH AND TRADITION
                                                                                                                                                  When
                                                                                                                                                  WHEN the
                                                                                                                                                       THE
                                                                                                                           Mind
                                                                                                                           MIND Fails
                                                                                                                                FAILS
                   35 COUNTRIES • 23 LANGUAGES

                                                                                                               Judd
                                                                                                               JUDD Hollander
                                                                                                                    HOLLANDER                                               subject. As such, any opportunity to connect to the

                                                                                                            N
                                                                                                                                                                            characters is lost. We are reduced to passive ob-
                                                                                                                               EW YORK—The turmoil of a confused,           servers, with little chance to become emotionally
                                                                                                                               failing mind is examined in French           invested in what those on stage are experiencing.
                                                                                                                               playwright Florian Zeller’s “The                It doesn’t help that there is little character devel-
                                                                                                                               Mother.” Translated by Christopher           opment in the play. The intention of the playwright
                                                                                                                               Hampton and having its U.S. premiere         may have been to keep the audience guessing as to
                                                                                                               at the Atlantic Theater Company, the work is an at-          what is real and what is not, but it would have been
                                                                                                               tempt to view one woman’s disintegrating psyche
                                                                                                               from the inside.
                                                                                                                                                                            far better if some sort of backstory were included for
                                                                                                                                                                            these people. Everything that is offered is colored by
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        TRUTH and TRADITION
                                                                                                                  Anne (Isabelle Huppert) is a middle-aged woman            Anne’s own personal filters, no matter how dam-
                                                                                                               in an unhappy marriage. Once completely devoted              aged they might be.
                                                                                                               to her two children, she has precious little to do              Huppert is excellent as a woman whose life is fall-

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      A NEWSPAPER
                                                                                                               now that they have grown up and moved away. She              ing apart. Her descent was perhaps, at one point,
                                                                                                               prefers to stay inside and brood about what she has          of her own making, but she has long since lost any
                                                                                                               lost rather than trying to get on with her life.             control over it.
                                                                                                                  It doesn’t help that she and her husband, Peter              Noth, basically relegated to a reactive character,
                                                                                                               (Chris Noth), have grown apart over the years,               comes off wonderfully in the early portion of the
                                                                                                               though exactly which of them is to blame for this            play as a befuddled husband, with a perfect, slow
                                                                                                               is impossible to say.                                        burn, as he tries to make sense of his wife’s actions.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   GEORGE WASHINGTON
                                                                                                                  On this day, Peter is preparing to leave for a four-day      Smith is fine as the son, although some insight as
                                                                                                               work-related seminar. Anne, however, is convinced            to the exact nature of Anne’s relationship with her
                                                                                                               that Peter is planning to dump her for a much younger        son would have made the play much more effective.
                                                                                                               woman. This accusation he vehemently denies.                 We can assume it included overprotection on her
                                                                                                                  Anne equates Peter’s pending departure with the           part to the point of obsession.
                                                                                                               fact that both her children have left her. She’s es-            Young, the only actor who plays multiple roles in
                                                                                                               pecially hurt by the departure of their son Michael          the show (such as the husband’s girlfriend, a nurse),

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      WOULD READ
                                                                                                               (Justice Smith), and the fact that he’s now living with      is quite good. Her turn as Michael’s girlfriend is
                                                                                                               his girlfriend (Odessa Young). Anne is so jealous of         particularly striking. She’s initially a loving and
                                                                                                               this new woman in her son’s life that she refuses to         caring person who turns into someone quite callous
                                                                                                               say her name aloud correctly.                                and cruel, all depending on how Anne happens to
                                                                                                                  It’s not long before it becomes obvious that some-        see her at any specific moment.
                                                                                                               thing is amiss. Anne’s actions and comments change              Trip Cullman’s direction is fine as far as it goes, but
                                                                                                               from ones that initially seem funny, snide, or de-           it can’t overcome the weaknesses in the script. Mark
                                                                                                               liberately obtuse (such as her continually asking            Wendland’s set is nicely antiseptic, and Ben Stan-
                                                                                                               Peter how his day has been), to something bitter,            ton’s harsh lighting works quite well. Yet their efforts
                                                                                                               mean-spirited, and at times, overtly sexual.
                                                                                                                  This effect is accomplished by the replay of cer-
                                                                                                                                                                            only serve to further defuse the story rather than
                                                                                                                                                                            allow it to coalesce into anything more substantial.                                                              The very fabric of America is under attack—
                                                                                                               tain scenes and dialogue, with the different char-
                                                                                                               acters altering their delivery accordingly. Anne
                                                                                                                                                                               It’s interesting to note that the play script subtitles
                                                                                                                                                                            the show as “a black farce.” This distinction, though,                                                  our freedoms, our republic, and our constitutional rights have
                                                                                                               changes the most during these moments, with a
                                                                                                               clear indication that she is suffering from some form
                                                                                                                                                                            is not mentioned in the actual theater program or
                                                                                                                                                                            the press materials.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  become contested terrain. The Epoch Times, a media committed
                                                                                                               of mental disorder.
                                                                                                                  “The Mother,” the second in a trilogy of plays by
                                                                                                                                                                               While “The Mother” touches on a subject the play-
                                                                                                                                                                            wright obviously cares deeply about, the work re-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 to truthful and responsible journalism, is a rare bastion of hope and
                                                                                                               Zeller about family, offers some tantalizing possibili-
                                                                                                               ties, with an early sequence being especially funny.
                                                                                                                                                                            fuses to let the audience get any closer than arm’s
                                                                                                                                                                            length and reduces a potentially powerful message
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    stability in these testing times.
                                                                                                               Noth and Huppert have excellent back-and-forth               to little more than an afterthought.
                                                                                                               banter here, even though it soon becomes obvious
                                                                                                               that what we are seeing is anything but comedic.             Judd Hollander is a reviewer for Stagebuzz.
                                                                                                                  While running through the entire work is the              com and a member of the Drama Desk and the
                                                                                                               importance of Anne’s dignity—even as she quickly             Outer Critics Circle.

            ARTS& CULTURE
                                                                                                               becomes unlikable for her actions—we soon real-
                                                                                                               ize that we are seeing pretty much the entire play
                                                                                                                                                                            ‘The Mother’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             SUBSCRIBE TODAY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ReadEpoch.com
                                                                                                               through the prism of her mind. She reacts to situa-
                                                                                                               tions as she perceives them, not necessarily as they
                                                                                                                                                                            Linda Gross Theater             Running Time
                                                                                                               actually are.
                       To advertise, Call 212-239-2808                                                            This premise is a major misstep by the show’s cre-
                                                                                                                                                                            336 W. 20th St.                 1 hour, 30 minutes
                                                                                                                                                                            New York                        (no intermission)
                    or email: advertise@epochtimes.nyc                                                         ative team. We are left to determine what, if any-
                                                                                                               thing, presented has some basis in fact. Without a           Closes                          Tickets
                                                                                                               clear fixed point to serve as a reference or anchor,         April 13                        866-811-4111 or
                                                                                                               it’s impossible to figure out who to believe on any                                          AtlanticTheater.org
Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
4 | ARTS & TRADITION                                                                                                                                                    Week 14, 2019                                               Week 14, 2019                                                                                                                                                 ARTS & TRADITION                |5

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     all photos by Foredgefrost

                                                                                                               Split-double fore-edge paintings on an 1863 edition of “The Works of William Shakespeare.”

          Craftsmanship

         The Disappearing Art of Vanishing
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Martin Frost’s fore-edge
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           painting of London’s river
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Thames flows along the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       edges of a circa-1880 edition
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       of “The Book of the Thames.”
         An interview with fore-edge painter Martin Frost

                                                                                             work; it’s fun, basically.                               some very nice work and some very nice bindings
         Lorraine Ferrier                                                                      For example, I do a lot of copies of Leonardo          as well. They were primarily a bookbindery, but
                                                                                             da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” basically on Bibles and        they were always interested in trying other things
         “Wow! I didn’t see that coming.” For over 40          Vanishing                     prayer books, but each one is slightly different.        as well. They were quite the trailblazers, and                                                                                                                                                                                     I like working
         years, these have been the words that fore-edge
         painter Martin Frost has heard the most when
                                                               fore-edge                     That’s the joy of hand-created work. You can put a
                                                                                             bit of yourself into it, and you don’t get that when
                                                                                                                                                      their work is very collectible now. They produced
                                                                                                                                                      picturesque vanishing paintings on the edges of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         in leather and
         people have seen his work for the first time, and     painting is a                 you’re producing work for the print trade—where          books; they were views of houses, seascapes, and                                                                                                                                                                                   gold, using
         it’s a delight he never tires of hearing.             form of book                  you produce an image and then it’s just repeated         townscapes—the sort of paintings that were being                                                                                                                                                                                   the old artisan
            Frost continues the critically endangered UK                                     by the thousand. There’s a lot less zest, as such,       hung on walls at the time.
         heritage craft of fore-edge painting, in particular   art for book                  with that.                                                 The story of fore-edge painting is the story of a                                                                                                                                                                                techniques, the
         vanishing fore-edge painting, a craft whereby         decoration                                                                             sort of wave formation: It comes in, it’s popular,                                                                                                                                                                                 old crafts of
         images are painted on the fanned page edges                                         The Epoch Times: How did you come to be a fore-          then it sort of drifts away, and then it is rediscov-
         of a book and are therefore hidden under the          unlike                        edge painter?                                            ered a generation or so later. That’s what hap-                                                                                                                                                                                    bookbinding,
         gilded tips of a page, or less commonly, under the    any other.                    Mr. Frost: Well, I’ve always been a painter and          pened in my time, really. Back in the 1980s, it was                                                                                                                                                                                so I’m working
         marbled tips of a page.                                                             artist. My father was a professional painter. He         riding high. It was very popular.
            In the 2019 New Year Honors list, Frost was        Martin Frost, artist          was a member of The Pastel Society, so as I grew           It’s not as popular now. We don’t sell as many;                                                                                                                                                                                  within a
         honored for his services in preserving the disap-                                   up, there was always painting going on, there was        we don’t produce as many because it’s a fashion                                                                                                                                                                                    tradition.
         pearing art of fore-edge painting and awarded                                       always drawing going on, and so there was no             thing, really.
         a Member of the Order of the British Empire, a                                      fear of art. It’s what we did.                             I started fore-edge painting around 1970 and                                                                                                                                                                                     Martin Frost, artist
         national honor.                                                                       I didn’t really want to do painting; I wanted to       have produced around 3,500 so far.
            Below, Frost shares his thoughts about the                                       do something a bit different, so actually my train-
         dying tradition of fore-edge painting and reveals                                   ing was in theater. I produced set designs, stage        The Epoch Times: Can you tell us about the actual
         how the hidden images can be seen.                                                  designs, costumes, props, and backdrops.                 process of the fore-edge painting?
                                                                                               It was when I was working at Glyndebourne,             Mr. Frost: The technique I use is to fan out the
         The Epoch Times: Please tell us about your work.                                    the local opera house, that I met up with Don            book, and then I put it into a press, and a clamp
         Martin Frost: Vanishing fore-edge painting is                                       Noble, a colleague who was also doing stage work.        holds the book into position for me to do the
         a form of book art for book decoration unlike any                                     Noble had been doing fore-edge painting for            painting.
                                                                                                           decades, and he showed me what he             The books don’t always fan easily; sometimes if
                                                                                                           did. And I thought, “I could do that;      the paper is very stiff, they don’t fan very well. If
                                                                                                           that’s pretty straightforward. I’ll have   the paper is too thin, they over-fan, so there are
                                                                                                           a go at that.”                             optimum types of books to work on.
                                                                                                              And I did. I tried my hand, and            The painting is a little strange, actually. I use
                                                                                                           offered them to one of the local book-     English watercolors because I’m a bit of a tradi-
                                                                                                           shops, and they said, “That’s not bad;     tionalist. However, painting with English wa-
                                                                                                           we’ll buy that.”                           tercolors is usually a very wet process. First you        My preference is to always create a new binding           This is handcraft work, which is a skill, and I’ve
                                                                                                              Admittedly, it took me a few years      put water down on the paper, then you add color         rather than use the old production binding. I like       been doing it for over 40 years now, and it’s taken
                                                                                                           to actually move away from my work         afterward, and you get a lovely blur and blend.         working in leather and gold, using the old artisan       me that time to get up to where I am now. It’s not
                                                                                                           in the theater, and I then moved into      But you don’t do that with fore-edge painting           techniques, the old crafts of bookbinding, so I’m        something that you just look at on YouTube and
                                                                                                           newspaper design, typography, and          because if you add a lot of water onto the fan edge     working within a tradition.                              say, “Oh yeah, that’s how you do that.” It’s some-
                                                                                                           print, but all the time, I was still       of the book, the pages will ripple and you end up         You can produce some very interesting modern           thing that you have to plod away at, and we’ve got
                                                                                                           painting on the edges of books.            with a very wobbly-looking book.                        work. I tend not to do that: I’m a bit of a tradition-   to the stage now where people are appreciating
                                                                                                              Back in the 1980s, there was a             So it’s a dry brush technique that I use, which      alist here. Some of the techniques that I use for        that.
                                                                                                           revival of fore-edge painting, so there    is very unusual for English watercolors, but I find     putting a book back together again are the same             In fact, I like to think that craft in the arts is
                                                                                                           was enough work for me to actually         it’s the technique that works for me.                   methods bookbinders have used for the last               enjoying a bit of a revival. People are saying: “Yes,
                                                                                                           call myself a full-time professional                                                               400 years.                                               we can get our iPhones. They’re produced by the
                                                                                                           fore-edge painter, and it’s been like      The Epoch Times: Do you only paint on antique                                                                    hundreds of thousands. They’re amazing things,
                                                                                                           that                                       books?                                                  The Epoch Times: Where did you learn the skills          but they’re not really human.”
                                                                                                           ever since.                                Mr. Frost: No one had thought about combining           of bookbinding and gilding?                                 Now a book, a book by its very nature is a very
                                                                                                                                                      modern binding with fore-edge painting until            Mr. Frost: You learn it on the job; there are no ap-     tactile thing. It’s a very enjoyable thing. You can
                                                                                                         The Epoch Times: Can you give us an          I really got involved. I could see that the market      prentices these days. The old bookbinding guilds         pick it up, you can put it down, you can rifle
         other. I decorate books in a way that is invisible    Martin Frost’s painting of    overview of the history of fore-edge painting?           was changing. The market for the old books was          have just about vanished, so I’ve had to learn the       through it, you can feel it, and you can even smell
         unless you know how to open the book properly         Leonardo da Vinci’s “The      Mr. Frost: The earliest examples of fore-edge            beginning to wither, and I thought the technique        skills myself. But I’ve got a lot of friends who are     it if it’s a leather-bound book. It’s quite distinc-
         to show the image. It’s sort of very English; we      Last Supper” is a popu-       painting that we know of—now, that doesn’t mean          of vanishing fore-edge painting could be applied        bookbinders, who have been doing it for a long           tive, and then if you can find a special secret
         English, we’re great ones for doing things a bit      lar choice for the edges of   that they are the earliest, but the ones that we         to modern books just as easily as old books, so         time, so I pick their brains mercilessly.                surprise on it that has been handcrafted just for
         strange. We like the odd, we like the quirky, we      Bibles and prayer books.      have evidence of—go back to about 1650 in Lon-           long as you could involve the binder, who needs to        The handcraft bookbinders, they’re all basically       that book, it becomes something really special.         (Above)
         like the unusual, and vanishing fore-edge paint-                                    don. They tended to be of armorial crests, coats         remake the book and apply gold on the edges be-         like me: They’re all people who love what they           And that, to my mind, is what craft is all about.       Vanishing fore-edge paintings are on all the edges of this family Bible; the images are
         ing is certainly that.                                                              of arms, lettering, and emblems. They weren’t            cause modern books do not have gilded edges. It         are doing and are invariably happy to pass on the        These are one-offs. What you’ll get with a fore-        revealed when the book is twisted, as in this photo.
           I’m a painter; I don’t call myself an artist be-                                  picturesque, but they did vanish under the               then became a necessity to find out how to rebind       information to others who show an interest.              edge painting is something absolutely unique in         (Above Left)
         cause an artist will create new images. I do a lot                                  edge gilding.                                            and gild modern books in order to hide the paint-         I’m a one-stop craftsman now. I can take it from       your hands, and there will never be another one         Two chariots race each other in a scene from ancient Rome on the edge of “Cassell’s Illus-
         of images that I’ve acquired from elsewhere, so                                       About a hundred years later, in the late 18th          ing. So fore-edge painting onto modern books is         the printed pages straight up to the finished job,       quite like it.                                          trated Universal History,” 1887 edition.
         there’s a fair amount of copywork going on. But                                     century, Edwards of Halifax, in Yorkshire, resur-        a lot more work than going out and buying an old        and I am on my own like that. I am the only one
         I’m a painter, and I paint images, and I’m happiest                                 rected it. The Edwards family really commercial-         leather book with the gold edges already on it and      doing fore-edge painting, book gilding, gilding          This interview has been edited for clarity
         when I’ve got a paintbrush in my hand. It’s not                                     ized vanishing fore-edge painting, and they did          painting that.                                          the pages, and binding as well.                          and brevity.
Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
6 | ARTS & TRADITION                                                                                                                                                                          Week 14, 2019                                                Week 14, 2019                                                                                                                                                    ARTS & TRADITION                      |7
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Public Domain

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Public Domain
                                                 “Reading Woman” (por-
                                               trait of artist’s wife), after
                                                1866, by Ivan Kramskoy.
 Literature

 Great
 Books
 I Wouldn’t
 Want to
 Be In
 (And Some
 I Would!)
 Susannah Pearce

 I
       f there’s something book lovers like almost as much as
       reading books, it’s talking about books. About the plot
       details. About the characters. About the meaning. We
       feel for and with the characters. We immerse ourselves
       in the details. We virtually put ourselves into the stories.
   Just for fun, I thought I would imagine what it would be like
 to be a character in the works of a selection by well-known
 authors. I imagined myself being an inhabitant in the world
 and story the author created, not always the protagonist, and
 not necessarily as myself. It turns out, I would not like to
 be in many of them as much as I enjoyed reading them.
   What follows is my rating of each. The authors are listed
 chronologically by the dates of their birth.

 Continued on Page 12

                                                             Public Domain

                                                                                Geoffrey Chaucer                                 Charlotte, Emily, and                              handful of sharp American wit fill his pages.
                                                                                (circa 1343–1400, English)                       Anne Brontë                                        Oscar Wilde
                                                                                    Count me in!                                 (1816–1855, 1818–848, 1820–                        (1854–1900, English)
                                                                                Basically, in “The Canterbury Tales,” I get      1849, English)                                         I would earnestly enjoy being in some
                                                                                to go on a long pilgrimage on foot, to the
                                                                                                                                      I would always rather be happy than           of his works.
                                                                                shrine of Thomas à Becket, with a passel of
                                                                                                                                 be in their books.                                 Delightfully convoluted first-world prob-
                                                                                mix-and-match mates, telling and listen-
                                                                                                                                 These gals can write! But they can write           lems, those lovely late Victorian fashions,
                                                                                ing to entertaining tales along the way. Ac-
                                                                                                                                 me out of their novels. Gothic romance             and happy endings! Sounds like an ideal
                                                                                commodation in inns is assured, and the
                                                                                                                                 and melodrama is not for everyone. The             marriage to me! But please, I’d rather not
                                                                                whole thing is entirely voluntary. What’s
                                                                                                                                 damp English weather may not have                  be in “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”
                                                                                not to like?
                                                                                                                                 been conducive to good health and cheer-
                                                                                William Shakespeare                              fulness for these young ladies, but it did         Kenneth Graham
                                                                                (1564–1616, English)                             wonders for their creative imagination. As         (1859–1932, English)
                                                                                                                                 a potential character in their books, I opt           Believe me, there would be nothing half
                                                                                       To be, or not to be in his works?         for less of the moors.
                                                                                I’ll go with his comedies, but pass on his                                                          so much worth doing as messing about in
                                                                                tragedies. Who would wholly opt out of           Fyodor Dostoyevsky                                 this book!
                                                                                                                                                                                    Although “Wind in the Willows” is a talk-
                                                                                the chance to speak the brilliant dialogue       and Leo Tolstoy (1821–1881,                        ing-animal book, it ought to be in every
                                                                                penned by The Bard, maneuvering in and
                                                                                out of hilarious plans within plans? The
                                                                                                                                 1828–1910, Russian)                                well-read adult’s library. Friendship is the
                                                                                beauty of it is, anyone with a penchant                  Nyet.                                      main thing here. There is plenty of lolling
                                                                                for the stage can be in them! Shakespeare        For space considerations, I’m lumping to-          about in boats, picnicking, and visiting
                                                                                wrote plays!                                     gether these two Russian literary genius-          neighbors. The main turmoil comes from
                                                                                                                                 es. Remembering the names and nicknames            Mr. Toad’s wild streak, which necessitates
                                                                                Jane Austen                                      of hundreds of people and the faces they go        continual rescue by his faithful friends. Gra-
                                                                                (1775–1817, English)                             with is not my forte. And I like to be hap-        ham’s idyllic English countryside is one I
                                                                                                                                 py. While I might learn great moral lessons, if    would inhabit with enthusiasm!
                                                                                    My good opinion of the prospect has
                                                                                                                                 I had to be in one of their books, I just might
                                                                                been easily gained.
                                                                                                                                 throw myself in front of a train.                  Jack London
                                                                                On the liability side, I would almost cer-
                                                                                                                                                                                    (1876–1916, American)
                                                                                tainly be a poor young woman with little         Jules Verne                                             I don’t hear the call of his books.
                                                                                prospect of a good marriage. But on the asset
                                                                                side, by Austen’s reckoning, “poor” means        (1828–1905, French)                                I admit, the foremost reason I do not wish        After the Trojan War, it took Odysseus 10 years to get home. Each of the adventures on his journey required that he master an aspect of his own character. A detail from “Odysseus und Polyphemus,” 1896, Arnold Böcklin.
                                                                                that I can afford only one servant. Balls and        I’m sure to go far in his books.               to be in London’s books stems from my
                                                                                walks in the English countryside are guar-       Adventure on the cutting edge of future Ste-       aversion to being cold. I could not bear to
  Rudyard Kipling                                        Kipling offered
                                                                                anteed. Best of all, my witty personality will   ampunk technology with plenty of financial         be cast in a scene in which the temperature
                                                                loads of
  (1865–1936, English)                              adventures. Poster
                                                                                result in my becoming the wife of a man in       resources—and a servant—actually appeals           is 50 degrees below zero. And you just can’t
                                                                                possession of a good fortune (and handsome,      to me. It would be like a science field trip to    trust this author to let your hands work well
      I have the courage for this.                     for “The Jungle                                                                                                              enough to strike a match to start a fire. I’m
                                                                                in the bargain).                                 plunge the depths in Captain Nemo’s Nauti-
  I’d have to be raised by wolves to not want to    Book,” circa 1900.
                                                                                                                                 lus, or explore the depths of the Earth. Or a      not going there.
  be in his books. Oh, wait. I’d probably enjoy           The New York          Charles Dickens
                                                    Public Library, The                                                          speed vacation, circumnavigating the globe                                                           Odysseus and the Enneagram                                                                                                James Sale                                          the Sea God, Poseidon, to avenge his blind-
  it even more if I were raised by wolves, like
                                                      Miriam and Ira D.         (1812–1870, English)                             in 80 days. I’d go a long way for inclusion in     P.G. Wodehouse                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ness, and Poseidon hears his son. Thus, it is
  Mowgli in “The Jungle Book”! Excitement,
  rites of passage, and becoming a grown-up           Wallach Division              Low expectations for this one.               Verne’s novels. Perhaps even 20,000 leagues.       (1881–1975, English)                                                                                                                                                        In this multipart series, “Finding the True         that the very depths of the sea, symbolizing

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Finding the True Self
                                                      of Art, Prints and                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Self,” we will discuss nine types of personali-     our raging emotions and deep subconscious,
                                                                                                                                                                                        What ho! I’ll go!
  are the advantages Kipling’s characters en-
                                                          Photographs,
                                                                                What I don’t understand is where the             Mark Twain                                         I would generally get to hobnob with the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ties and their flaws, and show how Odysseus,        are pitted against Odysseus. He must contend
  joy in his jungle and sea adventures.                                         expression “A Dickens Christmas” came
                                                        American Book           from. Haven’t those who use the                  (1835–1910, American)                              upper classes of the unrealistically idyllic
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                through his adventures, overcame them to            with them if he is ever to get home and be-
                                                                Posters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        find his way back home.                             come himself; for home is where we are our
                                                                                phrase read any of his masterful books? A            Any friend of Twain’s is a friend of mine.     1930s England. His characters are endear-

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Odysseus’s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    selves. Only at home can we relax.
                                                                                true Dickens Christmas is sure to be popu-       Not unlike the celebrated frog of Calaveras        ing, and the hilarious predicaments he cre-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The “Odyssey” is the most famous homecom-
                                                                                lated with selfish, gruesome, underhanded,       County, I’d jump at the chance to be in any        ates are thoroughly G-Rated. Yet, his stories
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ing story in Western literature and mythol-         What Is the Enneagram?
                                                                                and unlikable figures if it were anything        of Mark Twain’s books. (Though, I’d bet-           are peppered with references enjoyed by
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ogy. It is justly famous because it is a work       What is surprising, perhaps, is the discovery
                                                                                like his books. I would definitely not like      ter be sure no one filled me with a handful        the well-read and highly educated. I would
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                that one can truly say is divinely inspired:        that the “Odyssey” is not just a story but also
                                                                                to enter a world like that.                      of shot first.) Fun, adventure, and more than a    let Wodehouse write me into anything!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                In its opening few lines, Homer invokes the         a heuristic, personality tool! The Enneagram
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Muse, whom he calls the “daughter of Zeus,”         (from the Greek, meaning nine points) is,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Journey
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                the king of the gods, as the inspiration for the    among other things, a personality-typing
                                                                                                                                                                    Public Domain
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                poem.                                               device or symbol.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Homer                                                                                                                                                                         There is so much in the “Odyssey” to                 It came to recent prominence in California
                                                                                                                                                                                    (circa 750–650 B.C., Greek)
  Literature
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                provoke the imagination and to touch the            in the 1950s. There is some dispute among ex-

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Part 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                heart. For example, this isn’t just a story         perts as to the exact origins of the Enneagram,
                                                                                                                                                                                         Just kill me first.
  allows us to                                                                                                                                                                      There are many unpleasant ways to die
                                                                                                                                                                                    in “The Iliad” or “The Odyssey.” I would con-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                about a man finding his way home to his
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                wife and son, but the journey of mankind
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    but according to Judith Searle in her book
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “The Literary Enneagram,” the Enneagram

  gain a breadth                                                                                                                                                                    sider myself lucky if I were killed off in the
                                                                                                                                                                                    Trojan War in “The Iliad” rather than head
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                in search of our own souls. In other words,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                this is not just some physical adventure, but
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    was known as early as 2500 B.C. in Babylon
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    or the Middle East, and that its symbol was

  of experience                                                                                                                                                                     home victorious, say no to drugs, resist the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                a deeply psychic, symbolic, and spiritual           familiar to the Greek mathematician and phi-

  that our own
                                                                                                                                                                                    temptation of the siren song, avoid becom-
                                                                                                                                                                                    ing a Cyclops snack, skirt a whirlpool while
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      An ancient personality tool, the enneagram                                                                                one too.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Indeed, it is quite early on in the tale when
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    losopher Pythagoras (circa 582–507 B.C.).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Polyphemus, the Cyclops, calls on his father,       Continued on Page 12
                                                                                                                                                                                    at the same time not being swallowed by the
  circumstances                                                                                                                                                                     six-headed Scylla, to ultimately be drowned
                                                                                                                                                                                    in a sea storm as punishment for eating a
  would not                                                                                                                                                                         steak. Call me weak.

  permit.                                                                                                                                                                           Odysseus and the sirens, 2nd century A.D.,
                                                                                                                                                                                    mosaic at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tuni-
                                                                                                                                                                                    sia.
Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
8 | ARTS & TRADITION                                                                                                                                                                                   Week 14, 2019                                B8                   Week 14, 2019                                                                                                                                                                                  ARTS & TRADITION
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2019                                    |9
                                                                                                                                                                                                                ALL PHOTOS BY CINESTATE/LIONSGATE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              all photos by Matthew Murphy

Film Insights                                           Mark Jackson grew up in Spring Val-
                                                        ley, N.Y., where he attended a Waldorf
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ESSENCE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          OF
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          CHINA

With Mark
                                                         school. At Williams College, his pro-
                                                          fessors all suggested he write pro-
                                                            fessionally. He acted professionally                                                                                                                                                                                  ANCIENT CHINESE STORIES

Jackson
                                                                 for 20 years instead. Now he

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Chinese New Year’s ‘Human Day’
                                                                    writes professionally about
                                                                      acting. In the movies.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Celebrates ‘Birthday’ of Humankind
         ‘Dragged
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   SM YANG/THE EPOCH TIMES
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  CINDY CHAN                                                                                                                                                      tains, his eyes formed the sun and moon,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  his hair turned into plants and trees, and

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  B
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        irthdays are special occasions that                                                                                                                       his blood became the oceans.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Tevye (Steven Skybell) and his milkcart, in the Yiddish production of      A highlight of the show is the bottle dance.                                                    (L–R) Raquel Nobile, Rosie Jo Neddy, Rachel Zatcoff, Stephanie Lynne

          Across
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        hold
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “Fiddler on the Roof” directed by Joel    a great deal of meaning for many
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Grey.                                                                                                                               Mason, and Samantha Hahn play Tevye and Golde’s five daughters.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           people. Often a time of celebration,                                                                                                           Creation of Human Beings
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 a birthday also offers a chance for renewal                                                                                                              Then Nu Wa appeared, and it is believed that
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Theater        Review and reinvigoration as we aspire to greater                                                                                                                      she first made six animals and then created
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 things and look forward to a bright year                                                                                                                 human beings.

         Concrete’                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Tradition, on 42nd Street
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ahead. It also represents an opportunity to                                                                                                                From the first to the sixth day of the Chi-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 reflect and have our gratitude grow for the                                                                                                              nese New Year, she created the chicken, dog,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 joys and blessings in our lives.                                                                                                                         boar, sheep, cow, and horse.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     For the ancient Chinese people, this an-                                                                                                               Then on Day 7, Nu Wa sat by the edge of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 nual occasion occurred not only on the an-                                                                                                               a pond and, looking at her own reflection,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 niversary of their birth but also on another                                                                                                             began to mix clay with water to create small
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 special day known as “renri,” which falls on                                                                                                             figures in her own image, both males and

           Hyperviolent Pie in the Face                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Diana Barth
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 the seventh day of the Chinese New Year.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Literally “Human Day,” renri is the day                                                 Tevye will break his agreement with the wealthy She
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          females.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              friend,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  blewmatchmaker
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          her breath upon    Yentethe(the   inimitable
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       figures     be-     Jackie

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     N
             of Political Correctness
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 on which it is said that the goddess Nu Wa                                                  butcher Leyzer-Volf (Bruce Sabath) to marry Tsaytl. foreHoffman). placing them on the ground, thus giving
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     EW YORK—It  createdwashuman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              a decision   of genius
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       beings.           for Thethe
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Also called     Na-Day                                     Although the break is accomplished, hard feelings themSkybell        souls, and is notwastempted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         delighted to play
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       when   forthey
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    laughs, or to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     tional Yiddish      Theatre Folksbiene
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 of Humankind,                      to transfer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       renri is regarded         this
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              in ancient                                     remain.                                                          introduce
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          became     alive.   shtick. His is a performance that con-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ZHICHING CHEN/THE EPOCH TIMES
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     production     of “Fiddler
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Chinese          on theasRoof”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             tradition             from its original
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            the common       “birthday”     Tevye (Steven Skybell)              Hodl (Stephanie Lynne Mason) convinces Tevye Every            veys authenticity,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      day, Nu Wa virility,made more and truehuman caring for his
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     site at downtown’s       Battery City to its present run on
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 of all humans.                                            and his wife, Golde (Jen-         that she will be happy living in Siberia with her beings         character’s       plights. them. She imparted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    and cherished
Mark Jackson                                        to soon talk to a rape counselor. Brett wants                                                                                                                                                                    Manhattan’s Theatre Row—Stage 42, in the heart of                       TheBabiak),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           nifer  goddessinNutheWa
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 won-        beloved Perchik (Drew Seigla). Tevye blesses her wisdom             When     the characters      sing  “Lekhayim!”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     to them     and created     musical     instru-(“To Life!”),
                                                    to move out of the seedy city of “Bulwark”                                                                                                                                                                       New York’s theatrical melting pot.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             created
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           derful     human
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Yiddish      beings.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          production         departure with a heavy heart.                                    theysotruly
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ments         that mean       it. Other
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               they could      make  songs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       music   (music
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  and by Jerry
Police skill-sets of tracking, outmaneuver-         in the worst way, and now he’s suspended                                                                                                                                                                            And in Yiddish? You bet. Because now you’re ex-                     ofShe also imparted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               “Fiddler           wis-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        on the Roof.”           But tradition can only be pushed so far. As for express       Bock,    lyrics by Sheldon
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    themselves       throughHarnick,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 dance and   withsong.the book by
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             dom to them and paved
ing, outshooting, apprehending, kidnapping,
interrogating, and coercing bad guys contain
                                                    without pay.
                                                       One can imagine his thought process: Here
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The Day of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     periencing this brilliant, beloved musical in the lan-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     guage the stories of Sholem Aleichem (upon which
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             the way for them to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Khave (Rosie Jo Neddy), her love for the non-Jew This
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Fyedka (Cameron Johnson) is unforgivable. Tevye develop,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Joseph
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   paved
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              strongly,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Stein)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             theareway also
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           such aspeople
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      whereby
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         foralready
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     “Do You
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              humanfamiliar
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Love
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              were
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        cultureand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Me?”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     able
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     to resonate
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                (a touching duet
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           to prop-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             develop human culture.
the temptation (during times of financial
scarcity) to loot looters. The line between
                                                    I am, risking my life to save the populace from
                                                    drug dealers. I do my job with one hand tied
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Humankind, ‘renri’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     the musical is based) were meant to be heard in.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Furthermore, handily placed English supertitles on
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             pronounces her dead to him, although he himself erlybetween
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             is pained by his decision.                                       “Far   From
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Tevye and Golde),
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               govern themselves                     “Sunrise,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            and continue
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              the Home I Love.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Sunset,” and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               to im-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          prove   their   lives.
law enforcement and criminals is often thin.        behind my back, and now I get suspended?
                                                                                                           (Top) Vince Vaughn (L) and Mel Gibson play suspended cops in “Dragged Across Concrete.”                                                                                is regarded in ancient
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     either side of the stage are barely needed, so clear                                                        Tsaytl and Motl’s traditional wedding scene, To ensure          Musicalthat  staging
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  humans  andlived
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                newon   choreography
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          after the         have
  Officer Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and           Are you kidding me? Well alrighty then. I’m                                                                                                                                                                      is the playing.                                                                                                interspersed with the famous bottle dance elderly         been    added
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   died    fromtooldJerome
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        age, NuRobbins’s      original by Stas
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Wa established
his new partner, Anthony Lurasetti (Vince           going to get a little payback.                         (Bottom) Tory Kittles as a newly released ex-convict, in “Dragged Across Concrete.”                                                                                    Chinese tradition as
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Under the direction of that consummate perform-                                                               (men dancing while balancing bottles on theKmiec.        systemThe        minimalistsoset
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            of marriage              by Beowulf
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  that   men andBoritt and
Vaughn), constantly have to deal with the              “Payback” is the name of one of the grittiest,                                                                                                                                                                er Joel Grey, the story of Anatevka, the fictitious                                                               their heads) with original choreography by women       Ann could
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Hould-Ward’s          deliberately
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               live together     and start  shabby
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                fami- costumes
cop equivalent of parents not being able to         pulpy, noir, cop movies ever, which Mel Gib-                                                                                                                                                                                  the common ‘birthday’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Russian village, and its citizens unfolds so firmly, so                         The god Pang Gu                   Jerome Robbins, is extravagant and vivid—a lies.complete In this way,the picture.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   human beings were able
spank their kids anymore. But, as has been          son starred in before his public fall from grace    tension up to 10, portraying the anguish of a       of a stakeout is the eating. Gibson replies, “A         ‘Dragged Across                                  realistically, that one often feels oneself in an actual                                                          fireworks display bursting the threads of to sustain      Here is    art. own
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  But itexistence
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           is not artificial.     Here is a “Fid-
made abundantly clear in recent years, cops         a few years back. While that movie was hip          mother needing to go to work and bring home         single red ant could have eaten that faster.”            Concrete’                                                    of all humans.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     place—not sitting in a theater.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     holds up the sky,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  firmly separating it                     simplicity.                                        dler”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          after
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         their                         generation
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      overflowing with exuberance and warmth.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 generation.
get rough all the time, regardless, for many        and very funny, “Dragged Across Concrete,”          the bacon, while in the throes of postpartum                                                                                                                    Here the milkman Tevye (Steven Sky-                                    from the earth. When                             I could not account for my eyes The number of lives went on to become
reasons. Racism might be one reason, but            while even more violent, is also more realistic     depression.                                         Director as Provocateur                                  Director                                        bell) plies his    trade.  When    his horse that                                                                         tearing during much of the per- countless.     Diana Barth        writes    for various    theatrical
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  like pub-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The  custom    of celebrating     renri dates back         he died, he dedicated                                                                                    Each has     its own   story, much
mostly it’s exasperation, and knowing from          and therefore sadder. But Gibson also hereby          Which underscores director Zahler’s rather        Casting Mel Gibson (who got thrown out of                S. Craig Zahler                                 pulls his milkcart       goes  lame, he    himself                                                                         formance. Am I, and others in the the lications            and for  inNew     Millennium.       She may be
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 to the Han     Dynasty     (206   B.C.–A.D. 220). The          his entire body to the                                                                        lives unfolding           a vivid cherished novel.
experience that violence gets quicker results.      reclaims his status as one of our better actors.    traditional take on things. He sees women as        Hollywood on his ear due to real-life racist             Starring                                        bears the 2019
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  burden.     Presently,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Chinese     New heYearis deal-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   fell on Feb. 5, thus        world’s future beings.                           audience, suffering from the loss Socontacted   renri is not at only
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 diabarth99@gmail.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        a festival for wishing a
  But now smartphones lurk everywhere,              And “Dragged” is not without humor.                 needing strong men to guard and take care           remarks) as a racist cop who, like Nick Nolte’s          Mel Gibson, Vince                               ing with getting
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 placingthe     oldest
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            renri       three
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    on Feb.  11.of his                                                                           of tradition? Or are we stressed by happy birthday to all of humankind, but it
and Brett and Anthony are videoed using                                                                 of them. Also, political correctness is thrown      aforementioned dirty cop, pines for the pre-             Vaughn, Tory Kittles,                           five daughters      marriedtooff.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     oneThe   under-                                                             ther and farthervarious
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   apart asinsecurities     wrought
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               larger by is also a time to commemorate Nu Wa with
excessive force on a perp. They get dragged         Who’s Going to Pay?                                 like a pie in the audience’s collective face by     PC days when cops weren’t hamstrung by                   Laurie Holden,                                  lying thread
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     According            version    of the ancient leg-                                                                     his body grew
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 end,toNu  this
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Waprocess
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  came toisthe tradi-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   world many thou-                                              and larger. Aftercontemporary
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     the separation  life?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         of sky and       a deep sense of gratitude.
before the boss, who happens to be Brett’s for-     Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) just got released        officers Ridgeman and Lurasetti: “I’m not a         nice-y-niceness—is a perfect and perfectly               Jennifer Carpenter,                             tion—holdingsands  onoftoyears
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               it, orafter
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      being   forced
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            the   god Pan Gu created                                             Earth became stable,The worst
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Pan Gupossible
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     fell downsituation
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ex-         Stage 42
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Human       Day is also a reminder for human
mer partner (a top-notch Don Johnson), and          from jail. He’d kind of like to try going           racist. I always order a cup of dark roast on       cynical showbiz ploy.                                    Michael Jai White,                              to let it go.the world.                                                                                     hausted. He went  ultimately
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      to sleep andreaches
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      never Anatevka.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             awoke.           422toW.live
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          beings          42ndby St.   New York
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  upright     principles as good
they are suspended without pay.                     straight, but discovers mom is doing bad            MLK day” is the mild side of it.                      Director Zahler has Ridgeman’s ex-cop wife             Don Johnson, Udo                                   All in thisPanplaceGuare
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               hadOrthodox      Jews, tirelessly for
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     himself worked                                                                When he died,    A pogrom     will soon
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       he dedicated      histake   place. people,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              entire                 and to treasure their relationships
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Kier                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Tickets
  Brett’s furthermore subjected to a lecture        things to pay the bills, and that’s all it takes      This is definitely not a movie for feminists      talk about how her former liberal stance has                                                             wherein itmany is tradition
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          thousandsthatofthe   father
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           years,   standing between                                             body to the world’s Allfuture
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          must pack      andFor
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   beings.    leave
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ex-ev- and212-239-6200
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               other lives, so asortoFiddlerNYC.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             honor their creator
about the fact that he’s a perennial door-          to accept an offer from an old crime associ-        and/or liberals; it’s pretty much exclusively       been obliterated by living in a crime-ridden             Running Time                                    must choose thehisskydaughters’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            and the Earthhusbands.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              and pushing them far-                                                                    erything within
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ample, his head transformed           into three
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             moun-  days. and indeed humankind’s own creation.
kicker, never wanted to ride a desk, and            ate (Michael Jai White) to drive some bank          for hard-bitten veteran law enforcement per-        black neighborhood.                                      2 hours, 39 minutes                                Firstborn Tsaytl (Rachel Zatcoff)                                                                                                  Where to go? Tevye’s wife          Running Time
now he’s 60. And, how, in his line of work, if      robbers to a bank.                                  sonnel living in a time when the friendly,            At one point, Vaughn’s character says it all                                                           readily complies—almost. She wants                                                                                                     Golde (an excellent Jen-          3 hours (one intermission)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rated
one gets “dragged across too much concrete”           Suffice it to say, the bank robbers rob a         short-sleeves and wingtips-wearing neigh-           went downhill for men when men started                   R                                               desperately to marry Motl (Ben Li-                                                                                                     nifer Babiak) embraces            Closes
(the movie’s title), one has to be careful not to   bank, and our bad off-duty cops attempt to          borhood policeman of Norman Rockwell’s              saying “we’re pregnant” instead of “she’s                                                                ebert), an impoverished tailor, if only                                                                                               and comforts her close             Sept. 1
lose one’s ability to keep the higher, benevo-      rob the bank robbers, and director S. Craig         era has given way to paramilitary outfits and       pregnant.”                                               Release Date
lent scope of law enforcement in perspective.       Zahler takes a long, leisurely time (presum-        submachine guns. And, of course, the ubiq-            And the story is basically about a black               March 22
The boss feels Brett’s dangerously close to         ably born of the mindset of also being a writ-      uitous first-responder graveyard humor that         ex-con and two white, probably-soon-to-
policing purely on bile.                            er) to tell his tale. Which results in patches      always accompanies seeing too much death.           be ex-cops, involved in a heist that each one
  And indeed, Brett’s too hard-bitten for           of boredom offsetting bouts of high tension.          Best scene: On a stakeout in the car, Vaughn      hopes will give them an advantage over the
the lecture to take. While he’s not as cynical      Which results in the whole movie feeling            loudly munches, masticates, lip-smacks,             bad hand they’ve been dealt in life. How are
as the brutal, self-righteous cop Nick Nolte        highly realistic.                                   sighs, swallows, tooth-sucks, paper-crinkles,       these lives alike?
played in “Q & A,” or the worse cop Richard           About a third of the way through, however,        twist-and-turn-surveys each remaining                 Ultimately, “Dragged Across Concrete”
Gere played in “Internal Affairs,” he’s close.      Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter’s cop sister in the      morsel of a ham-and-cheese sandwich with            challenges today’s PC standards, and then
  Brett’s ex-cop wife (Laurie Holden) has MS,       HBO series “Dexter”) plays a mother trying          immense, phlegmatic relish, all the while be-       turns around and challenges the audience
and his daughter (Jordyn Ashley Olson) is           to go back to work at said bank, after taking       ing balefully, slow-burn glared at by Gibson.       by making all involved (with the exception
getting bullied by neighborhood teens to the        three months off to have a child. Juilliard-        Who’s incredulous. Because it goes on forever.      of the bank heist crew) more or less under-
point where his wife imagines them having           grad Carpenter single-handedly turns the            Vaughn then blithely offers that the best part      standable and sympathetic.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    NO COMMUNISM, NO SOCIALISM

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        JUST PURE TRADITIONAL
       FILM REVIEW                                                                                                                                                                  ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT 2018 TM, K/PH

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Scenes from
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         “Penguin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Highway.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Dear Reader,
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                                                                                                                rural Japanese village, it is a little like “Magnolia,”     and the depiction of two fathers who are smart and                                  biased. We report on the President and the Administration truthfully.                                                                                                                  MAIL TO:
                                                                                                                but exponentially cuter. In fact, these penguins might      engaged parents (Aoyama’s and Hamamoto’s dads).
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                                                                                                                   Aoyama is a reasonably well-socialized fourth            less element to it.                                                                 on classical culture and traditional values.                                                               DELIVER TO:                                                     PLEASE PRINT (All fields are required)
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                                                                                                                the compulsively experimenting science whiz is al-          nice to stroll through this burg in the foothills, with
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                                                                                                                “waddles” of penguins start waddling through his               To his credit, Makoto Ueda never dumbs down his                                     Subscribe today. Get the independent news you won't find anywhere else,                                 CITY                                                      STATE                ZIP           EMAIL
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                                                                                                                   Of course, that means he starts researching in the       optimism and confusion of young adolescence—with

                                                    Do When
                                                                                                                field, with the help of his loyal pal Uchida. However,      penguins.                                                                                                                                                                                      Name on Card                                                        Authorization Signature
                                                                                                                he is also rather interested in the mysterious woman           This film is just a total winner that is just too good                                                                                                                                      100% satisfaction guaranteed promise
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                                                                                                                   She is smart and has attitude, as well as other things   its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia and
                                                                                                                a boy on the verge of puberty might notice. (She is         opens April 12.                                                                                                                                                                                DELIVERY NOTES
                                                                                                                voiced by Yu Aoi, after all.) Aoyama realizes he can                                                                                                                                                                                                       USE OF THIRD PARTIES, PRIVACY AND USE OF DATA

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                                                    Through
                                                                                                                mysterious connection to the penguins.
                                                                                                                   As if that were not enough, Aoyama and Uchida
                                                                                                                also help their classmate Hamamoto investigate a            ‘Penguin Highway’               Running Time
                                                                                                                                                                                                            1 hour, 58 minutes
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                                                                                                                cance. Hamamoto is also quite the junior scientist,
                                                                                                                                                                            Hiroyasu Ishida                 Release Date
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                                                                                                                which is probably why she has a crush on Aoyama.
                                                                                                                   “Highway” is surprisingly intriguing as science fic-     Starring
                                                                                                                                                                            Kana Kita, Yu Aoi,
                                                                                                                                                                                                            April 12
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ReadEpoch.com
                                                                                                                tion, warmly endearing as a coming-of-age story, and
                                                                                                                it is just the living end as a penguin fantasy. Despite     Rie Kugimiya
Fore-Edge Painting... 4 - The Disappearing Art of Vanishing - Epoch Cloud
10 | ARTS & TRADITION                                                                                                                                                   Week 14, 2019                                               Week 14, 2019
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    TUESDAY,  FEBRUARY 12, 2019                                                                                                                                                        ARTS & TRADITION | B311
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     ALL PHOTOS IN PUBLIC DOMAIN   ALL PHOTOS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

                                                                                                                                                      9                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             (Left) How did a minor
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    celebration of a saint
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    become a major mod-
Odysseus and the Enneagram                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ern holiday? St. Val-

                                                                                                                  8                                                                   1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    entine as depicted in
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    this modern icon, at the

Finding the True Self
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Basilica di Santa Maria
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    in Cosmedin, Rome.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (Top right) The earliest
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    known Valentine in Eng-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    lish was from Margery

Odysseus’s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Brews to John Paston.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    British Library.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (Bottom right) By the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Victorian era, Valen-
                                                                                                  7                                                                                                   2                                                                                                                                                                                                             tine’s Day was a notable
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    holiday, as this painting

Journey
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    of a young lady with a
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    love letter shows. “The
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Morning of St. Valen-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    tine,” 1865, John Call-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    cott Horsley. Walker

                                                                  Part 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Art Gallery.

                                                                                                      6                                                                                          3
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    year remained consistent in England right up until
          Continued from Page 7                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     the Reformation, when the observance of saints’
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    days was abolished and events in the temporal
          So this easily means that Homer could have been           The                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             cycle were modified. That some of the Catholic
                                                                                                      The nine-point
          familiar with the Enneagram and incorporated it           Enneagram is                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    feasts, such as Valentine’s Day, Shrove Tuesday,
          into his masterwork.
            To take a more contemporary tool, the Myers-            a personality
                                                                                                      Enneagram.
                                                                                                                                   5                                4                                                                                                                                                                               and Halloween (All Hallows Eve), survived the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Reformation to remain in our cultural calendar
          Briggs might be considered a rival of the Ennea-          tool that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       today is undoubtedly due to the rituals and tradi-
          gram. But the Enneagram seems sourced with                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                tions that secular folk attached to them, an issue
          wisdom from a much deeper level in the human              classifies all                                                                                                                            3
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    that brings us full circle to St. Valentine.
          psyche. And once it surfaced in California, there         people into one
          was an explosion of books and literature on the                                       The number Twos’ self-image is “I help,” and             Fives’ self-image is “I see through,” and their                                                                                                                                              Be My Valentine                                                                3. Narcissus shares
          topic, and Enneagram studies became main-                 of nine types.            their basic desire is to feel love and to be a loving   basic desire is to master, as in becoming a wise                                                                                                                                                By the end of the Middle Ages, the meaning of                                  some traits with number
          stream and popular around the world.                                                person, but their deadly sin, again often hidden        person. But their deadly sin is avarice: There is                                                                                                                                               Valentine’s Day had expanded to incorporate                                    Four types, sometimes
            What, then, is the Enneagram? At the risk of                                      even from themselves, is pride. This is surprising      never enough knowledge, so they tend to hoard                                                                                                                                                   human lovers expressing their feelings in hope                                 considered the artist type.
          oversimplifying, the Enneagram is a personal-                                       but arises because in their desire to help others,      it. They have a fear of not knowing enough. If the                                                                                                                                              of attracting or reaffirming a mate. In February                               “Narcissus Changed Into a
          ity tool that classifies all people into one of nine                                they often develop a sense of superiority over          Americans are generally expansive Threes, the                                                                                                                                                   1477, one would-be lover, Margery Brews, sent                                  Flower,” 1771, by Nicolas-
          types. Although there are only nine, there is mas-                                  those they help: But for my help, what a mess so-       Brits are sometimes considered introverted Fives.                                                                                                                                               the oldest-known “Valentine” in the English                                    Bernard Lépicié.
          sive complexity within and across the types.                                        and-so would be in.                                     At their best, Fives are perceptive, objective, and                                                                                                                                             language to John Paston, referring to him as her                               4. Achilles, likely an Eight
            Before considering how this works in the                                            Furthermore, while wishing to help others,            wise; at their worst, they are cold, pedantic, and                                                                                                                                              “right welbelouyd Voluntyn.”                                                   and certainly a man
          “Odyssey,” let’s consider what these types are that                                 they can deny that they need help themselves.           distant loners.                                                                                                                                                                                    At the time, Brews’s parents were negotiating                               of strength, could be
          each one of us corresponds to.                                                      This can, perversely, create exactly the opposite          The Sixes’ self-image is “I do my duty,” and my                                                                                                                                              her marriage to Paston, a member of the Norfolk                                vindictive, as he was to the
                                                                                              effect of the love that Twos intend.                    basic desire is to be supportive and supported,                                                                                                                                                 gentry, but he was not satisfied with the size of                              Trojan Hector, whose dead
          The Nine Types of People                                                              At their best, Twos are generous helpers, loving,     and to be perceived as a loyal person. If Fives tend                                                                                                                                            the dowry offered by her father.                                               body he dragged behind
          Each of us is one number that has a specific self-                                  and openhearted friends; at their worst, they are       to be loners, then Sixes tend to be social and team                                                                                                                                                The couple married shortly after, so Margery’s                              his chariot. “The Triumph
          image and positive motivation, and each has one                                     flatterers, martyrs, and manipulators.                  workers. Their deadly sin is fear, especially of not                                                                                                                                            heartfelt letters clearly appealed to her beloved.                             of Achilles,” 1892, by
          “deadly” sin that tends to be his or her Achilles’                                    Number Threes’ self-image is “I am success-           being supported, or of being betrayed, which can                                                                                                                                                While we have to wait until the Tudor period to                                Franz Matsch. A fresco on
          heel, and which must be overcome to reach one’s                                     ful,” and their basic desire is to be valuable, or an   create massive anxiety for them.                                                                                                                                                                witness the now familiar concept of bestowing                                  the upper level of the main
          full potential.                                                                     effective person, but their deadly sin is deceit, and      At their best, Sixes are committed, loyal, self-     4                                                                                                                           5           material gifts on one’s Valentine, it is Margery’s                             hall of the Achilleion at
            It is important to understand that one can only                                   often they fool themselves about their true mo-         sacrificing team players; at their worst, they                                                                                                                                                  Valentine that best captures the essence of how the                            Corfu, Greece.
          be one number, and this doesn’t change over                                         tives. This is because image is vitally important to    are suspicious, paranoid, and centers of deep           vindictive.                                                        At their best, Nines are empathetic, reliable, and       James Salesaint’s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        is an English  businessman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              day transformed    from and   the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        being a lesser-known
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     5. Odysseus must
          one’s lifetime. However, that said, the numbers                                     Threes. So as they sculpt their own images to ap-       negativity.                                               Finally, Nines see themselves as “I am content.”              harmonious; at their worst, they are apathetic,             creator of feast
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Motivational    Maps, which
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             on the medieval          operates
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               liturgical  calendar to one of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     confront Poseidon, who
          are fluid as the Enneagram symbol suggests.                                         pear successful, they can easily end up believing          Sevens see themselves as “I am happy”; to be         They wish to    experience
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           riment,        wholeness
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    and gift           and the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             giving. And                      listless,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             be aoutdoor revels     of and  stubborn.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          plays.  Events such as these took full advantagein 14 countries.   He has
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      the most       authored
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 important       overof40
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              days        books
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the year for hopeful                         represents the very
          Adjacent numbers (called “wings”) may impact                                        their own hype!                                         satisfied is their desire, and to be a joyful, opti-    peaceful person,    but their
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           early May        deadly sin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      and summer         is sloth,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      also   played              Having read
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    oran important             anspring
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          of the   overview,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         and you   mightmonths,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              summer                      from major
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          considerwith warmer         andinternational  publishers,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            hopeless romantics,        includingof religion.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   regardless                                        depths of Odysseus’s
          one’s primary number, and there are other ways                                        Some writers on the Enneagram think that              mistic person. But their deadly sin is gluttony,        what the ancients    called acedia—the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           role in people’s             inability
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             lives, giving          to secular
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              rise to         what   number
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 ritu-    daysyou   think most
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                providing  amplerepresents   yourfor largeMacmillan,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   opportunity             num-          Pearson, and Routledge, on manage-                                          soul. “Travel of Poseidon
          in which numbers interact with each other.                                          whole countries can be characterized by a domi-         or excess. They seemingly cannot get enough             take effective
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           alsaction.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                               such asPart of this inactivity
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        “Maying”     (gathering  is due
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     blossoms personality.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  and bers   And
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               of while
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   peopleyou  are thinking
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          to gather          about
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      together     it, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                outside   ment,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             cel- education,   and poetry.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Sarah Peverley    is a As  a poet, of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             professor    heEnglish
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             won at the                              by Sea,” 1894, by Ivan
            If we go around in order from One to Nine and                                     nant number: Threes’ quest for success is often         positive experiences and are always propelling          to their ability to seearound
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           dancing    both sides
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              theof a position,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Maypole,      andandso on), our
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              mum- Part 2 ebrate
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          of this the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  series will begin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       natural       to explore
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               seasons           how
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         of rebirth       first prize University
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    and growth.       in The Society   of Classical
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   of Liverpool   in Poets’ 2017This article
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      England.                                       Aivazovsky.
          describe each’s essential characteristics, it may                                   considered typically American.                          themselves forward to find the next one. Because        so to fail tomings,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            chooseand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   either.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        various forms of secular and religiousthese are revealed    in Homer’s
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The complex         “Odyssey.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           seasonal                       competition.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      rhythms of the liturgical       was first published on The Conversation.
          be possible to identify what one’s Enneagram                                          At their best, they are motivating, goal-             of their quest for excess, important things of-
          number is. Usually, most people identify with             1. Using his wits,        orientated achievers; at their worst, they are          ten never get completed, as they move to the next
          two or three numbers, and then it’s a question of         Perseus, possibly         workaholics, and as Michael Goldberg says in his        thing.
          getting feedback to narrow the options down. I            a Six, was able to        wonderful book “The 9 Ways of Working,” “soul-             At their best, Sevens are innovative, inspira-
          like the oral tradition of ascertaining where one is      slay the monster          less hustlers.”                                         tional, and big-picture people; at their worst, they

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 American Values.
          by careful sifting of the qualities of each number.       Medusa. “Perseus,” by                                                             are irresponsible, shallow, and underachievers.
                                                                    Benvenuto Cellini. In     Who Wants to Be Different?
          Starting Clockwise, With Ones                             the Loggia dei Lanzi of   Fours see themselves as “I am different,” and           Here’s the Boss, at Eight
                                                                    Florence, Italy.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Traditional Journalism.
          Number Ones believe “I am right” and have a                                         their desire is to be unique or original people.        Eights perceive themselves as “I am strong,” and
          basic desire to do good and so tend to be idealistic.                               Their deadly sin is envy because they can’t help        their basic motivation is to protect themselves
                                                                    2. Calypso was
          Their deadly sin, often repressed, is anger. Be-          most likely a Two,        but look on others and compare themselves, and          and to be a powerful person. Their deadly sin is
          cause Ones are perfectionists, and so reformers,          sometimes called the      feel they come up short. Hence, they focus on au-       lust, not just in a sexual sense but also as in a de-
          their anger is repressed for they know that if they       Lover. “Calypso Calling   thenticity and originality as a way of compensat-       sire or lust for power. They want to know who’s in
          were perfect, they wouldn’t experience it!                Heaven and Earth to       ing for comparative deficiencies. Fours are often       control, and they want it to be them! Being weak
            At their best, Ones are good people wanting to          Witness Her Sincere       considered artistic types.                              is what they must avoid.
          improve the world. Of course, at their worst, they        Affection to Ulysses,”      At their best, Fours are sensitive, aesthetic, and       At their best, Eights are high-energy, take-
          are self-righteous, arrogant, and highly judgmen-         18th century, by          profound; at their worst, they tend to be depres-       charge, and responsible individuals; at their                                                                                                                                                                                  It’s the only sane newspaper
          tal of others.                                            Angelica Kauffmann.       sive, self-absorbed, and spiteful.                      worst, they are confrontational, reckless, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        amidst all this insanity.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Reader
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