Glowing mushroom

My friend dragon-in-drag drew a wonderful picture of our...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:29:41 +0400

My friend dragon-in-drag drew a wonderful picture of our characters - Nisi, who is a beautiful Dwarf Lady, and Dreamo, who is a Hobbit and madly in love with her.

If you would like to read more about Nisi, then please visit CurvedSteel - the wordpress blog about female Dwarves in the MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online and (as of late) in Hobbit movies too. I can promise that you will love the story of this fire-bearded and -tempered Dwarf Lady =)

dragon-in-drag: I colored my Woolsey Scott sketch to celebrate...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 02:19:37 +0400

dragon-in-drag:

I colored my Woolsey Scott sketch to celebrate two great events - that the Clockwork Princess did not kill the character or destroy any part of our head-canon and that my beloved Schursch came back to Moscow today)

P.S. Oh, and I’ve sent Cassandra Clare a fan message asking about Woolsey and fangirling like a total idiot, I’m so sor… oh wait, I’m not!

I am thrilled to see more Woolsey and more of my beloved dragon on tumblr!)

dragon-in-drag: Two years old sketch my friend told me she...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:46:45 +0400

dragon-in-drag:

Two years old sketch my friend told me she liked. So I repost it here since it’s been deleted from every other place on the net. Maybe someone likes every pic with those two in it. I do)

Grindeldore is (are?) love. Enjoy, tumblr, it’s your lucky chance!

Here is a sketch of Woolsey Scott – a character from the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:16:38 +0400

Here is a sketch of Woolsey Scott – a character from the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare. It was drawn by my girlfriend and, of course, she is deeply unhappy with how it turned out, because no picture seems to reflect the awesomeness of his glorious wolfish self enough)

Woolsey is one of our two favourite characters in the Shadowhunters universe (the second one being Magnus, of course). It seems extremely witty to us that Cassandra Clare made an aesthete out of a werewolf character – a species that is often portrayed as crude, rude, and unsophisticated. And British aesthete basically means Oscar Wilde or Dorian Gray, who are undeniably awesome.

Woolsey wears a ring with “L’art pour l’art” engraved on it, which translates as “Art for art’s sake”, expressing “that the intrinsic value of art, and the only “true” art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function” (thank you, Wikipedia). And it describes the character perfectly: he is not bad, he is not good; he is artistic.

Like Des Esseintes, a character from a novel “Against Nature” which is often thought of as an aestheticism manifest, he is striving to refine every moment of his life, his every experience into an aesthetic existence. Woolsey’s extravagant scarf and his golden tea spoon and sugar pincers definitely accumulate much more of an aesthetic vitality for him than for anyone else – similarly to Des Esseintes who made a symphony instrument out of the arrangement his liquors.

It seems that even his affections bear an aesthetic print, as Oscar Wilde’s love for Bosie (Alfred Douglas) was to a large part build by a model of Greek love – out of aesthetic persuasion. Woolsey’s deep friendship with Magnus Bane seems to reflect a similar pattern. The unconventional fashion sense of Magnus, his cat-eyes, the “oriental” face features all fit into the aesthetic fascination with orientalism and distaste towards the common and ordinary.

Woolsey’s homosexuality could be perceived by him as a part of his aesthetic lifestyle. Like orientalism expressed a distaste for common and ordinary, homosexuality could be perceived as a rejection of mainstream tastes and orientations, and a pivotal part of Woolsey’s personal “moral code” based on living for art and rejecting bourgeois notions.

For Woolsey Magnus is similar to what the aesthetic vampire figure represented for Baudlaire: irony, “dissonance in the divine symphony”, refusal to fully play by the rules of society, detachment from historical actuality and endless travel through the world as the centers of art development migrate between cities and countries.

In our headcanon Woolsey himself used to travel a lot before he had to accept his pack leader duties – which must’ve been hard for him as any “obligation to society” is hard for an aesthete, who is ultimately an individualist.

As true fans we have made up our own story of how Woolsey and Magnus first met. The story involves a young Woolsey falling deeply in love with a mundane boy on the Continent; he attempts to introduce the boy to the Downworld which scares the young man and causes him to confess to his father, betraying Woolsey. Father was, of course, not happy that his son was having a romantic relationship with a monster (and a man, let’s not forget this bit). We think Woolsey must’ve told the boy the effect of silver on him (it must’ve been tormenting for Woolsey to live through the Silver Age later). The boy abused the knowledge and asked Woolsey to drink some silver-containing concoction claiming that he is afraid of being hurt if Woolsey turns accidentally into a wolf (we are not sure how it fits any sort of biological or chemical knowledge, but never let the facts of the world get in the way of headcanon). The drink is consumed, the weapon-bearing men hired by the father pour into the room, and when Woolsey promises the boy to protect him and fight, he is deserted. At the same moment Magnus was having a good voyeur time somewhere by the windows – because it seems unlikely that anything would’ve stopped the warlock from enjoying the view of two beautiful young men together if he felt like it. Seeing one of them becoming a boy in distress, the warlock pulls a magic trick from his elaborately embroidered sleeve and saves Woolsey.

This bit of headcanon plot was heavily inspired by the reaction of Bosie’s father (Lord Queensberry) to his son’s relationship with Wilde, though, of course, the real developments were much more exquisite and lacked a happy ending.

But the mere fact of being saved would not prompt Woolsey to befriend Magnus in more than a socially polite way, if all the earlier mentioned aesthetic considerations did not come into play.

We think that from that moment Woolsey decided to fight against his wolf-natured monogamy, complaining from time to time to Magnus about how crude, unrefined and down-to-earth this urge to find “the one” is and how it gets stronger during the full moon. In the end he chose a classical sculpture called “The Victorious Youth” which is attributed to Lysippos, to fall in love with, as it is the perfect fusion of form and matter and is the only really worthy object of his one true love. This sculpture is one of the rarest objects of Greek art, as it is made of bronze, and most Greek bronze statues were melted down. In our world it was found in 1964 in the sea by an Italian fishing trawler. Its discovery happened under impossible and thus very romantically aesthetic circumstances, that’s why we think that Woolsey had a hand in it. He tasked Praetor Lupus to arrange this event after his death, so that the world may rediscover the love of his life under the fitting circumstances. As the werewolves do not have magic at their disposal, it took some time, but a made a beautiful and lasting impression on the world.

We also think that Woolsey must have held pride in his mortality – and please note how on the drawing the smoke from the pipe transforms into solid matter, connecting the tangible and the ephemeral. In the universe of the Infernal Devices and the Mortal Instruments the werewolves are the only mortal Downworlders. It does not simply make them unique, which can be a source of pride, but, form Woolsey’s viewpoint, will save him from ennui and from the times when the world becomes utterly tasteless.

At the same time Woolsey understands how hard it will be for Magnus to lose him, and how Magnus himself is afraid of death. In our headcanon Woolsey, when old and dying, in the midst of Praetor Lupus members, arranges his last social event –a kind of a Woolsey Scott’s death party. He is mortally ill, but invites friends, Magnus among them, chats with them, gives them final presents; when one of the girls breaks down he forbids her crying in an ordinary way at his funeral and instead tells her to at least wear a proper Greek veil for funeral wailers when he is buried. At last, he shoos everybody away, but Magnus stays.

Initially Magnus was uneasy about coming to the party and even angry at Woolsey for making him go through his death in such a way. We think Magnus distanced himself from Woolsey so that the sad news may never reach him, thus allowing the illusion that his friend is still alive and is one social call away. But he got into the spirit of the party and didn’t want to leave Woolsey since he arrived after all. Woolsey let him stay saying that the warlock may as well then ensure his last funeral request: to use magic so that Woolsey’s body can lay in the silver coffin, so that he is remembered as the most glorious werewolf who could overcome even their kind’s weakness against the metal. Naturally, Magnus agrees, but Woolsey has a smaller and more immediate need: he wants his favourite “naughty woodcuts” to pass the time, but forbids Magnus to transport them downstairs by magic, claiming that only careful handling befits his precious possessions. “After all, I’m hardly going to die while you bring them”, says Woolsey, and a resigned Magnus goes up the stairs. As you could have guessed, this is exactly what happens, and Magnus finds his friend already gone – and despite his efforts and to the horror of the guards he begins laughing at their last shared joke. In fact, it helped Magnus in a very significant way: Woolsey made sure that for the first time the warlock can think of a dead friend and his death with a smile instead of a feeling of incorrigible loss.

We hope that Clockwork Princess will not let us see Woolsey’s death at an earlier time so that this headcanon will not become completely invalid)

Wow, that’s a lot of headcanon for one little sketch and one minor character!

But that is what reading Art and Life in Aestheticism: De-Humanizing and Re-Humanizing Art, the Artist, and the Artistic Receptor edited by Kelly Comfort does to two people.

cassandraclare: first malec moment Go here for MTV’s first...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:27:30 +0400

cassandraclare:

first malec moment

Go here for MTV’s first look at Magnus in the TMI movie.

listentoyourmumzy: We had fun at the Ren Fest last weekend, the...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:40:08 +0400

listentoyourmumzy:

We had fun at the Ren Fest last weekend, the theme was Celtic Pride so Layla wore her Merida costume. She was a hit, and she won the daily costume contest. We met this big lady there too.

"I don’t know if you can tell us this, but with there be any LGBTQ characters in the Dark..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:21:18 +0400

“I don’t know if you can tell us this, but with there be any LGBTQ characters in the Dark Artifices?
— averagesparrow”

- That’s wonderful! I know this comment will sound pathetic but my country’s parliament is about to prohibit giving any positive or neutral information about LGBTQ persons to people under 18. But with TMI movie coming out, publishers will certainly want to get the profit by translating your books, and I hope through them teenagers and young adults will know “it’s OK to be gay” (that is, if the publishers will not censor the books). So thank you for not neglecting us.

"Will the reason behind the bitter feud between the Seelie Queen and Magnus be revealed in the..."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:50:42 +0400

“Will the reason behind the bitter feud between the Seelie Queen and Magnus be revealed in the upcoming Chronicles?
— infidi”

- Magnus is still mad at the Seelie Queen for stealing his look back in the nineteenth century. He pioneered the tasteful diamante crown and she won’t admit it. (via cassandraclare)

Since there is not enough Woolsey Scott either in the books or...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:38:00 +0400

Since there is not enough Woolsey Scott either in the books or on Tumblr, it stands to reason that this werewolf with exquisite taste must be spending his time someplace else. Someplace and, I should add, sometime else.

He was reborn with no memories of his past life, and has recently undergone a rough patch of betrayal, robbery, and financial near-ruin. The need to abandon his spacious mansion filled with art pieces was devastating enough, but the new temporary house extracted from Woolsey more than one cry of anguish with its tasteless furnishings and mismatched wallpaper.

What a relief it was to find at least one decent piece of old furniture on special offer!.. But the said piece attracted not only Woolsey’s admiration, but also unrestful ghosts – and a man who specialized in summoning and banishing, though not as much of ghosts than of demons. None other than a bright, whimsically dressed, exotic-looking warlock Magnus Bane, who changed a lot of places and circles since his time in London, but would never mistake his dear friend Woolsey Scott for anyone else.

And few things help a quick (re)acquaintance as much as a joint ghost-hunting!

seabeary: Is it bad that I like that one demon Magnus summons in the beginning of Clockwork Prince...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:14:52 +0400

seabeary:

Is it bad that I like that one demon Magnus summons in the beginning of Clockwork Prince more than I like Jem Carstairs?

That demon is worth his share of liking) Coming up with such an astonishingly effective “curse” in the first moments after being imprisoned for ~20 years! And the color blue, of course)

A warlock, a werewolf, and aesthetic relations

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:50:46 +0400

Aesthetic foundation for the Epic Friendship (and occasional lovemaking) of Woolsey Scott with Magnus Bane:

“… faced with a product of China – something weird, strange, distorted in form, intense in color and sometimes delicate to the point of evanescence”

Baudelaire, via “Art and life in aestheticism: de-humanizing and re-humanizing art, the artist, and the artistic receptor” by Kelly Comfort (Ed.)

iratzewillsass: i feel like the only person in this fandom who still sort-of likes woolsey...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:15:43 +0400

iratzewillsass:

i feel like the only person in this fandom who still sort-of likes woolsey scott

Cheer up, you are certainly not the only one, unless you discard people who like Woolsey Scott hell of a lot)

Thanks to The Hobbit for bringing Dwarrow-Dams aka female...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:05:37 +0400

Thanks to The Hobbit for bringing Dwarrow-Dams aka female Dwarves on screen!

lotrsincebirth: Great Goblin and Gandalf!!!

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:26:35 +0400

lotrsincebirth:

Great Goblin and Gandalf!!!

Photo

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:29:37 +0400

OMG that dress!: Costume books from the MET available online

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:00:33 +0400

OMG that dress!: Costume books from the MET available online:

omgthatdress:

Wordrobe

Waist Not: Migration of the Waist 1800-1960

Our New Clothes: Acquisitions of the 1990s

Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress

Madame Grès

Infra-Apparel

Haute Couture

Gianni Versace

Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century

Christian Dior

tinycartridge: Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney’s Japanese...

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:04:00 +0400

tinycartridge:

Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney’s Japanese boxart. So beautiful! So purple! And so pointy!
[Via Solidsnakex]

momoandsprits: Cause I love stylized maps and themed worlds and...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:00:27 +0400

momoandsprits:

Cause I love stylized maps and themed worlds and maps of themed worlds oh and also Mario

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:17:10 +0400

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:

I chose the “Bilbo” moment in the new trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Choose your moment at www.thehobbit.com.

usscoppelia: Made Operetta a bed. The blanket is reversible,...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 23:54:56 +0400

usscoppelia:

Made Operetta a bed. The blanket is reversible, the pillows two sided. :) The spiderweb fabric actually glows in the dark! The base of the bed is a narrow shoe box. Three fabrics and a purple plaid ribbon were used for trim.

The side table/bookcase is the inside of the box my cellphone came in. It already had little shelves and is a good height. I may had embellishments to it later, but I am taking a break from hot glue. (I burnt a finger today!)

Anyways, I am pretty happy with it. I may try and make a better bed later on, but this is a pretty solid first attempt. <3

Nice sleeping place for Operetta!