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The Definition of Industrialization
Industrialization refers to the change from a society without machinery to wide scale development of industries. The time before The Industrial Revolution is called The Pre-industrial Era.
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The Harlequin and The Circus
Why is the triangle/diamond/lozenge shape associated with the circus? For the answer, we need to go back more than 500 years.
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The Home Hearth in Art and Storytelling
In his book Home, Witold Rybczynski describes a typical European house: Heating was primitive. Houses in the sixteenth century had a fireplace or cookstove only in the main room, and no heating in the rest of the house. In winter, this room with its heavy masonry walls and stone floor was extremely cold. Voluminous clothing, […]
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Old Mother Frost Fairy Tale Analysis
Old Mother Frost” is a German fairy tale also known as “Mother Holle”, “Mother Hulda” and “Frau Holle”.
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Death Symbolism in Art and Literature
For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this image which produces Death while trying to preserve life. Contemporary with the withdrawal of rites, Photography may correspond to the intrusion, in our modern society, of an asymbolic Death, outside […]
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The Elves and the Shoemaker Fairy Tale Analysis
Read a modern re-telling of “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and you might conclude it’s a tale in praise of gratitude: Gratitude is noble. If someone does you a kind turn, be nice in return.
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Jane Campion’s The Piano Film Study
The Piano (1993) is a lyrical, fairytale film written and directed by Jane Campion, set and filmed in New Zealand near the beginning of white colonisation. SETTING OF THE PIANO Like many creative New Zealanders, Campion comes from Wellington. I don’t know why so much creativity comes out of the Wellington region, but I suspect […]
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Chimneys In Art And Storytelling
The chimney is a multivalent symbol in storytelling. Chimneys can be cosy and welcoming. A column of smoke rose thin and straight from the cabin chimney. The smoke was blue where it left the red of the clay. It trailed into the blue of the April sky and was no longer blue but gray. The […]
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Jack Sprat Nursery Rhyme Analysis
On its surface, “Jack Sprat” is a nursery rhyme about a married couple with complementary tastes in food. In the 1500s, Jack Sprat was the nick name given to small men. Today you can buy sprats in cans from the supermarket. They taste like salty sardines. ‘Sprat’ describes a variety of small forage fish. The defining features of a sprats:…
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Egg Symbolism
Eggs are common ingredients in modern cooking. Likewise, throughout the history of folklore and fairy stories, eggs are a common ingredient in magic spells. Anyone who has kept chickens knows that poultry regularly go off the lay. If your chickens are hungry, stressed, clucky or sick you won’t get any eggs. Before modern chicken farms, […]
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Castles In Art and Storytelling
The castle is a feature of Gothic storytelling, and commonly makes appearances in ghost stories of all kinds. Dragons and castles also go together. As kids my friends and I played King of the Castle. There’s not much to it. We used a pile of dirt, left by some builders. One person climbs to the […]
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A Brief History of Home Lighting
With the invention of electric light human lives changed suddenly. This change was reflected immediately in art, first by the Impressionists. Impressionist painters were the first to enjoy the freedom of painting without reliance upon the sun, in plein air. Artists from the 1960s to today use light sources to express ideas, concepts and to […]
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How to become invisible
For this one you must go to Iceland. Once in Iceland, get your hands on a magical text full of spells and suchlike, a.k.a. Icelandic grimoires. But to save you the trouble, refer to the recipe below.
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The Symbolism of Hats and Crowns
Hats can turn you into a human. Hats also indicate your social status and show deference.
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Symbolism of The Child
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of merely a descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these are the marks of childhood and adolescence […] The modern […]
