One of the most iconic scenes in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the movies made of it, is of a naive, disgruntled Edmond meeting the White Witch in the woods with her sleigh. Most depictions show him startled, as here. The witch turns toward him casually, tall, proud, and imperious, about to …
I’m sure you’ve seen it on someone’s t-shirt: a roughly drawn smiley face with X’s instead of eyes and a protruding tongue. Together with the word Nirvana in its distinctive, elongated typeface – the font is Onyx, a popular one in the early 1990s – the effect on the viewer is striking. Right away the …
I used to be disgusted Now I try to be amused But since their wings have got rusted You know the angels wanna wear my red shoes — Elvis Costello, (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes Red is the most dominant and eye-catching color in the spectrum. To even say its name is to …
Though the color purple been democratized these days –- almost every mass-produced clothing item and stuffed toy is available in some shade of it –- it was once very rare and restricted to royalty. This was because its dye depended on a rare, arcane ingredient: the slimy secretions of the murex sea snail. For centuries, …
One of the more oddball Greek myths I am fascinated with is that of Zeus and Ganymede. It’s NSFW so buckle up, and like most Greek myths, differs according to who tells it. Basically, Ganymede was a comely youth who caught the eye of Zeus so Zeus kidnapped him in the form of an eagle, …
Pretty much all fantasy writers are familiar with Greek myths, or they should be: they’re one of the unfailing constants of Western Culture. The Iliad, which told of the fall of Troy (and the Trojan horse.) The Odyssey, about the hero Odysseus’s epic journey to find his way home. Theseus and the Minotaur, Icarus who …
Some Biblical scholars believe the apple of the Garden of Eden was actually a pomegranate, apples being unknown in the Middle East many thousands of years ago. But I’m sure it wasn’t a fruit like this one, which is beautiful yet eerie.
Orange is a color that literally didn’t exist in the English language before the 16th century. When people wanted to describe an orange hue, they used word composites like yellow-red or red-gold, or sometimes saffron. Only after Portuguese merchants began to import orange trees to Europe did the shade receive a name. In France the …
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