Lord, into thy Hands I Commend my Spirit!: The Art of being a Protestant Martyr (Forty-Three)

Today's featured article on Wikipedia paints over the religious divide present in 16th Century England.

The "Streatham" portrait is an oil painting on panel from the 1590s believed to be a later copy of a portrait of the English noblewoman Lady Jane Grey dating to her lifetime (1536/1537–54). It shows a three-quarter-length depiction of a young woman in Tudor-period dress holding a prayer book, with the faded inscription "Lady Jayne" or "Lady Iayne" in the upper-left corner. It is in poor condition and damaged, as if it has been attacked. Although of historical interest, it is generally considered to be of poor artistic quality. As of January 2015 the portrait is in Room 3 of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

So, where is the religious divide, I mentioned?

Lady Jane Grey was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII through his youngest daughter Mary Tudor, and first cousin once removed to his grandson, King Edward VI. After Edward's death, a Protestant faction proclaimed her queen over Henry VIII's daughters, hoping to prevent the Catholic Mary Tudor (elder daughter of Henry VIII) from taking the throne. Two weeks after the death of her brother, Mary, with the support of the English people, claimed the throne, which Jane relinquished only nine days after being installed. She and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, were imprisoned in the Tower of London on charges of high treason. Jane's trial was conducted in November, but her sentence of death was suspended. In February 1554, Jane's father Henry, who had been pardoned, participated in Wyatt's rebellion. On 12 February, Mary had Jane, then aged 16, and her husband beheaded; Jane's father suffered the same fate two days later.

Jane was a devout Protestant during the English Reformation, when the Church of England violently rejected the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Known for her piety and education, she corresponded with Protestant leaders in Continental Europe, such as Heinrich Bullinger. A modest person who dressed plainly, her last words before her execution are reported as "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"

As well,

Jane's execution by a Catholic queen made her into what the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography terms a "Protestant martyr"

In short, art, regardless of the quality, is often two things: 1.) Birthed out of family drama, and 2.) Governed by the day's politics.

The Never-Ending Final Fantasy, Part VIII (Day Forty-Two)

As an avid non-gamer and anti-escapist, today's featured article on Wikipedia left me jonesin' for something more like reality.

Final Fantasy VIII (ファイナルファンタジーVIII Fainaru Fantajī Eito?) is a 1999 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix). It is the eighth major installment in the Final Fantasy series. The game was the series' second 3D installment and the first to consistently use realistically proportioned characters, and introduced a new magic system to the Final Fantasy franchise which removed magic point-based spell-casting. Set on an unnamed fantasy world with science fiction elements, the game follows the story of a group of young mercenaries, led by Squall Leonhart, who are part of an organization named SeeD. Initially traveling to different countries to stop the sorceress Edea, their goal changes to stop a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia from compressing time. 

The development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997, during the English localization process of Final Fantasy VII..... The game was positively received by critics, who praised the originality and scope of the game. It was voted the 22nd-best game of all time in 2006 by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. The game was a commercial success; thirteen weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title of all time until Final Fantasy XIII, a multi-platform release. The game shipped 8.15 million copies worldwide by March 31, 2003. Originally for the PlayStation, it was later ported to Windows-based personal computers and became available on PlayStation Network as a PSone Classics title in 2009.

The Politics behind the Wordless Novel (Day Forty-One)

Given today's featured article on Wikipedia, we should reevaluate the narrowness of how we define the "novel".

For example, the wordless novel is "a narrative genre that uses sequences of captionless pictures to tell a story. As artists have often made such books using woodcut and other relief printing techniques, the terms woodcut novel or novel in woodcuts are also used. The genre flourished primarily in the 1920s and 1930s and was most popular in Germany."

The wordless novel has its origin in the German Expressionist movement of the early 20th century. The typically socialist work drew inspiration from medieval woodcuts and used the awkward look of that medium to express angst and frustration at social injustice.... Following an early-1930s peak in production and popularity, the genre waned in the face of competition from sound films and anti-socialist censorship in Nazi Germany and the US.

Two aspects of this art form I want to address:

First, the "socialist themes of struggle against capitalism are common; scholar Perry Willett calls these themes 'a unifying element of the genre's aesthetic.'" As well, "[t]he storytelling tends to be melodramatic, and the stories tend to focus on struggles against social oppression in which characters are silenced by economic, political, and other social forces. The characters are clearly delineated as good or evil—the good drawn sympathetically and the evil with the contempt of the artist's moral indignation."

Second, "wordless novels used relief printing techniques such as woodcuts, wood engraving, metalcuts, or linocuts. One of the oldest printing techniques, relief printing has its origins in 8th-century China and was introduced to Europe in the 15th century.... Relief printing is an inexpensive but labour-intensive printing technique; it was accessible to socially conscious artists who wanted to tell wordless stories of the working classes."

Of the first, I ponder, why should an artistic medium be shackled to the dominate political ideology of its origins? Following the case made by French critical theorist Roland Barthes, art basically belongs the era of the reader, not so much that of the writer.

Of the second, the irony in that the socialists choose a "labour-intensive" technique, instead of a more efficient capital one.

It's Good to be King: The Governance of 7th Century Britain (Day Forty)

Today's featured article on Wikipedia has a royal turn.

Æthelred (/ˈæθəlrɛd/; died after 704) was King of Mercia from 675 until 704. He was the son of Penda of Mercia and came to the throne in 675, when his brother, Wulfhere of Mercia, died. Within a year of his accession he invaded Kent, where his armies destroyed the city of Rochester. In 679 he defeated his brother-in-law, Ecgfrith of Northumbria, at the Battle of the Trent: the battle was a major setback for the Northumbrians, and effectively ended their military involvement in English affairs south of the Humber. It also permanently returned the Kingdom of Lindsey to Mercia's possession. However, 

Æthelred was unable to re-establish his predecessors' domination of southern Britain.
He was known as a pious and devout Christian king, and he made many grants of land to the church. It was during his reign that Theodore, the Archbishop of Canterbury, reorganized the church's diocesan structure, creating several new sees in Mercia and Northumbria.... 

Æthelred's wife, Osthryth, was a daughter of King Oswiu, one of the dominant 7th-century Northumbrian kings. Osthryth was murdered in unknown circumstances in 697, and in 704 Æthelred abdicated, leaving the throne to Wulfhere's son Coenred. Æthelred became a monk at Bardney, a monastery which he had founded with his wife, and was buried there....

The most interesting sections in this article relate to the governing structures and manners of 7th Century Britain.  My curiosity peaks, however, with this question: How common of a practice at the time to abdicate one's kingship?

The Darwinian Waters of Evolution: The Case Study of the Trait du Nord (Day Thirty-Nine)

Today's featured article on Wikipedia highlights how even artificial selection cannot man the Darwinian waters of evolution.

The Trait du Nord, previously also known as Ardennais du Nord or Ardennais de type Nord, is a breed of heavy draft horse developed and bred in the area of Hainaut in western Belgium and in northeastern France. Originally considered a subtype of the Ardennes, it was recognized as an individual breed with the opening of a studbook in 1903. Developed in the fertile Flemish grasslands, it was bred for size and pulling power for agricultural work. By 1855, the horses bred near Hainaut were considered by some veterinarians to be superior to other Flemish draft breeds. The Trait du Nord was used extensively in mining from the late 19th century through 1920, with lesser use continuing through the 1960s.

The Trait du Nord continued to be used extensively for agriculture through World War II, but after the war this usage, and the breed population, declined significantly as farming became increasingly mechanized. During the mid-20th century, the breed was in demand for the production of horse meat, and due to this was bred to be larger and heavier. In the early 1970s, the market for horse meat began to decline, and the Trait du Nord, like many European draft breeds, was in danger of extinction. It was not until the 1990s that the breed experienced a slight revival through an increased interest in recreational riding and driving.

With increased reliance on motorized technology for farming and mining, coupled with changes in consumer dietary tastes, we find the Trait du Nord presently an endangered species.    

The breed is considered to be endangered by the French government, with fewer than 100 new foal births a year. The national breed registry in France is working with local groups in an attempt to promote this breed and bring population numbers back up. The breed currently has a high risk of inbreeding, due to the low number of breeding stallions, and is at risk of extinction.

We often think of animal species flourishing in the absences of us, and that if only those darn humans would just get out of the way or off of this planet entirely, these other creatures would thrive. However, the fate of the Trait du Nord reminds us well that numerous species rely on us exclusively for their very livelihoods. In short, what stands between a species and its extinction is often nothing more than us humans. To many, we are their only levee against the raging waters of evolution.

J.S. Bach's Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22: Scoring and Structure (Day Thirty-Eight)

As a musician and music-lover who often confines himself to mostly Jazz or Jazz-influenced music, Wikipedia's featured article on days like this make my ears happy!

Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (Jesus gathered the twelve to Himself), BWV 22, is "a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach composed for Quinquagesima, the last Sunday before Lent. Bach composed it as an audition piece for the position ofThomaskantor in Leipzig and first performed it there on 7 February 1723."

Scoring and structure

The cantata has five movements and is scored for three vocal soloists (an alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir (SATB), and for a Baroque orchestra of an oboe (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va) and basso continuo. The duration is given as c. 20 minutes.

In the following table of movements, the scoring, divided in voices, winds and strings, follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The continuo group is not listed, because it plays throughout. The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr. The symbol is used to denote common time (4/4).

No.	Type	Text (source)	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Key	Time
1	Arioso	Jesus nahm zu sich  die Zwölfe (Bible)	T B SATB	Ob	2Vl Va	G minor
2	Aria	Mein Jesu, ziehe mich  nach dir (anon.)	A	Ob		C minor	9/8
3	Recitativo	Mein Jesu, ziehe mich,  so werd ich laufen (anon.)	B			E-flat major − B major
4	Aria	Mein alles in allem,  mein ewiges Gut (anon.)	T		2Vl Va	B major	3/8
5	Chorale	Ertöt uns durch dein  Güte (Cruziger)	SATB	Ob	2Vl Va	B major

The time signatures for the second and fourth movements caught my attention, since these are highly uncommon in the music to which I play and listen.

John Irving on Knowing Whether You're a Writer

At some point in their lives, every author made a decision that they were a writer--no aspiring prefixed to the title. It frightens us to make such an identifying claim about ourselves, especially if we have little to show for it--no novels, no short stories, maybe only a few blog posts. Stepping onto such an admirable and storied path can feel pretentious or undeserved. Admittedly, writers are well aware of the many bookshelves that are full of unnecessary and terribly-written novels. It's only worse in the interwebs, crowded by millions of people trying to find a voice that can articulate something which may matter to somebody else. This curmudgeonly pessimism from already established wizards of the page shouldn't stop us from responding to the creative impulse inherent in our species. Most of us hear the call of the pen, or feel a very real compulsion to dance our fingers across the keys of a typewriter or a keyboard--too few of us decide to continue moving our feet once the path becomes treacherous, seemingly blocked by an immovable barrier. 

You may not find yourself ready for it, or believe you will ever be capable of penning something worth reading. John Irving, author of The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, offers something heartening to those feeling under-prepared or unqualified for the work. His advice doesn't apply to all--especially if you are extroverted by nature--but I think most aspiring-writers will find some confidence. And, hopefully, a few more will find the courage to remove the hyphenated prefix.