S4E12.5: Andrei Rublev

So the thing about the Tartars is that they were as bad as this movie portrays them. The Tartars just sucked and deserve to be villainized. It's not bigoted to hate the people who are constantly going into your town to murder, steal, enslave, and burn, especially in an antisemitic way.

Having now watched the movie, I think the bit with Foma saying they were both Russian might have been misinterpreted slightly? My reading was that that guy was one of the duke's men (the one who sold out the town), though I might be wrong about this

The thing with being broken on the wheel is that after they break your bones they then thread your limbs through the spokes and then leave you there.

Probably somewhere but this really reminds me of Job and his buddies going around gesturing at what "G-D" intends and means.

I actually just came out during a discussion of the meaning of art and expression during times of strife and oppression so this episode is kind of a lot.

Oh, might I also add: Russian Orthodox church has recently pushed to moved the most famous Rublev icon - The Trinity - from the gallery where it has been kept safely to a church and of course the 600-old.icon is already showing the signs of deteriorating. The Orthodox church and the state are one and the same and that's why it should be destroyed and Bolsheviks were indecisive and messed up by allowing the Patriarchate to be restored.

Russian nationalism has long been the dear friend of Russian intelligencia. They had to keep it under wraps in USSR, but since the 90s many have gone in the open, like the co-author of the script Andrei Konchalovsky (full-time government dicksucker for the past 15 years). On the tatars - since the 18th century Russian historiography has been permeated with the idea of Tatar Yoke as since 1200 and Mongolian invasion, different steppe confederations have been collecting tribute from the various princedoms of Kievan Rus. One of the reasons Moscow became important was that they jockeyd their way into collecting the tribute for the Golden Horde, so there's this element of betrayal. But also, 1400s is the time when the Yoke kinda ends after the Kulikovo Pole battle (1380) where the Horde is defeated and Moscow solidifies its position. "The tatars" have long been seen as The Other against onslaught of which Russian nation is made. The idea is going out of favor, but is still beloved by Russian nationalists and liberals (who love to compare "Asiatic Moscow despotism" to "Evropean Novgorodian diplomacy") This has been your weird Russian facts minute

The devils (1971) for religion season

Thank you for what you do here.

Re Abigail's comment on the "helpline" - I understand these volunteers are trained to get you talking and keep you talking about whatever conversation topic they can find in your initial comments to delay the immediate risk of self harm (the obvious priority). The volunteer probably wasn't ignorant of Trans people, but was was using the basic question of what is a Trans person to trigger you into an indepth conversation and fully occupy your faculties (with the best intentions).

SO excited for conclave, i just watched it and i cannot wait to year your thoughts on the role of women in the film

I dunno if this'll get read but, just in case: Mz. Thorn, thank you for speaking personally about using mental health resources. No-one is alone in going through a hard time at the moment, for any number of reasons, myself included. The reminder that there *are* resources (for now, at least) that one can reach out to and seek help from, and that someone strong and fierce might need to make use of them... It helped. It makes me feel safer for next time, because no ship ever sails perfectly smoothly. So, from a random stranger: Thank you.

RIP Foma, you would have loved trains

"her name means Little Fool or Little Idiot." Would you say "Idiette"?

"Andrei goes on a walk to a corn field," which must have been quite a walk, considering corn only existed in the Americas at this pre-Columbian time

Abi's bit about dates/24 hour clock gets me every time

Found this very moving as someone who is in the final stages of a big creative project, nauseous from the we’re so back / it’s so over rollercoaster… thank you for making me cry on my commute

Speaking of sexy witches you'd hate to tie you up... You should take a look at The Love Witch by Annie Biller !! Possibly the cuntiest horror/occult film ever made and a perfect palate cleanser post-religion season

The part about the bell being made reminded me of Schiller's "Glocke" which is a long ass German poem a lot of schoolkids need to learn by heart and it is this entire description of how a bell is made, including all the metals, ashes and more you need when you prepare the metal and how to pour it and it talks about telling stories while doing so. It's interspliced with little parts of life, a young man leaving his girlfriend to go on his apprenticeship and travel, returning to her, people getting married, having children, growing old and dying and the bell being an important object that celebrates and mourns alongside them. You could almost use it as a recipe. Also you didn't draft me either, I just felt drawn to you lot and when Abi came out it was joyful for me since I didn't have many trans creators to look up to as a trans man. Thanks for making art and sharing it despite The Horrors. We and those like us will be around for a long time.

I wasn't drafted, I had been full time years before I discovered WTYP, PT and KJB. However I have found the work of a younger generation of transgender people, including yourselves, turned me from feeling cursed and ashamed to embracing myself with the same positivity you give. This will keep me going in these difficult times.

Off I go to scold the supreme court. That was the word, right?

You didn't draft us Abi. I'd been on HRT 12 months before I ever saw your work. But the Prince was the first time I saw a trans character, portrayed accurately and positively by a trans actor, writen by a trans writer. It made me feel seen and understood in a way no media ever had before, and in that moment I realised what I had been denied my whole life, by a society that doesn't want me to exist. The world is beter for having you're art in it. Your art has literally saved my life at least once, and every day it inspires me to keep working on my own bell. You didn't draft us, we were all born into this fight, none of us chose it. All you ever did was hold a light in the darkness and remind us that we could fight back, even if only by coming out and being ourselves. Existence is residence, and your art has helped so many of us keep existing.

thank you for this episode, i will keep working on my bell

When I first started listening to this podcast I had only recently accepted I was ace and agender. Now Im being published in a comic anthology about aro and asexual experiences. None of you drafted me. You gave me hope of a tomorrow.

It just occured to me that these three haven't done the best Bond (mini) movie; Our Man Bashir

Wouldn't complain if religion season morphs into Tarkovsky season (please do Stalker).

The ant thing is just something people do, you stick a hand or a foot in an anthill, it tingle when the ants crawl over you and the formic acid smells nice and supposedly helps with arthritis. My dad did it every time we went hiking.

This isn’t the first time I’ve listened to the Jazz outro while crying from the episode

Watching this now and I lost my entire mind. There’s an actor in the Final Judgement scene who’s an extremely well known Soviet Comedy actor. I didn’t even know he’d ever been in anything serious

This was an absolutely fantastic discussion on art and humanity, and the endless universality of our shared experience, and the beauty found in it. But I'm sorry, I just don't believe that all the ignorance, cruelty, and suffering of life can be vindicated or redeemed by art and human connection. I've thought about this many times before, and if time is a flat circle and we are doomed to be victims of hatred and small-mindness again and again, then it seems to me that this desire to create beauty is just a cope, one that enables the perpetuation of our many miseries. Living to create art to cope with the misery of life, so that you can continue to live and experience those miseries? Struggling and suffering to live so that you can continue to struggle and suffering? And so that humanity can continue to do this ad infinitum? It's pointless, and I can't feel that it is worth doing. I'm sorry to be a downer, but I pay for this podcast now, and I'm gonna speak my broken little bleeding heart.

Horse had it coming. 🐴💀

**** the entire Supreme Court.

Devon that comment at the end made me break into sheer laughter I was bowling over leaving work

Abi, you didn't draft anyone. We were all in the trenches before coming out. It's just a different fight after we do.

The thin harlequin line

Didn't expect to cry listening to this, but here we are. Thank you all, and especially Devon for your words at the end of the episode.

Was hoping it was going to be Conclave, but this is good too.

Oh this was made for meeee

Lets fucking goooo, kino time!!