Phyllis Norval Delano

Cats, horses, music, movies, books and more books and more...cats and photography

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

They'll do anything to get you into bed | David Foster Wallace | The Guardian https://t.co/HmXMZcVJLO

[goth music videos @goth_videos]

Depeche Mode - Stripped

https://t.co/cX89BBB67a

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

@nunberty2 @davidcinema Extraordinarily beautiful

[DepressedBergman @DannyDrinksWine]

François Truffaut once happened to be eating in the same restaurant as Jack Clayton. Since he had never met Clayton before, he had the waiter carry a scribbled napkin to him which read, "'The Innocents' (1961) is the best English film after Hitchcock goes to America."

[SAINT LAURENT @YSL]

Saint Laurent presents the Women’s Summer 24 Collection by Anthony Vaccarello.

Soundtrack by SebastiAn
Voice by Catherine Deneuve

#YSL #YvesSaintLaurent #SaintLaurent

https://t.co/Apwd3en4lp

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

Pen and ink drawing by US poet Sylvia Plath #WomensArt

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

Les peintres météorologues : comment attraper les nuages avec un pinceau via @franceculture https://t.co/8Chap2oWpc

[Long Victorian @longvictorian2]

The Red Book (c. 1901) by John Lavery (Irish artist, lived 1856–1941). The sitter is Mary Auras, here engrossed in a #book.

[V&A @V_and_A]

‘How bravely Autumn paints upon the sky…' 🍁🍂

First issued in 1938, this poster designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer was re-issued in 1955 to advertise a memorial exhibition of the artist’s work at the V&A.

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

Embroidered leaves by US artist Hillary Waters Fayle #WomensArt

[Long Victorian @longvictorian2]

#Autumn or #Fall has arrived and so here is: Autumn Leaves (1856) by John Everett Millais (English, lived 1829–1896). Raking and burning leaves in the twilight. The artist's sisters-in-law, Alice and Sophie Gray (left). Unsure as to the identity of the two children on the right.

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

Beautiful Giveaway 🍂💛🍂

One very lucky person shall win a brand new copy of 'Devotions - The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver'.

To Enter:
Like, Retweet, and Follow.
(Closes Monday 6pm)

Mary Oliver 🖎

[The Thanatos Archive 💀⚰️ @ThanatosArchive]

From The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920.

[PreRaphaeliteSociety @PreRaphSoc]

Happy Birthday to the amazing artistic force that was Evelyn de Morgan, born #OTD in 1855. Showing 'Flora' (1894), 'The Love Potion' (1903) and 'The Storm Spirits' (c.1900) for this week's #WednesdayWonder @DeMorganF

[Gramophone @GramophoneMag]

David Patrick Stearns offers a profile of Carlos Kleiber, a complex, fascinating conductor and an often prickly character under whose guidance even the greatest of artists would surpass themselves. https://t.co/DsZJSKpocr

[PreRaphaeliteSociety @PreRaphSoc]

A second post today- Snoozy Saturday with Rossetti for this #StudySaturday.

🖼️ Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s, ‘Study of Fanny Cornforth, asleep on a chaise-longue’, 1862. ‘Study of Jane Morris Asleep’. And ‘Study of Elizabeth Siddal sleeping seated in a chair ’, c.1860.

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

@russellcrowe The Louvre

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

@russellcrowe Paris

[UNESCO en français @UNESCO_fr]

🧠L’expansion du secteur des neurotechnologies remet en question notre compréhension de l’identité personnelle.

Préservons notre libre arbitre !

🤝Découvrez les enjeux de la #Neuroéthique. Ensemble, œuvrons pour un avenir qui respecte notre identité : https://t.co/hMdvbQWzuL

[Hanif Kureishi @Hanifkureishi]

DESOLATION ROW

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you. But it has certainly happened to me. I have entirely lost my appetite. I cannot eat more than two or three mouthfuls of melon, or of pain aux raisins. Sometimes I have some chocolate or a protein drink and all day a little bit of water. But otherwise my appetite is dead.

I have felt nauseous most of the time and have vomited. When I see my sons tucking into a massive salmon and cream cheese sandwich I am shocked by how much they manage to consume. Friends bring me the most delicious food they can think of to try and tempt me, but there is not a particular taste I am looking for. All food repulses me. But because I have been living in a hospital since Christmas, it wouldn’t be surprising that I have become disillusioned, and no longer read the papers or watch the news.

I have no desire to watch movies or comedy shows. In the evenings, before Isabella leaves me, she always reads to me from my friend David of Bromley’s blog, and then several delicious pages from Elton John’s autobiography, which always cheers me up before the long fear and desolation of the night, that I have to go through alone. It isn’t surprising, since I am so depressed and ill, that my libido has died. At least one more discouraging thing.

I found out in Rome that the doctors there have been giving me a small amount of anti-depressant. I didn’t ask for them, and I didn’t particularly want them, but I discovered they were on my pharmaceutical agenda.

Here, in this new hospital, they have doubled the dose, since I didn’t much notice I was taking them anyway. Asking around my friends, it turns out that at least 50% of them have been, or currently are on, some kind of anti-depressants. Some have been running major institutions on them.

One friend has been taking them for twenty years, because he has reproachful thoughts after midnight, and has no intention of giving the meds up. Other friends have been off and on them for most of their lives. They all ask me what particular variety I am taking but I can never remember the name or pronounce it. I never wanted to take them since I have my own cure in psychoanalysis twice a week. One friend said “anti-depressants get you to the party and psychoanalysis enables you to enjoy the party once you get there”.

I avoided them because I didn’t want to mess with my brain, which I require in order to be a writer. But I am beyond that now. I am suffering more than I deserve.

I cannot believe that I have been living on a dementia ward for three weeks, because that is where they have been able to find a room for me. It is worse than a bad joke. The cries and howls are very disturbing.  Previously I had led a lucky life; I had all the luck in the world. Now it has run down. I spend as much of the day as I can with friends. People are still keen to visit me. I have given up writing for conversation. I can no longer make things up for a living - it seems too artificial in the face of this absurdity - and I have to say that the conversation has been a lot of fun. I like listening to others. People’s generosity and kindness has overwhelmed me.

In circumstances like this you really find out who your friends are, and how loving people can be. I wish I had been kinder; and if I get another chance, I will be. 

Hanif xx

[Phyllis Norval Delano @DelanoNorval]

@Hanifkureishi Been there, and still on medication most probably forever. My thoughts are with you. It is good that you have friends who visit.