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II. To Winter Wonderlands
The road through the Almond and Raisin Gate led Nutcracker and Marie to Rock Candy Mountain and the Christmas Woods, Bon-Bonville, Marzipan Castle, and Jamburg. Upon crossing Lemonade River, six monkeys in red vests began “playing the most beautiful Turkish military music,” while they walked “farther and farther on multicolored tiles, which, however, were nothing but nicely filled lozenges.” (more…)
Left: Antoine-Jean Gros, Premier Consul Bonaparte, ca. 1802; Right: Cover for E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas’ The Nutcracker & the Mouse King
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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Like many of us this past season, I have had to endure far too many repetitions of the same 11 ”holiday” songs that fail to capture the essence of the season: the contemplative, dirge-y, or haunted side of winter, paired with the tasteful emotional warmth and childlike joy of Christmas. (more…)
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The latest installment of The Writers’ Bloc was a special Christmas broadcast, where host Nick Jeelvy was visited by three apparitions from the ethereal plane who taught us the meaning of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
William Blake, Mrs. Q, ca. 1815
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“The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
The last article of mine that our editors at Counter–Currents kindly published was about the masculine topic of military history. To complement a foray into the Napoleonic Wars, I included a clip from the 1970 film Waterloo.[1] In the comments, a reader shared an observation about one of the few Waterloo scenes that did not take place on a battlefield. Instead, this particular scene immersed audiences in a Brussels high-society fête, where the Duchess of Richmond hosted the Duke of Wellington’s officers at her famous summer Ball of 1815. (more…)
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The eclectic scholar Kathryn S. returned to join host Nick Jeelvy on the latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc for a discussion on Orientalism — what happens when Western man gazes eastwards — and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
Horace Vernet, Napoleon at Jena: “En Avant!”
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1. Homer, Iliad. W. C. Bryant, trans. Perth, Aus.: Imperium Press, 2019, 576 pp.: While everyone knows the story, few people today have actually read it. You can bet that almost every great military commander in Western history read it. Composed during the Greek “Dark Ages” and (probably) based on a real event, Iliad is an echo of the even earlier Bronze Age — of war’s power at its all-encompassing, glorious, and terrible pinnacle. (more…)
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The latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc was a celebration of Nick Jeelvy‘s first anniversary since his move to Counter-Currents, where he offered a show retrospective and did an Ask Me Anything, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
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Frequent Counter-Currents writer Anthony Bavaria was host Nick Jeelvy‘s guest on the latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc, where they presented The Best Month Ever, a review of Counter-Currents articles published in July, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
Napoleon’s North African-attired Consular Guard: a hard look to pull off
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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
2. Rage Militaire: Franco-American Zouave-mania
“His parents taught him to be a cavalier, but the life of the Zou-zou he much did prefer.” — anonymous Confederate verse
“The city,” one Richmond, Virginia newspaperman enthused, “was yesterday thrown into a paroxysm of excitement by the arrival of the New Orleans Zouaves — a battalion of six hundred and thirty, as unique and picturesque looking Frenchmen as ever delighted the oculars of Napoleon the three.” (more…)
