Beautiful Eyes Research Articles

Kafka’s beautiful eyes: Forensic intelligence utilisation of phenotypic information

Franz Kafka had beautiful eyes. So striking, that many of the famous author’s friends and peers commented on them – but quite variously (‘dark’, ‘brown’, ‘grey’ & ‘blue’). Eye colour as perceived by an observer is subjective, being influenced by physiological, environmental, and even sociocultural factors. In a policing context, this does not mean that trait information such as eye colour is not valuable (far from it), but that it must be managed carefully. The Australian Federal Police has recently implemented a forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP, aka. physical trait prediction or PTP) capability, utilising massively parallel sequencing DNA technology to predict an individual’s eye colour, biogeographical ancestry and sex from a crime scene sample. This information alone is not itself ‘intelligence’, but can be used to generate intelligence through holistic analyses undertaken within a transdisciplinary, all-source forensic intelligence (FORINT) framework. FORINT outputs posit abductive propositions typically at the activity/offence level, to provide insight and influence decision making. However, the use of predicted traits requires that they are compared to something; all Australian police databases include fields for physical traits, but no uniform standard is applied across all agencies. Moreover, collection is inconsistent and no automated systems are in place to capture such data systematically. Consider the ‘Kafka problem’: his peers gave multiply divergent descriptions of his eyes. If a Biology unit had predicted the eye colour of an ‘unidentified author’ using DNA – how would Kafka be confidently nominated as the contributor? We posit three maxims for law enforcement: (1) To expand the operational utility of forensic science in line with police demands, forensic science should operationalise FDP (e.g. operationally to rank a list of persons of interest, focus lines of enquiry in serious & organised crime, or assist with human remains identification). (2) Such advanced biological techniques are best delivered through an all-source FORINT framework, to maximise opportunities and minimise risk. (3) One cannot pursue techno-scientific advancements in isolation; it is also necessary to influence the operational posture for their implementation. In this paper we explore these issues and provide recommendations relating to (a) police practices, (b) image capture systems, and (c) research opportunities. Phenotypic trait prediction has great potential and can be operationalised effectively through a rigorous FORINT framework. However, there is (continual) work to be done to enhance the operational capabilities that are complementary to – but necessary for – effective forensic science contribution to investigations.

PECULIARITIES OF CONVEYING THE SEMANTICS OF NECESSITY ACCORDING TO THE GEORGIAN-TURKISH MATERIAL

The verb mood conveyance system is different in almost all languages. The article deals with the peculiarity of expressing thesemantics of the necessity of a verb according to the Georgian-Turkish material, in particular, to find out what grammatical means exist to convey the semantics of the necessity of Georgian in Turkish.In general, the category of mood in Georgian is one of the most difficult and controversial issues. There is a difference of opinion inthe scientific literature regarding the number of moods. According to some scientists, a mood is three, according to some - four, some even name five, and in the end up to seven moods. In the grammars of the modern Georgian language, three moods are distinguished: narrative, connective and imperative. The others that could not take place in the language are as follows: demand, prohibition, conditional and consequential.It is interesting to discuss the Georgian-Turkish data regarding the mood category. This time we will talk about the means ofconveying the semantics of necessity in both languages.
 The number of moods of a verb in Turkish linguistic literature is five. These are: narrative, imperative, obligative, narrative, andrequest-conditional. In Georgian, the verb kilo is not decorated with a grammatical sign, ie kilo has no sign. It is one of the elements of a sequence and is expressed in the form of any sequence, it is mostly considered as a semantic category. In Turkish, all grammatical moods are marked.When conveying the semantics of Georgian necessity, a rather interesting picture is created in Turkish. In particular, in the sentence- "himself - should be considered nobility and the peasant - peasantry" = Turkish. "Beyn bey olduğu, köylünün de köylü olduğu anlaşılmalı". Due to the particle the obligation is expressed in both languages. "This story must mean something, so it must have very beautiful eyes" = Turk. „Bu haberin bir anlamı olmalı, normalde çok güzel gözleri olmalı“. The first proposition is doubtful and the second is speculative. In both cases, Turkish has the same meaning as in Georgian. "What should I be afraid of; What to be ashamed of; What should I want ...! ”= Turk. „Neden korkmalıyım; neden utanmalıyım; ne isteyebilirim?“ Georgian must present an interesting picture when translating the present participle forms into Turkish. "„Korkmalıyım, utanmalıyım“," = Turk. "You can read like that!" - Must also convey the action to be performed even in the particle II conjunction Turkish by means of thenecessary mood signs (-MALI, -MELİ).Comparative analysis of the forms of Georgian-Turkish verb moods clearly shows the common and different sides between the twostructurally different languages. Similarities and differences relate to the relevance of semantic, grammatical and lexical means.

Greening as an Effort to Increase Public Awareness of the Importance of Maintaining the Environment in Supporting Natural Sustainability in Mata Village, Taranu District Sumbawa.

Greening carried out in mata village is one of the important activities that must be carried out conceptually in dealing with the environmental crisis. Based on the PKM in mata village, it is necessary to hold a swot analysis, and determine an activity for this PKM, the author holds a program to preserve nature to maintain nature in the village of beautiful eyes, so this program aims to provide knowledge about the importance of greening and preserving nature to the community. The implementation of this PKM uses a method that consists of several stages of implementation, namely the preparation stage, implementation in the form of a preparation process, activities and training, then evaluation. The result obtained from the PKM discussion is that the service is carried out by conducting a needs analysis in the eye village of taranu district. The delivery of material in the form of learning to the eye village community and given training is carried out directly in an orderly and relaxed manner so that participants can digest information easily and feel comfortable to ask questions about the things presented.

La mirada animal en “Axolotl” de Julio Cortázar

In his essay “Why Look at Animals?,” John Berger states that in the first encounter between a human and an animal, the latter's eyes are attentive and wary. The animal looks at the human from the abyss of incomprehension. The human becomes aware of himself by looking back at the animal, who is the radical Other. If the abyss of otherness between humans can be bridged through language, this is impossible between the human and the animal. The gaze is the only possibility for the human to “descend” to the animal. Julio Cortázar wrote “Axolotl,” which tells the story of a man who, fascinated by the axolotls, goes to the Jardin des Plantes aquarium in Paris every day to observe them and ends up becoming one of them. Already in the first paragraph of the story, the character-narrator states: “Now I am an axolotl.” Then he adds: “His eyes above all obsessed me. Next to them in the other aquariums, various fish showed me the simple stupidity of their beautiful eyes like ours. The eyes of the axolotls told me of the presence of a different life, of another way of looking.” The narrator manages to transcend the barrier of “space and time” through the gaze and, finally, becomes an axolotl. KEYWORDS: Cortázar, Animal Gaze, Axolotl, Metamorphosis, Transmigration, Radical Other.

Imagery, Irony, and Transcendence in Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's The Queen's Tiara

Imagery, Irony, and Transcendence in Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's <i>The Queen's Tiara</i>

The Art of Shringara: Revisiting the Kishangarh School of Rajasthani Painting

This article revisits the Kishangarh School of painting at its artistic peak under the patronage of Raja Sawant Singh (reigned 1748–57), an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. Under his guidance and patronage artist, Nihal Chand painted mostly on the theme of Radha-Krishna. Raja Sawant Singh visualized himself as Krishna and a lady called Bani Thani, a singer-poetess at Kishangarh court as his Radha. She had exquisite facial features which gave birth to a new aesthetic idiom, which included a high forehead, arched brows, drawn-out beautiful eyes and a sharp chin below thin lip. What followed was creation of some very iconic artworks which are much admired among art lovers. Bani Thani became something of a legend as she inspired landmark paintings of a prince and his muse in different settings which were close to being illustrations of the poetic works of Raja Sawant Singh, which he had penned in his devotion to Lord Krishna. The article traces the history and context of this style of the Kishangarh School, a sub-school of the larger Marwar School of Rajasthani painting.

Eco-critical Reading of Selected Short Stories of Ruskin Bond

Many Indian-English writers have chosen to depict various shades of nature in their literary works but Ruskin Bond stands head and shoulders above others in capturing nature through his works. Nature not only occupies an important place in his novels and short stories; it is the backdrop against which the stories develop, rather it sometimes becomes a character. His outlook on nature is a rare blend of an artists’ eye for beauty and a scientists’ concern for environmental issues. His mesmerising descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Himalayas are scattered in his more than 100 short stories, essays, novels and poems. Bond is a keen observer of nature therefore, his descriptions of the scenic beauty of the Himalayas are some of the finest instances of nature described in the world of literature that beckons the readers to have a first-hand experience of such scenes to satiate their hunger for natural sightseeing. He has captured the enchanting and enthralling biodiversity of the Himalayan foothills with a zeal and fervour which is un-equalled in the world of literature. His presentation is not only artistic but also realistic and it is so skilfully woven in his works that it has become a part and parcel of his narrative. He not only describes the mesmerising scenic beauty of the Himalayas but also shows his concern for the deteriorating environment due to overpopulation, irrational exploitation by man and the avarice of human beings. His works also inspire the readers to work for the restoration of environmental treasures which are on verge of extinction. The present paper focuses on the presentation of nature with its splendour and bounty in the collection of stories by Ruskin Bond entitled A Town Called Dehra.

MAJAS DALAM KUMPULAN CERPEN HIMNE BUNGA-BUNGA DI LADANG KARYA CLARA NG

The study discusses the type of figure of speech and the function of figure of speech in collections of peerlike hymn hymns on Clara ng's field. As for the purpose of this study, to describe the type of majas and the function of figure of speech in clusters of flower hymns in Clara ng's field. The study is a kind of literature type, using a descriptive qualitative approach. The data in this study consists of words and sentences found in packets of flower hymns in Clara ng's field of short stories The flower hymns in the fields, happy birthday, a cidade maravilhosa, monsoon, beautiful eyes, the nostra senhora del rosario. The data-collection techniques in this study use both the punctuation and the logging techniques. The techniques of the data analysis used in this study use stilistica theory through data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. This research produces several conclusions as follows: first there are various types of figure of speech; contention conflict, comparison force, affirmation cooperation, allusion management. The use of the most dominant figure of speech is the hyperbole type comparison and the repetition type confirmation affirmation. Second, the majas function used in the collection of short stories Bunga-Bunga Hymns in Clara Ng's Field; 1) concretizing or clarifying statements, 2) comparing things differently, 3) affirming or reinforcing statements, 4) refining expressions, 5) beautifying statements, 6) insinuating or criticizing a situation.

Eye region as a predictor of holistic facial aesthetic judgment: An eventrelated potential study

Event-related potentials (ERP) play an important role in the early detection of emotional arousal. Previous studies of aesthetics have shown that the positive component appearing around 200 ms after stimulus (P2) and the larger late positive component (LPC) are closely related to the early stage of aesthetic judgment. We investigated the temporal features of facial aesthetic judgment on the basis of facial features by using the ERP technique. Participants were instructed to predict holistic face aesthetic level based on the regions of eyes, mouth, or nose. Behavioral results show that holistic score predictions based on the eye region were no different to holistic aesthetic ratings. The ERP analysis results show that beautiful eyes and faces elicited a smaller P2 amplitude and LPC amplitude when judging the holistic aesthetic. The P2 effect of facial aesthetics may reflect automatic processing of facial aesthetics and the difference in LPC may be related to motivational attention to facial aesthetics. Because of the similar ERP effect between the holistic facial aesthetic judgment and the aesthetic judgment of eye region, this region may play a significant role in predicting holistic facial aesthetics. The implication is that the eyes are not only a window to the soul, but also a benchmark of beauty.

Design and Development of a Computer Vision Algorithm and Tool for Currency Recognition in Indian Vernacular Languages for Visually Challenged People

Design and Development of a Computer Vision Algorithm and Tool for Currency Recognition in Indian Vernacular Languages for Visually Challenged People

Anne CarsonNorma Jeane Baker of Troy

tried to implement reforms that would force the powerful United Fruit Company to pay taxes and guarantee decent wages for its workers. However, due to a carefully orchestrated campaign led by publicist Edward Bernays in the United States, the Eisenhower administration soon labeled Arbenz’s presidency as a Communist threat in Central America. Vargas Llosa puts together a fast-paced narrative, nurtured by solid historical evidence , explanatory reflections on this time period, suspense, and a rich imagination to create memorable characters. Along with his depictions of Arbenz and Castillo Armas (the CIA’s choice to replace Arbenz) and their personal struggles to rule Guatemala , he brings back Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and Johnny Abbes García, two memorable characters from La fiesta del Chivo (2000). Trujillo will play a key role in assisting the CIA to organize the coup against Arbenz, sending the sinister Abbes García to handle the details. All these characters will share center stage with the novel’s most memorable character, Marta Borrero Parra. Known to locals as “Miss Guatemala” because of her striking beauty, Marta is abandoned by her father after she becomes pregnant as a teenager. Later, when Arbenz is removed from office, Marta will become President Castillo Armas’s mistress, and, upon his assassination, she will be seduced by Abbes García himself, with whom she escapes Guatemala for the Dominican Republic. At the end, in another twist, we find Marta, now eighty years old, living alone in Florida. There, in a clever juxtaposition between fact and fiction, she is visited by Vargas Llosa, who tries to interview her about all the events that took place in Guatemala for the novel he is writing. In one of the novel’s best passages, Vargas Llosa is surprised by Marta’s stunning beauty, still possessing a “mirada verdegrís que parecía trepanar a sus interlocutores, y los dejaba desconcertados y turbados” (a green and gray gaze that seemed to entrap her interlocutors and leave them disconcerted and bewildered). However, he will also discover her intriguing personality when he dares to ask her who really killed Castillo Armas and her dealings with the CIA. Suddenly, the woman’s beautiful eyes will show their mischievous side, angrily dismissing Vargas Llosa’s inquiries: “[como] si quisiera crucificarme contra la silla” (as if she wished to crucify me in my chair). Shortly thereafter, as he exits Marta’s home, she warns him that she will not read his book, but that her lawyers will be ready to do so. Tiempos recios not only depicts important historical events between Latin America and the United States during the Cold War; the work is also a narrative about historical truth and the many hardships that individuals will endure under extenuating circumstances as a result of political power, corruption, and deceit. It is yet another example of Vargas Llosa’s great talent as a storyteller. César Ferreira University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Anne Carson Norma Jeane Baker of Troy New York. New Directions. 2020. 64 pages. ANNE CARSON’S LATEST published work is brilliantly conceived but untidily written. The idea of a feminist reinterpretation of Euripides’ play Helen that conflates the figures of Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane Baker in order to take a fresh look at them through modern eyes is in itself intriguing, for both women were well-known beauties who found themselves stranded in the wilderness of a patriarchal culture’s obsessive and at times violent pursuit of women. Both women were also female icons who were the targets of misogynistic censure, Monroe for her giddy eroticism and Helen for her supposedly willing infidelity. This is a work that assumes knowledge of both Greek mythology and Hollywood lore on a rather massive scale. To appreciate it, you need to know that in Euripides’ play there are two versions of the Helen story, one in which she was exiled in Egypt and another in which she was a phantasm secluded in Troy, which helps to explain Carson’s continual references to Helen as a “cloud.” You also need to know that Marilyn Monroe made movies directed by Fritz Lang, that her circle included the singer Pearl Bailey...

Conflicts Inside Us

Conflicts Inside Us A. D. Jameson (bio) Warm Arctic Nights Yuriy Tarnawsky Journal of Experimental Fiction www.experimentalfiction.com 245 Pages; Print, $15.00 The Iguanas of Heat Yuriy Tarnawsky Journal of Experimental Fiction www.experimentalfiction.com 148 Pages; Print, $15.00 Yuriy Tarnawsky has spent the past six decades exploring the tension between our rich internal lives and an outside world that, more often than not, is completely indifferent to the conflicts raging inside us. For instance, slightly more than half of the chapters in his 1993 masterpiece Three Blondes and Death recount its characters' dreams, fantasies, and nightmares that remain locked inside the book's quartet of characters as they go about their lives. It's no surprise then that, over the course of his long career, Tarnawsky has skirted the edges of movements like surrealism, existentialism, and absurdism, even as his writing has remained defiantly idiosyncratic and unclassifiable. Tarnawsky continues that exploration in his two latest books, which were published as issues of the Journal of Experimental Fiction. While ultimately different, both books brim with the author's trademark preoccupations—long passages of sensual description, occasional dreams, and an unflinching approach to violence and death—that amount to complex psychological portraits. Warm Arctic Nights, despite being labeled "a novel," reads more like a memoir, being a largely autobiographical account of the first ten years of Tarnawsky's life, 1934-1944, which includes his recollections of WWII. It is split into three parts. The first sees the author remembering his childhood before the war; it ends with the Germans invading Poland (which is where Tarnawsky, who is Ukrainian, grew up). The second part describes life under German occupation. Tarnawsky continues attending school and reading books and playing with friends, but at the same time is a witness to horrific events, including the summary executions of Jews and random villagers (in revenge for partisan attacks). Part three sees Tarnawsky and his surviving family members becoming refugees, fleeing the advancing Russian army. The whole book is structured like an interview, in which a nameless voice asks short, leading questions that function like prompts, summoning memories both pleasant and painful: Who was Adela? I'm not sure. She was someone father worked with sometimes but I don't know if she was a relative of the hrabia or an employee. I think she stayed sometimes at the manor house but lived someplace else most of the time. She liked me a lot and would pat me on the head all the time and sometimes give me a kiss—on top of my head or on my eyes. She said I had beautiful eyes. Who cut up the pictures? I have no idea. It may have been Nora. While reading, I got the impression that I was reading the transcript of someone who had been hypnotized, and the effect is itself hypnotic. (I read the book in a single sitting.) The episodes, which range from the beautiful to the grotesque, steadily gather power, the whole novel being a distillation of the most memorable moments of a person's childhood, both buried and exposed. Tarnawsky has described Warm Arctic Nights as being mostly true, specifying that all the deaths and atrocities are real. He writes briskly and matter-of-factly, expertly juxtaposing more mundane episodes with chilling recollections of killings and deaths, and constantly finding new ways in which to contrast his childhood memories and fantasies with his current adult perception and understanding: They left him lying on his back stretched out on the ground, long and pale, his white body smeared in places with black dirt, his face indifferent, as if bored, faint cold glitter coming out through a crack between his eyelashes. It turned out nobody knew who he was. He didn't come with anybody but apparently just joined in as he saw us frolicking in the water. I don't know what happened to him next and who he turned out to be. The result is a sensually rich and moving account that will interest and appeal to a wide array of readers, not just devotees of experimental fiction. For those unfamiliar with...

A New Perspective to the Periorbital Aesthetics: Bella Eyes.

The term beautiful eyes can be defined as youthful, brilliant, vivid, and attractive eyes. The anthropometric findings about beautiful eyes may differ according to gender or race. In order to form such a beautiful eye, a variety of surgical, nonsurgical, or combination methods for periorbital region rejuvenation have been proposed. The surgical methods include coronal/peritrichial, endoscopic, upper and lower eyelid, or transconjunctival incisional procedures. Neuromodulators, fillers, and laser treatments are some of the nonsurgical approaches. Regardless of the method, while treating this particular area, the aesthetic unit concept should always be taken into consideration. We attempted to combine an endoscopic dynamic canthopexy procedure with endoscopic temporal and brow lift, which we call "bella eyes" to achieve a more attractive look, especially in young people who desire a slanted eyelid. We aim to share our clinical experience from 35 patients and the technical details of the bella eyes procedure. Patient satisfaction was high, and the endoscopic technique eliminated all of the minor deformities and provided excellent harmony through each subunit of the periocular area with minimal discomfort and well-hidden scars. We believe that this procedure is a good way to achieve a beautiful eye in young women. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

Bite Out Your Tongue

Bite Out Your Tongue

Clinical efficacy of enucleation with packet-covered hydroxyapatite implant

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of enucleation with packet-covered hydroxyapatite implant. Methods The data of 45 eyes of 45 patients who were treated with enucleation with packet-covered hydroxyapatite implantation in our hospital from Jul.2011 to Aug.2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Postoperative follow-up was 12 months. Results Among 45 patients, there were 5 cases with traumatic severe ocular rupture, 9 cases with neovascular glaucoma, 26 cases with keroscleral grape swelling, and 5 cases with severe corneal ulcer perforation. After operation, mild lower eyelid relaxation occurred in 2 cases.No other complication, such as exposure of prosthetic ocular platform occured. All the patients had beautiful eyes. Conclusion Implantation of packet-covered hydroxyapatite with four rectus musles covered is simple and effective.The complications such as hydroxyapatite exposure is not easy to occur. Key words: Hydroxyapatite implantation; Muscle cone; Exposure

The Pig Queen

The Pig Queen Sheldon Costa (bio) A young girl comes upon a wild boar in the woods, and because this isn’t the story you think it is, the boar is terrified. Though he is the biggest boar in the forest, each one of his great bleached tusks the size of the girl’s torso, he has heard the rumors. For weeks, this bramble-haired child has terrorized the woodland creatures, sinking her sharp little canines into anything she can find, leaving in her wake a long and festering trail of stolen life. There are rules in this forest, and the girl has broken the most sacred: eat only what you need. The boar tries to run, but the girl is too fast. Before he can even turn around, she is already upon him, her thin fingers sunk deep into his fur, her mouth clamped tight around his throat. The boar squeals, and then goes silent. For some time, the girl feasts, her face hot from the blood, but the taste is the same as all the others: ash. She spits a hunk of thigh meat from her lips and howls, her hunger a bright red ember burning inside her. Using a stone, she slices the boar’s belly open and spills his steaming innards onto the dirt. She grips the marbled fat and yanks back the ribs, so that she can fit inside. It takes some getting used to, but before long she is trotting expertly down the road on all fours, snorting and sniffing the air. The pigskin fits perfectly, and though it is warm and sticky within, the girl enjoys this view of the world, her stomach safely turned towards the forest floor. She catches the scent of other boars and follows it until she finds the City of Pigs, a clearing in the forest where the squealing creatures have made their home. As she walks through the streets, the boars poke their heads out the windows of their mud huts or look up from the piles of acorns they’re in the process of crushing. You’re no boar, they say. No, the girl replies, shaking her tusks in agreement. I’m the Pig Queen, and all of you belong to me. The boars snort amongst themselves. They know there is a girl beneath all that fur—they recognize the smell—and they are wise enough to fear her. She has, after all, killed the biggest among them. What choice do they have? Long live the queen, they squeal, stomping their hooves. Show us how to live. All in due time, the Pig Queen says. First, I need to eat. [End Page 33] ________ In the City of Glass, there lives a boy with beautiful eyes. One day, a man tears them out of the boy’s head. In another story, he might be a prince, or a dashing rogue, but the boy in this story is unquestionably ugly, an orphan who owns nothing but the air he breathes. He isn’t even clever: on the rare occasion that he finds himself in possession of anything valuable, one of the other boys in the orphanage will trick him—I’ll tell you a secret, they’ll say, if you give me that dollar—and he always hands it over, no matter how many times they spit in his hair and call him a fool. He is perpetually astounded by the ill-will of others, rushing back to be swindled again like one of the flocks of birds who crash, each day, into the windows of the city’s tallest towers, forgetting all the previous beaks crushed by the sky’s blue illusion. When the boy was born, he had no eyes. It didn’t bother him much, but the man who owned the orphanage expected every boy to work, to wash the windows and scrub the floors, and he refused to believe a boy without eyes could accomplish such tasks, no matter how much the boy proved otherwise. So the man hired an old woman who lived down the street to build him a pair. The old woman, who was once the greatest glass blower in...

Recovering Miss Rose: Acting as a Girl on the Eighteenth-Century Stage

This is a portrait of five-year-old Miss Rose, who shone brightly albeit briefly on the London stage in the years 1769–70 before fading away into the gloom of historical obscurity (Fig. 1). She stands here as Tom Thumb, the eponymous diminutive hero of Henry Fielding's farce. With impressively plumed helm, her beautiful black eyes fierce, chin set in a determined tilt, padded right leg stretched out aggressively, and her somewhat chubby hand gripping the hilt of her sword, Miss Rose looks ready to engage some unseen enemy just outside the picture frame. Impressive as she looks, however, there is something poignant about this little girl's confidently heroic stance in the context of her prematurely terminated theatrical career. Miss Rose appears on the Haymarket stage in the summer of 1769, garners much praise and a small degree of celebrity, and then disappears from the theatre by 1771. Her departure is shrouded in nebulous but persistent accusations by her mother, Elizabeth de Franchetti, that she was being blackballed by the powerful theatre managers David Garrick and Samuel Foote, who for some reason refused to employ her despite her talent. After lingering a few years on the offstage London entertainment scene of concerts and variety shows, she drops out of historical view altogether before she is nine years old.

Fairy Tale Transformation: The Pied Piper Theme in Australian Fiction

Fairy Tale Transformation: The Pied Piper Theme in Australian Fiction

Reading with Daddy

WHEN KATIE'S FATHER WENT TO JAIL FOR DROPING A ROCK FROM AN OVERPASS, causing a truck to swerve and hit the buttress of the bridge, it took Katie a long time to reconcile herself to his absence. What a fool he was. That behavior was the reckless act of a delinquent schoolboy, not someone old enough to know better. Katie was not privy to the details of these adult condemnations; his foolishness, whether or not the truck driver lived, how many years he got. She only knew that her father had stopped coming. A big, ill-defined hole had opened up that she could not see the edges of. Flow deep was it? Was there anything at the bottom? Fier schooling began to suffer. You could see her ever so slowly giving up. I couldn't bring myself to tell her how much better off she was. Genes were all very well, but foolishness as a role model was something she could do without. She kept a photo of him by her bed, and in those tired, teary moments before dropping off to sleep she might sometimes say, My daddy has beautiful eyes, before hugging me harder than she needed to.I must admit that I was long over Steve's post-adolescent antics by then. When we split up I saw his personality regressing, more and more seeking solace in the moment. The maturity and confidence fatherhood had given him began to peel away like the shell of a boiled egg. Fie started drinking again, behaving like a teenaged goose in a middle-aged body, so that by the time Katie was six or seven I had had enough. A piece of string is only so long. When I left I didn't leave with much. I started from scratch but what I started with he had no claim to. I was getting myself back together. And yet I did want Steve to have a relationship with Katie. Or rather, the reverse. I wanted Katie to grow up knowing that her father was not a figment of her imagination. Fie was real and also flawed. There was a lesson there somewhere. So I encouraged his phone calls; his sporadic visits where he'd take her to the park or the plaza or, once, to eat fish and chips by the beach. I did not let him know how grateful I was for the reprieve, for perhaps I wasn't grateful, perhaps I resented the fact that he wasn't there all the time to give me a rest when I was tired. To give me back a few moments of my own. The part of me that hated him I set aside for Katie's sake.And then he went to jail. And Katie now wonders where her father with his beautiful eyes has disappeared to. And I am implicit in covering up for him. I want to keep this precarious balance because it is the only equilibrium I have. I couldn't, and can't, bring myself to tell her to forget about him. Imagine the issues she'd have with me in twenty years time if I did that? We've already been through the Why did you drive him away? questions, the scenarios where nothing I say can possibly be right. I supposed that one day I would have to explain to her where he had got to, why he no longer visited. But not yet. Plenty of time for the truth.Then, out of the blue a parcel arrived. On the back of it was printed the address of the prison, also a lavender stamp announcing APPROVED. Inside was a book. Beatrix Potter. Also, wrapped in bubble wrap, a CD.It's from daddy.I sounded more excited than I felt. We sat on the couch and I pressed play. Steve's voice came from the speakers.It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific . . .Katie did not seem too fussed about the meaning of soporific. I understand that language comes before conceptual dawning, so that the ache of missing him, I hoped, was less keen without the words to define it. This is what I told myself, anyway. Wishful thinking. She was simply amazed in a lip-quivering fashion, and then delighted, to hear her father's voice mumbling away. It was a lovely moment to witness. We turned the pages together, following the story. Sometimes in the background of the recording you could hear bells, or a muffled PA announcement, or doors slamming, but they were only in the background. …

Blood, Biceps, and Beautiful Eyes: Cultural Representations of Masculinity in Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya

Blood, Biceps, and Beautiful Eyes: Cultural Representations of Masculinity in Masami Kurumada's <i>Saint Seiya</i>