Mercury Natis

Gay Studies, Queer History, Queer Theory (They/She)

My Femme Fatale Sauron paper is in this!! Get 'em while they're hot!

A thing I would love to do professionally, but won't because I hate doing things like this for the asshole public: Trip Planning.

So to my friends, if you're ever super stressed about a trip and don't have time to plan for yourself, I will happily do it for you for a small fee. I'm very good at it~

PS: the need to understand is an enacting of a need for power and control on a very small scale. Okay, I'll stop now.

And the IRONY of the paradox of language is that we as humans seem drawn to understanding, but we can never truly understand, and it drives us absolutely fucking crazy while also motivating generations of scientists and scholars.

But that's a whole other thread, perhaps a whole blog post, on the paradox of queer theory. But the paradox of queer theory is intrinsically linked to the paradox of language.

And I think about this a lot in regards to queer theory because so much of the history of queer theory is people trying to define a term in order to communicate and utilize a concept effectively, but queer is intrinsically undefinable, because it is an unstable responsive ad/verb, not a noun.

But we also NEED to understand that our definitions are always going to be imperfect, are always going to be subjective, and never complete. Wilde was right when he wrote "to define is to limit" but we NEED to define to communicate. Hence, the paradox.

We simplify because we need a general consensus to communicate what we're thinking and feeling, because we have unfortunately yet to develop telepathy (though I would argue that the arts are the closest we can ever get to reading another person's mind, but thats a tangent).

Okay, so what do I mean by this? What is a word? A word is a signifier that a community has agreed on to represent a concept. We have agreed what an apple is. Except there are so many kinds of apples, so everyone imagines a different kind of apple when you say the word apple. It's a simplification.

I'm thinking a lot about paradoxes lately, but I think the greatest paradox that everyone really should understand is that language is essential for communication, but will always be limited by the need to define and thus unable to truly communicate perfectly.

Oh noooo I'm going to be away!! Oh damn, I've been really wanting to see this.

Most American Jews say Trump is using antisemitism as an 'excuse' to silence free speech at universities Most Jewish Americans disapprove of the Trump administration withholding funds from colleges to address anti-Jewish sentiment, according to a new survey.

UK universities are doing it tooooo

www.npr.org/2025/09/17/n...

EXACTLY

I'm convinced that people who prefer endnotes to footnotes don't actually read endnotes. Endnotes suck so much and only exist to prevent aesthetic clutter.

Love that, peak Halloween energy

I truly love getting Dracula Daily emails, even though I am not doing the read along this year. I enjoy knowing that it's currently Dracula Season, and Jonathan, Mina and the Gang are getting into shenanigans.

Worst case scenario being needing to go back for serious revisions, but we are very nearly there for best case scenario (no revisions, everything goes well first trip).

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, I'm so grateful for all of the generosity! I've now spoken to the surgeon and updated the costs, detailed to some degree in the summary. The goal has now been updated for worst-case-scenario in Spain.
Please keep sharing around, every little bit helps!

Anotha one: New Tolkien Pop! podcast with @clarelmoore.bsky.social who is a Ph.D. student at the University of Glasgow, researching disability in Tolkien’s legendarium. She gives insight into feminist and disability thought in Tolkien’s works: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:

fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Erotic art in ink of the silouette of a man behind a naked woman in the middle of sex

Ink illustration of Salome with the head of John the Baptist

Ink illustration with a blue painted sky of a dragon around a castle

Ink illustration of a man and women in traditional latvian costume

A pen illustration for an unknown Oscar Wilde story, depicting greco-roman style ruins overtaken by a garden

Ink illustration of an erotic dancer bending backwards with birds on her hands, inspired by Beardsley

Ink illustration of 2 disabled injured soldiers, framed by theatre curtains, titled Winners

A framed tile with a printing of an ink drawing of a woman on a bed, experiencing erotic ecstasy

Now for Sigismunds:

A painting of a redhead woman in an orientalist style, with a money

A painting in a dark palette of eve in the garden of eden, with the snake having the head of a woman with red hair, in symbolist style

A painting of a grotesque naked mermaid with a snake's bottom half, clutching onto a rock in the sea

Painting that is likely a sketch for another larger painting of a man in a toga

A self portrait in a gold frame, looking out at the viewer, in an impressionistic style

A painting of a peasant woman holding her dying baby, with a shrouded woman in white holding a sickle bending over to kiss the baby. The painting is titled Death.

A painting of women in various states of dress and undress in the woods, by the sea, in a pastel impressionist style heavily influenced by van gogh, puvis de chavannes, mucha and klimt

A painting depicting the myth of the swan maiden in an impressionist style, with a naked blond women trying to reach for a swan, being held at a distance by a man

Let's start with Janis! Some beautiful pieces by him I saw on my trip:

Black and white photo of Janis Rozenthals as a young man, in a suit with a moustage and his arms akimbo

Black and white photo of Sigismunds Vidbergs as an older man in a black suit

Just got back from a family trip to Riga, and came back with some artists I now really like a lot: Janis Rozentāls (1866-1916) and Sigismunds Vidbergs (1890-1970).

*Any new LOTR thing is announced*

Me: Ok but does it involve complex interpersonal relationships that break down masculine stereotypes

I say this as someone who vastly prefers the Neo-Romanticism, Symbolism, and Post-Impressionists to 1920s art, but that does not at all reflect my personal politics, just my taste in art.