Story Makeovers

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10 Vietnamese women project by Camilia Pham

Art by Robynn Frauhn

Do you consider art perfectionism a gift or a curse? Is it worth it to make sure everything is exact, or can mistakes make art better? “Day 21, May Sketch a Day!” by TomScholes: http://bit.ly/2tbXziE     

Because the word kompromat is new to most Americans, and has been introduced in the context of a President whose behavior confuses many of us, it is natural to assume that it must be a big, rare, scary thing, used in extraordinary circumstances to force compliance and achieve grand aims. But, Darden explained to me, kompromat is routinely used throughout the former Soviet Union to curry favor, improve negotiated outcomes, and sway opinion. Intelligence services, businesspeople, and political figures everywhere exploit gossip and damaging information. However, Darden argues, kompromat has a uniquely powerful role in the former Soviet Union, where the practice is so pervasive, he coined the term “blackmail state” to describe the way of governance.

Blue eyes peer into your soul, leaving you feeling as if every secret you’ve ever held was laid bare. “Flowing Out” by yuumei: http://bit.ly/2JGX8nb

The fact that these young women are so often called “girls”—in historical narratives, in film, and in fiction—begins to hint at our confusion regarding who they were and how they lived. There was a complex array of women who came to be known as the Manson girls: some were exploited and abused minors, but others seem to have exercised a fair amount of power in the family. The “girls” were vulnerable runaways, pragmatic sister-wives, and terrifying tricksters. But, in the wider culture, the women got treated most frequently as objects of prurient male interest. Thomas Pynchon, in his novel “Inherent Vice,” imagines the appeal that the Manson women hold for his character Doc, and to so many other men: “Submissive, brainwashed, horny little teeners . . . who do exactly what you want before you even know what that is. You don’t even have to say a word out loud, they get it all by ESP.”

Happy Halloween