 Greetings to my darling extraterrestrials. My name is Kim. This is Dustmoats and Velikor and This book, I Was not ready for it. I needed way more warning than I was given. Bloodwater paint by Joy McCullough Was not adequately described in the Goodreads description. Just putting that out there. Massive content warning guys. This book contains a vivid rape scene and a very difficult trial. Also, the main character is tortured as part of due process. I'm kind of worried about the 16th century Italians. They didn't They didn't do anything right. I just wanted to put that right up front for everybody because the Goodreads description says the aftermath and it's not just the aftermath. It's the grooming and the rape and the trial. Artemisia Gentilisci is a actual person that existed in history and this is a fictionalized version of her life. She was the daughter of a painter and in the book, ever since her mother died, she acted as his assistant. But assistant is not quite accurate because she does the majority of the work and her father takes the credit for it. When her father is trying to get a special commission, he hires a tutor for her in the hopes that the tutor will help him get the job. He is dashing and smart and she thinks he's going to ask her to marry him. Instead, he rapes her. In the aftermath, she draws strength from the stories her mother told her as a child. Judith and Susanna, heroines of the bible. They become the subjects of two of Artemisia's most famous paintings. If you haven't already turned off this video, which I understand if you have, I also want to say that Bloodwater Paint is a very interesting book, literally. Artemisia's perspective is told entirely in the verse and stories told by her mother are written in prose. Judith, Susanna, and Artemisia's stories are all woven together into a tapestry of womanhood and perseverance. But in order to give you all of the information you need going in, I need to give you a little bit of biblical background and a mini art history lesson, which I'm going to do very quickly. Several trusted elders of Susanna's community peaked on her while she was bathing and then threatened her with sexual assault. When she refused to remove her robe, they told everyone she was an adulteress. The judge found in her favor only because of a slight discrepancy between the elder's stories and her accusers, i.e. would be rapists, were publicly stoned. But the judge also warned her to be more careful next time because of course there will be a next time. Judith and her maid Abra sat on a quest to rid their country of the Assyrian army. This is after they were told that they were mere women and she'd go home and pray about it. Judith is like, fuck that, please god make me a good liar because here we go. And then they bluffed their way into the Assyrian camp. Judith seduces the general Holferne's and then she and her maid decapitate him. She carries the bloody head in a bag back to the walls of her city where she then mounts it on a pike. The Israelites engage in a little bit of guerrilla warfare and then the leaderless Assyrians run off with their tails between their legs. Huzzah, Judith. If you'll look to your left, we are entering the art history portion of this video. Both these stories have been depicted in paintings by all of the master. They were ridiculously popular in this period. I'm contrasting the paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi with two of her male contemporaries, mostly for the sake of expediency. Caravaggio's Judith beheading Holferne's in 1599 shows a delicate, clean beheading. There isn't much blood. Judith remains spotless. Her face looks puzzled as she decapitates the general, like it's easy to take off a man's head while he's awake. And Abra stands back and holds the bag. Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith and Holferne's of 1620 shows Judith concentrating, set to her disgusting but necessary task. Abra pins him down with her full body weight. Blood spurts from the severed carotid artery. Alessandro O'Lorrie's Susanna and the Elders of 1561 shows a beautiful Susanna with boobs that make no sense. With one hand on the man who stands behind her and the other hand on the man who is already between her legs. These men are ugly. The lower one looks almost rat-like and her face is kind of a mix between what's going on and are you sure this is okay? Artemisia Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders of 1610 shows Judith cringing away from the leering eyes. The two elders look well-kempt and respectable as they conspire. Bloodwater paint by Joy McCullough spins an articulate, wrathful tale of injustice and womanhood in a time when the two are inextricably linked. Artemisia paints these women's stories because she knows the truth of them. When men paint these visions, they see women as objects to be gazed upon, the brightest and most beautiful thing in the room. Artemisia paints them as heroines, leading ladies in their own life because she sees herself in them and she knows that she is more than she has been allowed to become. So if you are in the market for some verse form historical fantasy that will make you really, really angry on the main character's behalf check out Bloodwater Paint by Joy McCullough. Let me know in comments if I put way too much information in here or if you would like to prompt to mini art history less than every once in a while. I swear writing this made me feel like I was in the ninth grade again. That's all folks. No, it's still doing the thing. We can press it again. Yep, it's just you gotta be where you are to click the button. So that's not autofocus. No, it automatically focuses at that point. Yeah. But it does not continue to autofocus. But see, it usually continually autofocuses. Like I just turn it on and it goes. So did I change a setting and I didn't notice? Is that even possible? It is definitely possible because I've somehow done it before. Okay, I'll grill Dan about it when it gets back. This is why I'm scared of owning a DSLR. That's my own. I'm just gonna fuck it up. I'm worried about this microphone. It's already fallen off the table once. I'm new with this.