MOERA GOTHIC

If we took this picture:

And added this:

We'd be getting close to this:

American Gothic 1930 by Grant Wood (American, 1891–1942)

This familiar image was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, winning a three-hundred-dollar prize and instant fame for Grant Wood. The impetus for the painting came while Wood was visiting the small town of Eldon in his native Iowa. There he spotted a little wood farmhouse, with a single oversized window, made in a style called Carpenter Gothic. “I imagined American Gothic people with their faces stretched out long to go with this American Gothic house,” he said. He used his sister and his dentist as models for a farmer and his daughter, dressing them as if they were “tintypes from my old family album.” The highly detailed, polished style and the rigid frontality of the two figures were inspired by Flemish Renaissance art, which Wood studied during his travels to Europe between 1920 and 1928. After returning to settle in Iowa, he became increasingly appreciative of midwestern traditions and culture, which he celebrated in works such as this. American Gothic, often understood as a satirical comment on the midwestern character, quickly became one of America’s most famous paintings and is now firmly entrenched in the nation’s popular culture. Yet Wood intended it to be a positive statement about rural American values, an image of reassurance at a time of great dislocation and disillusionment. The man and woman, in their solid and well-crafted world, with all their strengths and weaknesses, represent survivors.

Here are some definitions of and references to 'GOTHIC' as found on the internet:

"The definition of gothic is related to medieval style or the horror and mystery depicted in fiction about the 18th and 19th centuries."

"An example of a gothic structure is the Reims Cathedral in France."

"An example of gothic style is dark makeup, dark clothes and hair dyed black.

adjective"

"Designating or of a type of romance set typically in the 18th or 19th century and relating the melodramatic adventures of the heroine."

"Gothic is defined as an East Germanic language, or an architecture style of the 12th through 16th centuries."

"(typography) In England, of the name of type formerly used to print German, also known as black letter."

"(typography) In the USA, of a sans serif typeface using straight, even-width lines, also called grotesque."

"Of or relating to the goth subculture or lifestyle."

"A novel written in the Gothic style."

"The East Germanic language of the Goths."

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and no. 

Right, here we go:

"Barbarous, rude, unpolished, belonging to the "Dark Ages", medieval as opposed to classical."

This is what I was looking for as it relates to Robert The Apathetic Sinner.

In the latest version of his blog (A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CATHOLIC) Robert continues with his Catholic view of the world as we've seen in the earlier versions - misogyny, homophobia, anti-socialism, anti-abortion, reactionary thinking, etc. but has been adopting a disturbing and archaic focus that is more in keeping with the Dark ages rather than the 21st century. He's like the Catholic version of The Taliban

evaluating what he sees and experiences via a filter of the bible teachings and Catholicism's Catechism. From this stems intolerance, meanness and racism - things that are supposedly in conflict with Christian ideals.

This confuses me.

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The bad weather continues here up north with rain and high winds. We've had this since Wednesday night. So much for the start of summer.