letty
I figured I would start an individual card thread for this deck and see if anyone is interested in looking at this deck card-by-card. I am really loving this deck, but I really want to talk about some of the art choices with some other people. It differs a great deal from traditional depictions, so I figure it might be useful for us to think about how these different depictions can work with traditional interpretations.
This deck contains the bottom, older male figure with his head in his hands from this Klimt painting:
http://www.ntupoet.idv.tw/seiku/club/people/pic/klimt/phil.jpg
In the background, there seems to be a brightly colored tapestry on one side and something that looks a bit like tree bark on the other.
This card is very different from any other fool I've seen before. First off, the card appears to be much darker and less possibly "positive" than other fools, which are often depicted as young, carefree, either about to go over the edge of a cliff or walk on air. I always think of the fool card as the beginning of a journey, the possibility of something fresh and new. This card, though, would seem to have a completely opposite meaning---the figure is old, naked, and seemingly in despair.
I've been thinking about this depiction for a while. It makes me think of Shakespeare's King Lear, and how Lear and the Fool go out in the night, unprotected from the weather, and Lear strips down naked and kind of becomes the fool himself by stripping away all of the trappings of royalty and seeing the world the way it really is--so becoming a "fool", by doing something as foolish as running around naked--can be a way to see the world clearly, maybe? When I think of Shakespearean fools, I think of people who are able to deflate pompous ideas, who are able to have free, unbiased minds. Maybe the nakedness of this fool speaks to the idea that the fool knows that the things we care about in the world (our clothes, for example) are truly unimportant.
There is also the idea of the "holy fool", somebody who looks foolish to the world but has an inner wisdom that the world can't understand.
Well, I've exhausted myself here What are your ideas? I'm really eager to see what you all think and how you understand this card.
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This deck contains the bottom, older male figure with his head in his hands from this Klimt painting:
http://www.ntupoet.idv.tw/seiku/club/people/pic/klimt/phil.jpg
In the background, there seems to be a brightly colored tapestry on one side and something that looks a bit like tree bark on the other.
This card is very different from any other fool I've seen before. First off, the card appears to be much darker and less possibly "positive" than other fools, which are often depicted as young, carefree, either about to go over the edge of a cliff or walk on air. I always think of the fool card as the beginning of a journey, the possibility of something fresh and new. This card, though, would seem to have a completely opposite meaning---the figure is old, naked, and seemingly in despair.
I've been thinking about this depiction for a while. It makes me think of Shakespeare's King Lear, and how Lear and the Fool go out in the night, unprotected from the weather, and Lear strips down naked and kind of becomes the fool himself by stripping away all of the trappings of royalty and seeing the world the way it really is--so becoming a "fool", by doing something as foolish as running around naked--can be a way to see the world clearly, maybe? When I think of Shakespearean fools, I think of people who are able to deflate pompous ideas, who are able to have free, unbiased minds. Maybe the nakedness of this fool speaks to the idea that the fool knows that the things we care about in the world (our clothes, for example) are truly unimportant.
There is also the idea of the "holy fool", somebody who looks foolish to the world but has an inner wisdom that the world can't understand.
Well, I've exhausted myself here What are your ideas? I'm really eager to see what you all think and how you understand this card.
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