Musings | Debra R. Borys

One of the main characters in Painted Black is a graffiti artist and perhaps because of this I admit to having a tolerance and, in some cases, even a fondness for graffiti.

When is art art and when is it vandalism? Can it be both? I know only a little about the graffiti culture, but I do know there is a difference between tagging (marking your symbol/initials) and burning (a large, elaborate painting, usually applied legally.) Just as there is a difference between free speech and vandalizing property. If I see either painted on fences and walls in my neighborhood it doesn’t bother me at all and may even, if well done, be admired.

The article below further blurs the lines between what is legal and illegal when the “graffiti” in question is applied with the easily washable application of sidewalk chalk. The article primarily talks about chalking protest symbols and sayings, but there are instances cited where children have been arrested and parents brought to court and sentenced or fined for what all of us did as children: drawing with chalk on sidewalks.

I was particularly struck by the instance quoted below. The next time you see a hopscotch pyramid or a stick figure scribbled in pink and blue as you’re walking down your street, ask yourself: “Is this an attempt at vandalism that means the young artist will someday be spray painting gang signs on my front door, or is this just a bright, creative child who will one day paint magnificent works sold at high end art galleries?”

That’s not all. One week ago in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, police cited two teenagers for decorating a street with chalk renditions of a whale and a sea turtle. The kids must now appear in court and pay a fine to be determined by a district judge. James Donnelly, Doylestown’s police chief, told a local newspaper that the chalking was “an attempt at vandalism” that could lead to the use of more permanent materials.

Chalk. The gateway art supply.

via Chalk a Sidewalk, Go to Jail | Mother Jones.

Writers are often asked this question. The truth is, I get more more ideas than I know what to do with and they come from many sources. Prominent for me, however, are odd news stories that just make my imagination start sparking in unusual ways.

Take the article I found below that a friend posted on Facebook. I immediately wished I wrote either historical or horror novels, because here’s where my thoughts went when reading about this human brain preserved for a millennium:

Historical Novel Idea: The owner of the brain was a person accused of witchcraft or other devilish voodoo-like powers. Upon being convicted (either formally or by a heathen mob) and hung to death, the head was cut off and disposed of in the bog separate from the body because it was believed the person would otherwise be resurrected from the dead and come back to haunt them all.
Horror Novel Idea: The reason the brain is still in such good shape is not because of the preservation potential of the bog muck, but because evil resides within it. In the brain lives a demon, perhaps, that used the skull as a “shell,” or the brain lies dormant due to an evil spell. It has been in the bog all these years waiting to be released so that it can wreak havoc on the world.
Actually, this could even be an historical horror novel idea. After the head is thrown into the bog, someone finds it or it rises to the surface and the evil they tried to prevent once again roams the earth.

“…damage to the neck vertebrae is consistent with a hanging. The head was then carefully severed from the neck using a small blade, such as a knife,” added O’Connor, a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Bradford. “This was used to cut through the throat and between the vertebrae and has left a cluster of fine cut marks on the bone.”

The brain-containing skull was found at Heslington, Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. O’Connor and her team suspect the site served a ceremonial function that persisted from the Bronze Age through the early Roman period. Many pits at the site were marked with single stakes. The remains of the man were without a body, but the scientists also found the headless body of a red deer that had been deposited into a channel.

Laser imaging, chemical analysis and other examinations revealed that the brain naturally preserved over the millennia. The scientists found no evidence for bacterial or fungal activity, and described the tissue as being “odorless…with a resilient, tofu-like texture.”

The condition of the brain is remarkable for its age.

via Prehistoric Human Brain Found Pickled in Bog : Discovery News.