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Grotesque / grotesco

 

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  #1  
Old August 01, 2008, 04:08 AM
Alfonso Alfonso is offline
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Grotesque / grotesco

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen,

I wish you to help me with a definition of a really sliding concept: lo grotesco / the grotesque. I know every person here can look it up in a dictionary and tell, but I don’t think this copy and paste thought is worth it. What I wish you to do, if possible, is to close your eyes, to think intensively (don’t stop breathing) about the grotesque, and tell me what does this word mean to you, what does it suggest to you, what images come to your mind, what kind of events do you think are grotesque, what animal is the most grotesque in the world under your point of view...

If necessary, you can ask your wife, your husband, your parents, your neighbours, your friends, your enemies, your pet, your hairdresser, your boss... Whoever!

I really need this information, as I’m trying to help someone, a lady, who’s writing something about the subject. So, with your help, you are also maybe contributing to love to come out.

I hope this will be enough for you to know that this is as urgent and necessary as sure it is that the summer will finally leave.

Thanks in advance for your help!
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  #2  
Old August 01, 2008, 05:55 AM
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Grotesque is something that is beyond bad taste. It's bigger and better(maybe worse would be a more appropriate term, but for the sake of morbosidad I chose better)!
Next to something grotesque, something hortera loses and will have to die of shame.

Grotesque has something to do with size. I should be very large--huge in fact, so that you cannot avoid seeing it even if you try-- so you just have to surrender, look, and be appalled.

Grotesque can be used to describe a wrongdoing. (example: a grotesque
violation of justice)

Sometimes grotesque can apply to works of art, and it is there that
I will give examples, because other examples might get me banned from
this forum. The Prado museum has beautiful examples of grotequeries.
Titan (Jupiter) Devouring His Son by Goya and others from his dark period, and also (less famously but just as grotesque) Jupiter Devouring His Son by Rubens. This must have been a popular subject for the royal family! Also there's a painting called La Monstrua that is notably grotesque. There are many more examples in the Prado right in you home town of Madrid. Lucky you!
There is an American film director named John Waters who explored
the grotesque very effectively in his early films with his muse named Divine. Maybe for grotesque you can rent Pink Flamingos
I am sorry I did not write this in Spanish because I am a little bit aprisado
today. I you have any questions regarding my English use, just ask.
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Last edited by poli; August 01, 2008 at 07:18 AM.
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  #3  
Old August 01, 2008, 07:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso View Post
Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen,

I wish(more commonly: (I would like) you to help me with a definition of a really sliding concept: lo grotesco / the grotesque. I know every person here can look it up in a dictionary and tell, but I don’t think this copy and paste thought is worth it. What I wish you to do, if possible, is to close your eyes, to think intensively (don’t stop breathing) about the grotesque, and tell me what does this word mean to you, what does it suggest to you, what images come to your mind, what kind of events do you think are grotesque, what animal is the most grotesque in the world in your point of view...

If necessary, you can ask your wife, your husband, your parents, your neighbours, your friends, your enemies, your pet, your hairdresser, your boss... Whoever!

I really need this information, as I’m trying to help someone, a lady, who’s writing something about the subject. So, with your help, you may also be contributing to love as an outcome.

I hope this will be enough for you to know that this is as urgent and necessary as sure as the summer will finally leave.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Que insólito: un discurso de lo grotesco como un sendero que llega
al amor. En inglés decimos: sounds kinky
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  #4  
Old August 01, 2008, 07:55 AM
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I tought in the word grotesque, and really, it's very strange, because, immediately, I imagined, in a animal called spider, and it's is very grotesque for me, the animals in some occasions, they can to be very uglies, in their form, color, and type of animal, it's the case of the spider, another thing what can to be grotesque, it's the a person that hasn't hygiene, because a person very dirty give bad aspect, I think, what the word grotesco is when don't you like something it could be a person, animal, place, ect. It's depending of the form or expresion what don't you like.


The wake up very hearly is some grotesque, because I'm sleepy, and I didn't sleep very well.
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Last edited by CrOtALiTo; August 01, 2008 at 07:59 AM.
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  #5  
Old August 01, 2008, 08:06 AM
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Elaina Elaina is offline
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Sad but true in my eyes......... The Elephant Man

The paintings that Poli described are quite grotesque but at the same time "sick" beyond words.

Jabba the Hutt is grotesque.

I dislike many, many animals but I wouldn't say they are grotesque.

Too early to think of other grotesque things......aside from the elephant man (God rest his soul) I don't think there are very many living things that I find "grotesque".

Sorry if this is not what you are looking for.
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  #6  
Old August 01, 2008, 08:15 AM
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para mi grotesco, así sin más, es siempre una escena (suelo relacionarlo más con escenas que con historias. Al final de una historia grotesca siempre se me queda una imagen grotesca) que encierra o una gran maldad, o una gran irrealidad (aunque sea real)
.
escenas grotescas malvadas (normales, por desgracia): cadáveres tras una ejecución, personas veraneando en la playa junto a cadáveres ahogados, gente sacándose fotos frente a personas muertas, madres que enferman a sus hijos para estar en el hospital, padres que amtan a sus hijas por "deshonrar el honor familiar", niñas casadas a los 6 años, decapitaciones, canibalismo, etc

escenas irreales (aunque sean reales, o generadas por ordenador): un niño con la barriga excesavemente grande por hambre, personas disecadas, sacar fotos a personas muertas en posiciones normales (aunque antes era común), gente comiendo hasta devolver, personas con malformaciones físicas muy grandes, etc

ya se que es bastante sombrío, pero no asocio grotesco con ninguna imagen positiva.
Además, todavía no he mirado el diccionario para saber el significado exacto de grotesco.
saludos, Alfonso.
PD Y como ahora me he puesto triste y me voy a leer algo divertido y tratar de olvidar estas imágenes.
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  #7  
Old August 01, 2008, 08:35 AM
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Here's an example of a grotesque crime: 40-year-old suspect held in gruesome Manitoba bus killing.
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  #8  
Old August 01, 2008, 08:48 AM
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UGH!!!!!!!!! That is disgusting.........yes "grotesque"

Thank you David.....I think...:thumbs down:
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  #9  
Old August 01, 2008, 08:54 AM
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Lo grotesco es algo malformado o torcido i literadamente o en metáforo.
Entonces una matanza en un autobus puede ser grotesco si lo mira en
metáforo, pero literadamente no es.
If you have time, please correct this. I am sure there is a error here with the i and the o.
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  #10  
Old August 01, 2008, 02:24 PM
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grotesque

I agree that (extreme) physical malformations can be grotesque. At least emotionally, although I try to overcome that gut feeling and see them as variations of normal.

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