So while watching Tables, Ladders and Chairs tonight, I did some work on refining the heads I came up with last night, starting in the order that they were presented in. I might just stretch out this exercise over the next few days to make it easier on myself as well as give myself something to do.
Lust
Lust or lechery (carnal “luxuria“) is an intense desire. It is usually thought of as excessive sexual wants, however the word was originally a general term for desire. Therefore lust could involve the intense desire of money, fame, or power as well.
In Dante’s Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante’s Inferno, unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self-control to their lustful passions in earthly life.
I stuck with the concepts of physical/carnal/sexual lusts, as I am already having a hard enough time separating the qualities of Greed and Envy, so giving Lust greater access to things beyond pleasure of the flesh creates unnecessary “bleed” into the “feed me more” territory.
As it is, I’m pretty pleased with the way that this came out. I didn’t get to look at all the goat-horn references I wanted to while doing it, but I think that the rest of it will do:
I imagine Lust as more of a sensualist- really, if you’re doing it right, all of your senses ought to be at least partially engaged in the act of “doing the deed,” though it’s supposed to be a little subtler than Gluttony, which is strictly concerned with the material (as in physical objects it can see, and therefore eat) though I’m not quite sure how it measures up against Greed or Envy.
Anyhow, moving on:
Gluttony
Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony (Latin, gula) is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.
In Christian religions, it is considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food, and its withholding from the needy.
Because of these scripts, gluttony can be interpreted as selfishness; essentially placing concern with one’s own interests above the well-being or interests of others.
Medieval church leaders (e.g., Thomas Aquinas) took a more expansive view of gluttony, arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. Aquinas went so far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony, including:
- Praepropere – eating too soon.
- Laute – eating too expensively.
- Nimis – eating too much.
- Ardenter – eating too eagerly (burningly).
- Studiose – eating too daintily (keenly).
- Forente – eating wildly (boringly).
In hindsight, I almost feel that I copped out on this; that the “eyes bigger than stomach” and enormous jaw (with small teeth for simply gulping food as opposed to other heads which might chew) are too “easy,” but right now, I don’t have a better idea, and I feel like I pretty much nailed it- it gets the point of “gluttony” across, whereas with, say, Lust, I was at first trying to get a cross of phallic, dragon and goat to work somehow.
I’ll actually draw the whole head for when I put the seven together on the body, but I think that the Brooklyn Brawler was fighting at this point:
Join us tomorrow where we examine Greed and possibly Sloth, mayyybe Envy if I can come up with something- I doubt that Wrath or Pride will need much fixing up, but I feel like I should be doing this in order.
