In Mexico, next to the Great Museum of the Mayan World, there is a monument to a Russian scientist: Yuri Knorozov, carved in a yellowish stone, the work of Mexican sculptor Reynaldo Bolio Suarez. It is exactly the same model as the most famous photograph of the linguist and epigrapher, in which he appears with his inseparable cat Asya. It was precisely her, his cat, whom Yuri repeatedly tried to add to the list of co-authors of his works, but the editors constantly crossed out the pet's name.
"In my heart I will always be Mexican" is the phrase that decorates the monument to
Soviet Ukrainian Mexican soldier Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov in the city of Merida, Yucatan. This phrase was pronounced in 1994, when the former Soviet received the Order of the Aztec Eagle decoration, the highest award given by the Mexican government to a foreigner.
His great feat consisted in deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphics for the first time. Before him, no one had ever succeeded. The first to attempt it was the Franciscan missionary Diego de Landa, who in the 16th century had thousands of Mayan Indians of Yucatan and Guatemala killed under the pretext of heresy. However, he preserved some codices and wrote the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán. In this document, Diego de la Landa describes the way of life of the Maya before the conquest, as well as the existing institutions. In addition, he also wrote a section under the title Maya Alphabet, which served as the basis for deciphering the glyphs.
The father of the decipherment of the Maya script, Yuri Valentinovich Knórosov, renowned ethnologist and linguist, was born on November 19, 1922 in Kharokov, Ukraine. From the age of 17, when he entered Moscow University, he showed his interest in ethnology, ancient writing and archaeology.
At the age of 21, he was studying violin in the USSR when World War II began and he had to join the troops as part of the General Staff reserve. He arrived in Berlin and when he saw that the Great Library was on fire, he went inside and managed to take out only two books: the edition of Diego de Landa Relación de las cosas de Yucatán prepared by Brasseur de Bourbourg and the 1933 edition of the Mayan codices of Carlos and Antonio Villacorta.
Upon his return to the Soviet Union, he resumed his studies and his thesis earned him the degree of doctor and from then on, and throughout his life, he worked at the Institute of Ethnography of the Kunst-Kamera Museum in Leningrad. Thanks to the creation of his school of Mayan epigraphy, the Center for Mesoamerican Studies also exists in Moscow.
In 1952 he published his first decipherments of the glyphs of the Dresden Codex and in 1963 his most important work appeared, "The Writing of the Ancient Maya", these as many other publications of his did not get the attention they deserved due to the Cold War. Curiously, he deciphered the Mayan writing in a room in Leningrad and it was not until after he had found the key that he traveled to Mayan territory.
Furthermore, in spite of the great importance of his studies in world culture, not only Maya or Mexican, Knórosov's work did not receive recognition until 1975 when he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR.
He first visited Mayan territory in 1990, at the invitation of the Guatemalan government, which also awarded him the Grand Gold Medal.
Cats were Knorozov's passion. Around 1970, his friends gave him a Siamese cat, which was then rare in Leningrad, where he lived at the time. He named her Asya and she became the main assistant to the researcher, he called her "his co-author".
Later in his visit to Mexico, he travels to Palenque, Bonampak, Yaxchilán, La Venta and Monte Albán, where the people appreciated the interest of the distant visitor for the cultures of this country. For this reason, in 1995 the Mexican government awarded him the Order of the Aztec Eagle.
He died on March 30, 1999 in Petersburg, Russia.
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I completely identify and I don't think there's anything wrong with your brain. I think a big part of it has to do with how saturated overall culture is with toxic masculinity. It's seeped down to the very marrow of the bones of popular entertainment and it's impossible to scrape it all out without also taking out the foundation of the media in question. Queer entertainment has made massive strides in progress away from that toxicity because it has had to, understandably and for obvious reasons. But then that leaves the cis stuff still rife with it. So those of us who reject all the toxins find solace and actual decent, non-toxic entertainment only in the explicitly queer. So it's no wonder that even we straight, cis men, who have an interest in consuming genuinely human, non-toxic entertainment, find ourselves gravitating towards the only places where that's genuine - queer entertainment. Even for straight cis people, queer culture is the vanguard of all heartfelt and truly based culture.
(But I'm drunk and a perpetual idiot so I probably said some cringe.)
you didn't! i think this at least means my love of all of these queer media is just a coincidence, but im never sure
edit: theres a small factor that i still gravitate to most depictions of queer people in regular media. so its still ocnfusing
Phew. I always cringe at myself no matter what I do, so it's hard to know. ... Anyway. I wouldn't say it's a coincidence at all. I'd say there's a very good sociological, even socioeconomic reason that queer media is right now superior in its... human authenticity. It has had no choice but to break free of many of the shackles imposed on "straight, cis" media that has to adhere to conformity and rigidity that only holds back, only stifles the range of human expression. I mean, think of how much of a taboo there was on men crying for fuck's sake. Queer media recognizes that men crying is... um... the reality of being an emotional human being. There's a gazillion other examples of course, but that one came to mind because I cried tonight. But I'm a man. And I felt that tension, deep within myself about how I shouldn't be crying. Fortunately I can recognize that program and try to counter it and remind myself I'm not a pathetic loser of a man because I cried. Even though it's a struggle to tell myself that. The thing is, queer media reminds me of that. Queer media tells me that I'm no less of a person, if anything, I'm more in touch with my humanity, despite what the usual straight, cis media would tell me about my cringey pathos. It's no wonder I gravitate towards queer media even as a straight, cis man. It's still telling me the truth about who I am as a person, even when I've been lied to by other media for most of my life. I love my queer and my trans comrades and I am forever indebted to them for suffering the brunt of the social backlash, even as all of us benefit even those of us who are cis and straight, from their reshaping of social boundaries.
well i meant the coincidental part was also all of the random thoughts i've had through my life about how women are objectively pretty than guys and how i want to be one. like that would be coincidental part not that i liked good media.