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In some narrative frame it could be argued that German playwright and novelist Heinrich von Kleist is who made Sylvie a fighter, or in the sense of how Einstein theorizes about gravity, provided the enormously dense mass that distorted the fabric of space and time (the bowling ball on the blanket analogy), to make all things swing and sway "downhill" until it's a careening masterpiece of unparalleled fighting, alone in the sport. If you haven't read it, it's incredible. It's basically Sci-Fi written in the dawn of the19th century, a Science Fiction on Gender. You can find it in German here (Penthesilea, free download), and in English in a beautiful hardcover here (Penthesilea, Amazon). It really is High Art meets Marvel superhero. Nothing like it. It would be a pretty long and convoluted story to lay out the personal history between the play and Sylvie, and myself, diving down into German Literature (Sylvie studied German, and studied in Berlin), but it's enough to say that I do believe that the play positioned ourselves. It lay the course for this mad, incredibly romantic adventure. Silver Surfer, Wolverine. These fantasy images definitely set the course for the affective potentials of a human, but Penthesilea does incredibly more than that. It outlines a problematic between gender relations, and it does so as an accelerant. above, a Maurice Sendak illustration from the hardcover translation - ascending a chasm descending from space - Silver Surfer I'm really creating this post as a place holder for a potential conversation about the figure of Penthesilea, and how she relates to the frame of the contemporary female fighter ambition. There is so much to discuss here it is my hope that piecemeal elements of the puzzle can be jigsawed together. If you are interested in the subject I highly recommend you read the play - it's not easy to get in English, if anyone with a superior Google finger can find a PDF English translation link, that would be awesome. This was a really formitive play that as I look back on it now maybe 10 years after it's initial influence or so, it seems more true, or compass setting than ever. above, the Death of Achilles in the play It's hard to overstate the reach of this kind of examination. The myth of the Amazons - a parallel culture where women rule instead of men, bonded by a warrior code - has populated western consciousness for over 2000 years. Presently figures of martial power like Wonder Woman, drawn directly from that storytelling, symbolize real female power changes in the culture: growing voice, increased economic autonomies, self-determinations. Female fighters in the present day act out, in some sense, in the context of these images and storylines, and Penthesilea presents perhaps the acme of this kind of contestation, as female power to self-direct, take pride, self-own, wrestles against the idealized masculine form which symbolizes all of these things. The play traces the outline of the injunction which supposedly keeps the feminine from occupying the position of the masculine.

Also been in front of the door on a weekday , but you can just call them to be sure before going there. That's very true! Super friendly and helpful.

Originally posted in a FB group, but Sylvie thought this might get some feedback here - so first post on the forum: So randomly watching an old fight between Dieselnoi and Nongkhai and couldn't help but notice what appeared to be a ref bias in favor of Dieselnoi in a particular way. The stand out observation for me was how the ref kept placing Dieselnoi away from the corners/ ropes after a clinch break up. To make sure I wasn't seeing things that weren't there, I decided to take some initial metrics. I counted the total number of times the ref broke up a clinch, not including the end of the round break up. And then I counted the number of times of that total that the ref moved a given fighter away from the rope or corner. If the ref put them in a relatively even position after break up, eg both being an equal distance from the ropes, I didn't count that as an advantage for either fighter. Here's what I counted: Total # of break ups: 18 Number of times favored Dieselnoi: 13 Number of times favored Nongkhai: 2 In several of the times favoring Dielselnoi, he was actually the one who was against the ropes / corner. In those cases, the ref literally guided Dieselnoi around Nongkhai to place Dieselnoi closer to the center of the ring. In the 2 cases I counted in favor of Nongkhai, he was already the one closer to the center of the ring. There were other observations, but those are much less obvious and harder to judge. Thoughts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4rOApza4V4

Being in the middle of the ring in Thai scoring is not in and of itself an advantage in Thai scoring. Any time Dieselnoi has talked to me about strategy, he's focused on getting the opponent into the ropes before doing much of anything at all. Referees certainly shape fights in all kinds of ways; but being at the center of the ring is not what I'd call an advantage, certainly not so much as when and how the referee breaks the clinch being a much bigger deal in shaping the fight.

Yet, in the play, is also the countervailing imagery of being willing to be split right down the middle of your dichotomies. In the German the word used, here translated as "head", is more precisely akin to "part". Present the part in your hair, or the place you are split in two, to the heavens. Standing firm, by allowing oneself to be split asunder. This is the exposure that the female fighter ventures, I believe, exposing within themselves the halves of humanity.

An interesting reading of the essential tension between masculine and feminine in the figure of the Amazon (argued in the context that the Amazon Queen, and all Amazon's after her) tore her right breast off in order to be able to militarily fire bow which a man's efficiency: from: "Suddenness and Suspended Moment: Falling in Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea" What is fascinating is how the contemporary female fighter can be positioned between culturally feminine and culturally masculine qualities. Instead of having to resolve which one she is, proposed is a kind of aesthetic solution, putting them in productive tension with each other, making the weapon and the art. Here the artist, the fighter, the Amazonian, sacrifices part of themselves to enter the order of the art, and then puts the parts of themselves in energetic tension. In the Penthesilea text she herself in turned into a projectile composed of receptacle and hurling elements, a machine of propulsion, as she chases down Achilles - the economy of words in building this combustion picture is really incredible: Look! With what eagerness She hugs her thighs around her charger’s body! How, parched with thirst, bent low into the mane, She sucks into herself the hindering air! She’s flying as if shot straight from an iron bow! Numidian arrows don’t fly half as swiftly!

A bit from the Science Fiction: Odysseus Well, then. Achilles goes with me to greet The Scythian heroine where she sits mounted In martial panoply before her maids, Plumes flowing from her helmet, skirt tucked high, Her palfrey tossing gold and purple tassels, Hooves stamping on the muddy ground beneath. For one long moment, with a pensive gaze She stares into our ranks, void of expression, As if we stood before her carved in stone; This bare flat palm has more expressive features Than were displayed upon that woman's face: Until her glance meets that of Peleus' son: A deepening flush spreads down unto her neck, Blood sets her face aglow as if the world Surrounding her were leaping into flames. Then, with a sudden jolt, she swings herself Casting a somber scowl upon Achilles Down from her horse, and, stepping toward us, leaves The reins with an attendant, and inquires What brings us to her in such pageantry. We Argives, I reply, are highly pleased To come upon an enemy of Troy; Long has a hatred for the sons of Priam Consumed our hearts, I say; great benefit Would be our Joint reward if we were friends; And other suchlike bounties of the moment. But then I notice in the flow of talking: She doesn't hear a word. Instead, she turns And with a look of utter wonderment, Suddenly like a girl, a sixteen-year-old On her way back from the Olympic Games, Addresses a companion by her side: Oh Prothoë, I do not think my mother, Otrerë, ever laid eyes on such a man! The friend, embarrassed at these words, stays silent, Achilles smiles at me, and I at him, While she herself stands gazing, as if drunk With admiration, at that glittering figure: Until her friend reminds her timidly That she still owes an answer to my words. Whether from rage or shame, another blush Staining her harness crimson to the waist, She turns to me, confusion, wildness, pride Commingling in her face, and speaks: I am Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, And you shall have my arrows for reply! It is a martial love story, with the ideal male form (Achilles). The above is the first outline of the impossibility of alliance, which proposes a fundamental, but perhaps still productive antinomy between the sexes.