Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918

by Gilles Néret

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is one of the most popular artists of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries. A founding member of the Viennese Secession and a leader of the Art Nouveau movement, Klimt was an innovator who achieved success with large decorative schemes as well as smaller portraits and paintings. He is admired for his sensuous images of women and for his original vision, producing images such as "Love", "The Three Ages of Man" and "The Kiss".

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Art History, History, Reference, Art Design

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Gilles Néret (1933 - August 3, 2005) was a French art critic and historian, journalist and curator. He wrote extensively on the history of erotica.

He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L’Oeil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. Since 1992, Néret was an editor for Taschen, for which he has written catalogues raisonnés of the works of Klimt and others, as well as the author of Erotica Universalis.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and leader of the Vienna Secession Movement - a group of artists who left the painting academy and joined Symbolism.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was born in the small town of Baumgarten, south of Vienna, in Imperial Austria, which in 1867 was replaced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Son of Ernest Klimt and Anna Finster, he was the second of the couple's seven children. At 14, he entered the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts with his brother Ernest. Soon the two were drawing and selling portraits from photographs.
In 1879, Gustav, his brother, and his friend Franz Matsch began to assist their teacher in painting murals for the Vienna Museum of Art History atrium. In 1980 they started to receive orders and carried out various works, among them four allegories for the roof of the Sturany Palace in Vienna, the top of the Karlsbad thermal bath building in Czechoslovakia, and the decoration of Villa Hermès based on drawings by Hans Makat.
In 1886, Gustav's style began to differ when carrying out work for the Burgtheater in Vienna, moving away from the academism of conventional painting learned at school. In 1890, Gustav Klimt founded and chaired, together with other artists, the "Austrian Association of Figurative Artists," intending to oppose the conservative Society of Viennese Artists.
Engaged in a new perspective, he developed a highly decorative production, gaining excellent visibility and being asked to decorate buildings and institutions, such as the decoration of the ceiling and side staircases of the imposing "Municipal Theater of Viena," in addition to having completed the decoration project of the "Historical Museum of Art."
In 1894, he was given the task of painting three large panels for the ceiling of the auditorium of the University of Vienna to represent the figures of Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence. In 1900, he presented his first panel but left aside the style that had enshrined it. He used unusual allegories in which naked female bodies were shown in obscene poses, which was the target of criticism and heated controversy. The last panel was only completed in 1907. That same year, he led a group of artists who founded the "Vienna Secession" and adhered to symbolism - the Austrian version of decorative Art Nouveau.
His most famous works belong to the "golden phase," in which he uses gold leaves and mainly portrays women adorned by small objects and geometric shapes, as in "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" (1907) and "The Kiss" (1907-1908 ), his masterpiece. He painted with extreme detail, taking his models to very long sections. He was in love with Emílie Flöge, with whom he had a long love affair and was his companion for years.
With his rebellious style of dress, mostly wrapped in a dark tunic, Gustav Klimt has become an exotic figure. For many years he tried unsuccessfully to be admitted to the Vienna Academy of Art. Only in 1917 did he receive due recognition when he was elected an honorary member of that entity. However, the following year he suffered a stroke.

Gustav Klimt died in Vienna, Austria, on February 6, 1918.

Source: https://www.ebiografia.com/gustav_klimt/

[Manny]

o1 and I are working on integrating Google's Imagen 3 into C-LARA (it can do some things that DALL-E-3 can't), and I thought I had to share this rather fine digital painting it just produced for me while we were testing. The prompt was

Create an image in the style of Klimt of a tabby cat and a beautiful woman in a diaphanous dress, sitting together on top of a garden shed. Use a lot of gold leaf.

and here is the result:



I'm curious to hear from people who know about Klimt. I would have been fooled if someone had told me it was genuine.

[Νόρα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Εξαιρετική παρουσίαση του ζωγράφου Γκουστάφ Κλιμτ,των θεμάτων της τέχνης του, και οι διάφορες φάσεις της καριέρας του.Το βιβλίο είναι πλούσια διακοσμημένο με πολλά από τα έργα του Κλιμτ,αλλά και μερικά προσχέδια για τη σύνθεση των πινάκων του.Έμαθα και πράγματα που δεν τα ήξερα για αυτόν τον καλλιτέχνη.Φυσικά αυτό που απόλαυσα περισσότερο είναι το έργο «Το φιλί» που είναι από τους αγαπημένους μου πίνακες.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a book on Klimt. Fall even more in love with his work. This is how it went for me. The book is richly decorated with many of Klimt's paintings, but also some of his (composition) sketches and it was just a wonder to behold. I was not very familiar with Klimt, so learning he did landscapes was a big surprise for me.

The book was nicely, chronologically set up. Mostly. References to paintings were sadly all over the place, considering not every painting was printed there when it was talked about (which was annoying) but what mostly pissed me off was that they wrote Sisi as "Sissy". I've had to learn to live with "Sissi" because of the Romy Schneider series, but "Sissy" is something else entirely! And that in a Dutch translation. Made absolutely no sense at all.

[salma · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the first i've read of taschen's 'basic art' series and i loved it so much. perfect introduction to an artist, it's short but comprehensive and serves as a great starting point for further research. i love klimt :') looking forward to reading more from this series

[Jasmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars only because I really, really love Klimt, and yes, I learned a few things.

BUT
the only real point Néret makes in this book is that all of Klimt's art is in some way sexual (even the landscapes) and if he maybe actually put a reason in there, that wouldn't be a problem. But he literally just calls all women femme fatales who try to seduce the viewer, and that's it. Point made.
It just gets tiring after you know, thirty pages. Especially as a (wl)woman, who never thought of a strong, beautiful and yes, even nude woman as necessarily seductive and especially not a threat to the male viewer/male counterpart in the painting, or thought of lesbian lovers as "narcisisstic" or thought of the portraits of Fritza Riedler or Adele Bloch-Bauer that look as if the woman are ready to willingly indulge to (whatever guy wants them basically)

So yeah, I guess Néret and I just have very different perceptions of women in (Klimt's) art and since that was the only thing really discussed in this book, I did not enjoy it much.

[Antara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with pictures of Klimt’s paintings and that itself makes this a visually stunning read. I just wish there was more background on Klimt, maybe more on his personal life and relationships.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great illustrations and text.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine schöne Einführung in das Werk Klimts. Das ganze ist kurzweilig und überschaubar konzipiert, versehen mit vielen Abbildungen in Farbe von den Werken Klimts. An einigen Stellen wurde für meinen Geschmack überinterpretiert bzw. fiel es mir schwer der Interpretationskette zu folgen. Ich vermute, dass mir an der Stelle das kunstgeschichtliche Wissen fehlte. Hat dem ganzen aber keinen Abbruch getan. Für mich eine gelungene Möglichkeit, das Werk Klimts kennenzulernen.

[Ben Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting summary of the work and life of a famously reticent artist.

[Ocean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Klimt so very much so I was tempted to rate this higher (I am so biased) but I did things properly. I loved the copious amount of prints in this book and the few photographs of the artist and the ones he painted, adored seeing his sketches of some of his most famous pieces.
However the writing that accompanied the pictures wasn't that good. There was a lot of repetition and I think this book could have gained a lot by presenting Klimt's work in chronological order.
So really it has been poorly edited in my opinion. Nonetheless, I did appreciate it. It was a decent read and I did learn some new things about one of my favourite painters and his time, so I am satisfied.
The edition is so nice, I love me some glazed paper.

All in all, would still recommend.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite painter of all time. "The Kiss" is such a classic- but there is more to this man than that one painting.

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Words, spoken or written, do not come easily to me, especially when I'm supposed to be saying something about myself or my work. If I have to write a simple letter I get just as scared as if I was going to be sea-sick.
So people will just have to do without any artistic or literary self-portrait - which is just as well. Anyone who wants to find out about me - as an artist, which is all that's of interest - should look attentively at my pictures and try to learn from them what I am and what I want." - Gustav Klimt

The most erotic artist to ever live. Bro needed 3-4 nude models in his studio at all times because he's just that guy. I had a visible, corporeal reaction of excitement when I realised some of the connections Klimt had. Dude was rolling with: Rodin, Schubert, Freud, Wagner - influenced by: Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Beethoven, Plato, Makart. Rodin and Klimt were definitely too timid and neurotic to form more than one conversation a year with each other, which is a shame seeing as they share, almost, identical values. Great book. Didn't leave my hand for a day. Will be revisiting and writing more about him and all his 'European creative' mates in the near future.

What I'd do to see his original 1899-1907 'philosophy' piece in all of its glorious, intense colour before it was destroyed.

Wrote this review listening to Hana Stretton.

[Mohammed omran · Rating 3 out of 5]

يع��بر جوستاف كليمت من أشهر الرسامين النمساويين، بل من أشهر رسامي القرن التاسع عشر كله، كان كليمت رساماً رمزياً، وكان موضوعه الأساسي هو جسد المرأة. تتميز لوحات كليمت وجدارياته ورسوماته التخطيطية بالإثارة الجنسية الحسية، والتي تظهر بشكل واضح خاصة في لوحاته المرسومة بالقلم الرصاص. التحق كليمت بجامعة فيينا للفنون والحرف اليدوية عام 1876، وتلقى تعليماً أكاديمياً محافظاً. ومع ذلك، بدأ الفنان الشاب في الرسم بأسلوب جديد من الحداثة وإضافة عناصر من الإثارة الجنسية الصريحة، مما تسبب في لوم شديد من العملاء الذين أرادوا أن تُعرض أعماله في المباني العامة.

أنشأ كليمت شركة Company of Artists مع شقيقيه وأحد أقرب أصدقاءه، ثم بعد ذلك حصل على وسام الاستحقاق الذهبي من إمبراطور فيينا. وفي عام 1892 توفي والده وأحد أشقائه، مما جعله مسؤولاً بالكامل عن أسرهم، فأثّرت مآسي العائلة على رؤيته الفنية، مما ساعده على تطوير أسلوبه الشخصي.

بالرغم من أنه طوال حياته كان رساماً مثيراً للجدل بسبب موضوعاته الجنسية، إلا أنه أصبح عضواً فخرياً في جامعتي فيينا وميونيخ. كما أنه أصبح عضواً مؤسساً ورئيسياً في “حركة الإنفصال الفنية في فيينا”، حيث سعى إلى إنشاء منصة للفنانين الجدد وغير التقليديين وإحضار فنانين جدد إلى فيينا، وأنشأ مجلة لعرض أعمال أعضائها.


جوستاف كليمت
عاش كليمت حياة بسيطة ومنعزلة، تجنّب فيها الكثير من الفنانين الآخرين. وكان في كثير من الأحيان يرتدي رداءاً طويلاً وصنادل ولا يرتدي ثياباً داخلية. كان لكليمت رغبة جنسية جامحة، فكان لديه الكثير من العلاقات الغرامية مع النساء، وأنجب ما لا يقل عن 14 طفلاً. قد يكون هذا مؤشراً على ولعه الشديد بأجساد النساء ونشاطهن الجنسي، اللذان كانا محور التركيز الرئيسي لمعظم أعماله. ويُقال أنه كان على علاقة عاطفية مع إميل فلوغ، التي كانت موديل لإحدى لوحاته التي اختيرت لاحقاً ليتم طباعتها على العملة النمساوية فئة 100 يورو، والتي تم سكّها عام 2003.

تميزت معظم لوحات كليمت بالتصاميم الذهبية أو الملونة الدائرية، والتي كانت غالباً ما تصور النساء في وضعيات مثيرة. وقد أطلق عليه “المتمرد على عصره”، نظرا لجرأته في تجسيد المرأة.

تندرج أعمال كليمت بين اللوحات الأعلى قيمة فى العالم. حيث بيعت لوحته “أديل بلوخ باور” مقابل 135 مليون دولار عام 2006.

إليكم خمس لوحات من أشهر أعمال كليمت..

لوحة داناي (1908)

داناي – لوحة لـ جوستاف كليميت
تعتبر هذه اللوحة تمثيلاً نموذجياً للإثارة الجنسية عند كليميت، فهو يصور داناي، والتي كانت موضوعاً شائعاً آنذاك، فقد رسمها قبله أنطونيو دا كوريدجو ورامبرانت وتيتيان.

كانت داناي رمزاً للحب الإلهي والسمو والجمال والإثارة. وكما تقول الأسطورة، فقد تم التنبؤ بأن داناي ستُنجب طفلاً يقتل الملك، فحبسها الملك في برج برونزي، لكن الإله زيوس زارها في شكل مطر ذهبي يتدفق بين ساقيها، وبعد وقت قصير من زيارة زيوس لها، أنجبت داناي وليدها بيرسيوس.



لوحة القُبلة (1907)

القُبلة – لوحة لـ جوستاف كليمت
قبل أن يرسم كليمت لوحة القُبلة، كان قاب قوسين أو أدنى من فقدان وظيفته، وقد باءت محاولاته المتكررة في إمتهان الرسم بالفشل، حيث رفضت جامعة فيينا لوحاته التي زُينت بها أسقف الجامعة، ووجهت له تهديداً صريحاً وحاد اللهجة بإعتبار لوحاته لوحات إباحية وخادشة للحياء العام.

قد تكون القبلة هي أشهر أعمال كليمت، وكذلك إحدى أبرز لوحات الفترة الذهبية. وقد ابتعد كليمت في هذه اللوحة عن إبراز تفاصيل جسد المرأة كما عودنا، حيث صور زوجين محبوسين في قبضة ذهبية مملوءة بالزهور، وقام بتوظيف إحساسه المترف، وشهوانيته تجاه جسد الأنثى فبثَّ في اللوحة روح الإثارة الجنسية، مستخدماً الألوان الداكنة والخطوط الذهبية.



لوحة ثلاثة عصور للمرأة (1905)

ثلاثة عصور للمرأة لوحة لـ جوستاف كليمت
تضم اللوحة ثلاثة نساء في مراحل مختلفة من العمر، وهي بشكل عام ترمز إلى دورة الحياة. النساء الثلاث يحتلن مكانة مركزية في اللوحة ويمثلن محور العمل. محايدة الألوان في هذا العمل تترك تأثيراً مريح، فإتقان كليمت لإختيار الألوان بعناية يتجلى بوضوح في هذه اللوحة.



جدارية إفريز بيتهوفن.. الجدار الأيمن (1902)

جدارية إفريز بيتهوفن لـ جوستاف كليمت
كان الهدف من هذه اللوحة، التي تم رسمها للعرض ضمن حركة الإنفصال الفنية في فيينا عام 1914، أن تُعرض في إحتفال للمؤلف الموسيقي العظيم لودفيغ فون بيتهوفن. كما أنه رسم اللوحة على جدران مبنى حركة الإنفصال الفنية في فيينا.

بعد إنتهاء المعرض، تم الاحتفاظ باللوحة ولم تُعرض مرة أخرى إلّا في عام 1986، ولا تزال معروضة حتى اليوم. وقد عززت شعبية الجدارية شهرتها، حيث طُبعت أجزاء منها على العملة النمساوية فئة 100 يورو في عام 2004. وتحتوي العملة على عناصر موحية أخرى، بما في ذلك رسمة لفارس، وهي ترمز إلى القوة، وامرأة تحمل إكليلاً، وهي ترمز إلى الطموح، وامرأة تحمل رأساً مقلوب مُحاطاً بالأيدي، وهي ترمز إلى التعاطف.



لوحة أتمنى (1903)

أتمنى – لوحة لجوستاف كليمت
رُسمت هذه اللوحة عام 1903، وكان موضوعها الرئيسي هو “الحمل”، امرأة عارية، تضع يديها فوق بطنها، قريبة من صدرها، وتضع إكليل من الزهور فوق شعرها الكثيف، وتنظر مباشرة إلى المُشاهِد.

قد يبدو المشهد جميلاً للوهلة الأولى، ولكن بمجرد أن تنتقل عينا المشاهد إلى الخلفية، تصبح دلالات الموت حاضرة بشكل ملحوظ.

في السنوات التي سبقت ظهور هذه اللوحة، كان من غير المألوف إظهار الحمل في الفن الغربي، وكان جوستاف كليمت واحداً من أوائل الفنانين الذين قاموا بشكل صارخ بتصوير امرأة حامل وعارية بمثل هذه الطريقة.

[Ileana · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Según Klimt, Filosofía, Medicina y Jurisprudencia no están en condiciones de asegurar a la humanidad una vida feliz y satisfactoria – como ha dejado claro en sus cuadros para la Facultad. Para la utópica generación de Klimt, sólo el arte es capaz de salvar a las personas.»

[zalia]

oh Klimt, how i respect you

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far from an all-encompassing exploration of Klimt, but a good overview with the essential highlights.

[susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

what are these DIVAS (I loved it so muchhhhh)

[Jakob Scherm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gu så flotte bilder, må si sa så!

[DoomFist7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so unique!.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The painting "The Kiss" (Der Kuss) shown as the book's cover is my ultimate favorite and Klimt's most popular work. Let me write about the painting first: I think it's a romantic painting and I would never forget the first time I saw it in Jogja, the hotel I was staying held an art exhibition and they were displaying this painting (it was a repro though) and I thought it was so beautiful and romantic and I fell for it. When I got back from my holiday I kept on searching for this painting, I'd like to have it! But I couldn't find it until one day I got a package from Rondy, I thought he sent me a calendar and to my surprise it was THE KISS poster!!! I framed it and hung it on my wall and everybody who sees it goes,"Oh wow...." Thanks to Rondy for this!! He made it come true! For me, the romantic side shows in the way the life-sizes figures posed. Just look at the way they embrace each other, don't you think it's romantic? Love really shows from the way the embrace each other. Man leaning over and kissing woman. Both figures are kneeling and shrouded in symbolically patterned gold with a bed of flowers below them. It shows both the masculinity of the guy and the feminity of the woman. The masculine side is shown by the guy's coat pattern of black, gray and white blocks and the laurel on his head while the feminine side is shown by the spinning circles of bright floral motifs and upward-flowing wavy lines on the woman's dress and the garlands on her head. Although many of Klimt's paintings were of women in intensely erotic poses, the title The Kiss may sound erotic for someone who haven't seen it, you may imagine it as a painting of two sexes locking lips but obviously, this painting is not erotic at all. Instead, it shows the intense love shared by both figures by the way he hold her face with her hands while kissing her cheek, the way she tilts her head to give her cheek to be kissed by him, the way she puts her arm around him and hold his hand. Utterly romantic.
Ok, now it's about the book: The reason why I bought the book? To enjoy the fascination I have on this painting and other Klimt's works.

[Jaimie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read enough publications from Taschen’s art portfolio that I’ve become incredibly sceptical about the authorial quality, but I was happy to not find myself immediately annoyed with this book. It’s much smaller in volume than most of the other art books I’ve read, so the temptation to skip reading in lieu of absorbing strictly the artwork was much lessened and I was determined to read the book cover to cover. I did achieve this goal, but unfortunately found myself frustrated again due to the author’s hyper-focus on the aspects of sexuality that he perceived in Klimt’s work. Obviously there are many aspects of his interpretations that I agree with (for example that Klimt’s women were extremely forward in their aspect for the time period, and the way that he presented nude figures was certainly unique), but his over-use of certain terminology became tedious and at times seemed to imply a sense of disdain for female sexuality and the female form as presented by Klimt. Obviously Néret’s academic subject when it came to art critique was centered around eroticism, but I came into this book expecting an broad (but brief) overview of Klimt’s work not a detailed critique of a singular theme. Taschen may know how to style and print beautiful books, but the recurrent theme of inadequate authors seriously gets on my nerves.

[Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for art
but gotta say the Neret accompanying text? not great
like there is No reason to mention freud that many times
also no need to be so weird abt pubic hair (even when there are Literally only faces in the painting) and unacceptably keeps using the word spermatozoa (like once? you can get away with in describing denae but like That’s It cut off)
also didn’t love the describing women as submissive all the time and calling them ‘dolls waiting for someone to take them out of their box and play with them’ um big thumbs down there & didn’t enjoy him ruminating on if everyone who sat for portraits did so in the nude like bro be quiet

I have the biggest issue with the fact that Neret interprets the nudity and (mostly) lack of men as some kind of attack on all men and interprets the lesbian pieces as ‘narcissistic’ hmm gross
also he Couldn’t avoid calling every woman a femme fetale which was irritating

loved the art (and still do) but wow wish the writing hadn’t even been there

[a.g.e. montagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questi libri della Taschen, che in Italia vennero pubblicati dal gruppo dell'Espresso (i miei avevano preso le tre serie complete: impressionisti, arte classica e novecento) coniugano un buon apparato critico e riproduzioni di qualità. Ovviamente la parte testuale è sintetica; ma non potrebbe essere altrimenti, dato che riassume l'intera carriera dell'artista in un centinaio di pagine―peraltro occupate in buona parte dalle riproduzioni delle opere, appunto. Si tratta quindi, programmaticamente, di testi introduttivi, che risultano ad ogni modo utili sia per studio (li ho consultati spesso per i miei esami di storia dell'arte) che in vista di un'esposizione, com'è stato il mio caso per questo libro su Klimt, letto in previsione della mostra al museo Correr di Venezia:
http://www.mostraklimt.it/

[Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an admirer of Gustav Klimt's work, I found the book to be a captivating exploration of this celebrated Austrian painter's life and artistic career. Klimt's journey from classical painter to the founder of the Vienna Secession, a group challenging traditional artistic conventions, intrigued me and provided valuable insight into his revolutionary spirit.

Klimt created striking murals, portraits, and landscapes marked by their decorative style and erotic symbolism.

I was drawn to his unique approach to art, which remains influential today.

🙌I highly recommend this book to anyone who shares my fascination with Klimt and his extraordinary artistic legacy.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

After seeing an exhibit of Klimt drawings in LA at the Getty - and then seeing his paintings at the Neue Gallerie in NYC, I had to learn more about this artist. I'm no art history major, but this book gave me a great overview of Klimt and the artistic environment of Vienna at the time. The book provided me a great overview in its synopsis of Klimt the man, his work and the Vienna art scene at the time.

[Julia Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

This writer has some serious issues with women. His repetitive use of the terms "femme fatale," "castrating woman," and "narcissistic lesbians" contribute nothing useful to the understanding of Klimt's art. It's a lazy and self-gratifying oversimplification of some beautiful and complex art that said more about the writer than the subject matter.

Just get the book for the pictures, it's not worth reading. 1 star for the writing, 5 for the art.

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and the illustrations in it. I found it informative and very well written. It delved into his work, life , love and inspirations. After reading it I felt that I knew Gustav a lot better. This is a book to read if you want to know about Symbolism and The Sessionist movement. It wo'nt cover everything but shows how the founder came to be.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I stood in front of some of Klimt's paintings in Paris (the exhibition included his Beethoven frieze, which I only now realize how privileged I was to see), I remember thinking "I have no idea what these women are thinking." They were a mystery to me. This book has given some greater depth to the man and his works, but it has not taken away the mystery. Excellent pictures and insight.

[Danielė]

už katinus mylintį, moteris garbinusį (ir nesmurtavusį – meno lauko retenybė) ir amžinai tunikomis vilkintį tylenį Klimtą!

"Words, spoken or written, do not come easily to me, especially when I'm supposed to be saying something about myself or my work. If I have to write a simple letter, I get just as scared as if I was going to be seasick." <3