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1727_17 | Chapters of The Second Sex were originally published in Les Temps modernes, in June 1949. The second volume came a few months after the first in France. It was published soon after in America due to the quick translation by Howard Parshley, as prompted by Blanche Knopf, wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Because Parshley had only a basic familiarity with the French language, and a minimal understanding of philosophy (he was a professor of biology at Smith College), much of Beauvoir's book was mistranslated or inappropriately cut, distorting her intended message. For years, Knopf prevented the introduction of a more accurate retranslation of Beauvoir's work, declining all proposals despite the efforts of existentialist scholars.
Only in 2009 was there a second translation, to mark the 60th anniversary of the original publication. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier produced the first integral translation in 2010, reinstating a third of the original work. |
1727_18 | In the chapter "Woman: Myth and Reality" of The Second Sex, Beauvoir argued that men had made women the "Other" in society by application of a false aura of "mystery" around them. She argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand women or their problems and not to help them, and that this stereotyping was always done in societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy. She wrote that a similar kind of oppression by hierarchy also happened in other categories of identity, such as race, class, and religion, but she claimed that it was nowhere more true than with gender in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy. |
1727_19 | Despite her contributions to the feminist movement, especially the French women's liberation movement, and her beliefs in women's economic independence and equal education, Beauvoir was initially reluctant to call herself a feminist. However, after observing the resurgence of the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Beauvoir stated she no longer believed a socialist revolution to be enough to bring about women's liberation. She publicly declared herself a feminist in 1972 in an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur.
In 2018 the manuscript pages of Le Deuxième Sexe were published. At the time her adopted daughter, Sylvie Le Bon-Beauvoir, a philosophy professor, described her mother's writing process: Beauvoir wrote every page of her books longhand first and only after that would hire typists.
The Mandarins |
1727_20 | Published in 1954, The Mandarins won her France's highest literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. The book is set after the end of World War II and follows the personal lives of philosophers and friends among Sartre's and Beauvoir's intimate circle, including her relationship with American writer Nelson Algren, to whom the book was dedicated.
Algren was outraged by the frank way Beauvoir described their sexual experiences in both The Mandarins and her autobiographies. Algren vented his outrage when reviewing American translations of Beauvoir's work. Much material bearing on this episode in Beauvoir's life, including her love letters to Algren, entered the public domain only after her death. |
1727_21 | Les Inséparables
Beauvoir's early novel Les Inséparables, long suppressed, was published in French in 2020 and in two different English translations in 2021.<ref>Reviewed 23 Aug. 2021 by Merve Emre in The New Yorker" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/30/simone-de-beauvoirs-lost-novel-of-early-love</ref> Written in 1954, the book describes her first love, a classmate named Elisabeth Lacoin ("Zaza") who died before age 22, and had as a teenager a "passionate and tragic" relationship with Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty, then teaching at the same school. Disapproved by Sartre, the novel was deemed "too intimate" to be published during Beauvoir's lifetime.
Later years
Beauvoir wrote popular travel diaries about time spent in the United States and China and published essays and fiction rigorously, especially throughout the 1950s and 1960s. She published several volumes of short stories, including The Woman Destroyed, which, like some of her other later work, deals with aging. |
1727_22 | 1980 saw the publication of When Things of the Spirit Come First, a set of short stories centred around and based upon women important to her earlier years. Though written long before the novel She Came to Stay, Beauvoir did not at the time consider the stories worth publishing, allowing some forty years to pass before doing so.
Sartre and Merleau-Ponty had a longstanding feud, which led Merleau-Ponty to leave Les Temps Modernes. Beauvoir sided with Sartre and ceased to associate with Merleau-Ponty. In Beauvoir's later years, she hosted the journal's editorial meetings in her flat and contributed more than Sartre, whom she often had to force to offer his opinions. |
1727_23 | Beauvoir also wrote a four-volume autobiography, consisting of: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter; The Prime of Life; Force of Circumstance (sometimes published in two volumes in English translation: After the War and Hard Times); and All Said and Done. In 1964 Beauvoir published a novella-length autobiography, A Very Easy Death, covering the time she spent visiting her ageing mother, who was dying of cancer. The novella brings up questions of ethical concerns with truth-telling in doctor-patient relationships.
Her 1970 long essay La Vieillesse (The Coming of Age) is a rare instance of an intellectual meditation on the decline and solitude all humans experience if they do not die before about the age of 60. |
1727_24 | In the 1970s Beauvoir became active in France's women's liberation movement. She wrote and signed the Manifesto of the 343 in 1971, a manifesto that included a list of famous women who claimed to have had an abortion, then illegal in France. Some argue most of the women had not had abortions, including Beauvoir. Signatories were diverse as Catherine Deneuve, Delphine Seyrig, and Beauvoir's sister Poupette. In 1974, abortion was legalised in France.
In a 1975 interview with Betty Friedan Beauvoir said "No woman should be authorized to stay at home and raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one."
In about 1976 Beauvoir and Sylvie Le Bon made a trip to New York City in the United States to visit Kate Millett on her farm. |
1727_25 | In 1981 she wrote La Cérémonie Des Adieux (A Farewell to Sartre), a painful account of Sartre's last years. In the opening of Adieux, Beauvoir notes that it is the only major published work of hers which Sartre did not read before its publication.
She contributed the piece "Feminism – alive, well, and in constant danger" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan. |
1727_26 | After Sartre died in 1980, Beauvoir published his letters to her with edits to spare the feelings of people in their circle who were still living. After Beauvoir's death, Sartre's adopted daughter and literary heir Arlette Elkaïm would not let many of Sartre's letters be published in unedited form. Most of Sartre's letters available today have Beauvoir's edits, which include a few omissions but mostly the use of pseudonyms. Beauvoir's adopted daughter and literary heir Sylvie Le Bon, unlike Elkaïm, published Beauvoir's unedited letters to both Sartre and Algren.
Beauvoir died of pneumonia on 14 April 1986 in Paris, aged 78. She is buried next to Sartre at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. She was honored as a figure at the forefront of the struggle for women's rights around the time of her passing. |
1727_27 | Impact |
1727_28 | Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex is considered a foundational work in the history of feminism. Beauvoir had denied being a feminist multiple times but ultimately admitted that she was one after the influential Second Sex became crucial in the world of feminism. The work has had a profound influence, opening the way for second wave feminism in the United States, Canada, Australia, and around the world. Despite the fact that Beauvoir has been quoted as saying "There is a certain unreasonable demand that I find a little stupid because it would enclose me, immobilize me completely in a sort of feminist concrete block." Her works on feminism have paved the way for all future feminists. Founders of the second wave read The Second Sex in translation, including Kate Millett, Shulamith Firestone, Juliet Mitchell, Ann Oakley and Germaine Greer. All acknowledged their profound debt to Beauvoir, including visiting her in France, consulting with her at crucial moments, and dedicating works to |
1727_29 | her. Betty Friedan, whose 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often regarded as the opening salvo of second wave feminism in the United States, later said that reading The Second Sex in the early 1950s "led me to whatever original analysis of women's existence I have been able to contribute to the Women's movement and to its unique politics. I looked to Simone de Beauvoir for a philosophical and intellectual authority." |
1727_30 | At one point in the early seventies, Beauvoir also aligned herself with the League for Woman's rights as a means to campaign and fight against sexism in the French society. Beauvoir's influence goes beyond just her impact on second wave founders, and extends to numerous aspects of feminism, including literary criticism, history, philosophy, theology, criticism of scientific discourse, and psychotherapy. When Beauvoir first became involved with the feminism movement, one of her first objectives was that of legalizing abortion.Donna Haraway wrote that, "despite important differences, all the modern feminist meanings of gender have roots in Simone de Beauvoir's claim that 'one is not born a woman [one becomes one]'". This "most famous feminist sentence ever written" is echoed in the title of Monique Wittig's 1981 essay One Is Not Born a Woman. Judith Butler took the concept a step further, arguing that Beauvoir's choice of the verb to become suggests that gender is a process, constantly |
1727_31 | being renewed in an ongoing interaction between the surrounding culture and individual choice. |
1727_32 | Prizes
Prix Goncourt, 1954
Jerusalem Prize, 1975
Austrian State Prize for European Literature, 1978 |
1727_33 | Works
List of publications (non-exhaustive)
L'Invitée (1943) (English – She Came to Stay) [novel]
Pyrrhus et Cinéas (1944) [nonfiction]
Le Sang des autres (1945) (English – The Blood of Others) [novel]
Les Bouches inutiles (1945) (English - Who Shall Die?) [drama]
Tous les hommes sont mortels (1946) (English – All Men Are Mortal) [novel]
Pour une morale de l'ambiguïté (1947) (English – The Ethics of Ambiguity) [nonfiction]
"America Day by Day" (1948) (English – 1999 – Carol Cosman (Translator and Douglas Brinkley (Foreword) [nonfiction]
Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) (English – The Second Sex) [nonfiction]
L'Amérique au jour le jour (1954) (English – America Day by Day)
Les Mandarins (1954) (English – The Mandarins) [novel]
Must We Burn Sade? (1955)
The Long March (1957) [nonfiction]
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958)
The Prime of Life (1960)
Force of Circumstance (1963)
A Very Easy Death (1964)
Les Belles Images (1966) [novel]
The Woman Destroyed (1967) [short stories] |
1727_34 | The Coming of Age (1970) [nonfiction]
All Said and Done (1972)
Old Age (1972) [nonfiction]
When Things of the Spirit Come First (1979) [novel]
Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre (1981)
Letters to Sartre (1990)
Journal de guerre, Sept 1939 – Jan 1941 (1990); English – Wartime Diary (2009)
A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren (1998)
Diary of a Philosophy Student, 1926–27 (2006)
Cahiers de jeunesse, 1926–1930 (2008) |
1727_35 | Selected translations
Patrick O'Brian was Beauvoir's principal English translator, until he attained commercial success as a novelist.
Philosophical Writings (Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2004, edited by Margaret A. Simons et al.) contains a selection of essays by Beauvoir translated for the first time into English. Among those are: Pyrrhus and Cineas, discussing the futility or utility of action, two previously unpublished chapters from her novel She Came to Stay and an introduction to Ethics of Ambiguity.
See also
Art Shay
Roman à clef
Simone Weil
List of women's rights activists
Place Jean-Paul-Sartre-et-Simone-de-Beauvoir
References |
1727_36 | Sources
Appignanesi, Lisa, 2005, Simone de Beauvoir, London: Haus,
Bair, Deirdre, 1990. Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography. New York: Summit Books,
Rowley, Hazel, 2005. Tête-a-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. New York: HarperCollins.
Suzanne Lilar, 1969. Le Malentendu du Deuxième Sexe (with collaboration of Prof. Dreyfus). Paris, University Presses of France (Presses Universitaires de France).
Fraser, M., 1999. Identity Without Selfhood: Simone de Beauvoir and Bisexuality, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Axel Madsen, Hearts and Minds: The Common Journey of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, William Morrow & Co, 1977.
Hélène Rouch, 2001–2002, Trois conceptions du sexe: Simone de Beauvoir entre Adrienne Sahuqué et Suzanne Lilar, Simone de Beauvoir Studies, n° 18, pp. 49–60.
Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Yourcenar, Nathalie Sarraute, 2002. Conférence Élisabeth Badinter, Jacques Lassalle & Lucette Finas, . |
1727_37 | Further reading
Le Malentendu du Deuxième Sexe by Suzanne Lilar, 1969.
Feminist Theory and Simone de Beauvoir by Toril Moi, 1990.
Appignanesi, Lisa. Simone de Beauvoir. London: Penguin. 1988. .
Bair, Deirdre. Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography. New York: Summit Books. 1990. .
Francis, Claude. Simone de Beauvoir: A Life, A Love Story. Lisa Nesselson (Translator). New York: St. Martin's, 1987. .
Okely, Judith. Simone de Beauvoir. New York: Pantheon. 1986. .
External links
Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.
Victoria Brittain et al discuss Simone de Beauvoir's lasting influence, ICA 1989
"Simone de Beauvoir", Great Lives, BBC Radio 4, 22 April 2011
Kate Kirkpatrick. (6 November 2017) "What is authentic love? A View from Simone de Beauvoir" . IAI News''. |
1727_38 | 1908 births
1986 deaths
20th-century French non-fiction writers
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French philosophers
20th-century French women writers
Atheist feminists
Atheist philosophers
Bisexual feminists
Bisexual women
Bisexual writers
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
Communist women writers
Continental philosophers
Critical theorists
Cultural critics
Deaths from pneumonia in France
Epistemologists
Existentialists
Feminist philosophers
Feminist studies scholars
Feminist theorists
Former Roman Catholics
French abortion-rights activists
French anti-war activists
French atheists
French communists
French socialists
French ethicists
French feminist writers
French literary critics
Women literary critics
French Marxists
French political philosophers
French women non-fiction writers
French women novelists
French women philosophers
Jerusalem Prize recipients
Légion d'honneur refusals
LGBT memoirists
French LGBT novelists
Marxist feminists
French Marxist writers |
1727_39 | Materialist feminists
Metaphysicians
Moral philosophers
Ontologists
Phenomenologists
Philosophers of art
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of education
Philosophers of ethics and morality
Philosophers of literature
Philosophers of nihilism
Philosophers of sexuality
Political philosophers
Prix Goncourt winners
French social commentators
Social critics
Social philosophers
French socialist feminists
University of Paris alumni
French women memoirists
Writers from Paris
20th-century French memoirists
French magazine founders
LGBT philosophers |
1728_0 | Neverwinter Nights was the first multiplayer online role-playing game to display graphics, and ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL.
Gameplay
Neverwinter Nights was developed with gameplay similar to other games in the Gold Box series. Players begin by creating a character. After creating the character, gameplay takes place on a screen that displays text interactions, the names and current status of one's party of characters, and a window which displays images of geography marked with various pictures of characters or events. When combat occurs, gameplay switches to full-screen combat mode, in which a player's characters and enemies are represented by icons which move around in the course of battle.
Development
Neverwinter Nights was a co-development of AOL, Beyond Software, SSI, and TSR. It was the first multiplayer online role-playing game to display graphics. |
1728_1 | Don Daglow and the Beyond Software game design team began working with AOL on original online games in 1987, in both text-based and graphical formats. At the time AOL was a Commodore 64 only online service, known as Quantum Computer Services, with just a few thousand subscribers, and was called Quantum Link. Online graphics in the late 1980s were severely restricted by the need to support modem data transfer rates as slow as 300 bits per second (bit/s). |
1728_2 | In 1989 the Beyond Software team started working with SSI on Dungeons & Dragons games using the Gold Box engine that had debuted with Pool of Radiance in 1988. Within months they realized that it was technically feasible to combine the Dungeons & Dragons Gold Box engine with the community-focused gameplay of online titles to create an online role-playing video game with graphics although the multiplayer graphical flight combat game Air Warrior (also from Kesmai) had been online since 1987; all prior online RPGs had been based on text.
In a series of meetings in San Francisco and Las Vegas with AOL's Steve Case and Kathi McHugh, TSR's Jim Ward and SSI's Chuck Kroegel, Daglow and programmer Cathryn Mataga convinced the other three partners that the project was indeed possible. Case approved funding for NWN and work began with the game going live 18 months later in March 1991. |
1728_3 | Daglow chose Neverwinter as the game's location because of its magical features (a river of warm water that flowed from a snowy forest into a northern sea), and its location near a wide variety of terrain types. The area also was close enough to the settings of the other Gold Box games to allow subplots to intertwine between the online and the disk-based titles.
In late June 1997, America Online announced it would be closing down the online game world on July 19. The company also said it would start a new games channel called World Play, which would cost two dollars per hour to play. Neverwinter Nights was the only game in the company's roster which did not make the transition to the new service.
Reception |
1728_4 | Critical reception
The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #179 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Computer Gaming World wrote that "fans of the Gold Box series know what to expect ... and the human element makes it that much better".
According to GameSpy "with hundreds of loyal players all adventuring in the same city between 1991 and 1997 when AOL pulled the plug, politics, guilds, and alliances quickly formed a social community that was far more important than the actual game".
In 2008 Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with EverQuest and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games. Don Daglow accepted the award for project partners Beyond Software, AOL and Wizards of the Coast. |
1728_5 | Commercial performance
The capacity of each server grew from 50 players in 1991 to 500 players by 1995. Ultimately, the game became a free part of the AOL subscriber service. Near the end of its run in 1997, the game had 115,000 players and typically hosted 2,000 adventurers during prime evening hours, a 4,000% increase over 1991.
Legacy
Much of the game's popularity was based on the presence of active and creative player guilds, who staged many special gaming events online for their members. It is this committed fan base that BioWare sought when they licensed the rights to Neverwinter Nights from AOL and TSR as the basis for the later Neverwinter Nights game.
NWN gained incidental media attention from AOL tech and marketing staff by appearing in the Don't Copy That Floppy campaign by the Software Publishers Association. |
1728_6 | In 1998, development work began on a fanmade clone of Neverwinter Nights called Forgotten World, which opened for play in 2003. , though its website and forums remain operational, the game server itself was last online in 2015.
After the release of BioWare's non-MMO Neverwinter Nights game in 2002, a group of former Neverwinter Nights players used the Aurora toolset included with the new game to reconstruct the content of the original Neverwinter Nights and host it online as a multiplayer game, albeit with limited player capacity. Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection was modestly successful early on in drawing former Neverwinter Nights players, but player numbers dwindled over the years as online gaming options expanded and the underlying game technology aged. A post on IGN from the game's host revealed that Neverwinter Nights: Resurrection shut down its servers on July 31, 2012. |
1728_7 | In 2012 a single-player conversion of Neverwinter Nights was released for Unlimited Adventures after two years of development.
References
External links
Neverwinter Nights on MobyGames
The Original Neverwinter Nights
UGO & GameBanshee interview on history of original NWN
The Original Neverwinter Nights 1991-1997
Neverwinter Nights
1991 video games
AOL
DOS games
DOS-only games
Gold Box games
Inactive massively multiplayer online games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Role-playing video games
Stormfront Studios games
Strategic Simulations games
Tactical role-playing video games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games with oblique graphics |
1729_0 | Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, stretching from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro crossing to the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington. From San Ysidro, the segment of I-5 in California runs north across the length of the state, and crosses into Oregon south of the Medford-Ashland metropolitan area. It is the more important and most-used of the two major north–south routes on the Pacific Coast, the other being U.S. Route 101 (US 101), which is primarily coastal. I-5 is known colloquially as "the 5" to Southern California residents and "5" to Northern California residents due to varieties in California English. The highway connects to the Mexican Federal Highway 1 (Fed. 1) in the south.
This highway links the major California cities of San Diego, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Stockton, Sacramento, and Redding. The San Francisco Bay Area is about west of the highway. |
1729_1 | I-5 has several named portions: the Montgomery Freeway, San Diego Freeway, Santa Ana Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and West Side Freeway.
Route description
I-5 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. The segment of I-5 from State Route 89 (SR 89) to US 97 forms part of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, an All-American Road. I-5 is also eligible to be included in the State Scenic Highway System; however, it is a scenic highway as designated by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) only from SR 152 to I-580.
San Diego County |
1729_2 | I-5 begins at the San Ysidro Port of Entry from Mexico in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego. Immediately after the border, I-805 splits off to the northeast and serves as a bypass of I-5 that avoids Downtown San Diego. I-5 itself continues northwest and meets the western end of SR 905, a route that connects with the Otay Mesa border crossing. I-5 then continues northward and joins the southern end of SR 75, a highway connecting to Coronado via the Silver Strand. I-5 then enters Chula Vista, briefly leaving the San Diego city limits. It continues along the east side of San Diego Bay where it intersects with SR 54 and enters National City. From there, I-5 veers around Naval Base San Diego and reenters the city limits of San Diego. I-5 subsequently intersects with four state routes: the southern end of SR 15 (the extension of I-15), SR 75 and the Coronado Bay Bridge, the western end of SR 94, and SR 163. In addition to serving Downtown San Diego, I-5 also provides access to Balboa |
1729_3 | Park from the Pershing Drive exit. The portion of I-5 from the Mexican border to downtown San Diego is named the Montgomery Freeway in honor of John J. Montgomery, a pioneer aviator who flew a glider from a location near Chula Vista in 1884. |
1729_4 | I-5 continues northwest from downtown as the San Diego Freeway until it reaches its junction with I-8, then turns slightly to the north while passing SeaWorld and Mission Bay. Thereafter, I-5 intersects the western end of SR 52 near La Jolla before entering University City. At Nobel Drive, the San Diego LDS Temple towers over I-5. Shortly afterward, I‑5 passes through the UC San Diego campus and intersects the northern terminus of I-805 before continuing north and intersecting the western end of SR 56. At this interchange, there is a local bypass that provides the only access to Carmel Mountain Road from both directions and provides the only direct access to SR 56 going northbound. |
1729_5 | North of the San Diego city limits, I-5 enters the city limits of Solana Beach, and then three incorporated cities to the north: Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside. This segment is currently undergoing expansion as part of the North Coast Corridor project. In Oceanside, I-5 intersects the SR 78 freeway and the SR 76 expressway and continues through Camp Pendleton. It then follows the Pacific Ocean coastline for the next . Toward the northern end of its routing through Camp Pendleton, I-5 passes through San Onofre State Beach and near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. I-5 enters Orange County at the Cristianitos Road exit.
Orange County |
1729_6 | Upon entering Orange County, I-5 goes through San Clemente. At Dana Point, I-5 turns inland while SR 1 continues along the coast. I-5 then heads due north through San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo, intersecting the SR 73 toll road heading northwest. I-5 continues to the El Toro Y interchange with I-405 in southeastern Irvine, splitting into lanes for regular traffic as well as for truck traffic (though autos can use these lanes as well). From that point, I-405 takes over the San Diego Freeway designation, while I-5 becomes the Santa Ana Freeway as it runs southeast to northwest. |
1729_7 | After the El Toro Y junction, I-5 intersects SR 133, a toll road that eventually connects to SR 241. Just before the Tustin city limits, I-5 passes over SR 261, the final toll road of the Eastern Transportation Corridor, but traffic must use Jamboree Road to access the latter. I-5 then intersects SR 55 and enters Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County. Towards the northern side of Santa Ana, I-5 intersects both SR 57 and SR 22 in what is known as the Orange Crush interchange. Following this, I-5 briefly enters the city of Orange and then traverses Anaheim, passing along the north side of Disneyland. I-5 then intersects SR 91, passes through Buena Park and crosses into Los Angeles County.
Los Angeles County |
1729_8 | After crossing the county line, I-5 goes through several cities southeast of Los Angeles, including La Mirada, Santa Fe Springs, and Norwalk. In Downey, I-5 intersects I-605, which serves as a north–south connector route between the cities east of Los Angeles, including those in the San Gabriel Valley. I-5 then enters Commerce, passing the Citadel Outlets shopping center, and intersects I-710 before entering the large unincorporated community of East Los Angeles and later the city proper of Los Angeles. When the freeway reaches the East Los Angeles Interchange east of downtown Los Angeles, I-5 becomes the Golden State Freeway as US 101 takes over the Santa Ana Freeway designation. At this interchange, I-10, SR 60, and US 101 intersect; I-10 continues north on I-5 for about before continuing east towards San Bernardino and points farther east. |
1729_9 | On the north side of downtown, the Golden State Freeway follows the Los Angeles River, intersects SR 110 and SR 2 and passes along the eastern side of Griffith Park. The route continues through the San Fernando Valley, intersecting the Ventura Freeway (SR 134). It briefly enters the city of Glendale and then Burbank, passing near Burbank Airport before reentering the Los Angeles city limits and intersecting the northern end of the Hollywood Freeway (SR 170). Near the city of San Fernando, I-5 intersects SR 118. Following this, I-5 intersects three routes in succession: the northern end of I-405, the western end of I-210, and the southern end of SR 14 at the Newhall Pass interchange. It then crosses the Newhall Pass through the Santa Susana Mountains into the Santa Clarita Valley. I-5's carpool lanes also have direct connectors with the carpool lanes on the SR 170 and SR 14 freeways (an additional direct connector with the HOV lanes on I-405 near Mission Hills is planned.) This allows |
1729_10 | a continuous HOV lane to run from Palmdale to North Hollywood via SR 14 to I-5 to SR 170. |
1729_11 | I-5 continues along the western city limits of Santa Clarita and passes Six Flags Magic Mountain, intersecting SR 126 just north of there. The Golden State Freeway then rises sharply, passing by Lake Castaic and undergoing a unique crossover resulting in a left-driving configuration for about before the highway crosses back into its standard alignment. It passes Pyramid Lake and intersects SR 138 before crossing the Tejon Pass through the Tehachapi Mountains, with Path 26 power lines generally paralleling the freeway. After entering Kern County, the freeway sharply descends for from at the Tejon Pass to at Grapevine near the southernmost point of the San Joaquin Valley, approximately south of Bakersfield and south of its interchange with SR 99 at Wheeler Ridge. |
1729_12 | Nearly every winter, the stretch of I-5 through the Tejon Pass and Grapevine is sometimes closed by the California Highway Patrol, generally because of the icy conditions combined with the steep grade of the pass, and the high traffic during the winter holidays. Whenever there is such a closure, traffic must either wait for it to reopen, or endure a multi-hour detour. In 2019, a gate was installed in the median of the Golden State Freeway in Castaic north of Lake Hughes Road to allow drivers to turn around when such closures occur.
Central Valley |
1729_13 | From SR 99 to south of Tracy, I-5 is known as the Westside Freeway. It parallels SR 33, skirting along the far more remote western edge of the Central Valley, and is largely removed from the major population centers such as Bakersfield, Fresno and Modesto; other state highways provide connections. I-5 still runs within the vicinity of Avenal, Coalinga, Los Banos, and a handful of other smaller cities on the western edge of the Central Valley. For most of this section, the Path 15 electrical transmission corridor follows the highway, forming an infrastructure corridor along with the California Aqueduct. After the Grapevine, I-5 crosses the California Aqueduct. This is first time out of 5 times that I-5 crosses the aqueduct. |
1729_14 | North of the Grapevine, I-5 intersects SR 166, SR 119 and SR 43 before meeting SR 58, a highway that continues east to Bakersfield, near the town of Buttonwillow. I-5 then intersects SR 46 before entering Kings County. From the Utica Avenue exit to I-580, I-5 parallels the eastern foothills of the Diablo Range. It crosses the California Aqueduct for the second time. In Kings County, I-5 intersects SR 41 before briefly entering the city limits of Avenal, where it intersects SR 269. In Fresno County, I-5 intersects SR 198 and SR 145 before running concurrently with SR 33 for several miles. I-5 then crosses into Merced County, intersecting SR 165, SR 152 and SR 33 near the San Luis Reservoir (where SR 152 provides a major connection to the Monterey Peninsula and the Silicon Valley), and SR 140 at the Stanislaus county line. I-5 crosses the California Aqueduct for the third time between SR 152 and SR 33 and again near Crows Landing. |
1729_15 | In San Joaquin County, I-580 splits off from I-5 south of Tracy, providing a spur-route connection to the San Francisco Bay Area. From here, I-5 crosses the California Aqueduct for the final time and intersects SR 132, a major route to Modesto and the mountains in the east, as well as the northern end of SR 33. After passing Tracy, I-5 intersects I-205, a connector route to I-580, before intersecting the SR 120 freeway near Manteca. After passing through Lathrop, I-5 heads due north through Stockton, intersecting the SR 4 freeway that provides access to downtown Stockton. I-5 passes through the western portion of the Lodi city limits before intersecting SR 12 and entering Sacramento County. |
1729_16 | I-5 enters the city of Elk Grove while passing along the eastern edge of the Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. It then crosses into the Sacramento city limits, soon paralleling the Sacramento River before intersecting the Capital City Freeway, which carries US 50 and I-80 Business (I-80 Bus.). SR 99 merges with I-5 at this point, and the two routes pass through the western half of Downtown Sacramento. Following the bridge over the American River, I-5 and SR 99 intersect the major transcontinental route of I-80. Just as I-5 leaves Sacramento, SR 99 splits off and continues north while I-5 turns due west past Sacramento International Airport and crosses the Sacramento River into Yolo County. In Woodland, the SR 113 freeway merges with I-5 before exiting to the north. The Interstate heads northwest again toward Dunnigan, where it converges with I-505. |
1729_17 | I-5 skirts north along the western edge of the Sacramento Valley, bypassing the larger cities of the region, including Yuba City, Oroville and Chico, before reaching Red Bluff. From Dunnigan, I-5 enters Colusa County, passing through the city of Williams and intersecting SR 20. In Glenn County, I-5 intersects SR 162 in Willows and SR 32 in Orland. I-5 then crosses into Tehama County, passing through Corning before entering Red Bluff and intersecting SR 36, which connects to the northern end of SR 99. I-5 crosses the Sacramento River twice before entering Shasta County.
Cascade Region |
1729_18 | I-5 then enters the Shasta Cascade region, intersecting SR 273 in Anderson before passing through Redding and intersecting SR 44 and SR 299. The freeway then continues through the city of Shasta Lake, intersecting SR 151, before crossing over Shasta Lake on the Pit River Bridge and climbing up to near the foot of Mount Shasta. Just north of the bridge over Shasta Lake, I-5 also boasts the second-largest median in California after I-8's In‑Ko‑Pah grade. In Siskiyou County, I-5 passes through Dunsmuir before intersecting SR 89 near Lake Siskiyou and entering the city of Mount Shasta. North of here, US 97 intersects I-5 in Weed, providing access to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The Interstate then continues to Yreka, intersecting SR 3 and SR 96 before crossing the Klamath River and reaching the Oregon border and the Siskiyou Summit.
History |
1729_19 | Historical naming
The portion of this highway from Los Angeles to San Diego was also co-signed as US 101 until late 1964. The portion of this highway from Woodland to Red Bluff roughly follows old US 99W.
In California, the former western branch of Interstate 5 (the northern end of the spur into the Bay Area) connecting I-80 out of Vacaville to near Dunnigan, previously known as I-5W, was renamed I-505. Interstate 580 running between I-5 and I-80 was also once designated 5W; what is now I-5 (the stretch that runs through Sacramento) had been originally designated I-5E.
The term "Golden State Highway" was the popular name for US 99, stretching from Mexico to Canada through the length of California. Since the construction of I-5, it has taken over the term "Golden State Freeway" from 99 south of the latter's southern terminus in Kern County. |
1729_20 | Los Angeles area
The Golden State Freeway was proposed by the California Highway Commission in 1953. The proposal drew strong criticism from East Los Angeles residents as it would dissect and eliminate large residential and commercial areas of Boyle Heights and Hollenbeck Heights. The proposal also seemed to indicate a disregard for the ethnic Mexican American population of metropolitan Los Angeles. The "Boyle–Hollenbeck Anti–Golden State Freeway Committee" was formed for the purpose in blocking or rerouting the freeway. Then–Los Angeles City Council member Edward R. Roybal chaired that committee. Despite this opposition, the construction of the freeway went ahead.
When this section was completed in 1956, the newspaper The Eastside Sun wrote the freeway led to the "eradication, obliteration, razing, moving, ripping asunder, demolishing of Eastside homes." |
1729_21 | The freeway between Orange County and Los Angeles was originally designed to have three lanes on each side. Due to high demand of cars, the freeway started undergoing major extensions and widening in the early 1990s in Orange County. Work from SR 91 north through the Los Angeles–Orange County line was completed in 2010. The improvements between the county line and the East Los Angeles Interchange are scheduled to be complete by 2025.
Newhall Pass
The original route went through the towns of Saugus and Newhall, and then crossed Newhall Pass (current route of SR 14, the Antelope Valley Freeway). In 1862, Beale's Cut was made in the construction of a toll wagon road. The by "slot" was dug with picks and shovels. That road would become part of the Midway Route. At the turn of the century, it was the most direct automobile route between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley via the Mojave Desert and Tehachapi Pass. |
1729_22 | In 1910, Beale's Cut was bypassed by the Newhall Tunnel. Constructed by Los Angeles County, it was too narrow for two trucks to pass each other inside. As a result, in 1939, the tunnel was completely removed (or "daylighted") when the road was widened to four lanes. Additionally, by 1930, a bypass road was constructed to avoid Newhall Pass via Weldon and Gavin canyons, which is the current route of I-5.
Both routes were eventually built as freeways. The Gavin Canyon route became I-5, and the main north–south route via the Ridge Route. The Newhall Pass route became SR 14, which is the main route between Los Angeles and the growing high desert communities of the Antelope Valley. It is also still a part of the important Midway Route, which is the primary alternate route when I-5 is closed (via SR 58 and SR 14). |
1729_23 | The interchange has partially collapsed twice due to earthquakes: the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. As a result of the 1994 collapse, this interchange was renamed the "Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange", honoring a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer killed when he was unable to stop in time and drove off the collapsed flyover ramp from SR 14 south to I-5 south. After both earthquakes, the collapsed portions were rebuilt and surviving portions reinforced.
In the evening of October 12, 2007, two trucks collided in the southbound tunnel that takes the truck bypass roadway under the main lanes near the Newhall Pass interchange. Fifteen trucks caught fire, killing three people and injuring ten.
Ridge Route |
1729_24 | The Ridge Route refers to the section of highway between Castaic and Grapevine, through the Tejon Pass. The highway had its origins in the early 1910s, when a route was needed to connect Los Angeles to the Central Valley. Some believed that the only option was the route through the Mojave Desert and the Tehachapi Mountains, but a new route was discovered through the Tejon Pass. This route became known as the Ridge Route and saw almost constant planning, construction, and improvement from 1914 to 1970.
The first road was completed in 1915. It was a slow, winding, two-lane road through the mountains with a speed limit of in some places. However, the need for improvements was realized soon after it was completed. The road was paved after World War I, and several blind turns were opened up ("daylighted"). Even with these improvements in the 1920s, it became clear that a new route was needed to keep up with increasing demand. |
1729_25 | In 1927, plans were drawn up for a "Ridge Route Alternate", named as it was planned as an addition to the existing Ridge Route and not as a replacement. It opened in 1933 as a three-lane highway through the mountains. The middle or "suicide lane" was used as an overtaking lane for cars in both directions. This route was a great improvement, faster and shorter than the old Ridge Route, but was not enough to satisfy demand, and a conversion to a four-lane expressway was needed. The outbreak of World War II delayed this until 1948 and the fourth lane was completed in 1952. However, just three years later, plans were begun for converting the four-lane expressway to a six-lane freeway. |
1729_26 | The last major alteration to the Ridge Route began in the early 1960s. By then, the plan for a six-lane freeway had expanded to eight lanes. This construction project made the most changes to the route. Many of the curves that followed the mountainside were cut through. To climb the mountain on the south side of Castaic more easily, traffic lanes were reversed (southbound lanes to the east and northbound lanes to the west). To prevent head-on collisions, the two ends of the route were separated on two different mountainsides, and the section through Piru Canyon was moved to an entirely new alignment to make room for Pyramid Lake. The project was completed by 1970 and brought the Ridge Route to its current alignment.
San Joaquin Valley |
1729_27 | When the Interstate Highway System was created in 1956, there was discussion about which way to route the interstate through the San Joaquin Valley (Central Valley). Two proposals were considered. One was to convert the Golden State Highway (US 99, later SR 99) into a freeway. The other was to use the proposed West Side Freeway (current Interstate 5). The Golden State Highway route would serve many farming communities across the San Joaquin Valley, but the West Side Freeway proposal would bypass all the Central Valley communities and thus provide a faster and more direct north–south route through the state and so was eventually chosen. |
1729_28 | Construction began in the early 1960s. There were just three phases for the . The first phase, completed in 1967, ran from the San Joaquin County line to Los Banos. The second phase, completed in 1972, extended the freeway south to Wheeler Ridge and connected it to SR 99. The freeway then started to see traffic, as in Stockton there were only between the West Side Freeway and the Golden State Highway. The third phase, completed in 1979, extended the freeway to Sacramento and connected it to the northern I-5.
When the second phase of the freeway opened in 1972, it was a long and lonely route with no businesses alongside. Services were not easily available as the nearest towns were miles away and generally out of sight. It was common for cars to run out of fuel. Over time the West Side Freeway (I-5) saw the development of businesses serving the needs of travelers. For years, there has still been interest in designating the Golden State Highway route as its own interstate, I-9. |
1729_29 | The median on I-5 between Wheeler Ridge and Tracy is wide enough to accommodate widening the West Side Freeway to six or eight lanes, should the need arise.
I-5W and the San Francisco Bay Area
I-5's more direct Los Angeles-to-Sacramento route bypasses San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area. Original plans also called for a loop Interstate with a directional suffix, I-5W. This route now roughly corresponds to I-580 from I-5 south of Tracy to Oakland, I-80 from Oakland to Vacaville, and I-505 from Vacaville to I-5 near Dunnigan. I-5W and most of the other Interstates around the country with directional suffixes were eventually renumbered or eliminated, except I-35E and I-35W in Texas and Minnesota. Nevertheless, San Francisco is still listed as a control city on northbound I-5 between SR 99 and I-580. |
1729_30 | Sacramento area |
1729_31 | Interstate 5 in Downtown Sacramento closely follows the Sacramento River. This has resulted in complex engineering work to keep the section dry due to it being located below the water table. Locally, Caltrans refers to this part of the freeway as the "Boat Section". Due to record levels of rainfall in 1980 the Boat Section was flooded with of water. Caltrans began constructing this section during the 1960s and 1970s. The freeway was engineered below grade so it would be out of the view of offices and shops in Downtown Sacramento. To achieve this, the site was excavated and the seeping water was pumped from the area. An intricate drainage system, water pump and retaining wall are used to protect the freeway from the Sacramento River. However, the system slowly clogged up over the years with sand and silt buildup Major repair work of the Boat Section began on May 30, 2008. The construction was to take 40 days to complete, requiring complete northbound and southbound closures on an |
1729_32 | alternating schedule. |
1729_33 | Exit list
Newhall Pass truck route
The I-5 truck route through the Newhall Pass Interchange in Sylmar has its own separate exits. The route runs from the I-210 interchange to north of the SR 14 interchange
Related routes
There are six signed auxiliary Interstate Highways associated with I-5 in California:
I-105 runs from SR 1 near El Segundo and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) east to I-605 in Norwalk.
I-205 runs from I-580 to I-5, forming the north side of a triangle around Tracy.
I-405 is a bypass route of I-5, running along the southern and western parts of Greater Los Angeles from Irvine north to near San Fernando.
I-505 runs from I-80 in Vacaville north to I-5 near Dunnigan.
I-605 runs from I-405 and SR 22 in Seal Beach north to I-210 in Duarte.
I-805 is a bypass route of I-5 in the San Diego area, running from the San Diego district of San Ysidro near the Mexico–U.S. border to near Del Mar. |
1729_34 | There is also one unsigned auxiliary Interstate Highway: I-305 runs along US 50 from I-80 in West Sacramento to SR 99 in Sacramento.
There is one future auxiliary Interstate Highway: SR 905 from I-5 in San Diego to the Mexico–U.S. border in Otay Mesa is proposed to become I-905.
There are also several business routes of Interstate 5 in California, primarily parts of the original routing of US 99.
See also
References
External links
Interstate 5 at Interstate-Guide.com
Interstate 5 at California @ AARoads.com
Caltrans: Interstate 5 highway conditions
Interstate 5 at California Highways
History of the Northern Los Angeles County section of Interstate 5 (Photos, text, TV shows)
Interstate 5 in the Los Angeles Area
US 99 Tour in Southern California |
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1730_0 | Kabuki is a comic book series created by artist and writer David Mack, first published in 1994 by Caliber comics in KABUKI: Fear The Reaper 48 page comic book (with an 8 pg promotional peek at the story in High Caliber earlier that year). It is a story of an assassin who struggles with her identity in near-future Japan. The 2004-2009 miniseries, Kabuki: The Alchemy, was published by Marvel Comics under its imprint Icon Comics. The series has been collected into several trade paperbacks, which include several one-shots and spin-off limited series.
Plot
Set in an alternate near-future Japan, a young woman codenamed "Kabuki", acts as an agent and television law-enforcement personality for a clandestine government body known as "The Noh". In the first volume of the series, The Noh's nature and background is explained. |
1730_1 | The Noh is controlled by a renowned World War II Japanese military man known as the General, who has achieved much power and status for being a brilliant military tactician during his many years of service. The agency itself exists as part of Japan's strict police state, which hunts down and brutally executes criminals for their misdeeds under the veil of keeping the peace. Secretly the Noh also acts to maintain the balance of crime and order that ultimately benefits the national economy on both sides of the law and thus targets politicians, businessmen and certain underworld kingpins whose actions threaten this balance. Kabuki herself is one of eight masked assassins who perform these secret executions under the General's orders. |
1730_2 | Ryuchi Kai is the General's son and another war veteran, who is a Yakuza boss and every bit as deadly and brilliant as his father but has earned a reputation for swift brutality. Astonishingly, despite the high level of discretion surrounding Noh, Kai manages to infiltrate the agency, personally, by using its policy of masked operatives to his advantage. He poses as Oni – one of the General's two overseers of the assassins (the other being a mysterious old man named "Dove"). He manipulates Kabuki and her partners into eliminating the entire underworld hierarchy in Tokyo. Publicly Kai is a talented businessman with much stock and influence in the Japanese market, thus this move makes him indispensable and essential to the balance. |
1730_3 | Kabuki's origins are revealed as the story progresses, her mother was an Ainu comfort woman named "Tsukiko" taken by Japanese soldiers during WWII. Rather than be used as sex slaves, the General instead had the women act out Kabuki plays to entertain the soldiers, something that was met with scorn by his son, who fast made "Kabuki" a derogatory term among the ranks. Tsukiko in particular captivated the General, a widower, who took her to be his wife. This decision infuriated Kai, who saw it as an affront to his deceased mother. On the eve of their wedding, he assaulted, raped, blinded and savagely scarred Tsukiko with the words "Kabuki" into her back. Tsukiko survived the encounter, and she was pregnant with Kai's child, something the General kept hidden. Tsukiko dies while her daughter Ukiko is being born. The General in turn raises her as his own daughter. Nine years later, Kai, still demented and vicious, learns of the child's existence and savagely attacks Ukiko at her mother's |
1730_4 | grave, once again carving "Kabuki" into her skin, this time along the girl's face. Ukiko dies for nine minutes but is successfully resuscitated. From then on, the General grooms her into a perfect soldier, having her trained in martial arts, combat and weaponry so that she may never fall victim to another assault. When the Noh is created, she is given a mask reminiscent of her mother's face and the codename "Kabuki" – claiming the term as her own. |
1730_5 | In the present, Kai is a political figurehead and inaccessible from The Noh's wrath, going as far to reconnect with his father to cement his status. Most Noh agents are all dismissed by Dove except Kabuki. Dove reveals that he is in fact her biological grandfather on her mother's side, that The Noh has become defunct, and that Kai's reign has gone on long enough. He dispatches Kabuki/Ukiko to eliminate him, his followers, and The Noh's board of directors. The battle is bloody, and Kai very nearly defeats her, though she succeeds at the last moment. Her final confrontation at the General's headquarters results in her sustaining fatal wounds. Victorious and dying, Ukiko finally limps to her mother's grave to die. |
1730_6 | With the following volumes, it is revealed that Ukiko was in fact abducted shortly after this, by a rival agency called "Control Corps", who treat her injuries and keep her trapped and medicated within a hidden asylum for broken-down government agents. For nine months, they study her and probe her for information regarding The Noh. She does not relent and instead, devotes this period to introspection and personal reflection. During this time she is contacted periodically by another inmate – a mysterious individual known as Akemi who has grand plans for escape. Meanwhile, outside of the asylum, all of Japan is in confusion as its top political lynchpins have been killed, and The Noh is unable to comment. Dove has vanished and, with him, all knowledge of Ukiko's motives. Thus, the seven remaining assassins have been dispatched to hunt down Ukiko and kill her. Ironically during the months of searching, two of the agents, codenamed "Scarab" and "Tigerlilly", become friends and start |
1730_7 | socializing as civilians – something which later compromises their mission. |
1730_8 | Through Akemi's elaborate machinations, Ukiko manages to escape Control Corps just as her former partners arrive to eliminate her, resulting in the death of one of them. Akemi takes advantage of this and just as Kai did, he poses as the fallen agent to continue infiltrating The Noh, this time on Ukiko's behalf.
Ukiko then embarks on a convoluted trail, given to her by Akemi, so she can forge a new identity and life for herself. Escaping Japan to America, with the help of other brilliant escapees under Akemi's employ, she successfully achieves a blissful, private existence wherein she can be happy. The final pages of the series see her subtly overthrowing The Noh altogether, through a tell-all comic book created by herself and a comic artist whom she encounters. She also falls pregnant, much to her delight. |
1730_9 | Style
Unlike most comic series, the plot of Kabuki moves very little over the course of the volumes. Very little fast-paced or violent action takes place. Instead, most of the focus is on memories, dreams, thoughts and philosophy. David Mack's characters, especially Kabuki herself, revisit the same scenes and memories many times, rethinking them and their significance. Mack uses myriad art styles, not only pencil, ink, and color, but paint, magazine clippings, manga scans, and crayons. In Kabuki: The Alchemy especially, many of the pages are photos (or color scans) of collages using a variety of materials; for example, the fingers of Japanese sandalwood fans become the borders of the comic panels. Imagery is very important and prominent in the series; Mack reuses the same images, often changing them slightly, and focusing on the emotional content of images and the power of memories. |
1730_10 | In Kabuki: Masks of the Noh, a different artist was assigned to each agent as a way of visually representing their personalities. This continued in Kabuki: Scarab, which was written by Mack with art by Rick Mays, who had previously drawn Scarab in Masks of the Noh.
Characters |
1730_11 | The Noh Assassins
Kabuki/Ukiko - The protagonist of the series, Ukiko is a beautiful but tragic young woman struggling with her sense of self, following years of social withdrawal, mental conditioning and a severe assault during childhood that horribly disfigured her face. Ukiko acts as the top enforcement agent of The Noh, executing potentially dangerous individuals before they become national-level threats. She is also the voice of the airwaves and a national icon, updating the people of Japan with daily news and weather reports. When her biological father, Ryuchi Kai, begins to compromise the Noh, Ukiko sets out to eliminate him. She starts a difficult sequence of events that ultimately allows her to assess and actualize her own identity. Ukiko's Kabuki-Noh costume is a variation of the Japanese flag, her weapons are Ainu farming sickles, and her mask is based on her mother's face. |
1730_12 | Scarab/Keiko - Considered the secondary character of the series, the codename "Scarab" was given to her because it is her duty to clean up the scenes left by the other Noh assassins, very much like the scarab beetle. Initially a street orphan alongside close friend Seiko, she encountered a young motorcycle hooligan named Yukio and quickly fell for him. Yukio's involvement with the Yakuza results in him and her friend Seiko being killed. Keiko was granted amnesty for her part by a government agent named Kenji in exchange for the infiltration of various underworld social groups. Alongside this she was also given combat and weaponry training, ultimately leading to her placement as a Noh assassin. Following Kabuki's betrayal, she and fellow agent Tigerlilly inadvertently form a deep friendship whilst in pursuit. Her Noh costume is a spiked, dominatrix-like bodysuit based on one of Yukio's drawings, and her mask bears a swirling insect-like pattern. |
1730_13 | Tigerlilly - She is a fellow Noh assassin who befriends Scarab after being rescued by her, following a confrontation with Control Corps during their abduction of Kabuki. Very little is known about her early life, although she treasures her sister-like bond with Scarab, and often confides in her despite The Noh's strict no-fraternization policy. Before her life as a Noh operative, she was a comic book artist which was a profession she maintained as a cover-role while working as an assassin. When the agents invade the Control Corps installation, Tiger Lily vanishes, presumably to target Kabuki; it is assumed she survived the incident based on Akemi's letters in Kabuki Volume 6: The Alchemy. Also in this volume, Ukiko briefly encounters a woman comic artist on her airplane to America, with a very high suggestion that this may have been Tigerlilly's civilian persona. Her Noh costume was initially a very revealing set of lingerie, with her hair tied back in a French plait. On Scarab's |
1730_14 | advice, she switches to a more practical T-shirt and combat trousers. Her mask bears the stripes of her name, and she wields a short sword. |
1730_15 | Siamese - A pair of twin assassins who always work together as one Noh agent unit, they are often sent on missions that require their unique synchronicity. Born conjoined at the arm, they each have a prosthetic replacement, other than this very little is known of their background. One sister (the left twin) is quite talkative and taunts her targets, whereas the other is more taciturn and chooses to talk only when situations require. Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep sees Siamese standing over Ukiko's corpse, presumably having killed her. With the entirety of the next two volumes acting as a flashback, Siamese take on a darkly, sinister tone, appearing briefly, but always after an act of brutal violence – the build-up to their confrontation is slow and full of dread. Ironically the quiet right twin of the two is revealed to be a fan of Kabuki's on-screen persona and despairs over their mission. Siamese's Noh costumes are sleeveless T-shirts bearing the Japanese sun and rotations of stockings |
1730_16 | and trousers. The prosthetic arms act as weapons by being fitted with various attachments, and their masks are halved and monochromatic. |
1730_17 | Ice - Nothing is revealed about this particular agent's identity or backstory. Ice's personality makes her prominent. She is the most dedicated of the Noh assassins, never questioning orders and correcting those who do so. In the wake of Kai's death, Ice takes the initiative and becomes the de facto field leader, directing the other agents to locate and eliminate Kabuki. Of all the agents, Ice's costume is the most inconsistent. Initially she has thin, wiry hair, a transparent bra, and armoured combat trousers, but on occasion, she sports razor-tipped cornrows and no chest cover at all. Ice's weapon set makes her one of the most formidable of the agents. Her arms are surgically adapted to contain sub-zero ice picks which she fires as weapons, and hence her name. Alongside this, her fingers are also diamond-tipped claws containing poison-tipped shurikens. Her Noh mask is relatively simple, with a curled spiral between the eyes. |
1730_18 | Snapdragon - The most mysterious of all the agents, Snapdragon is depicted as being a quiet, observing individual, much like Kabuki although much more savage. There is a strong indication that Snapdragon is also just as dissociative but with a greater flair for ambush and violence. Snapdragon's costume includes gauntlets bearing the Japanese sun, a scant pair of black leather trousers and nipple tape, with occasional additions of netting and a matching jacket. The weaponry she wields includes a kusarigama chain-and-blade weapon. Snapdragon's mask bears a black band around the eyes like a blindfold, with a similar, thinner band from the mouth. |
1730_19 | Butoh - The final Noh assassin, her codename literally translates as "Dancer", an apt name, considering the nature of her costume and weapons: a white ballet leotard and tights with razor-edged folding fans. Little is revealed about Butoh's past or even her present, though Volume 3: Masks of The Noh sheds a brief light on her thought process. She is very methodical, or even mechanical, in her training and activities for The Noh. She states that even she is not what she appears – something which is never expanded upon. Her mask is a simple smiling face with rosy cheeks. |
1730_20 | All Noh assassins bear a dragon tattoo on the back. The dragon wings spread to cover both shoulders, while the tail reaches to the lower back area. A bulletproof kabuki mask covers the face, to conceal the identity. The mask is made of the ceramic lightweight material that used for Japanese bullet trains, and is stronger than metal. Boots and utility belts are included. The eyes of the mask are connected to a red visor, which allows the assassin to share their vision with the Noh via camera-link, all while processing data. The general color and clothing is black leather and silk, which makes it easy for an assassin to avoid detection while moving about in shadows and darkness. The silk is mostly used to cover the arms to conceal arm movements. The body armor worn is bulletproof. All assassins have individual designs to suit them. For example, spikes are worn as part of Scarab's assassin garb, because her armor design is based on a sketch that Yukio drew in his spare time. Scarab's |
1730_21 | appearance may be considered the most fancy look among the eight assassins. The Noh assassins are highly skilled with Neo Warsaw Pact and NATO firearms, Okinawan black market weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and attack and defense using the environment. The preferred weapons of choice are usually handguns, and various bladed weapons. The long fingernails are sometimes dipped in poisoned nail polish. Each assassin has her own favorite weapons that she normally prefers to carry out her missions. |
1730_22 | The Kai Syndicate
Ryuichi Kai is a politician who is also leader of the Kai Syndicate. He is the real father of Kabuki, from the time he raped and mutilated her mother. Upon learning of Ukiko's existence, he soon finds her and viciously scars her face with the word "kabuki", just as he did with her mother. An avid reader, he enjoys readings on philosophers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche in his spare time.
Cowboy is a photogenic criminal.
Johnny Yamamoto
Violet
Link Kinoshita |
1730_23 | Other characters
Seiko Saito was Keiko's childhood friend who was also murdered by Yamamoto Gumi. She and Keiko first met at an orphanage. As a rebel, she has spent time going through different foster families, due to the indifference that she had towards groups, institutions, organizations, gangs, politics of organized religion, and rules in general. A practitioner of body modification, she has had her ears, eyebrows, and navel pierced. For this, she was often nicknamed "Voodoo Doll", as well as "Psycho-Seiko", due to her very short temper, and love of recklessness and confrontation. She believed in God and Christianity, and possessed good knowledge and understanding of the Holy Bible. |
1730_24 | Tsukiko is the mother of Ukiko, who died while giving birth to her. A woman of Ainu descent, she was the lover of Ukiko's grandfather, but was raped and scarred by Kai out of resentment on the evening before her wedding. When the general found Tsukiko, her eyes were gone and the word "kabuki" had been carved into her back. Her name means "tsuki no musume (つきのむすめ)" or "daughter of the moon". Ukiko often sees her in her dreams, and as able to describe her countenance.
Yukio is the deceased lover of Scarab, who was murdered by Yamamoto Gumi. Not much else is known about him, although he enjoyed sketching, collecting and creating figurines, and tinkering with his bike. He possibly was a writer, who enjoyed poetry, as well as pithy sayings.
Yamamoto Gumi is a group of Yakuza that Yukio once worked and ran errands for.
M.C. Square is another inmate at Control Corps. Lively and highly intelligent, she has an obsession with numbers, math, and arithmetic. |
1730_25 | Akemi is a veterinarian/artist who works at the Little Friend Animal Clinic. A former Noh agent, the original Tigerlilly, she is Kabuki's fellow inmate at Control Corps, and helps her to survive and escape the institution. It is suggested to the reader that either she and Ukiko are closer than friends, or is perhaps she is an alter-ego of Ukiko herself. Her name is a semi-homophonic similarity to the word "Alchemy".
Kenji is a mysterious young man, who has connections to the Noh, as well as law. Not much is known about him, although he was responsible for the recruiting of Keiko.
General Kai is the father of Ryuchi, as well as Ukiko's grandfather. He was the husband of Tsukiko, but tragically is the grandfather of Ukiko, given the shameful truth that it was his own son who raped and scarred Tsukiko. |
1730_26 | Publications
The complete story is told through these volumes, beginning with Fear the Reaper/Circle of Blood, and leading up to The Alchemy.
Kabuki Fear The Reaper 48 page introduction story (First issue 1994).
Kabuki: Circle of Blood - consists of Kabuki: Fear the Reaper and Circle of Blood #1–6
Kabuki: Dreams - consists of Kabuki Color Special, Kabuki: Dreams of the Dead, Kabuki #1/2, and The Ghost Play
Kabuki: Masks of Noh - consists of Masks of the Noh #1–4
Kabuki: Skin Deep - consists of Kabuki: Skin Deep #1–3
Kabuki: Metamorphosis - consists of Kabuki #1–9
Kabuki: Scarab, Lost in Translation - consists of Kabuki: Scarab #1–8 and new material (Image Comics, 2002, )
Kabuki: The Alchemy - limited series, 9 issues (Marvel Comics, 2009, ) |
1730_27 | Alternate volumes
Versions not connected to the actual plot:
Kabuki: Dance of Death Kabuki: Reflections - non-narrative collections of Kabuki-related art
Dream Logic''' - further non-narrative collections of Kabuki-related and other art
Film
David Mack has been working on a live-action Kabuki'' feature film for 20th Century Fox. Besides writing the treatment, his credits include: Visual Designer, Creative Consultant and Co-Producer. The release date is unknown.
Toys
In the late 1990s, Moore Action Collectibles released several action figures and variants based on the character Kabuki; further releases were planned, but never came about. In 2004, Scarab received an action figure and variants from Diamond Select Toys. In 2005, a Kabuki Minimate was released in the Indie Comics Boxset along with Magdalena, Dawn and Witchblade. In 2009, Shocker Toys released a Kabuki figure as part of the first series of its "Indie Spotlight" line. |
1730_28 | Figures of Kabuki, Tigerlily, Scarab and Siamese were released for the Heroclix collectable figure game by Wizkids / NECA. This was as part of the Indyclix expansion to the game. There were 3 versions each of Kabuki, Tigerlily, and Scarab, and only 1 of Siamese, which was a "Unique" figure and much rarer. Due to the sculptor using a particular comic panel for his image of Tigerlily, she was designed wealding twin Uzzi machine pistols rather than her usual blades, resulting in confusion among players and fans, as all 3 of her game pieces had no "range" value.
Reception
Kabuki took part in IGN's Battle of the Comic-Book Babes contest in 2005, losing against Mystique.
References
External links
Official David Mack website
1994 comics debuts
Caliber Comics titles
Cyberpunk comics
Japanese superheroes
Fictional female ninja
Icon Comics titles
Dark Horse Comics titles
Image Comics titles
Marvel Comics titles
Ninja in fiction
Comics set in Japan
Ainu in fiction |
1731_0 | North Macedonia–Russia relations (Macedonian: Македонско-руски односи, ) are bilateral relations between the Republic of North Macedonia and the Russian Federation. North Macedonia has an embassy in Moscow and a consulate in St. Petersburg, while Russia has an embassy in Skopje and consulates in Bitola and Ohrid. Chargé d'Affaires of North Macedonia in Moscow is Olivera Čauševska-Dimovska, while the Russian ambassador in Skopje is Sergey Bazdnikin (as of September 2019). |
1731_1 | Political relations |
1731_2 | Both countries have predominantly Slavic and Orthodox Christian populations, and the former president of North Macedonia, Gjorgje Ivanov, once described their relations as friendly, but in reality they are ambiguous. North Macedonia does not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea and it respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and on March 27, 2014, it approved the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262. The most contentious issue is the accession of North Macedonia to NATO. The former Russian ambassador Oleg Shcherbak even warned the government of North Macedonia that: "If it came to a conflict between Russia and NATO, you will have the role of a legitimate target". The Defense Minister of North Macedonia, Radmila Šekerinska, accused the Russian government of trying to interfere in North Macedonia's affairs , while its prime minister Zoran Zaev was a target of the pro-Kremlin pranksters Vovan and Lexus. On April 2, 2018, North Macedonia expelled Russian diplomats |
1731_3 | over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. In 2017, some media claimed that Russian spies and diplomats, together with their supporters from Serbia, have been involved in an effort to spread propaganda and provoke discord in North Macedonia with a goal to stop the country from joining NATO and to pry it away from western influence. |
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