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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

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Mr. Pritchard was a businessman, president of a medium-sized corporation. He was never alone. His business was conducted by groups of men like himself who joined together in clubs so that no foreign element or idea could enter. His religious life was again his lodge and his church, both of which were screened and protected. One night a week he played poker with men so exactly like himself that the game was fairly even, and from this fact his group was convinced that they were very fine poker players. Wherever he went he was not one man but a unit in a corporation, a unit in a club, in a lodge, in a church, in a political party. His thoughts and ideas were never subjected to criticism since he willingly associated only with people like himself. He read a newspaper written by and for his group. The books that came into his house were chosen by a committee which deleted material that might irritate him. He hated foreign countries and foreigners because it was difficult to find his counterpart in them. He did not want to stand out from his group. He would like to have risen to the top of it and be admired by it; but it would not occur to him to leave it. At occasional stags where naked girls danced on the tables and sat in great glasses of wine, Mr. Pritchard howled with laughter and drank the wine, but five hundred Mr. Pritchards were there with him. —John Steinbeck, The Wayward Bus, ch iii (1947)

[Scott Horton]

#quote #quotes #Scott Horton #John Steinbeck #The Wayward Bus #20th century culture

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biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 5 months

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the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order #at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers #90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies”#serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent #like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries #but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate #and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited...#i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something #cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare #and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest.#it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!'#'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members...#..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)'#anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language?#maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity #and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media #and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons #and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators #instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period #anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value”#and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives #so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs)#happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world #(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills)#and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on...#...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin #oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works?#beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value #and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the #important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)

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solcattus · 2 months

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The three Graces, c. 1911

By Cesare Agostino Detti

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tygerland · 9 months

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• Portrait of Innocent X (1650) by Diego Velázquez.

• Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953) by Francis Bacon.

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sonyaheaneyauthor · 1 month

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Ukrainian Easter Postcard. 1916.

#easter #vintage #ukraine #ukrainian easter #easter eggs #vintage postcards #1910s #ukrainian culture #slavic culture #slavic #early 20th century #1916

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vintage-russia · 1 month

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Still from the movie "Дочь купца Башкирова|Merchant Bashkirov's daughter" (1913)

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canberramaidan · 3 months

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A Ukrainian girl wearing traditional wreath and beads for a wedding - pre-World War II.

#ukraine #black and white #slavic #national dress #ukrainian #ukrainian culture #slavic culture #vintage #vintage portrait #early 20th century #wedding #headdress

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yeoldenews · 4 months

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A mother's word for word transcription of the imaginary phone call her four-year-old made to Santa Claus in 1911.

(source: The Harbor Beach Times, December 22, 1911.)

Through some outrageous case of serendipity I found a recording of another phone call this same child made 60 years later. Though I have to say his choice of conversational partner is a definite downgrade from the first call.

#I've started using 'our bees are all dead' as my standard filler during lulls in conversation #and no I am not kidding #that is actually 64 year old George Arthur Lincoln in the recording #I'm writing up a bio of him that will hopefully be up within a few days #because this kid grew up to be involved in Forrest Gump levels of 20th century historical events #he was the youngest american general in wwii and was involved in the strategy of d-day and the planned invasion of Japan #he was at yalta and potsdam #he started a social sciences department at West Point #which resulted in his students being called commies because why should soldiers study culture and economics instead of shoot gun at thing #he ended up as the director of the office of emergency preparedness while nixon was president - hence the phone call #this poor man had to sit through so many meetings with Henry Kissinger #his younger brother (Waunce from the letter) was also a general #they were known as 'big abe' and 'little abe'

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daenystheedreamer · 10 months

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dont like when people try to masculinise/feminise targ names when genderbending cos valyrian names are already gendered based purely on vibes. daenys and rhaenys are feminine but aenys is masculine, and its not the prefix because daeron and rhaegar are masc but aerea is feminine. viserys jaehaerys aerys are masc but naerys daenerys are fem. yeah -a names tend to be fem and -on tend to be masc but even these have weird extras, like -ar names are masc despite similarity to -a. feminine non -ys names tend to end in -a but then there’s gael. basically a girl can be daemon and a boy can be rhaenyra

#asoiaf #its based on what sounds feminine or masculine to a culturally 20th/21st century american anglophone man #thi is all just me whining cos i hate non-canon valyrian names they never sound right #daemma and luceaerea. No.

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fashionsfromhistory · 6 months

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Wedding Dress of Lollaretta Pemberton Allen

Pictured with her groom, Grover Allen

1939

National Museum of African American History & Culture

#wedding dress #fashion history #vintage fashion #1930s #photography #20th century #1939 #wedding #white #lace #tulle #united states #national museum of african american history and culture #smithsonian institution

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luca-ercolani · 2 months

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True Detective by Naoki Urasawa

(Via: Mondo di Nerd on Facebook)

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regina-del-mare · 9 days

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Любовь Менделеева в роли Офелии

#серебряный век #русский tumblr #русский тамблер #photography #vintage #Россия #Russia #русская культура #russian culture #culture #history #русское искусство #russian art #art #russian #black and white #vintage photography #1900s #20th century

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biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 1 year

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This election day, I'm thinking of my Nana.

I'm thinking of how as a young woman, she fled political violence in her native Colombia to build a new home in a more stable country. I'm thinking about how she lived a long life, but not long enough to see her home country elect its first ever progressive president (just a few months ago!).

Coincidentally, I was living in Colombia at that time (in the very city she grew up in), and I was able to witness what felt like a miracle. A very conservative country, suffering from the violent inheritance of colonization and catholic invasion and the war on drugs, against a backdrop of the dangerous global rise of the far right--this unlikely country managed to elect one of the most progressive heads of state in the world, in 2022. That's a pretty big deal.

And I'm thinking about this, this election day, because that election was won by a very thin margin. I'm thinking about how it almost didn't happen. I'm thinking about how it was only possible thanks to the highest voter turnout in 20 year. And I am thinking about the countless number of voters who chose to vote for the first time. I am thinking of the poorest and most disenfranchised citizens who showed up at the polls. I am thinking of the indigenous women who rode 12 hours on public buses to vote at the 'nearest' polling stations. I am thinking of all the money and corruption that went into preventing minority citizens from voting, and I'm thinking about how they showed up in the millions and voted anyway.

I am thinking that I would like to see a miracle like that in my own home country.

So if you're on the fence about waiting in line today to cast your vote, I hope that you will think--about the country you want to live in, the future you hope will unfold, and about all of the people it takes to make a miracle.

Because history may deem us nameless and faceless, but when we show up en masse, we are the ones who make history happen.

And yes, maybe also spare a thought for my Nana. Who was in fact a very angry and judgemental woman who supported the republican party for 50+ years, and who would be turning in her grave right now (if the family hadn't had her cremated). Think about the mean angry ghost of my Colombian grandmother, who very much wants you to not show up at the polls to support abortion and other sinful progressive values. Think about her. Do it for her. Do it for Nana.