But what do we really mean when we call someone eccentric? The word renders a verdict of harmlessness: A person’s style, conduct, or mannerisms may be memorable, but not concerning. And truthfully, we need people who are a bit of a character (to use an equally common euphemism). Their difference reinforces our sense of stability, their peculiarity a necessary splash of color in a landscape of conformity. We love to hear about them, to speculate why they are as they are — the odder, the better. Whether in documentaries like Grey Gardens or the five stories collected here, well-reported tales of quirkiness always invoke a small thrill, vaulting their subjects out of the realm of local gossip and into a wider imagination.
However, it’s no accident that every entry here concerns individuals who are, to varying degrees, rich or famous. The sad truth is that the lives of the everyday working class are seldom celebrated, and least of all those whose habits and personalities fall outside of the bounds of “normal.” To quote a character in Ellen Raskin’s novel The Westing Game, “the poor are crazy, the rich just eccentric.” Wealth affords many privileges in life, among them the indulgence of oddity, and such indulgence is only magnified in the face of celebrity. Behavior that would be considered problematic becomes acceptable, even admired as a natural by-product of genius.
Check out “Pawns, Puppet Heads, and Paranoia,” Chris Wheatley’s quirky new reading list on eccentrics!
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Warning: the first photo of the five below shows a dead body. If you do not want to see it, either scroll past it quickly or skip this post.
On April 8, 1947, investigators finally found the body of Langley Collyer in his house on Fifth Avenue and 128th St. in Harlem. He had lived there for decades with his brother Homer, whose body had been found some two weeks earlier. Homer had apparently died of starvation. Because the ground floor was completely filled with 50 tons of debris, policemen had to enter through the upper floors. It took them several days to clear the ground floor.
The four-story building was crammed to the rafters with sewing machines, the body of a Model T, weapons, baby carriages, busts, mangled Christmas trees, thousands of books, 14 pianos, an organ, newspapers packed in boxes, and other items. The total came to 120 tons.
The brothers had lived there since 1909, when Langley, a lawyer, was 28. After the death of their mother 20 years later, they lived there alone. They were notorious for their extreme thrift—Homer walked to work on paper-thin soles to save money for the subway, they canceled their phone service in 1917 and, after disputes with utility companies in 1927, they went without water or electricity.
Some time in the early 1930s, they stopped working and became recluses. Langley left the house only at night, leading neighbors to call him "Ghost." Homer went blind and also suffered from severe rheumatism. The two became paranoid, convinced that thieves were out to get them, and installed traps all over the house. It is thought that Langley fell into one of his own traps.
Because the brothers had no heirs, their property passed to the state. The city had the brownstone demolished.
Over the years the Collyer story has inspired films, plays, and books. There have been off-Broadway stage productions such as Mark Saltzman's Clutter and Richard Greenberg's The Dazzle, a nonfiction book, Ghosty Men, by journalist Franz Lidz, Richard Finkelstein's series of drawings of the Collyer house, a Glasgow musical called "Tunnel Visions," which set the brothers' story to a music and light show, and, in 2009, the novel Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow.
All photos from the AP via Der Spiegel. Anthony Camerano took all but the top, which was taken by Jacob Harris, and the bottom, which was the work of Harry Harris.
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Show me even the slightest expression of insanity and you'll have all my heart's undivided attention. I tend to get drunk on what's out of the normal - the eccentrics that draw their swords at night inviting a duel with the very lightning that strikes the dark sky or the eccentrics that form a garland of love words and throws it around the neck of moon. It is these mad ones that have all my heart and love. For they have forged a world, an alternate reality - that gives them the wings to fly therein: limitlessly and endlessly. Nothing stops them from carving their own little heaven in this otherwise miserable earthly existence.
Random Xpressions
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links to twilight pentagram analysis
i'll read the japanese and stuff later LOL for now this thread's just gonna serve as a compilation of links while I listen to Twilight Pentagon for the 100th time
on the choreography:
on the flower symbolisms (Japanese):
flower symbolisms (english):
translation of lyrics:
wataru is the last one left standing + revealing natsume
more on the order of appearances:
enjoy natsume's spp
cool observations
inspiration for the music
^^ personally I think it's style is like Tempest Night,,, as if it were written by Eichi with Wataru's influence right ;) along with the electric elements, 'kpop' because it is based off Natsume's proposal after all. perhaps the jazz trumpets could be rei's influence (slight) idk anything abt the event story, but perhaps rei had a part in this too? ahahah eirei dorm
cool observation about the stars?
^^ to add on kanata sings about twilight reminisces in the sky just as the comets in the background come on (a reference to meteor impact)
as a knightsP though, I need to end with this.
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actually yeah i think my headcanons are correct SPECIALLY my "all eccentrics are transfem EXCEPT for natsume who's like their transmasc lapcat" headcanon
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“The romantic fascination with the oddities of genius clearly paves the way for an explanation, but remains far away from explaining a tradition that sometimes feels as long as the history of the novel."
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Another cool thing about Ravenclaw is that our people are the most individual – some might even call them eccentrics. But geniuses are often out of step with ordinary folk, and unlike some other houses we could mention, we think you’ve got the right to wear what you like, believe what you want, and say what you feel. We aren’t put off by people who march to a different tune; on the contrary, we value them!
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“The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks dont see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.
That’s the story.
That’s the message.
Nobody understands it,
nobody listens, they’re
all running around like chickens with heads cut
off. I will try to teach it but it will
be in vain, s’why I’ll
end up in a shack
praying and being
cool and singing
by my woodstove
making pancakes.” —Jack Kerouac
The Hybrid by Michael Maschka
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