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pinkrangerv · 2 years

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Hello Kids It's Literary Screaming Time

Okay so I've been seeing A Lot of trigger warnings for racism\Orientalism\anti-semitism\etc in Dracula. And this is good on some level, because you do need a heads-up walking into this--hey, bad guys are being, well, Bad Guys.

On the other hand, I've also been seeing a lot of 'well, it was A Product Of Its Time'. So let's break this down.

At the time, anthropology--the study of other cultures--had just been formalized. And you need to understand: British baby anthro was SUPER FUCKING RACIST. So racist. Everyone who wasn't British was 'primitive', British people were 'more evolved', and ergo Britain needed to rule over everyone.

There was also the concept of the English Gentleman (the whole 'act like you're not an ass' thing varied, but we're looking at England right now). Part of that was just 'don't be so arrogant you don't listen to those of lower caste than you'. That was one of the hallmarks of a True Gentleman; that he could make clear decisions, but that he also took other people's emotions into account, even when it was Obviously Wrong.

Bram Stoker is fucking Irish. Ireland was invaded by England...idk, forever and a fucking day ago? And is STILL occupied territory. (Brexit was just like...SUPER fucking fun because England took over Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and everwhere they could and called it 'the UK'. It is not a United Kingdom. It is occupied territory.)

The end result here is that Bram Stoker was VERY VERY AWARE that the 'ethnic people' were considered 'primitive' and that was bullshit BY ENGLAND'S OWN RULES.

Okay, so now we have Jonathan. He's a baby Gentleman. Wandering around an unknown land. What does he do first (other than apparently have a meltdown over paprika)?

He totally ignores the people BEGGING him not to go to the VERY DANGEROUS CASTLE.

This is taking English arrogance and racism to an extreme, and this ENTIRE NOVEL is Jonathan paying for it.

Now let's look at Dracula. He's clearly well-informed about England; he uses English racism; he uses English manners. In other words, he's a PARODY of the English Gentleman--he's a violent kidnapper who wants to devour Jonathan, but he's POLITE about it and uses The Right Racism Words.

This is not 'Bram Stoker was racist'. This is a deliberate parody of English culture, and the horror comes from how the 'good guys' of England are actually monsters.

The racism is not there for you to agree with. The racism is there for you to go 'wow, racism and arrogance suck ass'.

#lit analysis #Dracula Daily #let me scream in Nerd at you #History is fun #so is parody

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peaceloveandhistory · 4 months

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Happy birthday to a highly innovative, influential musician and composer, Frank Zappa. Born on December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland Zappa was a self-taught musician, whose 30-year career embraced a wide variety of musical genres, writing and producing more than 60 albums. Zappa was also an artist, directing films, and creating album covers. Aside from music, Zappa often spoke out about politics and other social issues. From an early age, Zappa was attracted to avant-garde composers like Igor Stravinsky, and Edgard Varèse, doo-wop, R&B, and modern jazz also piqued his musical interest. In his late teens, Zappa started playing the drums, and guitar. In the 1950s Zappa was playing in the Blackouts, later he would join The Soul Giants, morphing into The Mothers on Mother's Day in 1965. It would be the debut of their album "Freak Out" that launched them as The Mothers of Invention. "Freak Out" was a groundbreaking mix of innovative and irreverent musical genres. The decade of the 70s saw Zappa forming new bands with more of a jazz base. Zappa felt like he didn't fit into the rock 'n' roll scene, due to his refusal to join the drug culture. The 70s cultivated Zappa's reputation "as one of the music industry's most accomplished and demanding bandleaders." "Valley Girl" would become a top 40 hit due to his prolific orchestral output. Aside from music, Zappa was a guest speaker on social activism after his Senate testimony about censorship in music. In 1990 Czechoslovakian President Václav Havel appointed Zappa as his cultural liaison officer, however, President George H.W. Bush stepped in and declined the meeting. Afterward, Zappa briefly considered running for president. Frank Zappa had a very interesting life, from composing politically charged and intentionally shocking music to directing films, and even taking a stance in politics. "A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open."

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cryptidroots · 8 months

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Thinking about how it's a popular theory that pirates actually invented the clothesline to hang laundry - as they didn't have access to rocks or bushes to dry their clothes on, but did have rope and knew how to tie knots.

Like, domestic little pirate facts and lifestyle is so neat. They were pirates, but still had to do laundry. They were pirates, and on long boring days out at sea they might have whittled little clothespins, maybe trading stories while they did.

Did anyone ever lose a shirt on a windy day? Did it fall into the waves while some of the crew laughed their asses off?

Just imagine a whole line full of little pirate socks hanging to dry while the sun is still making its way overhead. Some are already making lunch, but others are busy darning holes and sewing patches. Someone is trying to stop the ship cat from playing with the thread, and to "do its real job damnit, I know there's a rat here somewhere, and where there's one there's a hundred of 'em"

The first mate is busy trying to stuff a rat into that other guy's sock while it's on the line, as a joke, but it's a lot more difficult then he had planned. The rat isn't cooperating at all.

Anyways, pirates.

#pirates #laundry #pirate laundry #pirate life #pirates doing laundry #this got me in the feels at like 3 am #history is fun #im overly attatched to the mundane aspects of life thru the ages #it would have been a funny prank if the rat had just COOPERATED damnit #am i making shit up or did i unlock suppressed memories from another life

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snekboisworld · 7 months

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My favorite thing about writing is the little history lessons I have to give myself to make sure what I'm writing is historically accurate.

Character: *from the early 1010ad and doesn't know what paper is and thinks seafoam green in clothing is the work of the devil, having died just before reaching 36, surprised that the planets not being in line for him to be healthy wasn't the reason he died but instead it was the venom from that snake bite he thought he had cured with mint* wow I was very lucky to have lived so long.

The demon out of time wondering how humans managed to live long enough to populate the planet and be the dominant species: you're all so stupid.

#writing #writeblr #history is fun

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bowofbalance · 6 months

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I'm doing research for a paper I'm writing on squatter movements in West Berlin (if I have to do research, might as well take advantage of being German!) and it fascinates me.

They were (grammatically speaking) feminists. Not to mention how incredibly well-written these flyers were! Truly I tell you, I have never seen anything so passive-aggressive before in my life. BEAUTIFUL

#this class is killing me #i might as well have some fun with it #should i make my squatters about feminism? i can #there's pictures of men holding babies #also really funny for this ancient history to be from when my parents were teenagers #like. if they weren't stuck in the middle of nowhere they might have been one of those long hair hippies #history is fun #(i am the same age now that my parents were when the wall fell)#literally ignore me

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bibliosauruswrecks · 2 years

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I save pictures of art for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s because it sparks a story idea. Other times because I go “Ooh, that’s pretty! I wanna make that dress!” even though I probably never will. And sometimes it’s because I just find it pleasing to look at.

But every now and then I come across something that reminds me that people have always been people, and not everything was serious.

And on that note, I present:

Google tells me this is L'Escalade by Maurice Leloir.

I feel like this has potential as the next big meme.

#19th century art #maurice leloir #history is fun #art history #stuff for laughs

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sleepy-hyperfixations · 20 days

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finished band of brothers, having emotions i can't explain properly but it was a great series

#band of brothers #i like the historical aspect just as much as the unambiguously gay subtext #history is fun

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samadhifired · 22 days

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I was trying to look up information about corporal punishments among Chinese Buddhist. Because let's face it; viewing Tang Sanzhang and Sun Wukong's relationship through modern (western) moral code is not going to give us correct picture.

I haven't found that much about this (yet), but what I quickly learned was that Imperial China was brutal when it came to punishing people from failures or crimes.

I mean: look at this!

Oh and do you know what? You could get multiple of these punishments at once. Even all five of them!

And don't even make me start how those death penalties were done... Let's just say that they could be extremely long and painful.

"Thankfully", by Ming dynasty things got bit calmer and amputations of the body parts was replaced with beating the person with different kinds of sticks.

Anyhow.... Wukong must have gotten his nose cut off a lot.

#Sun Wukong #monkey king #history is fun #Sf rambles

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troythecatfish · 4 months

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depressedhangrybitch · 9 months

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weird ascension of darius the great

have u ever heard of Darius the great. i mean people who are passionate in middle east’s history might or probably do know about this king since he was the first Persian ruler who actually unified the what is now known as persian empire and under his rule it went onto great heights. he kinda reminds me of Julius creaser since their story is pretty much the same :- great majestic prime then died tragically.

anyways back to the topic, what really makes me laugh about his case is not his empire and his rule but the hilarious chain of events that led to him becoming king.

never heard about this...buckle up since this is going to be a hell of a ride.

the story starts with Cyrus the great

yes that Cyrus the first to ever write a human rights tablet. great ruler. salute to this man. he was actually a distant relative of Darius.

one day he dreamed of Darius with wings behind his back one wing shadowing Europe the other Asia. Cyrus fearing that Darius might be plotting against him send him away. though Cyrus's story ends tragically i dont really feel bad for him. he died at the hands of queen Tamarius. badass lady seriously dont mess with her as Cyrus learned the hard way. she cut off Cyrus's head after he killed her son and dipped his head in the pool of his own blood. i think the exact words she said were i always keep my word and "Drink your fill of blood!. Badasssss i say with a capital B. well she had aright to be angry since Cyrus got her son slaughtered.

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED!!!!!

ANYWAY I ALWAYS GET A LITTLE TOO PASSIONATE IT SEEMS.

SO after Cyrus death, as the custom dictates his eldest son should inherit the throne the problem was Cyrus had 2 sons Cambyses and smerdis.

while Cambyses was the elder one he was also a short tempered spoiled and paranoid man who had a habit of going into fits of rage and doing things he later regretted. in my opinion he was also an idiot.

there is actually a story of how when a close comrade of him told hm that he drank too much. and he was like ,”ok if i drank too much then i wouldn't be good at shooting a bow and then he had the comrade’s son stand against the wall and used him as a target board. he said that if he drank too much then he will PROBABLY miss the shot and then proceeded to shoot the comrades son in the heart IN FRONT OF THE COMRADE.

WHAT. A. DICK.

kinda like Joffrey from got.

smerdis was....

his brother?? he is not the focus here and is irrelevant.

so... FFUUUUUCCCKKK OFFFF SMERDIS!!!!!

ANYWAYS, he also had a weird mind considering he sometimes had very crazy plans that always ended in disaster.

case in point in his new years of crowning himself he had this awesome (not) plan of invading Egypt by basically sending his army through Sahara desert. SENDING AN ARMY THROUGH SAHARA DESERT!!!! l

LIKE. DUDE. WTF. IS. WRONG. WITH. YOU.?

even today i think people have not fully travelled through Sahara desert through foot or on horses and camels imagine in that time.

understandably this ended in disaster as i think we still haven't found the lost army of king Cambyses as people have named this mystery.

though he did end up conquering Egypt during the reign of pharaoh phastmik 2?? i think the name is. but the first attempt and its consequence still remain a mystery. (probably)

So when he visited Egypt he took his brother with him because he had a dream of smerdis on a throne and his form big enough to touch the heaven.

(i swear this family has weird dreams).

this nightmare made him fear that smerdis will usurp him in his absence so he ordered smerdis to come with him. now the most logical decision in these circumstances would be to go yourself and in order as to not have a power vacuum in your empire u leave a close family member to rule temporarily. but what this idiot dd? he took his brother with him and put a magician aka a complete stranger to rule in his absence.

i. am. done. with. this. guy.

soon his paranoia reached its limit and he had his brother assassinated. througha trusted confidant of his - perxasspes. after the deed was done prexasspes returned to egypt to give his master the good news.

also fun fact i dont know where this comes in the story but the guy who assassinated smerdis, perxasspes his name was i think, his son was actually killed by Cambyses.

PLOT TWIST!!!!.

when Cambyses was to return to his Syria after a successful conquest of Egypt he received very surprising news considering the circumstances - in his absence his throne has been taken by..... SMERDIS?? yeah smerdis.

or is it??

continue if u want this mystery solved. HEHEHEH......MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Cambyses at first was confused by this recent development until someone reminded him that this must be a power grab by an opportunistic usurper.

i. am. honestly. loving. this. whole. situation. really. so. far.

in his haste to reach his kingdom Cambyses accidentally stabbed his thigh with his sword while mounting his horse and died in Egypt. BUT BEFORE DYING HE INSTRUCTED HIS NOBLEMEN TO SEIZE HIS THRONE FROM THIS SMERDIS...

OR IS IT???

since he had no heirs the power vacuum that was created and the fuckup events following it are finally here so lets get STARTTTTEDDDD!!!!

the problem the Cambyses men faced was that this smerdis was an extremely popular king and majority of the population believed him to be real son of cyrus. yes this is fake smerdis. i really suck at keeping suspense *sigh*.

perxasspes the one who killed the real smerdis could have resolved this confusion but he kept his mouth shut most likely to keep himself innocent because no one is going to leave u alone if u admit that u killed a prince on his brothers orders. most likely this would have created a scandal. or because perxasses was sadist who enjoyed peoples suffering.

the smerdis on throne also kept himself in seclusion whenever possible and surrounded himself with people who never met the real smerdis so as to further protect his identity.

enter one nobleman named otanes, otanes had a sneaking suspicion as to who this imposter was. years ago during cyrus’s reign a man had his ears cut off. otanes believed that this man could be the imposter. but to find out if this was true was very difficult since the imposter king always had a turban on which hid his ears and thus he could not confirm if he had ears or lack there of. so otanes had his daughter who was part of imposter kings harem sneak up on him while he was asleep and and check if he had ears.

NOOOOOO EARSSSS!!!!!

OTANES HAD HIS SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED. THE MAN ON THE THRONE IS NOT IN FACT THE REAL SMERDIS BUT A MAN ALSO NAMED SMERDIS.

HISTORY TWISTTTTTT!!!!!!

it gets worse btw.

turns out i the magician who was tasked to keep an eye on the empire had a brother whose name was smerdis and he in the absence of cambyses and smerdis crowned his brother king. its awesome timing since the real smerdis had just been secretly murdered.

otanes now gathered a bunch of men to overthrow the false king and one of them happened to beeee.........

DARIUS!!!! our man is finally here.

it seems that darius had pieced the plot together himself and came to assist the noblemen in their rebellion.

meanwhile the fake smerdis and the magician were getting nervous because the rumors of their scheme were spreading and so to get control of their situation they enveloped perxasspes in their scheme to make a public formal announcement that the false smerdis is the real smerdis and that the real smerdis had not been killed but the weight of his lies and betrayals finally began to crumble upon the assassin. he decided that he will no longer follow the line filled with betrayals and falsehoods. he climbed on a tall building and openly denounced the false king and confessed in front of the astonished crowd that the smerdis sitting on the throne is indeed an imposter. he urged to those who were listening to him to rise up and destroy the false king and restore the true persian royal family line. then in a dramatic exit he jumped and fell to his death. he must have realized he was fucked any way so death seems like a better alternative.

back to otanes and his men, after storming the royal palace and killing the imposter and his magic bro. the noblemen took to the streets and explained the evil plot to their people and urged people to cut down any magi they see. by morning, almost every magi was slaughtered.

the people seem easily impressionable tbh.

after their successful rebellion the noblemen had to decide who will rule them. in order to decide who will be king they determined that they will mount their horse and whoevers neighs first on the sunrise will be the king.

well at least there wasnt another war. that is a very effective yet childish way to do it.

according to one version of the story darius turned to his horse master obareus for help who proceeded to help his master by rubbing his hand on one of darius horse’s favourite mare’s vulva and then just before sunrise bought it close to darius’s horse nose which caused the horse to immediately snort and whinny.

ughhhhh so disgusting!!!

and thats how my friends darius the great became the ruler of persian empire after a chain of hilarious clusterfuck of events.

well his intelligent reflects from his actions. piecing together a conspiracy theory from abroad which turned out to be accurate is pretty sherlock holmes stuff.

darius my pal hope u are proud of yourself. u really left a mark on history and ur legacy.

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