#History

[prokopetz]

"Why does this 19th Century novel have such a boring protagonist" well, for a lot of reasons, really, but one of the big ones is that you're possibly getting the protagonist and the narrator mixed up.

A lot of 19th Century literary critics had this weird hate-boner for omniscient narrators – stories would straight up get criticised as "unrealistic" on the grounds that it was unlikely anyone could have witnessed their events in the manner described, like some sort of proto-CinemaSins bullshit – so authors who didn't want to write their stories from the first-person perspective of one of the participating characters would often go to great lengths to contrive for there to be a Dude present to witness and narrate the story's events.

It's important to understand that the Dude is the viewpoint character, but not the protagonist. His function is to witness stuff, and he only directly participates in the narrative to the extent that's necessary to explain to the satisfaction of persnickety critics why he's present and how he got there. Giving him a personality would defeat the purpose!

(Though lowbrow fiction was unlikely to encounter such criticisms, the device of the elaborately justified diegetic narrator was often present there as well, and was sometimes parodied to great effect – for example, by having the story narrated by a very unlikely party, such as a sapient insect, or by a party whose continued presence is justified in increasingly comical ways.)

[intersectionalpraxis]

[original post that sof's library (@/folkoftheshelf) is reacting to: Globe Eye News reports: "White House says no "genocide" happening in Gaza." May 13, 2024]

[yesterdaysprint]

The Kansas Newspaper Union, Topeka, November 26, 1887

[blatentmisinformation]

The Library of Alexandria famously contained the first slashfic about the relationship between Odysseus and Posideon

[zegalba]

A Roman "hologram" effect ring found in the grave of 1st century AD noblewoman, Aebutia Quarta.

The ring is thought to depict her son, Titus Carvilius Gemello, who passed away at age of 18. Found at the Grottaferrata necropolis close to Rome.

[sayruq]

[tinagodiva]

Florence, Italy 🇮🇹

[punkrockhistory]

An unmistakably terrible place, the infamous CBGB bathroom full of memories

[reality-detective]

This 👆 was revealed on a Barney Miller episode in 1981.

Predictive programing hidden in plain sight, as per usual. Front running the truth with the "conspiracy theory" labels.

That script was greenlit on a comedy show, they knew they could flaunt it, and no one would believe it. 🤔

[heavenlymorals]

I feel like a lot of people forget that the Van Dir Linde gang was actually famous in their universe- Dutch Van Dir Linde was as famous as the real life Butch Cassidy. The gang had as much infamy as the Wild Bunch or the Dalton gang. Arthur Morgan, John Marston, Bill Williamson, Javier Esculla, Lenny Summers, Charles Smith, Sean McGuire and more were probably as famous as the real life Doc Holliday, Jesse James, Black Bart, Rufus Buck, Ike Clanton, the Sundance Kid, Wild Bill Hickock, and more.

Sadie Adler would've been just as famous. She was a gunslinger like the real life Calamity Jane and Anne Oakley and she was an outlaw at one point like Laura Bullion, Pearl Hart, Belle Star, The Cassidy Sisters, and more.

The other women of the camp would've probably been less popular but still very intriguing figures to people in the future.

In the newspapers, we see that there are songs about Dutch's boys and books too. Trelawny mentions them being on dime novels. In the future, the pieced together story of the Van Dir Linde gang might've gotten adapted into a movie, similar to "Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid" or "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". They could've gotten biopics, documentaries, and more.

Historians and fans of the wild West era would dig up records, find pictures, and maybe even track down people who were apart of the gang, accomplices to the gang, or victims of the gang. They would try to piece together stories to figure out the mystery of what actually happened to the gang.

People would argue over things that happened in the gang and have their evidence to back it up. Letters written by gang members would become so valuable. If they ever someone come across Arthur's journal, it would probably be considered one of the most valuable pieces of documentation to ever exist for that time period.

The guns of the gang would probably be kept in museums if found. Albert Mason's portrait of Arthur Morgan would be found in history books, same as other pictures.

Dutch would probably be a very controversial figure in history- some would hail him as a failed hero and others would condemn his violence no matter the reason- they wouldn't know what the people in the gang knew- especially in the end. Same with the rest of the gang members.

They'd probably all get romanticized. Hosea and Dutch's friendship, the raising of the boys, Dutch and Annabelle and his fued with Colm, Mary and Arthur, John and his family, Javier being a revolutionary- no one would know the full story.

And then there is Jack- he may live to see the 1960s and 70s and 80s. He may have grandchildren who'd pull him into a theater to watch a retelling of the gang that he was a part of at one point. He'd be amused. He'd think that the actor playing his father was too clean looking, too pretty. He'd think that the movie Arthur was too skinny. He'd think that the man playing Dutch had a funny voice as he tried to mimic the accent. He'd laugh and make notes in his head of the historical accuracy. He'd feel sorrowful at the deaths of the characters- he knew them at some point. And no one at the theater would know that the old man with the rowdy bright eyed boys who brought him there was Jack Marston, the last of the Van Dir Linde gang.

Jack might talk about it to the public. He might do interviews. He might even write a book about his father, the infamous John Marston. Those would be priceless. Even Beecher's Hope might be kept around and visited as a historical site for history goers.

And honestly? It is such a bittersweet thing.

[prokopetz]

I read your post that contained the sentence "Fundamentally, the thing that was wrong with Lord Byron is that he was a poet" and I feel like I had an existential crisis as my mind tried to grapple with "the thing", singular, that was wrong with Lord Byron.

(With reference to this post here.)

It helps to understand that the idea of the "artistic temperament" – i.e., the notion that Artists are a specific, biologically distinct Type of Guy – was very much in vogue during the Regency. This is the era that spawned phrenology in its modern form, after all; such notions were going around! The idea that all of the various things that were wrong with Lord Byron were ultimately attributable to the singular cause of "being a poet" would have been viewed, at least by some, as perfectly plausible, at the time.

[kenobihater]

after literal years i finally got around to downloading a pdf of the wipers times, an unsancitioned satitical british trench magazine circulated among the troops in france from 1916-1918 after the fortuitous discovery of a printing press. i have approximately five million other things i need to read so idk when i'll be able to devote much time to it, and i gotta pick up a proper copy bc it's missing at least salient no 4 vol 2. that said? i'm genuinely laughing at what i've skimmed so far

[mapsontheweb]

Interactive worldmap of territories through history

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/history/regions#position=0.7532/0/35.6&year=450

[fashion-from-the-past]

[someonesspring]

over 40.000 people have been buried in the old jewish cemetery in žižkov, prague, which was established in 1680.

however under the communist regime large parts of the cemetery were destroyed to build a park and a tv-tower in its place.

nowadays the cemetery hosts the monument ‘return of the stones' , which displays jewish gravestones which were cut up and used as paving stones during the communist rule.

[undr]

Joseph McKeown. Cyclists riding bikes near the old dock area of Bristol. 1954