#History Feuds

[deadpresidents]

“Compassion is always due to an enraged imbecile”

Attempting to besmirch each other, the two men ranted like spoiled adolescents. [Commanding General of the U.S. Army Winfield] Scott informed [Secretary of War Jefferson] Davis that he would treat all of Davis’s letters as official, “whether designed as private and scurrilous, or public missives of arrogance and superciliousness.” He characterized them as “examples of chicanery and tergiversation, of prodigality in assertion and utter penury in proofs and probabilities.” At one point, Scott declared: “My silence, under the new provocation, has been the result, first, of pity, and next, forgetfulness. Compassion is always due to an enraged imbecile, who lays about him in blows which hurt only himself, or who, at their worst, seeks to stifle his opponent by the dint of naughty words.”

Davis likewise leaped into the epistolary gutter. “Your petulance, characteristic egotism and recklessness of accusation have imposed on me the task of unveiling some of your deformities...” Davis went on to tell the general that his reputation had been “clouded by grovelling vices” such as “querulousness, insubordination, greed of lucre and want of truth.” Although Davis’s depictions of Scott were apt, he was seemingly unaware that he had descended to his antagonist’s level...To make matters even more embarrassing, Congress in December 1856 called for all the correspondence, publishing it in a volume of more than 250 pages for the entire country to see personal hostility and professional jealousy turned into acrimonious hatred.

-- William J. Cooper Jr. on the bitter feud between Commanding General of the U.S. Army Winfield Scott and then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis during the Pierce Administration, in Cooper’s excellent 2000 biography Jefferson Davis, American (BOOK | KINDLE).

I’ve spent years looking for an original copy of the collected correspondence featuring this pre-Civil War feud between General Scott, the longtime commanding general of the United States Army and Jefferson Davis, who was the civilian leader of all military forces as Secretary of War during the Administration of President Pierce (1853-1857). The letters that Davis and Scott fired back at each other -- through official channels! -- are amazing due to both the viciousness and the pettiness of the language they used.

Over the years, I’ve found incomplete batches of the letters and fragments of the correspondence in various books that I’ve bought, but I could never find everything that I was looking for. However, I finally found the collected correspondence in the U.S. Senate’s Executive Documents from the 3rd Session of the 34th Congress (thanks 34th Congress!), and after searching all over the place, also found a place that would print them in book form for a reasonable price. So, I’m going to start sifting through the letters and will probably end up sharing some of the more entertaining exchanges because this feud is an absolute masterpiece of 19th Century shit-talking. 

[mrmousetolliver]

Truman Capote photographed circa 1947.

[thlayli-ra]

RISE OF KNIGHT (part one)

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

(Ever gone a bit daft over a nothing match that you've written and drawn a comic that was supposed to be a quick, silly thing and has somehow become an intricate au with detailed drawing requiring research into medieval armour and costume design...?)

(More to come 🥴)

[oldshowbiz]

1992.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard!

- Tchaikovsky writing in his diary in 1886.

Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky had a lot to say about Brahms’ music- all bad. Johannes Brahms, for his part, didn’t seem to much enjoy Tchaikovsky’s music, either. He attended a rehearsal for Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and fell asleep. Although the two composers share a birthday - 7 May, with Brahms, born in 1833, being seven years older - they illustrate opposite poles of the composing spectrum. Brahms was the great classicist, building vast symphonies and concertos with intricate musical logic; Tchaikovsky was the heart-on-sleeve emotionalist, as colourful as Brahms was sober.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms simply understood, felt and composed music very differently, and judged each other’s work accordingly — sometimes positively, sometimes brutally.

Tchaikovsky was far more an antagonist than Brahms. The Russian composer’s chief criticism of Brahms’ music was that it was too controlled and not emotional enough. In a letter to his patron in 1879, he wrote of Brahms’ violin concerto, “His music is not warmed by true feelings, there is no poetry in it, though it has great pretension to depth.”

As for Brahms, stories have long circulated that he fell asleep at a performance of a Tchaikovsky symphony.  There’s no evidence that this actually happened, but it’s true that Brahms was often seen taking an afternoon snooze in the cafes of Vienna and was known to fall asleep at the table or theatre.

Composers are rarely members of a mutual admiration society, but Tchaikovsky’s concerns seem to focus more on style than on musicianship. “Hard as I try to respond to his music,” he adds, “I remain cold and hostile. It is a purely instinctive feeling.”

In his diary, he was even more explicit, calling Brahms a “giftless bastard,” and his work “self-inflated mediocrity.” But his opinion seems to have softened in 1887, shortly after being invited for Christmas dinner at the Leipzig home of a friend, where he was “astonished” to find Brahms at the table, as well.

Brahms was there to rehearse his Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 101, and Tchaikovsky sat through the whole piece and made no critical comment. Writing a friend about the evening, Tchaikovsky called Brahms “a very nice person, and not at all proud as I had imagined.”

It was a major breakthrough, and Tchaikovsky would spend six days in Leipzig, encountering Brahms several more times. He wrote home that the German composer did everything he could to be agreeable — but was far better as a drinking companion than as a conversationalist.

Brahms attended a rehearsal for the Leipzig premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 1, and expressed approval of the first movement, but strongly criticized the jovially childlike march (which to our ears points ahead to the sound world of the Nutcracker).

A year later, Tchaikovsky arrived in Hamburg to find Brahms there, planning to attend a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky’s new Fifth Symphony. Having heard the piece, Brahms told Tchaikovsky he approved of the first three movements but disliked the finale.

Honest criticism like this rarely upset Tchaikovsky - and, besides, he hadn’t liked any of Brahms’ symphonies, either.

“Brahms is very amiable,” he wrote to his brother. “After the rehearsal we had lunch together and drank well. He is a very sympathetic person and I like his integrity and simplicity.” Tchaikovsky even tried—unsuccessfully—to persuade Brahms to conduct in Moscow during the next season.

Brahms was the one contemporary who, both in output and stature, matched Tchaikovsky, and public comparisons were expected. But, in a somewhat endearing turnabout, the two rival composers grew to appreciate each other as individuals, if not always approving of each other’s music.

[quietbreeze97]

I'm not the only one who predicts/hopes that Charlie will intervene in Alastor and Vox's feud in season 2, and try to convince them to be friends again when she finds out about their history... right?

[burningvelvet]

reading about edmund curll, an important figure in erotic literature, and didn't know i was about to stumble across the most chaotic wikipedia page ever... i love historical literary drama

critics have always been the same

and of course where there is 1700s literary drama, alexander pope is always involved. no wonder byron idolized him and was involved in a seven-year long public debate concerning him... honoring him the way he'd like to be remembered (see: the pope-bowles controversy). don juan rly was a tribute to him. we need a series about the restoration era (behn/wilmot/dryden/etc) & of course the young romantics (byron/shelleys/keats/etc) and now we also need the augustan era (pope/montagu/now curll, etc.). someone please pplease please let me do an anthology series (in the vein of ahs or black mirror) about literary communities throughout history already!

cartoonish levels of opportunistic behavior. manipulating every situation to work in his favor like a sitcom character...

the most informative thing i've learned from edmund curll's wiki page is that in the 1700s, the name of the U.S. state "maryland" inspired a whole genre of erotica novels based on puns of the idea of a "[woman's name]-land," as evidenced by "bettyland." staples of the genre included colonization as a metaphor for patriarchal sexual conquest, & erotic descriptions of the female body which borrow from descriptions of natural landscape. much to think about re: postcolonial feminism - this quite literally proves the idea that colonization is inherently patriarchal

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Have you ever done speculation on future Dunk & Egg titles? I've been wondering what the title of the final story that would presumably focus on Summerhall would be. I think GRRM once listed The Lord Commander as a title (though I might just be thinking of The Kingsguard), but I think he was LC when the Laughing Storm whose name is currently escaping me sort of rebelled and Dunk settled that? Idk, just curious on your thoughts on future D&E titles

I'm not sure I have any thoughts, sorry? Like, I know that the story with the working title The She-Wolves of Winterfell will have a different title, but I can't think of what the title will be. (The Northern Visitor, The (Really Tall) Household Guard?) As for Summerhall, The Lord Commander is possible, since Dunk was not yet LC during the trial by combat with Lyonel Baratheon (and that story is probably The Champion).

My thing is more about speculating what stories could happen in the working titles GRRM has listed. Like, I think The Village Hero must involve the story of how Pennytree became a royal fief, and thus would involve the Blackwood-Bracken Feud and probably the first time Egg meets Betha. I have the feeling that The Sellsword involves the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, Dunk and Egg either with the Golden Company themselves (as spies for Bloodraven?) or with another mercenary group (maybe the Company of the Rose or the Second Sons?) that encounters the GC right before they invade Westeros, D&E's efforts to end the war, and Aerion (himself a former? Second Son) being a douchebag as always. (Probably he's the one who dishonorably kills Haegon Blackfyre after he surrenders.)

The Champion would have Lyonel's rebellion (and Jenny and her Prince of Dragonflies), so The Kingsguard could include the tourney that has 10-year-old Barristan the Bold as a mystery knight, or the tourney when he was 16 and unhorsed both Duncans and was knighted. Unless The Kingsguard would be Lyonel's war, in which case The Champion could be a story involving the fall of Danelle Lothston, the shift in the course of the Trident (away from the Inn of the Crossroads), and perhaps the time Ser Lymond held the bridge against Ser Maynard. And of course, The Lord Commander would be the Tragedy at Summerhall, and how Dunk saved Rhaella and baby Rhaegar, but in the end died with his king.

But otherwise, I'm not good at devising future D&E titles myself. Hope this helps anyway!

[samar-arijjj]

buck explaining the kendrick/drake feud to tommy in EXTREME detail while tommy just sits there like “wtf is going on” (he doesn’t know who either of those people are)

[octoagentmiles]

octonauts ATLA au 🤲

Barnacles is an EXTREMELY powerful waterbender from the North Pole, with a strong love for icebending—he defaults to it most of the time. He can use all subforms of waterbending, but they're a bit harder.

Kwazii's the Avatar, but he's still a pirate AND he's a natural firebender, so he still has that "scary and dangerous" reputation. He's afraid of using his firebending, because he hates it. Barnacles is teaching him waterbending, and he's pretty good at it. So far he sucks at earthbending, and his airbending is okay, but if he gets worked up it can accidentally come out as fire... which, yeah.

Peso is an airbender, and the first one in his family. He's not very skilled at bending, and he can't fly very well, and sometimes wishes he was a waterbender, like Barnacles. That way he'd be "stronger", and could utilize its healing abilities. He has an epiphany later on in the middle of S3 that makes him realize how powerful he really is, and he learns to fly :)

Tweak is an earthbender, which she inherited from her dad (maybe*). Like Barnacles, she has a love and preference for a specific subtype—in her case it's metalbending. She's very good at it. It's how she builds GUPs so fast.

Shellington is a waterbender. He doesn't use it very much, mainly because he's Not Great at controlling it—so you'll either end up getting lightly spit on or completely drenched in a tsunami by accident.

Dashi is a non-bender (with water tribe ancestry), which puts her at a disadvantage during some missions. However! She has all of her skills from the Canon Universe, plus the extra adaptiveness seen in non-benders in ATLA (Sokka, Suki, etc).

Inkling is also a non-bender, but he has studied the elements and different bending techniques his whole life. He's Kwazii's Monk Gyatso but with less dying.

Octoagents! 👇

Calico Jack is Kwazii's Uncle Iroh. I needn't explain further. His main goal is to teach Kwazii to be less afraid of his firebending.

Natquik is a waterbender, who taught Barnacles everything he knows. He got his penchant for icebending from him. He pretty much invented it. He survived Antarctica by ✨ Becoming One With The Ice™ ✨. He doesn't just study icequakes, he can make them. He can probably spiritbend.

*I'm TORN between making Marsh be an earthbender or a waterbender. If he's an earthbender, then he can't metalbend like Tweak can, but he's still very strong. Like, scarily strong 👀. IF HE'S A WATERBENDER, then he's a swampbender, full stop.

Tracker is an airbender, mainly because of how he's clearly paralleling Peso's arc in AnB. He was the only airbender in his Polar Scouts troop, and he got picked on for it a bit—but Barnacles thought it was cool as heck, and that's how they became friends.

Do I need to explain Paani being a waterbender? No I do not. He's probably VERY powerful, but very chillax about it. He successfully freaks out everyone who witnesses him bend every time. He can part the seas like freaking Moses.

Pearl is a waterbender like Shellington; she's not super strong, but she has a LOT more control over it than he does. Peri will be a waterbender as well, but he hasn't unlocked it yet. He's trying very hard because he wants to be like his mum and uncle SO badly.

Min could easily be a bender of any kind and it would make sense, but I kinda wanna say she's a non-bender. Just cuz ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Earthbender Ryla. That's all. It makes it a lot easier to get out of caves when she's stuck. She's very casual about it. So casual, that most people either forget or don't even realize she's a bender until it comes up. Then they're like "oh yeah." as she literally moves mountains.

Airbender Pinto, who has no clue how to control it. Whenever he gets frustrated with himself, he accidentally creates small tornadoes. He can also fly! He likes to brag about it. a lot. mainly to Peso.

Waterbender Koshi, who hasn't discovered that about herself yet. She's in for a fun time when she figures it out. Remember how happy she was when she got her Octowatch? Yeah :) 10x that. I also imagine their family is full of late bloomers, but because of Dashi she has pretty low expectations for herself right now.

[stan-rabelais-et-diderot]

The 2012 French rap feud (Booba / Rohff)

In 2012, a legendary rap feud occured in France, between the rappers Booba, Rohff & La Fouine (Morsay tried to get involved). I thought it could be interesting for Americans to hear about it, if you want.

If we had to make comparaison, Booba would be French Drake, he had big mainstream success (melodic stuff too, went on the radio) pretty much apolitical music (he is also half white), Rohff would be Kendrick Lamar though the parallels doesn't work as well (Médine or Kery James would fit better, if you want to listen to any French rap, listen to them) Rohff's rap is more political & more culturally relevant, rooted in the neighborhood.

The similarities end here, because unlike J. Cole, Drake or Kendrick, La Fouine went to prison several times adding up to a couple of years (but mostly before his rapping carrier), he served time at the same prison at around the same time as

Booba, who was already a rapper when he went to prison for a year and a half. After that he went into detention for a few months two more times over the years.

Rohff did some prison after he became a rapper, but most notably, because of the rap feud I'm gonna talk about with Booba. There was a fight in 2014 that led to someone being in a coma & a five year prison sentence for Rohff (he served a few months).

For this reason & others (like the fact that all the French rappers I mentioned, all stand with Palestine), the Drake / Kendrick Lamar feud makes me laugh with indulgence.

You can listen to the tracks if you want to witness this glorious, very sexist & homophobic history (you can try to google translate the lyrics but most of it is slang they probably won't translate well), but I offer a summary of the feud, with some very short explanations of the events, lyrics & a few translated lines :

Responding to Rohff calling him a "zoulette" (an offhand on tv in August 2012, source) Booba dropped "Wesh Morray" (Yo couz'), in september 2012. There is not much there, in the song he said he is on top (money, cars, friends, rap game), talks about being a thug ("I come home from the street, I never came home from work"), it's really not his best imo.

The response came 5 days later, using the same music sample. Rohff attacks Booba on his race (Booba is half white) & on his credentials:

"you use our codes, our words, our methods" "neither arab nor black, the biggest liar of this age"

(paraphrasing) "Diams (woman rapper) had better sales than you, that's why you came after her"

"stop your "thug life" [bullshit], Tupac is turning in his grave", "Kery [James] didn't mention your name, what are you talking about", [that means he is not a real one]

"nothing glorious about showing off your little criminal record, real ones don't need to prove anything, you didn't grow up in the 'hood, you'll never be like us, don't make it a whole thing"

(Rohff destroyed him basically).

Two months later, La Fouine came into play, mentioning it in a song "I hear the clash about you on the radio, but like the call to the mosque you can't respond" (which is a bad burn, almost two months & Booba hadn't fought back, also Booba not attending mosque, is not a good Muslim, very easy jab to make). He also released a 20 min video talking shit about Booba, which he can because of the common past with the Fresnes prison which is apparently were La Fouine started disliking Booba.

After that, Booba avoided Rohff (he cancelled a birthday party to avoid him :) ) & he fired back two months later (early 2013, things didn't move as fast back then), his song barely mentioning Rohff, it heavily focused on La Fouine having a sexual assault on a minor on his criminal record (there is audio evidence in the track of someone he said is a cop saying it, on a phone call that was a setup)

Four days later, La Fouine fired back (choosing in very poor taste imo to use as the hook "besides Booba I didn't rape anyone"), mostly mocking him for his cowardness "you refuse to meet-up & you piss yourself" & bragging about his wealth: "Fouiny [himself] is a homeowner".

This is one line I still remember this song for, though "you have tatoos, we have scars" Ten years later I still love that line.

La Fouine pushed back further on the sexual assault on a minor allegation, saying Booba is irrelevant in the rap game so he has to ressort to making up lies, that the woman "cop" on the phone call said he had done sexual assault on a minor in 1997, when he himself was 15 (he really should have stopped there, but then he said "I don't know, in junior high, I probably put my hand on a girl's ass for a second... Oups, sorry! But I swear, Booba besides you I didn't rape anyone").

Booba fight back a week later, calling La Fouine "Emile" refering to the famous rapist & murderer of disabled minors (Emile Louis). He provided further audio evidence of La Fouine having committed sexual assault, at some point in the song he says (doing a voice as if he were La Fouine) "send to minors up [to my Miami appartement], I'm worse than R. Kelly" (this is from february 2013 btw). He also accused La Fouine of just doing business (so not making a lot of money from selling records) & not being relevant to the rap game.

A month after that, La Fouine & Booba had a fight in the Miami hotel they were both staying at.

The fight that led to an unrelated party ending up in a coma happened a year later.

From what I can tell, the hatchet hasn't been buried & the only reason things didn't get worse is that Booba actually is a coward, who actively avoid them (or he is wise not to engage in meaningless physical conflict, but why he has to talk so loud then?)

Anyway, no way the Kendrick Lamar / Drake feud goes as far as this, but still, pretty entertaining. Less criminal record, better music, you win some, you lose some.

[deadpresidents]

"He is an old friend with whom I have often had occasion to labor on many a knotty problem, and in whose abilities and steadiness I always found great cause to confide."

-- John Adams, on Thomas Jefferson, 1784

•••

"It is with much reluctance that I am obliged to look upon him as a man whose mind if warped by prejudice and so blinded by ignorance as to be unfit for the office he holds. However wise and scientific as a philosopher, as a politician he is a child and a dupe of party."

-- President John Adams, on his Vice President Thomas Jefferson, 1797

•••

"I always loved Jefferson, and still love him."

-- Former President John Adams, expressing his fondness for former President Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, which ultimately led to the two former Presidents rekindling their friendship and beginning a remarkable correspondence that lasted until they both died, within hours of one another, on July 4, 1826 -- the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

[werewolfetone]

What pamphlet writer are you most glad never had access to Internet blogging?

Ok this is difficult because I love arguing and I think esoteric internet drama rules so I would actually be quite happy to see most of them having had access to internet blogging... however, my answer is edward cooke, the dublin castle spy master of the 1790s who wrote various Pamphlets &c during the union debates. There are other ppl who I wish had had internet access during the union debates just because it would have been funny but there's something about cooke specifically that's just like... I KNOW his posting would have been utterly intolerable

[thlayli-ra]

RISE OF KNIGHT (part six)

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

@claymoresofinfamy23

[oldshowbiz]

1967.

The Controversial Rich Little.

[darthkvznblogs]

The answer varies from canon to canon, so how long have the Autobots and Decepticons been fighting in the K-Verse?

I’m still tweaking that particular timeline, but I’m handling the Autobot-Decepticon war in terms of centuries-thousands of years, and definitely not millions of years like some continuities. Cybertronians may be capable of living that long, in theory (and with a lot of repairs, replacement parts, and constant maintenance), but I feel like even a Cybertronian mind wouldn’t be able to process that kind of lifespan, especially in a state of constant warfare and scarcity.

It also just makes the conflict a lot more relevant to modern galactic society, as opposed to being this background event that’s barely worth thinking about. Like Thanos’ crusade, it’s a (relatively) recent conflict, within the lifetimes of some of the more long-lived races even, and the races of the galaxy aren’t sure yet of exactly how to handle it. If the war were to reignite and escalate, spilling outside Cybertronian territory, it very well could upset the balance of power in the Milky Way.