#historical beefs

[annamariehamilton-unofficial]

Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen: Best Frenemies

Not a hot take this time, more of a fun fact.

So apparently, the two most famous literary Danes, fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen and Christian existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, were best frenemies in real life.

Andersen parodied Kierkegaard as a yapping parrot repeating the pseudo-philosphical platitude "let us be men!" in his 1838 fable "The Galoshes of Fortune". Later that year, Kierkegaard returned the favor by writing an essay in which he accused Andersen of lacking any kind of coherent worldview, insinuating that Andersen "from an involuntary overflow of cleverness in the personality ... totally forgetting the landscape, go[es] on to paint [himself] elaborately in [his] own vain Solomonic pomp and glory, which suits flowers, but not people."

Apparently they made up, because 10 years later, they exchanged fancy first-printing hardcover volumes of one another's most recent work with friendly greetings.

I think it is not much of a literary hot take to say that Andersen is a LOT more readable than Kierkegaard, which is probably why, according to Andersen at least, the only people who actually *read* Kierkegaard's little rant were Kierkegaard and Andersen themselves.

[gh0st-0f-luke]

six excerpts from a wangxian fic told entirely through ratemyprofessors reviews

[hetagrammy]

It's 1183, and Arthur being the tween menace that he was thought it would be a fantastic idea to have the whole family at Christmas Court. Shall they hang the holly or each other?

[whenweallvote]

Congratulations to Steven Yeun & Ali Wong who each won ‘Best Actor in a Limited Series’ at the #GoldenGlobes! 😍

They’ve made history tonight as the first Asian-American woman and second Asian-American man to win in their respective categories 🏆 

[icarusbetide]

jefferson does the "you wouldn't last an hour in the aslyum where they raised me" trend but with a photo of his beautiful big plantation and gets cancelled on twitter

[serpentface]

Do you have any information on the root scholars that you can share? They’ve always been a cool cult/organization to me

Ok it’s a facet of the Eterhimhamdli religion, which is The most widespread single belief system east of the inner seaway (which isn't saying much in terms of scale but it's still pretty significant) and also one I've barely introduced so I'll go over it a bit here.

Eterhimhamdli has spread past its initial sphere of old (~500 years BP) southern Lowlands Yuroma kingdoms, has many folk practices, and has schismed a few times, so there's a good deal of cultural variation. But its basic tenants/tendencies are:

-Creator deities are wholly rejected, the universe is an interplay between non-personified dualistic forces of Body(evil)/Mind(good). In one schism, the interplay of these two forces is the Dream, in others dreaming is an aspect of Mind.

-Deities in general are not wholly at odds with Eterhimhamdli, but their importance is de-emphasized and worship is usually discouraged in favor of making them objects of contemplation and/or tutelary figures.

-The Mind of the universe exists as a collective soul from which human souls emanate

-every person has two souls: an egoistic soul that animates the body and an ethereal soul that animates the mind. The latter is conceptualized as a single drop from a greater sea of the collective soul.

-belief that true wisdom is derived through access to this collective soul.

-belief that the trappings of the the ego-soul and the body's demands inhibits access to said collective soul.

-belief in the concept of enlightened beings who gain full experiential knowledge of the collective soul while remaining in a body, thus becoming capable of directly communicating aspects of their wisdom to the masses.

the biggest schism in this religion is over whether enlightenment just means experiencing full knowledge of the collective before you die, or whether it means transcending the limits of the body entirely and functionally becoming an immortal, godlike being.

deities of older/other religions absorbed by Eterhimhamdli are often reframed as enlightened mortals.

-most sects believe that only sophont life (or sometimes Only humans) have a etherial-soul along with the ego-soul, while animals exclusively have the ego-soul. Plants and inanimate objects Usually aren't ascribed souls outsides of heavily syncretic folk practices.

-belief in a fundamental good-evil cosmic dualism, though in a fairly complex way (evil is a necessity for life that is to be tempered and grappled with, rather than outright vanquished from the world entirely). The notion of 'evil' here is most associated with bodily desires (this includes all bodily needs like hunger and thirst, necessary to support life but viewed dangerous in excess, and being the root of conflict and pain).

the evil nature of bodily desire is not About sex, but does translate to non-procreative sex being frowned upon to varying extents.

-belief that life is a state of internal warfare between the evil ego-soul and the good ethereal-soul, with the former being more powerful and influential. To lead a good life is to bring the ego-soul into equilibrium with the ethereal soul. To live a wise and venerable life is to fully tip the balance in the latter's favor (this is not an expectation for lay followers, as it is considered profoundly difficult and requires separation from worldly life).

-lay followers practice forms of temperance to bring these forces into equilibrium, priests practice forms of asceticism to subdue the ego-soul and gain experiential wisdom in the process.

-The way you balance your life has consequences for the afterlife. An evil life causes an eternal death (this is usually posited as an underworld), a life in equilibrium causes one to be reborn into a new human body (a neutral fate), and a good life results in full return to the collective soul (this is a state of complete peace and contentedness and access to infinite wisdom).

-A selection of hallucinogenic plants are central to the monastic/priestly aspects of the religion, being seen as the key method through which the body can be transcended and the ego-soul can be quieted in order to tap into the collective. Lay followers do not participate in this facet on a regular basis.

-Priests also participate in self-flagellation, as the struggle with physical pain is a key microcosm of the broader internal war with the ego-soul, and can be a source of wisdom and contemplation. They are extensively tattooed for partly related purposes. Laymen are not expected to flagellate as a practice but rather to apply teachings to/learn from struggles with everyday pain.

-Very complicated relations with violence as a concept. Some strains of Eterhimhamdli philosophy see violence as an exclusive result of evil to be avoided whenever possible (usually more completely by priesthoods than the wider societies they live in), others see it as a neutral tool in of itself that Can be a force for good when used wisely. (Large scale 'wise usages of violence for the sake of good', shockingly, tend to favor the in-group's position in preexisting ethnic/religious/territorial conflicts).

-Most sects are proselytizing and see conversion as a necessity to create a better world, and have broadly unfavorable views of other religious practices.

This does not extend to seeing all societies that practice Eterhimhamdli or even The Same Schism Of Eterhimhamdli in a positive light (the birthplace of this religion is currently about 60 semi independent city-states organized into leagues that are frequently at war with each other)

-Highly favors education, literacy, rhetoric, debate, and the acquisition of material knowledge along with deeper spiritual wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom are venerable traits and societies should be led by the learned, or at least by people under their guidance.

---

The Scholarly Order of the Root is one order of Lowlands Eterhimhamdli monastics, functioning as a closed cult/mystery religion. They’re based out of Suurota (one of the biggest Yuroma city-states and dominant member of its league). They're at the top of the league's hierarchy of monastics, very wealthy, and have some involvement in governance (being an advisory body to the magistrate).

The Scholars primarily interact with the general public by hosting many of the league's institutions of scholarship and philosophy, and some of the biggest libraries in this part of the world. Their institutions are used by laymen Suurota citizens and members of government for study, and they host monks and priests (uninitiated to the inner cult) in their halls.

Actual membership to the Scholars cult is limited, they neither expect nor want associates to participate in their rituals. Rather, they position themselves as teachers- revealing small aspects of their secret knowledge to laymen and the lesser monastics as a form of guidance, while keeping dangerous knowledge for only the trusted inner circle.

Their baseline belief system aligns with the general schema of Lowlands Eterhimhamdli (one of three major schisms of this belief system), but their closed cult practices revolve around fairly unique interpretations, understood to be the ultimate underlying truths of this worldview.

The Scholars focus on an extention the Mind-Body model of the universe where their synthesis is the Dream (this itself is not unique to this cult, but the depths of their focus is). Under this model, the world is the dream of the collective consciousness, and achieving enlightenment or even temporary lucidity can allow the dream to be shaped to one's will.

One of their most secretive practices is god-building, in which they utilize altered mental states to shape the fabric of the dream into entities they can use as personal teachers of secret knowledge (also as a type of magic in general, they use it to 'build' guardians and curses and the like).

The process involves using mild doses of Ur-Root brew (mostly derived from roots of the clonal Ur-Wood colony, whose bark has notable concentrations of dimethyltryptamine and also hosts milder fungal hallucinogens) while maintaining an object and concept as a focal point of concentration. The altered state provided by the Root allows the user some access to the wisdom of the collective soul, and they will experience secret knowledge and revelations about this object, how it can best be used (this will be supplemented by material knowledge about the subject). This process is repeated until the user experiences a sense of Presence in the object, which must be interacted with, given a name and a face. Through more repetition, the object is believed to be shaped into a sort of thoughtform god which has come into material existence via manipulation of the dream.

This is considered to take immense time and effort to come to completion, god-building projects can last for years and be the combined effort of multiple Scholars. In the end, you have shaped an entity to your will that can operate independently of you.

The Ur-Wood itself is the center of Scholar cult practice, as it is both the purveyor of their most important hallucinogen and believed to have been the first god ever shaped by this form of lucid dreaming (it's a pilgrimage site for Eterhimhamdli where thousands of followers have undergone Ur-Root trips over the past four centuries, using the woods as an object of contemplation). To them the Ur-Tree is the ultimate teacher of their cult, an extremely powerful built-god that has been involved in almost every journey to enlightenment and contains all these journeys within its substance.

They believe that communing with the tree via Ur-Root can grant access to all enlightened mortals- full trips (with a DMT breakthrough type experience) will often involve sensations of encountering entities, which they interpret to be these historical figures. Within their religious framework, they're kind of speedrunning enlightenment. Under most conventional frameworks, the teachings of wise and/or enlightened people are conveyed in writing or speech as things to Contemplate on one's own journey- you might be able to understand them Conceptually but true understanding is Experiential, a process that can take a lifetime. In their framework, they're both receiving these teachings directly AND embodying states in which they can experientially comprehend them.

That summarizes most of their secret practices, and the rest of their practice is pretty standard for devout Lowlands Eterhimhamdlist priests. They live a partly ascetic lifestyle, they bear extensive tattoos as a contemplation of pain and marker of their journeys, they flagellate, they use tutelary hallucinogens, they refine their non-experiential body of knowledge through debate and rhetoric, they work to accumulate both worldly and spiritual knowledge, they work as scribes, etc.

[heymeowmao]

2024.11.25 ° Gao Hanyu Studio Weibo Update

[monakisu]

last night i had a dream that i was gru from despicable me lounging in bed with my beautiful wife lucy and when i woke up i found myself indescribably disappointed

[meduseld]

Goodsir v Stanley disagreement ep. 1

Nocturnal Poetry by Prin

Goodsir v Stanley disagreement ep. 5

Attaquer le Soleil Marquis de Sade by Etat Libre d'Orange

More Eau de Terror here

Bonus:

Attaquer le Soleil Marquis de Sade by Etat Libre d'Orange

More Eau de Terror here

[hazzybat]

So the pub I work at hosts functions and one night we had a John Lennon tribute act and they had the funniest description of the Beatles I've ever heard:

John Lennon and his associates.

I understand he's your fave but what a way to downplay The Beatles of all people.

The same pub also hosts the Evis Presley fan club sometimes and their one sided beef with The Beatles is so funny and petty. Hearing 60+ year old people say "well Elvis recorded so many more songs and he didn’t even need to travel to be world renowned," Is always kinda funny.

[haridraws]

hey just wanted to pop in to say I LOVED reading I Shall Never Fall In Love!!! as a they/them myself with an interest in historical queerness it is right up my alley, and I really liked all the 'behind the scenes' stuff you included at the end! plus the way you draw expressions is amazing, it makes the characters feel so alive. I actually lended it to my mom once I was done reading the first time, and she loved it too! She hasn't read a lot of graphic novels, but she is a big fan of Jane Austen (I basically grew up watching Pride & Prejudice (2005) lol), and we had a great time talking about it ^v^

I feel like oftentimes people writing queer historical fiction think they have to choose between historical accuracy and having their characters be happy, since so often the stories we hear about queer historical figures are ones of tragedy. It's heartwarming to see someone write a story about queer people in history leading full and happy lives. Thank you for creating such a wonderful story and a beautiful piece of art <3

thank you so much for this message.... every time someone tells me they enjoyed the book and lent it to a family member it replenishes my life essence slightly!!! Yeah, it's interesting! I don't think there's one 'right' approach for queer historicals or fiction generally, but I'm personally drawn to making stories that feel hopeful in the end. Just because queer and trans people were (and are) living in an imperfect and often hostile world, it obviously doesn't mean there were no moments of happiness. Like... we have loads of evidence queer people historically would deliberately destroy letters to not leave a paper trail, so the records that survive are often legal ones of punishment. But EVEN IN THOSE, there are so many unquestionable glimpses of queer people's full, ordinary, and often happy lives.

Anyway I'm sure you know all this, just using this as an opportunity to talk about it since I find it really interesting. And I really think there's value in pointing people towards our real history of queer resilience - and complexity, and complicity - not exclusively looser fantastical stuff where the history is just set dressing.

[sharksonfire]

Ik Pyro is from Sydney in the comics (most likely Woolloomooloo specifically since he mentioned his grandma lives there) but I have a really in-depth headcanon about him being from somewhere in Tasmania (in-depth enough to include animal motifs and broader historical things lol I thought about this way too hard) and I really want to form it into a proper fic but I really don't think it would be that interesting to anyone other than, well, me...

[fisarmonical]

[pvffinsdaisies]

How hetalia feels when silly anime characters aren’t held responsible for real life war crimes and atrocities

[koremakaria]

Award for Best Brother Goes to Jiang Zhan

Yes, it is true that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed but the man has a good heart and he cares so deeply for his little sister

The calm carriage ride is about to take a sudden turn .. haha. Jiang Zhan just discovered that the precious scented satchel that Yu Jin treasures is nearly identical to the one his sister made for him and being not the brightest mind ... our gege is so very confused.

Poor gege .... he just couldn't understand why his good friend would have something from his little mei mei. What good reason could there be for such a thing? Please quick ... someone tell him.

And Zhen Heng is like ... bro ... don't look at me. I DoNOT want to start anything

LOL Yu Jin ... please do not count your chickens before they hatch. He was not subtle about the scented satchel so what's coming is on you ...

The moment of realization and the no hesitation to commit violence are so delicious!!

Our past brotherhood bond ... gone

Our easy commeradery ... long forgotten

How DARE you!!!! AND with my precious little SISTER!!!

And the whole time Yu Jin is wounded but Jiang Zhan did not give a damn since he's so protective of his sister. Jiang Zhan is the best brother and it is so beautiful to watch.

[icarusbetide]

my favorite thing in the world is reasonable delusion? or honest delusion, i suppose?

one of my acquaintances is a history professor. a few weeks ago i asked him about hamburr, and this man looked me straight in the eye and said "aaron burr and alexander hamilton were products of their time. they both went into the duel not knowing what to expect, and burr especially did not anticipate the aftermath of that outcome." only to immediately follow it up with "but FAWK aaron burr, he's a little shit and he burns in hell for all i care."

i spent ten minutes trying to wheedle out the logic behind this and he goes "of course, burr did not deserve all the vitriol he received. but he also 100% deserved it, because he's aaron burr."

this is the person historians should strive to be. don't try to make yourself sound convincing if you know what you're saying isn't convincing. don't manipulate quotes or context to justify your misleading claims. just lay out all the evidence, acknowledge the reasonable take, and only after you have done your ethical duty, express your true feelings happily and proudly. no one can blame you then.