#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.

[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

[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.

[pvffinsdaisies]

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

[heymeowmao]

2024.11.25 ° Gao Hanyu Studio Weibo Update

[fisarmonical]

[blueshistorysims]

May 1933, London, England

Dear Byron, 

I think I’m going mad. I feel like a prisoner in my own home. The only kind of reprieve Francesca and I get is when nightfall comes, and Mama finally goes to bed. I suppose the realization of her remaining living children both being homosexuals has been rather a nasty shock.

We are always arguing, and she throws a fit whenever Francesca and I are affectionate with one another. It’s gotten to the point where we cannot even hold hands without Mama growing upset. She complains about every design I make, especially over the film I am the costume designer for. I am currently making a rather low-cut dress for the lead actress, and the minute she saw it, she started whining about morality and that it hadn’t been in society since before the war. 

Francesca is fed up. I cannot blame her. These past three months have been hell on earth. She’s asked me to speak to Mama. Tell her to stay elsewhere. Of course, that is much easier said than done. I think Francesca forgets what it is like to have a mother. You can’t exactly ‘kick them out’. Francesca wants me to tell her during dinner, so I suppose you shall have your answer in a later paragraph.

…Dinner went much better than expected. I didn’t even have to bring it. Mama brought it up herself, announcing that she was going to move to her father’s hometown, Malvern Hills. Apparently, our family still owns Grandfather’s childhood cottage. Were you aware of this? I was not. She said she wanted to live there for the rest of her life. I don’t think you or I will be invited there anytime soon. 

Your sister, Giselle

P.S. How is Montgomery? You said he’s gotten worse since Mama found out. Tell me if there is anything Francesca and I can do, even though you and he have a very different relationship, I’ve known him since I was fifteen, and I care for him very much.

[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...

[furorsopher]

thinking about how alexander no-immune-system-to-speak-of hamilton was ill from mid november 1779, only fully recovering in january 1780 and colonel hugh hughes wrote to a friend (general gates) in early december 1779:

“colonel hamilton, who has been very ill of a nervous disorder at peekskill, is out of danger, unless of his own sweet temper.”

it just reads like hughes wanted to support his friend who had received angry letters from a recovering hamilton by being passive aggressive and being like: “bro, i see you, this kid’s an asshole”

it’s so unnecessarily funny to me

[loverboybrightsideghost]

listening to rqg 159 and alex describes how zolf would recognize wilde’s “eeerrghhhhh it has to do with touchy-feely emotions” face. yeh

[menlove]

also NOT to be a bitch but again w the insistence on imagining every historical figure as straight is just soooo! like idk it's harmful! it takes away important representations of queerness. like I'm not even being over-dramatic when I say as a young 11-13 year old coming to grips w my sexuality, I don't think I would have been able to as easily if I didn't find out that my idol at the time (john lennon) was bisexual. and knowing that people want to pretend that just Doesn't Exist? bc it might take away from that person's dignity or whatever to talk about them as queer? you're actively taking away comfort and kinship from queer people who are very much alive and in need of seeing themselves. does that Make Sense?

[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.

[bsaka7]

i literally need to stop hating so hard but i can't help it. it's so fun.

[amphibious-thing]

I don't really follow a lot of interviews/social media content form the OFMD cast & crew. In part because I'm busy and in part because I tend to take more of a Death of the Author approach to analysis anyway. But when did David Jenkins actually say that there was no homophobia or racism depicted in the show cause like? Thats such an odd take. The homophobia is more uhh subtle (barely) but racism?

[mermaidsirennikita]

whenever I see people complaining about how that show turned out, I always want to know

a) why they don't just stop watching, because it's like... not going to get any better, obviously

b) why they don't just read a book that gives them what the show doesn't, because I PROMISE you I could name multiple books, per season (in some cases so many I probably couldn't name them) that give you a scenario that is similar or the same, and is much better