Now that the Xmas season has gone for another year, the pond would like to celebrate some images of the season.
Even the introduction shows the right spirit: I fucking live for unhinged Victorian Christmas cards. Some years I just share the terror with friends, and others I choose to spread the chaos. This year I pick the latter.
You can find the full collection in cache here, or on Twitter here ...Victorians - not necessarily the ones the pond visited, more the period ones - had a deeply morbid sense of humour. As the pond spent some time reading the diaries of Beatrice Webb over the break (what a tortured soul), it felt an affinity with the images.
There's something for everyone, starting with neo-Nazi birds on the march, and going from there ...
"...reading the diaries of Beatrice Webb over the break (what a tortured soul)..."
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, DP, I'd say so too:
"Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, FBA was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term collective bargaining. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Webb
And she passed just months before I emerged, though there's absolutely nothing of any significance in that.
Apart from being a typical class conscious snob, typical of the times, Beatrice's real problem was her infatuation with allegedly liberal but actually deeply patriarchal Joseph Chamberlain, followed by Sidney's relentless courtship, which seemed unlikely given that she dismissed him at first sight as short, ugly, physically repulsive, and with a Jewish nose ...
DeleteYes, yes, but DP, she invented 'collective bargaining' which made Hawke, Keating and Kelty such eternal heroes of the "left".
DeleteCan't possibly get to be more famous or more important than that, surely. Unless it's starting the London School of Economics and being an almost foundation member of the Fabian Society. Ooops no, that was Sid.
We shouldn't forget the New Statesperson, and while the pond read a hard copy, this ...
DeletePublished digitally and in full for the first time today, the diaries of Beatrice Webb, leading Fabian and social reformer — as well as co-founder of the London School of Economics and New Statesman magazine — offer a fascinating insight into British social life from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Funded by the Webb Memorial Trust and part of the LSE Digital Library, Webbs on the Web comprises 9,000 pages from Beatrice’s diary manuscript (plus 8,000 transcribed pages) and covers such varying issues as the demoralised Labour party, a fierce attack on the financial institution, and the joys of clothes shopping. Surprising, then, that some of such entries were penned one hundred years ago.
Link here ...
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2012/02/social-reformer-beatrice-webb
... though the thought of plowing through 9,000 pages plus 8,000 pages of Beatrice fills the pond with terror and horror ...
9000 pages "from" her diary ? There's more ? There's whole races and cultures that aren't worth 9000 pages or even anything close to it, and the entire 'Anglican' culture is one.
DeleteAfter all, who remembers Alfred the Great and his accomplishments now. Here's an abbreviated list:
Achievements of Alfred the Great
1 Defeated Viking armies, swinging the tide against Viking domination.
2 Rallied his troops and peoples, even after crushing defeat
3 Forced the Viking king Guthrum to convert to Christianity and settle more peacefully in East Anglia.
4 Re-established the old Roman city of London after 300 years.
5 United different kingdoms of England to fight a common enemy.
6 Created a strong national defense with a system of burhs and fair system of conscription – which enabled men to both serve in army but also look after their farms.
7 Built and expanded a system of roads (herepaths) between the different burhs to allow better communication and defence of towns.
8 Established the first national navy with boats which could take on Viking long boats.
9 Encouraged an able and efficient system of administration.
10 Translated many Latin texts into English so more people could read.
11 Started to transform Anglo-Saxon justice away from ‘blood-feuds’ and vengeance. He established his own domboc or law code consisting of his own laws.
https://www.biographyonline.net/royalty/king-alfred.html
And that doesn't even mention his reform of coinage and his considered refusal to turn back the tides. Is all of that worth 9000 pages, d'you reckon ?
And proof (as if any were needed) that The Pond is uniquely in touch with the zeitgeist - this has just popped up on BBC
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-59518847
I think it is freely available to those in the colonies
Lovely.
DeleteI wonder what he could have done with my part calico-part tortoiseshell longish-haired tricolour Siberian.
It's that bloody Wain movie, Chadders, that has set this hare running ...
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electrical_Life_of_Louis_Wain
Kermode review here ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLZdBD_Lpe0
GB - Louis Wain has quite a long entry, with many illustrations, in 'Wikipedia'. They might give you some hints of how he could have portrayed your particular Siberian.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, thanks for the pointer. The bit that was most expressive was:
Delete"This cat, like many painted during this period, is shown with abstract patterns behind it. Psychologists have cited this increased abstraction as symptomatic of Wain having schizophrenia. Others have argued that his "wallpaper cats" simply recall the patterns in his mother's fabrics and have disputed the schizophrenia diagnosis."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Wain
I think I'd probably dispute that so-called "diagnosis" too, but then I'm not a trick cyclist. However his increasingly 'extreme' abstractions as his life progressed do give a hint or two as to what he might have done with my Siberian.
Interesting the bit about anthropomorphising the cats and how this may well have contributed significantly to a popular 'change of mind' about cats. Especially given the proposition that the lack of any such 'popularisation' of Australian native animals compared with anthropomorphised ducks, rabbits, squirrels, meercats, feline cats and even dogs from other places explains why sundry local species (wombats, quokkas, possums, bilbys etc) are all but ignored.