A Partially Complete and Completely Partial Survey of Sorts
Disclaimer: My boss, a highly intelligent gentleman eminently well-educated in his field of Finance, has frequently called me “a font of useless knowledge,” largely due to my (compared to his) fairly extensive education in the arts and what I’ll call, for lack of a better umbrella term, “the humanities.” I’ll readily admit to this, and it certainly colors my perceptions and opinions regarding the importance of certain creative works produced throughout history, particularly the history of western civilization.
It is from this unabashedly biased perspective that I offer up my own thoughts on what, at this moment in history, might constitute “cultural literacy,” mainly in the United States but also in other parts of the English-speaking world, and with what creative works modern Western people should be familiar to achieve such “literacy.” I readily invite debate and additional suggestions to those I present here.
One major consideration, I think, is how long it takes for a creative work to demonstrate its staying power within its culture. The books, movies, music, and television shows that are most popular now may easily be forgotten in fifty years (or sooner.) We really can’t know yet what 21st century creations will take their rightful (or not) place among the “oughta know” works in Western culture.
I’ve come up with half a dozen broad categories, some of which admittedly may overlap a bit: literature, theater, cinema, television, visual art, and music. For this post, I’ve tried to tackle the first three. I got bogged down when I got to TV, and the last two are biggies that probably warrant more words (and pictures and links) than I’m ready to pull together just now. But let’s see what we can do for starters, shall we?
Literature
Buy it in dead tree form before you can’t.
If there is such a thing as “The Great American Novel,” I would argue that it is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It captures the themes of the free person on the frontier, with a nod to the racial issues that have been at least an undercurrent (when not front and center) throughout the history of the United States. That makes it not just a great novel written by an American but a novel about America. If not THE Great American Novel, I’d still argue it’s at least the 19th century’s prime candidate. For similar reasons, I’d suggest To Kill a Mockingbird as another contender for GAN – maybe for the twentieth century. (It sure as hell isn’t Catcher in the Rye. That guy was an asshole.)
Misleading title – No ornithocide instructions
If you believe there are other contenders for overall GAN or at least for the 18th or 20th centuries’ winners, I’m open to your nominations. I’m also curious to know if there’s a Great British, Canadian, and/or Australian Novel. With the long history of England/Great Britain, I’d certainly be hard-pressed to narrow it down to a single title. For that you might have to name one per century.
Of course, there are also literary classics translated into English that should be familiar to the culturally literate person. First and foremost, there are certain books of the Christian Bible that even the most devout atheist should read if you want to understand huge swaths of Western civilization – literature, art, and “serious” music at the very least. At a bare minimum, read the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Cain and Abel, you will be hard-pressed to fully appreciate John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Likewise, if you don’t know the story of Job, you’ll give a blank stare to the person who uses the not-uncommon expression “the patience of Job.” (I was once on the receiving end of such a stare from a college student in the dorm where the Rev. GT was a residence hall adviser while he finished his seminary studies. I really didn’t think it was THAT obscure a reference.)
For better or for worse, the translation of the Bible I got for Presbyterian confirmation.
In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, one should read at least one of the Gospels – I believe Mark is the shortest, and it will familiarize you with most of the major events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, who had a rather significant influence on Western civilization, in case you hadn’t noticed. I leave it to others much more deeply educated in the Bible than I to make a case for the relative merits of the other Gospels – and for which of the multitude of Biblical translations they prefer. Likewise, if you believe any of the holy books of any other religions are “required reading” for basic cultural literacy in Western culture, I invite you to make your case.
Which Greek or Latin works from the “classical” period of history are most important, the ones that every reasonably well-educated person should read? One or the other of the big Homer epics seems like a fairly obvious choice, BUT do they belong in the category of prose or poetry? For better or for worse, I don’t recall ever being “fed” many, if any, Classical Latin works in the course of my almost-entirely-public school education, so I can’t say which of those I’d recommend. Likewise what non-English European literary works should be “required reading?” For that matter, are there any from Asia, Africa, or South America?
Poetry
ROAD TRIP!!!
I must confess that I’m not well versed (::guffaws raucously, slaps knee::) enough in poetry to make many recommendations for this subset of literature. Digging back to some of the earliest works recognizable as English, I’d say the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales could be a contender, as would Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 (the “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” one.) A little later but along the same lines, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese 43 (“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”) is certainly one that could come in handy in certain circumstances. I’m not saying it’ll get you laid, but it certainly won’t get you slapped with a drink thrown in your face. Unless you’re trying it on the bouncer.
Emily D., Unwitting Lyricist
On this side of the pond, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” seems a pretty obvious choice, as does Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” I can’t speak to the latter’s historical accuracy, but it’s one that every American child used to read, though probably not so much anymore, as it was written by an old dead white guy about another old dead white guy. I’m personally partial to a couple of Emily Dickinson’s poems, but the most important thing to know about her poetry is that any of them can be sung to the tune of either “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” or “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” (Another favorite of mine in the realm of poetic/musical pairings: with minimal rearranging, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge can be sung to the tune of “The Wabash Cannonball.”)
As we creep closer to “modern” poetry, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” or “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (the “…miles to go before I sleep” one) are some of the newest ones that I would argue have achieved “classic” status.
I suppose one COULD argue that certain oft-repeated limericks might merit inclusion in our Cultural Literacy collection. I will refrain from opining one way or the other on that score, saying only that ideally, one should learn this sort of thing on the streets or in the gutter the way God intended.
Theater
Well, duh!
The most obvious candidate for this category is, of course, William Shakespeare. The culturally literate English-speaking person should at least be familiar with the basic plots of the tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. If any of Willie’s history plays should likewise be included, they would be Henry V (for the “St. Crispin’s Day speech” if nothing else) and/or Richard III (“My kingdom for a horse!”)
I confess I’m less familiar with the comedies, but I’ll just say that the most delightful live production of a Shakespeare play I’ve ever seen was a college theater staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that was given a 60’s vibe – the royal characters were “Establishment” types (with the queen in a pillbox hat that was classic Jackie Kennedy,) the “workmen of Athens” wore hardhats (Bottom had a thick New Yawk accent,) and the young lovers were hippies. (The fairies were…well…fairies and were timelessly ethereal.) There were also Beatles tunes woven throughout, but I won’t elaborate further, not wanting to trigger the Beatlephobes among us. Though I tend to be a bit of a purist about “adapting” creative works, that production made me more open to the possibility of changing the periods and settings of Shakespeare’s plays. It was so delightful that the Rev. GT and I went to see it a second time the very next evening.
So…what other plays, tragic or comic, belong on the “must see (or at least read)” list? Any from classical Greece? I suppose Oedipus Rex could be one. Take your mom to see it. And which ones from the centuries since Shakespeare?
Musical Theater
Mary Freakin’ Martin, bitchezz! (***SIGH!!!*** Larry Hagman’s mom)
Don’t panic. I’ll keep this brief. As much as I love Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, I don’t know if I could plausibly make a case for including them in the “must know or remain an ignorant yahoo” list. Therefore, I’ll jump ahead to those I consider the creators of the greatest musical theater of all time (so far) – Rodgers & Hammerstein. And if you can only bear the thought of sitting through one of their classics, make it South Pacific. Nuthin’ unmanly about that one… unless you count the guy in the coconut bra and the grass skirt. (Besides it’s inherent qualities, South Pacific also inspired the best “knock knock” joke of all time:
“Knock knock?”
“Who’s there?”
“Sam and Janet.”
“Sam and Janet who?”
“Sa-a-a-am and JA-A-A-A-net e-e-e-eveni-i-i-ing…”)
If you’re up for any more after that, go for Oklahoma (which itself inspired the best radio commercial for a record store/head shop ever produced in the greater Dayton, Ohio, area) and, of course, The Sound of Music. The film adaptations of each of these were all excellently done, so you don’t have to wait for your local community theater to stage one of them in order to see one. In fact, depending on your community, you might not want to do that at all.
Meh. Only one memorable (heh!) song.
As for candidates from across the pond, I would take some convincing to include the most obvious one – Andrew Lloyd Webber. As far as I can tell, Cats had only one song worth a damn, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never sat through a full Webber production except Jesus Christ Superstar. I think it’s too soon to tell if his body of work is really going to stand the test of time. Change my mind. Or argue for someone else.
Cinema
Culmination of the best damn shot of the whole film
It was a discussion about a certain American cinema classic that inspired this post, so I’ll just say right off the bat that even if Gone With the Wind is not the greatest American film ever, it’s one that I believe is a staple for American cultural literacy. (As an added bonus, you get to watch Atlanta burn, a pleasure dampened by the disappointing knowledge that neither the Braves nor CNN were there yet.) I’ll also put the first three released Star Wars movies up there. They’ve become embedded in our popular culture. With any luck, they’ll survive Lucas’s and/or Disney’s best efforts to destroy the franchise once and for all.
No, the Little Tramp was NOT Mary Pickford.
Reaching back to the silent era of films, the person who would be culturally literate should have at least a passing familiarity with the “Little Tramp” character of Charlie Chaplin (though Buster Keaton was the better master of the silent medium,) and in the early era of “talkies,” with the Laurel & Hardy comedies. Hunt up some of the classic Marx Brothers bits on your favorite online video purveyor – that’ll probably enhance your appreciation of them more than sitting through the entire silliness of the movies. (Even so, Marx Brothers >>> Three Stooges.) And, of course, familiarity with the classic Abbott & Costello “Who’s On First” sketch is a must, but no, you DON’T have to learn it by heart.
Among other dramatic films, Casablanca certainly merits mention, and Citizen Kane usually shows up on lists of the best of all time. I’ll defer to our resident cinema buffs to nominate the movies they would consider staples – which could also include foreign films IF they are ones that any would-be-culturally-literate English-speaking folks should really know. (Kurosawa, anyone? At least The Seven Samurai for its inspiration of The Magnificent Seven?)
Musical Films (not adapted from the stage)
Proof of its place in pop culture (Fun fact: This image is flipped from the film)
First and foremost is one that came out the same year and had the same director as GWTW – The Wizard of Oz. (Both movies were arguably better than the books on which they were based.) Boomers certainly grew up with this classic being shown on television EVERY FREAKIN’ YEAR, even if many of us weren’t in a position to fully appreciate the dramatic transition from black & white Kansas to Technicolor Oz until rather later in life. (My family didn’t have a color TV until I was in high school.)
She knows how to use them.
I’ll also include Singing in the Rain simply because I think it’s the greatest original musical film ever to come out of Hollywood and is the gold standard of the golden age of Hollywood musicals of the 1930s through the 1950s. In particular, it may have the best dancing ever captured on film, and not necessarily performed by Gene Kelly. (Furthermore, it features in one extended dance number a top contender for Best Legs Ever in a Hollywood Musical. I once heard someone describe them as going “up to her armpits.”)
There are three big, broad categories of culture I think I’ll need to leave for a later installment, both for the sake of expedience (::winces at the crack of Swissy’s whip demanding site content::) and because I’m a bit daunted at the prospect of narrowing them down to the “essentials”:
Television
This category is trickier, as it is youngest medium I’m considering, and I tend to think it may be even more “generational” than music. Maybe a little something from its most popular genres – the “sit com,” the medical drama, the police drama, etc.?
Visual Art
This category, of course, is more universal than literature and long predates language. A bit much to consider along with everything else just now.
Music
This, too, is fairly universal, depending on whether the work has words set to it. It’s also the one I can imagine could inspire the most vehement Glib virtual food fights. I won’t open this can of worms…yet.
So please chime in with your arguments for or against my suggested candidates and/or defend your own nominees in any or all of the categories.
[Note: the featured image on the home page was created by Sandra Boynton, greatest greeting card artist of all time. I bought the card version of the button shown as a graduation gift for my college American Lit instructor when she got her Ph.D.]
*sips tea with pinky out*
*ponders literature*
[belches, scratches crotch, makes Italian gesture of resignation/futility] whatcha gonna do?
American cinema classic: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/3oPwpWYpaEm6hHqA5BZr9G23DIA.jpg
Heh. Good one.
I actually enjoyed the Sunday-school versions of the big stories. I’d be hard-pressed to summon up the interest to read the originals these days. Maybe I should buy a picture Bible.
The Book of Job is so subversive of most Jewish and Christian theology that it is hard to understand how it is part of the canon.
It starts with the name’s pronunciation.
I kept threatening to name my son Job and my wife was not amused.
“Keep your head down and take your lashes”
Religion is about control. Any institution that offers opportunities for power and wealth will draw sociopaths like shit draws flies. Notice that since churches have lost most of their power a very different breed inhabits their halls. Sadly the contemporaries are often painted with a broad brush with the sins of their predecessors.
Speaking of shit drawing flies we really need about a week of rain. It isn’t just especially hot here, it is also droughty. The back yard is filling up with dog shit and thus my kitchen with flies. I need another Salt Gun.
Monsoons failed to show up here in NM. Hoping for a good winter; if not then next summer is going to be hell for wildfires.
Fortunately we had a lot snow but all spring and summer have been the driest that I can remember. My garden is doing well ’cause I have an irrigation well. Nothing to speak of in the 10 day forecast either.
I think two more weeks of drought for OKLATX. Sadly. Super hot and dry. Thankfully I don’t have the dog poop problem.
😧
Bury the dog shit?
I cannot comment on musical films. I’m a dude.
You might want to add 42nd Street, since it’s the movie that really made Busby Berkeley and changed the whole Hollywood musical.
And for legs that go on forever, there’s also Ann Reinking in All That Jazz.
*smashes beer can on forehead*
Exactly.
“Was this discussion over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
But in a more serious vein “Triumph of the Will” is horrifyingly well done and should be in the canon as a warning.
There is a reason Leni Riefenstahl is still analized in film schools, and it sure aint the politics.
😧
She was in Back Door Fräulein’s 5.
I can! “Suck” is a musical masterpiece for the ages.
Keep in mind I wear 3D glasses to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHvA86OUsxk
The Blues Brothers was a musical.
*shakes fist
Damn it.
Blues Brothers?
So
Not
First
I think it still counts as First if you get all bombastic about it.
You know nothing, MikeS.
West Side Story has Rita Moreno and Natalie Wood.
Now there’s a pair I would have cut off my left foot to cavort with.
This guy knows the score!
Quick, for a million dollars*: Who sang Natalie Wood’s songs?
*Offer void where prohibited, including in this post
Also, Ted’S is not eligible to play this one. 😉
The same person who sang for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
::points to Roat, points to own nose:: Also for Deborah Kerr in The King and I.
I can’t recall her name though. I just recall she sang for a lot of lead actresses.
Marni Nixon.
No, I did not have to look that up.
👍🏼👍🏼
👏🏼👏🏼
👏🏼 👏🏼
👏🏼 👏🏼
👏🏼👏🏼 <——–round of applause
(Crap! Applause spacing didn’t work, but you get the idea.)
I like South Park.
The movie was revelatory, but it took me several watches to realize its genius.
Grease?
I like Grease – the stage version more than the film. (How could they leave out “I’m All Alone at the Drive-In Movie”??) I bought the original Broadway cast album before the movie came out simply because one of the founding members of The Manhattan Transfer had played Johnny Casino/Teen Angel.
Pink Floyd’s The Wall is pretty good.
Pssstt… rock opera, not musical.
Hmmm…seems a distinction without a difference.
OK, but if the the ghost of Keith Moon punches you in the balls, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If Moon the Loon came back just to punch me in the balls, I’d insist on that going on my headstone.
You could call me the Punched Balls Wizard.
The judges will accept rock operas, as Jesus Christ, Superstar is usually categorized, as a subset of musical theater.
The only cultural etiquette I need to know is to be First. It is universal.
Television: Star Trek will be immortal.
Good call! Can’t disagree.
::scribbles notes for possible next installment::
I would imagine The Honeymooners and M*A*S*H would be up there too. But, yes, very generational. I suppose Seinfeld or Friends might be to Milennials and GenZ (or whatever) as the former two are to their respective generations.
Both are Gen X, believe it or not.
The Friends actors are all my exact age – mid 50s by now.
Seinfeld, a little older.
I’ve been watching a lot of The Twilight Zone on Pluto, and those stories are timeless, touching on the very nature of humanity. Not like Gunsmoke, Fuck Matt Dillon the statist asshat.
The Twilight Zone is hard to beat.
Agreed.
Serling was a real original.
Surprisingly, I’ve got a good chunk of formal education on many of the works mentioned.
I guess I’ll begrudgingly thank the Order of St. Augustine. OTH, the public portion of my education definitely did better on math, science and to some degree music.
Music would be mostly forced piano lessons at home. I appreciate them, but not the pain and they are hard to recommend. It’s a bit the way I feel about Latin. Useful, but painful.
As for TV, game shows have contributed quite a lot of cultural references.
The snippets Wheel Around the World make that point eloquently and imperially.
Someone dissed Mark Twain in the What Are We Reading post and I have to strongly disagree. Love him or hate him, his was a clever insight into the thinking of the mid-19th century.
I used to tease my kids on road trips whenever we would cross a state line; “Indiana where the wind blows free across the plains”, etc
The appeal of “The Wizard of Oz” decreased for me over time. BTW, the books are depressing as hell.
“An American in Paris” is superior to “Singing in the Rain.”
“Jesus Chris, Superstar” is a guilty pleasure. I often find myself humming tunes from it.
I love, love Busby Berkley musicals.
I’m not a huge Twain fan, but that doesn’t detract from his importance.
Contrast him to Mary Shelley. I just looked up other works and she wrote a bunch of well received biographies in period, but that’s not what she is known for writing.
“Jesus Chris, Superstar” is a good story very well told.
My husband was taking a pic of me with Marc Martel at the hotel after Martel’s concert. He’s not a huge star so it was nice and casual.
A man standing behind my husband offered to take a pic of all three of us. My husband turned around and blurted out “You’re Ted Neeley!” Ted acknowledged that and they ended up chatting for an hour.
Husband (now ex) told me later he’d almost said “You’re Jesus Christ!”
Heh. He was awesome in that.
Pics, or it didn!-oh, right….
/sorry; couldn’t resist
JCS has some great tunes that I find myself humming every so often as well. The cinematography was first rate for the day as well.
See Carl Anderson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlOxUcTcUH0
I would think The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Dante’s Divine Comedy are older classics that are immortal and had a big influence on modern culture in America.
They were written by white dudes a hundred years ago.
Funny how real white people considered them rather swarthy.
Like Nixon?
Dante is work, but well it. “The 12 Ceasars” is good for both history and for a study of political propaganda.
“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius belongs on the last as well.
Thanks, forgot about Dante! Fun fact, we used Ciardi’s translation of the Commedia in HS. John Ciardi himself addressed my incoming Freshman class at Rutgers. Didn’t help, I
flunkeddropped out in short order.Not in the original English.
Ideas shape culture, culture shapes individual character. What troubles me is that collectivists are trying to force that formula backwards to extinguish our most basic ideas. That is what their culture war is about and I am concerned because they have made more progress that I ever would have thought they could. They are playing on weaknesses in human nature.
I am sure that Khrushchev Is yuking it up in hell.
Well, math is racist now.
Oh, my.
As far as music goes, and restricting myself to specifically American music (by composer, or in one case, subject matter drawn from travels here), I would say at least:
Charles Ives, Variations on America. Especially the final variation, which the 16 year old (!!!) Ives claimed was almost as much fun to play as baseball
Aaron Copeland, Appalachian Spring. *possibly* other works
Anton Dvorak, The New World Symphony
One or two pieces by Philip Glass — possibly the Knee Plays from Einstein on the Beach and one of his soundtracks, for which I’d suggest Mishima or The Secret Agent
Doubtlessly, there’s much much more, but those would be a useful core.
I’ll weigh in again in the early morning.
He and ELP got along as well as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan.
Fanfare
Jimi
I linked “Fanfare for the Common Man” a couple of days ago when I was being morose.
Right there with you re: Copland. I think Mojeaux mentioned “Fanfare for the Common Man” in another thread within the last day or two. I’d also include “Rodeo,” which technically throws a ballet into the mix. ::guys frantically smash more beer cans on foreheads::
You’ve reminded me of an anecdote from my “past life” with the Rev. GT: Once at a district church conference, held in a state park lodge, IIRC, someone realized we hadn’t made arrangements for an accompanist for hymns during the Sunday morning service (though there was a piano available.) Someone tracked down a pianist just in time, but one minister in the congregation, with a strong singing voice, didn’t notice her presence and started vocally leading the hymn in one key while the pianist started playing it in another. It…didn’t end well. Or begin well or work in any way at any point.
After the ordeal was over, another minister sitting next to me leaned over and whispered to me, “That was the Charles Ives arrangement.”
Oh, do give the Variations on America a listen. E. power Biggs for preference. The final variation is played on the pedals and is quite spectacular.
Found and bookmarked! Thanks, and good morning, Shirley!
For poetry, while I am tempted to say that everyone should know Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tinturn Abby and much else of the Lake School, and of course Byron and Shelley (both man and wife) of the Demonic School, not to mention Blake (Cruelty has a Human Heart), I do think they are sadly forgotten these days. Ogden Nash, maybe? The form is pretty dead at this point. Wilfred Owen has a sa
Dr Stranglove needs to be included, and as far as Kurosawa, RAN is essential. And for novels, the Great Gatsby. Huck Finn, and any Twain for that matter, don’t really do much for the day and time, and Melville just irritates people now.
Poetry doesn’t work for me, but set it to music and I’ve no issues.
I’ll pick Seven Samurai for my Kurosawa.
He stole that. Come to think of it most of his work was stolen and masterfully reproduced for a different culture. That it fit so well is evidence that the ideas of a small minority (civilized people) are nearly universal.
Yup. But the way he wove the end of the samurai era into it makes it for me.
OTH, I like Fistful of Dollars over Yojimbo.
I agree with adding “Dr Strangelove”. The Cold War 1.0 shaped the West for half a century and it is still echoing down the halls today.
I like Fistful of Dollars over Yojimbo
You shut your whore mouth!
Ran
Which is just King Lear, but better.
Seven Samurai is borrowed from Seven Against Thebes. Ran from Shakespeare.
For Kurosawa, I’ll go with Rashomon.
And Yojimbo borrowed from Red Harvest.
Good choice Rashomon.
I suppose with a limited number of stories and a limited number of characters it is plagiarism all the way down.
Me neither unless it’s Poe.
Only poetry that ever connected.
OK, also William Carlos Williams for some reason I don’t get.
Really good poetry is like hen’s teeth but you know it when you see it.
Some of your references I sort of remembered from long, long ago. To this day if I hold my hand vertically in front of my nose my daughter will do a Three Stooges gesture and a “Yuk-yuk-yuk.”
Some of y’all are cultural sophisticates but I don’t know if knowing how to skin a bullhead qualifies me. I’ll look in through the window. I’m in doubt that many of the younger generations are being exposed to much literature or old time movies, unless it’s on their telephones.
Dare you to go up against my brother. No knife, no skinning pliers. He twists the head, bends it backwards and pulls….zip… its is skinned. I really need to get him to show me again h ow to do that.
I have lurked a while and meant to reply to your comment about black bees. If a hive is subjected to predatory stress the offspring of the queen hatched there will be nearly all black. As my grandfather said “When we went to get honey we knew better that fool with those little black ones”. Stress creates more guard bees to counter threats and thus ups their aggressiveness.
You can fix it with a water sprinkler on a timer.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/science/why-puerto-ricos-killer-bees-stopped-killing/
Same thing happened in Costa Rica and other places with frequent rain.
Robber bees. I put a bee way in the door, I think it slowed the Robbers down but the foragers are busy trying to guard. It’s definitely hurting honey production.
At my partner’s property I got stung about a dozen times Saturday, on the face and neck, they got inside my veil and caused me to run, er, limp as fast as I could. I ordered a new veil. His bees were really wild but productive. I’m glad we’re full partners.
I dont know why but they dont sting me. My smell? Mannerisms? I feed them? I am not sure. If I go out in the yard and they are out of food they start nagging me like stray dogs….lighting on my face and hands,,,,”Hey! Hey! We are out of food!”
Sorry you were stung.
When I was three years old my other noticed I was missing. She discovered me in the yard covered in bees, not one sting. It must be my smell. I think I have been stung three times in my life because I put my hands on a bee not knowing it was there.
Watched a few lately and I’ll be damned if it isn’t brillianter than I remember as a kid.
Niagara Falls!
Totally outside my wheelhouse but I now remember that is the name of the fish we caught in upstate NY one day when I was a kid that I liked. All I remembered was “catfish” but no, this was the actual name of the thing.
You can’t really understand how modern America actually functions without watching Kubrick’s films.
Thanks! Can you recommend a top three for starters?
Given the times A Clockwork Orange of course.
After that I’d pick 2001, but beware the trippy end…
I call those those two Kubrick’s magic mushroom movies.
I wouldn’t have picked Clockwork until living through de Blassio in NYC and Biden.
I can see that.
I feel like if someone could merge A Clockwork Orange with Brave New World, we’d have the perfect allegory for today.
With a sprinkling of 1984.
Dr Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket
Eyes Wide Shut
The first is the blackest humor but the last is probably the most disturbing.
Does the second half of Full Metal work as well as the first for you?
I never read the novel.
I just treat it as two separate films.
The first half is more memorable but the second a more subtle commentary.
The second half is Most Number 1!! Seriously, the first half, boot camp, does what it is supposed to do; numb you to the field of war, culminating in the execution of a child.
Excellent choices Scruffy. Eyes gets more and more thoughtful as I grow older, while FMJ speaks to the numbing process of war like no other.
Dr Strangelove is in a class by itself.
Eyes was just titillating to me when I first saw it. I rewatched it recently and was truly bothered by it.
Eyes Wide Shut is a completely different movie if you see it first as a single person, then as a married person. VERY trippy.
To be fair, I have seen a commie drink a glass of water.
Literature:
Huck Finn – check
To Kill A Mockingbird – check
Hates Catcher In the Rye – check, I think. I was probably the only one in my graduating class of 210 who avoided reading that in HS. Got a B+ on the paper.
Bible stuff – check.
Classics – 3 years of Latin: Caesar’s Gallic Wars (drivel), Jason and the Argonauts (better), Cicero’s Catalinian Orations (excellent, should have stuck around for year 4 where the Phillipics were covered). Odyssey was covered in 3rd year English (?)
Not a dramatic theater dude. Shakespeare – not my strong suit. King Lear is my fave, I totally get a demented old man railing against the gods.
Musical theater:
Love Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oklahoma! is probably my favorite of theirs, but favorite performance goes to Shirley Jones. Favorite musicals are Guys and Dolls and West Side Story. Honorable mention to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying since Mrs. Patzer and I caught this on a fine Sunday afternoon one January while this was going on outside, stranding us in Manhattan for two days.
Cinema:
Marx Bros!!! Also, The (original) Producers with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. A must in the era of literal Hitler. As for drama, I’m partial to Days of Wine and Roses for personal reasons, but not really a cultural must. If we’re talking about American culture, then Westerns. Shane. Tombstone.
Nice write-up, GT. thanks!
I hope the Marx Brothers are immortal. Not looking so good right now. Younger generations don’t know them.
“I would never join a club that would have me.”
Younger generations have not been exposed to that mentality and it shows.
Teach your children well!!! (No, I’m not going to link to the song.)
Thank YOU, ‘patzie!
Re: the Shirley Jones performance you linked – Darned if I could remember what show it was from, so I had to look it up: State Fair, which I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen but which is apparently the only R&H musical written directly for film. My personal favorite musical, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly before, is R&H’s Cinderella which was written directly for TV.
I like Caesar’s Gallic Wars.
Then again, I’m a history buff and read it more for the window to the past (even if it was Roman propaganda) than for literary value.
If you enjoy podcasts, Dan Carlin has a really good one covering this topic.
https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-60-the-celtic-holocaust/
(It sure as hell isn’t Catcher in the Rye. That guy was an asshole.)
🙂
Which Greek or Latin works from the “classical” period of history are most important, the ones that every reasonably well-educated person should read?
Catullus 16.
Or for a serious answer, Illiad, Odyssey, The Aeneid, and Aurelius’ “Meditations”.
Nero’s “Meditations On A Mostly Peaceful Decline”
Oh wait, that’s DC’s favorite…
hah!
On this side of the pond, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” seems a pretty obvious choice
Yes.
For the Brit side, I agree with Chaucer. Also, “Beowulf”.
With Beowulf you are going to get into how modern you’d like the translation.
It never worked for me. Perhaps too close to poetry.
AGHHH! I lost my copy of Beowulf that had on the left side English and on the right Side of the pages in old English. Dammit.
That was probably the Seamus Heaney translation, very popular about 25 or so years back.
My next cross stitch project.
🙂
😲
In high school we were required to memorize and recite the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales IN MIDDLE ENGLISH.
I still have brain cells devoted to storing that knowledge. Weird how things we learn early can become so engrained.
Brit Lit prof in college recited it for us in Middle English, which I found delightfully lilting. Beat hell out of when he recited the opening to Beowulf in the original Old English, which I thought sounded like a Viking choking on a ox bone.
there’s a history of the English language podcast that gets into that a lot
I find the guy’s writing style annoying: he clarifies everything by re-stating which is well-intentioned, but about the hundredth time I’m hit with one of his needless tautologies the diastolic starts to rise
The culturally literate English-speaking person should at least be familiar with the basic plots of the tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet.
My English literature teacher in high school hated “Hamlet”, so we covered “MacBeth” instead. We also covered “The Merchant of Venice”, “Julius Caesar”, and “The Tempest” in high school.
Somewhere I have a complete works of William Shakespeare.
I’ll also put the first three released Star Wars movies up there.
🙂
GT not only classed up the joint, I the she got our family friendly rating back.
*hands beer to Chafed
It’s up to me to undo that!
https://archive.is/qidNi
Movie, I’m going to say the Godfather.
Musical Theater: Fiddler on the roof. Also Les Misérables
TV is hard. Not only is it new it’s a disposable medium in many ways. I’m trying to think of the oldest shows that are still watched today.
In addition to Star Trek I’ll add MASH.
Poetry. I’ve always enjoyed Lord Byron. I would also add Kipling.
Literature: The basis of just about every Western trope. The Virginian.
Movies:
Best Pictures from the 70s.
Patton (1970)
The French Connection (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Sting (1973)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Rocky (1976)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Kramer vs Kramer was the weakest of the bunch. Otherwise, every one of those is a standout.
The Godfather II is the weirdest misspelling of Chinatown I’ve ever seen. Still a great movie though.
Chinatown is the great Los Angeles movie.
It’s an even weirder misspelling of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
Patton is the best of the lot, but is truly awful and suffer from 70s-ism throughout. The rest are forgettable garbage. The 70’s was the low point of Hollywood until the modern era.
Deliverance
No MASH tv show. No.
I can’t believe we’re not talking about Jules Verne or William Hope Hodgson in regards to literature.
Almosy no one (maybe Sugerfree) has read Hodgeson at this time. Truly lost to time.
I never saw the appeal of The Godfather. I felt that it could have been cut by at least a half an hour.
Fiddler totally reversed my dislike of musicals: “People don’t just break into songs!” In Fiddler they *do* just break out in songs.
Alan Alda ruined MASH. The movie was good, but hasn’t held up well. The TV series was OK for the first season, then plunged into the hell of woke.
Kipling FTW.
Western: Louis LaMour. (mike drop)
Speaking of an education Louis L’amour’s memoir “Education of a Wandering Man” is very good.
+1
Louis is overlooked because of his pulp fiction Western writing, but he has a number of novels that I think would surprise skeptics. Last of the Breed, Haunted Mesa, and Jubal Sacket are three that jump to mind.
I pretty much hated reading Shakespeare in high school. It’s not the greatest environment to be introduced to the bard.
My real exposure came through movies that were coming right around the same time I was able to rent (and later buy) a VHS tape player.
So, here is my list of influential literature/films.
I basically saw these two flicks back to back on VHS tape:
Hamlet (1990) Gibson
Rosenkranz and Gilderstern Are Dead (1990) Roth/Oldman {yes it’s not actually Shakespeare}
These all came later:
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996)
Henry V (1989) Branaugh
Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Branaugh
Hamlet (1996) Branaugh
The Merchant of Venice (2004) Pacino/Irons
I just don’t appreciate (ok, “like”) the format. I cannot read Shakespeare – there, I said it.
I like novels.
To counterbalance this excellent high-brow article, I have a sufficiently proletariat, low-brow question to ask the Glibertariat. F-150: 2.7 Twin Turbo Gas or 3.0 Turbo Diesel?
Turbo Diesel.
Although that is still too small for real work in an F150.
Turbo diesel.
Surprisingly more stout than I ever expected. But wet belt drives the oil pump.
2018 Ford F150 2.7L Ecoboost Teardown. Engine Failure at 96K Miles!?
Also port and direct injected. Bottom end is much stouter than I thought. If I wasn’t really hauling frequently give modern diesels awful emissions systems I might consider it.
Honestly, I’d be more comfortable with the new Tundra hybrid.
No twin turbos, that’s just asking for disaster. A turbo diesel can be fine, but I’m suspicious of the block size for what I’m certain is a huge up charge.
Toyota makes the best hybrids, but this is their first year with such a big system.
Relevant follow on:
2.7 – 325 HP, 400 ft-lb torque
3.0 – 250 HP, 420 ft-lb torque
Torque matters for work. HP matters for quickness.
I think Tundra has about three years on the 2.7 by now
but why not just stick to the tried and true and simple 5.0 ?
I recently downgraded to a 5.3: the torque I had 20 years ago with a 6.0 but 20MPG around town; very much a prettyboy sunday-go-to-meeting truck but surprisingly solid
It’s not GAN because it is too fixed on the arc of the 20th century, so I won’t restate my love of Catch-22 beyond this: it argues that America was becoming through bureaucracy and centralized power much dumber and much less able than we could ever be as individuals. It seemed silly at the time, but yet here we are: inches from where he told us all those decades ago we would land.
It’s a very, very busy book, too busy for many reasonable people. One of the many tangents he explores was the plight of Native Americans in the figure of Chief White Halfoat [from wiki:] An American Indian whose family was forced to move from wherever they settled because oil was always discovered. He is transferred to Pianosa (Island air corps base) after Wintergreen strikes an oil pipe and nearly drowns. In the army, he works as Captain Black’s assistant. He jokingly threatens to slit Captain Flume’s throat while he sleeps, which accidentally drives Flume to paranoid madness. After this, he becomes Doc Daneeka’s tent mate and terrorizes him as well. During the Siege of Bologna, he decides that he will eventually die of pneumonia, which he ultimately does. This same subject comes out this year in a movie based on Killers of the Flower Moon.
And now for something completely different.. but still in English. Indian film “Monsoon Wedding”.
Excellent film, so much packed into one movie.
“Likewise what non-English European literary works should be “required reading?””
I wouldn’t say an English translation of Don Quixote is required reading, but a good case could be made that Cervantes invented the novel.
Moby Dick is the GAN. It features a man with a spear, which is the most human thing on a primal level. Yet, goes on this Aristotelian tangent about the classification of whales. The duality of man.
Poe was very influential. Horror movies are a huge part of American culture. So is Halloween, and it’s implausible that it was the Irish bringing Samhain to the U.S. (Although, Bram Stoker pretty much came up with the whole vampire thing.)
similar notion: who wrote the best novels in English though English was his second language
I submit Nabakov and Conrad
Never read Nabakov. Heart of Darkness is OK.
Ayn Rand sucks ass.
read Pnin before Lolita
Dr Polidari was a little earlier with the Vampyr. He was a Byron hanger-on.
Greek myths are necessary to understand many references through at least 2500 years of Western literature and song.
I don’t know that there’s one definitive anthology, but everyone should know Icarus, Narcissus, the Minotaur, Jason and the argonauts, etc.
I seem to recall that Edith Hamilton’s Mythology once seemed to be considered a pretty definitive source, but I don’t know if any more recent works have surpassed it.
I might be alone in this one, but The Scarlet Letter has a place on the must read shelf.
Apropos of nothing except the Nathaniel Hawthorne connection, my favorite biography is The Peabody Sisters. They rubbed shoulders with so many of the New England literary luminaries, including Emerson and the other Transcendentalists. One sister married Horace Mann, another married Hawthorne. I find I like “multiple” biographies of siblings, couples, etc., and this really explored the three sisters’ lifelong relationship.
It’s niche, but I like “Heavy Metal”, but I was also a fan of the magazine.
The South Park homage is amazing.
Is that the one with Kenny sniffing cat farts?
That it is.
It captured the original expertly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZl347vlnig
sorta NSFW
Man, haven’t had time to listen to the whole thing yet, but right out of the gate on his ep today he has a great tax rant.
Admittedly preaching to the choir but he’s hopefully reaching a few new folks.
https://youtu.be/l4nStD00WAU
Rolls right into the deception of the antigunners and the language they use.
LOL I love live TV. Camera is focused on an attractive chick in the audience at a soccer match in Chicago – who then gives, vigorously, the finger to her companion.
You know, FOX turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually, I didn’t even notice.
-Marge Simpson
Watching “Jeopardy”, I’m frequently shocked with the sometimes 60 year past stuff that my mind can dredge up. And equally shocked by how many times none of the three contestants can correctly answer what I consider something that any educated person should know.
something that any educated person should know
I know the feeling; you should report those here: I’m quite intrigued
Must be posted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEghu90QJH4
NewWife saw this for the first time yesterday
Those guys should be immortal classics.
Being reminded that SNL used to be improprietous and funny makes me sad.
SNL peaked around the time that Eddie Murphy taught Stevie Wonder how to do a Stevie Wonder impression.
Jane, you ignorant slut.
👏🏻👏🏻
Some others to consider.
History that reads like an epic novel: Shelby Foote’s three volumes on the Civil War. If that is too much of a lift just read “The Stars in Their Courses” which is one chapter but has been published separately and covers the Gettysburg campaign. Foote is correct in the Civil War fundamentally changed America, unfortunately the change continued and Bussh II and Obama have much to answer for.
Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire”. It has inspired thousands to visit the Colorado Plateau which for many is the American West. Lyrical and descriptive even the author described is as an eulogy and recommended the reader to pry themselves out of their cars and look.
Film: “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” on the closing of the west. Ford’s “Cavalry Trilogy” of films is classic Americana as well.
Mr Foote was tiny and walked by office pretty much every day of 1990. I only met him properly once. His phone was listed, and he was famously patient with the deluge of idiots who called him. Speaking of which, he tells a great story of going to call on Faulkner unannounced….but he took whiskey.
Don, have you ever read the book A Summons to Memphis, by Peter Taylor? If not, you might enjoy it.
Or not.
I own it but have not read it in 30 years
Taylor grew up just into the next county from me
I am a huge fan of Eastwood. Unforgiven is on my list of top 5. Forget about those monkey movies.
As for Beowulf it illustrates a timeless truth.
Sooner or later the dragon shows up at the gate. You nut-up, suit up, grab a spear and ride out to meet the dragon. 99 times out of 100 you will look around and find yourself alone.
even the most devout atheist should read if you want to understand huge swaths of Western civilization
Hard disagree. The Bible, as shitty a novel as it is, is so engrained in Western Civ that one can know all the references with out going through the burden of reading it. I have never made it past Genesis and I know what “the patience of Job’ means. Same with Shakespeare and many other classics. One can know the story or the point of a work without actually reading it, you just shouldn’t pass judgment on it as if you had (other than the Bible you can say it sucks even if you’ve only read part of the first book). This reminds me of the “you have to read Latin to know what Plato, Aristotle, et al meant” argument from a while back. It’s possible to study the lessons of the classics with going to the source, in fact I’d wager that’s how most of us internalize most of our learning.
Goalposts. Moved.
Jesus Christ, okay you don’t even need to read certain parts of the Bible to catch the gist of it and through cultural osmosis your gonna know a lot opf it even if you don’t know where it’s from
No, asshat. You may get a reference, or what someone else means when they bring something up generally speaking. It does not mean you actually know the meaning of the story, especially in detail. There are often times a multitude of potential interpretations to any story and instead of having your own opinion, you are taking the general consensus of others.
That’s all well and good. You do you, but it’s definitely comical given recent events and it’s especially funny because you are talking about some of the most famous literary works in the Western tradition but thought it was ridiculous to form opinions of Indiana Jones fucking 5 based off a consensus that it fucking blew.
And how does one actually knowing the ‘meaning of a story’? You can read it and I can read it and we both can come to different conclusions, so reading it yourself is useless as a measure of understanding what the story means in regard to the ‘cultural understanding’ (for lack of a better term) or the story. When some one says “the Patience of Job” there are relying on the listener knowing the ‘accepted’ understanding of the term one does not have to have read the original text in Sanskrit to know what that is. You Jackass.
Why, that’s almost as if that was the entire point I was making!
Now here we are at your usual schtick where you latch onto some phrase and try to twist things to argue past someone else. you didn’t use the phrase cultural understanding in your post above. You went on a rant about how you can get a superficial cultural reference someone may make based on second hand knowledge of a story. Which is a far cry from what you actually quoted:
The quote was about understanding Western civilization. Kind of knowing what some asshat is referring to when they say the patience of Job, as Zwak said below, and it’s meaning in the Western tradition is a very different thing. A far more complex thing that requires knowledge of history before, during, and after a story was written as well as the story itself. And your own interpretation is a part of that and as you admit above, you can read the same story and come to very different conclusions.
You tried to shift the goalposts and as usual, you failed. Your semantic games are tiresome and stupid. You aren’t good at it. You suck.
What’s tiresome is you resorting to the “semantics” cop out anytime I try to clarify the point I’m making that you don’t seem to grasp. It’s okay to admit you’re confused, just ask me to explain what you don’t understand and I’ll try again using smaller words.
Any asshole can read what you actually wrote.
See, if someone is going to play the game you do (in every argument you engage in around here with everyone), you damn well better be precise with the language you do use. Which you aren’t. And if everyone is apparently constantly misinterpreting what it is you are trying to say, then you should probably take a hint that it’s something to do with you and not them.
But you being the mendacious cunt that you are, it’s kind of obvious what you are actually doing when you engage in this.
Remember that this is the guy who devoted a front page article to attacking me because I dared to judge Indiana Jones 5 without actually watching that crap.
To put it succinctly, he’s a god damn bum.
Fuck you, die in a fire.
Run and hide again, you imbecile.
I take that back, that was said in anger and I apologize, I want you to live a long life with chronic sciatic nerve pain.
I am going to disagree. To really understand something, both its context and meaning, you need to grasp it in it’s actual place and time, thought and language. Otherwise, you are just reciting it, at best, or panotmiming it more likely. Do any of the people who say “patience of Job” really grasp what it means, why he had that patience, and what it truly said about him and the world he inhabited? I rather doubt that, and most think of it when standing in line at the supermarket, or waiting for Grubhub to show up.
“This reminds me of the “you have to read Latin to know what Plato, Aristotle, et al meant” argument from a while back”
Latin?
*snort*
I took Latin in 12th grade because I’m a language nut and I was out of requirements.
My god if only Greek was available.
I don’t think it’s possible to declare one book The Great American Novel. There are too many genres and niches.
I also contend there is no such thing as “Non-genre fiction”.
Agreed, and I only read “genre fiction”.
When I come across something that is not ascribed to a “genre”, I mentally put it in a genre that doesn’t have a name but which kind of bores me.
I’ve always hated the term genre movie for that very reason.
That reminds me – I wanted to ask this crowd, as I’m less familiar with these genres, which Science Fiction and Fantasy titles they’d consider basic to “cultural literacy” as I’m using the term, Sean mentioned Jules Verne, who was certainly a pioneer of Science Fiction. Who else, and which specific books?
Orwell: 1984 and Animal Farm
Huxley: Brave New World
Bradbury: Fahrenheit 459
All have frequent cultural references to this day
451, dammit
Inflation.
Rule 34. Fahrenheit 69. Sexy firemen burn naughty books in a frenzy of fascism!
I’d buy that for a dollar.
451, 459…
“Man, is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here?”
Phillip K Dick: UBIK, Three Stigmata of Palmer Erdrich, Do Androids Dream…, A Scanner Darkly, etc.
(Also, his non-SF novels such as Confessions of a Crap Artist are wonderful.)
Ubik and Scanner Darkly are awesome but… I don’t think they fit the criteria. Nobody knows them, for starters.
I think Stranger in a Strange Land is the best selling science fiction novel. It was insanely popular. Oddly, it was never made into a movie.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was also very influential. Tarzan was made into everything.
H. G. Wells — War of the Worlds, if you want a specific story.
Tolkien, which inspired all Dungeons & Dragons and all these video games.
Another huge area of cultural literacy is comic books. Who doesn’t know what “kryptonite”does?
Also comic strips. Weren’t there a couple dozen Blondie movies? Who hasn’t seen A Charlie Brown Christmas? Or doesn’t know Garfield likes lasagna? Popeye. Dick Tracy. etc.
Some of those are more American than Western. How wide must the influence be? The European author of the book I’m listening to was making Asterix references I didn’t get.
As an American who’s never traveled more than a few miles out of the U.S., I felt I should focus on American culture, but include the non-American works that most strongly influence our culture. (I wouldn’t get Asterix references either, so I suspect that’s more of a European thing.)
I wish some of our Canadian Glibs were about (I’m sure Rufus is working,) and I hope Pie shows up at some point to add some non-American perspective.
Tolkien is a good choice. Basically invented the modern “fantasy” genre.
Strongly disagree with “Stranger in a Strange Land”. First, it’s terrible. Second, it gave us the word “grok” but meh, that’s not enough.
Read Stranger in a Strange Land as assigned reading my senior year of HS. Not a bad suggestion.
I knew someone would mention Tolkien. 😕
Good point about comic books and comic strips! (Case in point: “Dagwood sandwiches.”)
Also, #@%&*!!!
Poetry. I like Richard Shelton, but I guess the “Aeneid” would qualify as well.
Since “The Blues Brothers” and “Fiddler” were both already mentioned (I agree with both) I will nominate “Monty Python’s Meaning of Life” since it features both the “Galaxy Song” and “Every Sperm is Sacred”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Dm7sQ1C1E
It calms me.
::lights Tres signal, but not for the usual reason:: Hey, homey – wherever you are, I included the link to the Oklahoma-inspired radio commercial to give you a little
tastesound of home as you travel far and wide for the new gig! (But really because I love it myself!)Laurence of Arabia, fight me,
I’d be wary of challenging him to any sort of battle against me, but hey – if you think you can take him…
Music movie that wasn’t a musical- “The Last Waltz” by The Band and various guest.
For TV I’d say All in the Family in spite of Rob Reiner.
My TV vote is I Love Lucy.
I can’t think of anything more iconic.
I can’t think of two episodes.
Vetavitavegamin … and oh how do I loathe that TV show.
I don’t get that reference. The only episode that I can think of was the Pie Factory.
What I never got is that he has a Cuban accent when he speaks English, but doesn’t have a Santiago accent when he speaks Spanish.
I caught five minutes for the first time in decades last week
I was surprised that Archie makes more than a few cogent points
they are never answered: they are ignored
All in the Family (the American version) was conceived as a vehicle for Meathead’s liberal platitudes.
They didn’t count on Archie’s popularity.
why not make Meathead sympathetic, like a youth minister or social worker
leaching off your FIL pulls the rug right out from under yourself
I suspect it’s the same blindness that infests ideological characters today. “The character agrees with me, of course the audience will connect to them!”
Was Meathead even employed? I don’t recall if he made any contribution to the household.
Of course he was an academian.
Meathead was obnoxious, Archie was relatable.
Well, he was a meathead.
The Wire, in spite of David Simon.
That right there is the best explanation of modern American politics and business.
Nice work GT. Looks very good to me and not sure where to add right now. Should be asleep to get up early for tomorrow.
Maybe I’d break it up into a different approaches- classical learned man, modern pop culture. Or by audience: roadmap for a child, adult wishing to broaden their horizons, etc.
Sneaking this in while GT isn’t looking. Re: Musical theater. I think “West Side Story” must be included. And as far as Willie the Shaker is concerned, the first person that mentions “Coriolanus” gets a biff in the kisser and will be forced to translate it from Latin to French without the benefit of the English original. I suffered through it for nine solid months, why shouldn’t you?
What if we don’t know either Latin or French?
Ask to be excused to go to the restroom, then pull the fire alarm to get out of class.
If you get a chance, ask Grosspatzer (“‘patzie”) about his family’s real life West Side Story story.
I agree that WSS deserves a place of honor in the…canon? (For the record: many years after the fact, Stephen Sondheim apologized for the lyric “Today the world was just an address…”)
I have come to the conclusion that the American media’s historical literacy has always been shit. I’ve been listening to the 1940s Superman radio show, and in one story arc they referred to Thomas Jefferson as ‘the writer of the writer of the Bill of Rights’ multiple times.
“The writer of the writer”?
Yes, the announcer stammered, or I’ve been drinking, whichever one fits the narrative better.
I’ll go with both.
A solid bet.
Maybe they were just feeling their inner Wonka*
*not a euphemism
It is amazing how little some things change. In one story arc they are going to get rid of that grifting mayor who lets slums and tenements exist in the city and create ‘affordable housing’, then a few story arcs later they are battling crooked real estate crooks taking advantage of the housing shortage…
Aww, dangit–I missed Toxteth’s greetings last night.
Well, if you happen to show up late for this: I’m OK, but, (oddly enough) somewhat dizzy/of-balance for a couple of days. Can’t quite figure out why. I hope you’re doing better than that. 🙂
Good morning peeps!
😋
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kctwd4w7R0
🎶🎶
Yeah, it’s a bit cheesy, but I don’t care.
Good morning, Sean and lurkers! (Already greeted Shirley upthread.)
I stayed up too late reading comments on this. Hope I don’t have to do anything requiring mental fitness today. 🥱
Oh, crap, I have to write up the minutes of the last five minutes of one meeting, then actually attend and take notes for minutes on another.
Morning.
Good morning, U! How are you today?
I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep during prime sleeping hours.
I did have some from yesterday afternoon. Maybe the sum will be enough.
🤜🏼🤛🏼
Wonder Twins?
I need SOMETHING to activate my powers. The caffeine isn’t doing it yet.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/philly-area-parking-director-stole-meter-money-da-claims/ar-AA1eBXFr
Wrecking your life over pocket change. #Democrat
Morning GT. Really good post, really good comments!
Thank you, Shirley! Tickled to have you here and to get your thoughts on the subject! 😃
I’m glad you found the Biggs Ives, keep in mind it was written by a 16 year old.
I”m not generally a fan of his work, but I admire the hell out of his work ethic. He composed while earning a living in the insurance business.
Much like
Philip Glass, whose work I deeply love, took a similar course until he started making bank on film soundtracks and commissions. Very matter of fact about it, he drove a cab in NYC, among other jobs.
His autobiography, Words Without Music, is a great read.
Morning everyone. Here’s another reason the French are freaking the fuck out over Niger.
https://twitter.com/RiefqiMuna/status/1685679680341581824
We’re ruled by unethical, thieving morons.
Given how much illegal tapping of pipelines goes on in Nigeria, I’m not convinced that pipeline would get a single cubic meter of gas all the way to the end. It’ll be so full of holes it’ll be down more than it’ll be operating.
Mornin’, reprobates!
Spotless white late-model Mercedes pulls up in front of my house at 7AM. Dude must be lost or something. Wait… he gets out with a package in hand and walks up to the front door. “Heer. Sign thees”.
Amazon delivery at 7AM? Latino delivery guy in a $60K ride? I need to have a chat with Mrs. Patzer.
It’s either cocaine or precolombian antiquities.
Good morning, ‘patzie!
Extra credit if it was a low rider.
🕺🕺🕺
::lights 4(20) signal::
Sweet!
Silly GT, Bees signal through dance.
💃🏼
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey! Did you find the link above for one of our hometown’s most beloved commercials??
Perhaps I shouldn’t be, but I’m a bit surprised at the preponderance of ancient Roman writers and the absence (unless I missed it) of the Greeks (yes, yes, Plato and Aristotle). Yes America has always wanted to be a certain idealized fiction of a brief moment in Rome’s history, while doing its best to follow Rome’s trajectory to its bloody end, but the Greeks, especially the Athenians, taught Rome much. Xenophon, at least, should be on the list, and I’d argue Thucydides as well.
1: More Roman sources survive than Greek.
1a: There were more Roman sources to begin with.
1b: The Romans were more recent.
2: Greek is a more distant language to English, due to the injection from French due to Billy the Bastard.
2a: More Western scholars studied Latin over the years, so read more Roman sources
Interesting factoid: Julius Caesar is nearer in time to us than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
I’d be more entertained if you people made stuff up.
Interesting factoid – Narmer unified Egypt only about 500 years before the great pyramid was built. So Egypt had the Giza pyramids for 2500 of 3000 years between unification and Roman conquest.
As if Upper and Lower Egypt were non-entities prior to Narmer’s unification. The Great Pyramid was presaged by a number of earlier monuments, all the way back to step pyramids (which the Aztecs and Mayans never got beyond).
The documentation gets extra spotty in the predynastic period.
And we could go into the history of Djoser, Imhotep, and Sneferu, who really did advance Egyption pyramid construction more than the Giza builds in terms of innovation and development.
Xenophon and the March of the ten thousand remains a classic, despite your points. As much for showing how war for the grunts remains unchanged after all the centuries that have past as for anything else. He was notable for much else besides, as a quick web search shows.
I tried to read that, and found myself wishing for an ahistorical slaughter of the greeks by the point Cyrus died and just abandoned it sometime after they fought some armenians.
Neighbors diagonally across the street had two large trees come down in a thunderstorm this past Friday night, perilously close to but miraculously missing their house and anything else of value. This morning, the woodchipper is here! 😃🥳