Picked up a book on conductor Otto Klemperer, “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett, a book about the Norman Conquest (because I study Old French), a book about Medieval society, and Plato’s “Gorgias”.
how the fuck did all of those renaissance dilettantes learn so much crap? Like they spoke 3 languages and were foremost in several branches of science, plus they wrote poetry, played the violin, and were master artists? And they still had time to be gay?
none of them ever did any laundry at all
The emotional and physical labor necessary to maintain the lifestyles of Renaissance and Enlightenment polymaths was shunted almost entirely to their uncredited servants, slaves, wives, and daughters.
Whenever we compare ourselves to the ‘genius men’ of the past, and wonder why we fall so short, remember this: their intellectual capacity, energy, and freedom was because there was someone else washing the damn dishes.
Rosalind Miles’ “Who Cooked the Last Supper?” is about how women throughout history provided critical services so men could have leisure time.
Fuck
I forget that there’s folks who haven’t heard this so I always reblog.
Bitches better be ready for me to go full blown academic when the leaves begin to fall. Nothing will stop me from wearing my tweed jackets, doc Martens, black/white turtlenecks, and my reciting of Mary Shelley and John Milton while sipping a large cup of earl grey tea.
I found an old train ticket in this second hand book I bought a while ago.
I’m wondering who was so passionate about studying Romanticism on a train from Milano to Trieste on 11th april 1988. Were they returning from holidays and studying for an exam? Or were they doing research for their thesis?
