GraniteM @ GraniteM @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

Yeah, I actually think Lovecraft was doing what was probably the healthiest thing available to him at the time with all his fucked up phobias by turning them into inspiration for spooky stories. He was creative and articulate enough that he could have been writing political screeds and trying to get others on board with driving out all the immigrants, but instead he wrote about crab monsters from space. Far from the worst possible outcome considering a lot of the other possibilities from the time.

Whether or not you should consume HP Lovecraft media despite the fact he was a racist is entirely up to you because he is long dead. He doesn't make any money. He isn't even racist any more. Because he's dead.

I always say "If you're going to be a shitshow of a human being but a talented artist, the least you can do is also be dead."

See also: Phil Spector, Pablo Picasso.

There's a certain mentality, a little less common now but all over the place in old media, where the very existence of a particular group was the entire joke. Just, "Hey! What if a guy in black face! HAHAHA!"

Yeah, the past is a pretty fucked up place.

Vermont would also like to sign up.

I made the "mistake" of heavily investing in real estate in Fable 3, so when the time came to choose between "Fund the army to defend against the dark lord" or "Bankrupt the orphanage" I just paid for the whole thing out of pocket and broke the moral dilemma. Oops, I guess?

The youngest Medal of Honor recipient is William "Willie" Johnson, an 11 year old drummer from Vermont.

It was between June 25 and July 1, 1862 — dates known as the Seven Days Battles — that Willie earned his medal. These battles were part of Union Army Gen. George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign, in which McClellan’s Army of the Potomac had tried to invade the Richmond, Virginia, area. But Confederate States Army Gen. Robert E. Lee’s troops drove them back, forcing the Union Army down the Virginia peninsula.

As the Union soldiers fled, many of them dropped their weapons and other equipment to lighten their loads as they retreated. This included the musicians.

When the troops finally got to safety, Willie was the only drummer in his division to get back with his drum in tow. As the men regrouped, Willie was recognized for that and was asked to play his drum for the whole division.

When President Abraham Lincoln heard about Willie’s bravery, he recommended the boy for the Medal of Honor, which had been created around the time of the Seven Days Battles.

The Tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic Park because first of all, I'm actually pretty sure I'd be fine so long as I can get in my car and drive away at a reasonable pace. Secondly, just think of the absolutely incredible collateral damage. Even if I get killed, it would be one of the most talked-about and confusing incidents in American history for the rest of time.

Someday I'd like to replicate Eratosthenes' experiment with a long north-south road trip, but I never remember to make the measurements.

We do this at a used book store. It's books that we don't think we can sell inside for whatever reason, and we put them on shelves outside. There's a big awning so they don't really get rained on unless it's raining sideways. We sell them for a dime or a quarter, and there's a slot for overnight drops in case people want to get books at night. Every morning there's at least a couple of bucks from the previous day/night.

We donate the proceeds to public radio, and over the years we've donated over $100,000.

What's going on down in Columbus County, North Carolina?

"I like my women either really fat or really skinny! Like, unhealthily skinny!"

There are people who, disturbed by "big government" today and its tendency to curb the advantages they might gain if their competitiveness were allowed free flow, demand "less govern- ment." Alas, there is no such thing as less government, merely changes in government. If the libertarians had their way, the distant bureaucracy would vanish and the local bully would be in charge. Personally, I prefer the distant bureaucracy, which may not find me, over the local bully, who certainly will. And all historical precedent shows a change to localism to be for the worse.

—Isaac Asimov, Nice Guys Finish First, collected in The Sun Shines Bright, 1981

Conan the Barbarian (1982) has no right to be as good as it is. On paper, it's a dumb sword and sorcery flick with a body builder who could barely speak English in the lead. But everyone involved does an incredible job, from the acting to the directing, to the score. It's a crime that Destroyer trashed up the formula, and we never got Conan the King.

I usually read sci-fi / fantasy, but I've come to recognize that certain authors are dense, and Tolkien is one of them. Trying to read too much of Tolkien at once is like trying to eat too much rich food; you've got to take a break from time to time. All the annotations in the above book make the text even more dense, but it's still interesting stuff, like the mythological origins of Gandalf, or the tiny changes Tolkien made from early editions of the book. So I want to read this, it's not like I'm forcing myself to read some godawful textbook, but I think when I'm reading it at night, my brain gets to a point where it just goes "Ah fuck it," and I start to nod off.

Also pretty good for this: Isaac Asimov, or Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.