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[pancakerachel]

Charles Guiteau’s “Cakewalk”

Its origins in slavery and the plantation south, the Cakewalk was the sole organized and even condoned forum for servants to mock their masters. A send-up of the rich folks in the “Big House,” the cakewalk mocked the aristocratic and grandiose mannerisms of southern high-society. Much bowing and bending were characteristic of the dance, which was more a performance than anything else. Couples lined up to form an aisle, down which each pair would take a turn at a high-stepping promenade through the others. In many instances the Cakewalk was performance, and even competition. The dance would be held at the master’s house on the plantation and he would serve as judge. The dance’s name comes from the cake that would be awarded to the winning couple.

Carnival in full effect, the cakewalk festivities turned convention on its head. The time of the dance was one in which typical order was set aside. Lowly slaves and servants were encouraged to mock the masters to whom obedience was mandated at all other times. The dancers donned fine clothes and adopted high-toned manners, and for the length of the performance they were not slaves but the stars of the show, their racial and social standing transcended.

As much as the cakewalk managed to overcome these barriers temporarily, however, it reinforced them the rest of the time. Because the dance was generally sponsored and judged by the plantation owner, he became master of ceremonies, and became master of the joke as well. If the master is in on the jokes that mock him, then the jokes no longer harm his standing with the slaves. So it was with the cakewalk, which further reinforced the master’s authority in allowing him to name a winner and thus make even his symbolic overthrow an attempt to appease him and an act of his decree.

That the nation’s attention came to the cakewalk is largely as a result of minstrel shows in the late nineteenth century. The dance’s exaggerated nature served perfectly for the physical, hammy humor of the stage shows, the participants generally played as goofy and bumbling as possible. The cakewalk’s original meaning was lost; where it had originally been black slaves attempt to mock their superiors and for a minute live in autonomy, it had come to be the bumbling attempts of poor blacks to mimic the manners of whites. The dancers were no longer joking, but were portrayed as genuinely wantingto be like the superiors. This interpretation held great appeal in a nation where race relations were whites’ concerns about blacks were building steadily, and it became a way to briefly escape that tension. Again dance had become a method of evasion and of escape, but now it was a tool for white the middle class to assure its social status and to ignore the spirit that gave rise to the cakewalk in its first incarnation.

[pancakerachel]

unabandoning to say that im still a tad obsessed with assassins.

b-balladeer assassins??

[pancakerachel]

M gonna unabandon this blog and say

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! 

[pancakerachel]

graphic novelist

[pancakerachel]

Why do people listen to the advice of those wannabe ‘writers’. I mean they are not even published? 

[pancakerachel]

This is the lucky clover cat. reblog this in 30 seconds & he will bring u good luck and fortune.

[pancakerachel]

[pancakerachel]

“Their lives will be full of misery, but their legacy will be of great importance.”

[pancakerachel]

Yo...

This genuinely has me shaken up. RIP Etika.

[pancakerachel]

Omfg..

We lost em boys...

Rip Etika.

[pancakerachel]

Hah. Wait till he twists his gallbladder and he becomes Giuseppe Zangara.

后续【?

[pancakerachel]

yes

Abe Woodhull starter pack.

[pancakerachel]

I'm pretty sure Abe has a photographic memory

Watching the show from the beginning, there are little hints that build up to him having an extremely precise, accurate working memory. Today’s episode solidified it for me.

To start with earlier examples, Abe was a law student and absorbed an especially large amount of information but the extraordinary part is the fact that many years later, he can still quote a number of those texts precisely.

When he acted as magistrate in his father’s place, he spent the night studying what looked like mountains of law books. All those books in such a short span of time and he was able to reference them without looking during the trial.

While he was in York City, when he first started gathering Intel on eggs, he took extensive notes with exact figures, names, and locations; however, when he lost all the written info, he was still able to recall a large amount of to the letter with nothing but his memory.

Another instance of this is when they show him recalling past events where he must reexamine his surrounding at a specific time.

Like when he was trying to figure out where the brown eggs with the Intel disappeared, he flashed back to his conversation with Robert and was able recall Robert stealing the eggs even though he didn’t consciously notice it happening initially. He can play his memories back to himself like a video in order to analyze detailed background information about his environment that he may have dismissed the first time around as being irrelevant. This happens a LOT in the series especially season 2-4. Every time they show him reexamining a memory, I’m blown away by the level of detail he can recall.

In the most recent episode, he gives Ben a bunch of info he collected while acting as a British soldier. He didn’t write this info down, he just read it, memorized it, and passed it on without a problem. Knowing the amount of supplies like gunpowder quantities after glancing at inventory lists for multiple British troops isn’t something to scoff at. I cannot fathom how he is able to have such accurate numbers and info without needing to look at written notes unless he has an eidetic memory.

There are a lot of examples throughout the show so take a second look when you can, it’s kind of mind blowing.

[pancakerachel]

Long thing

Reblog if you want a terrible, 3 sentence fan fiction in your ask, based on your url

[pancakerachel]

Aw.

pls admire chuchu

[pancakerachel]

Delicious.

[pancakerachel]

SSJ + Reddit

(my camera is shitty so I can’t link the art rip)

Day 1: Soviet Space Ghouls + the beach. A ghoul has  arm floaties and is very tall and cannot swim. He is sad. There’s JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald as well swimming.