#I am not a historian

[wombywoo]

retro 🪖

[ineffable-aaaaaaaaaa]

manifesting the lesbians for season three :))))))

[marzipanandminutiae]

brought to you by "The Myth of Lesbian Impunity: Capital Laws from 1270 to 1791" by Louis Crompton

when you first start studying queer history: sapphic acts have basically never been criminalized in any western society! so queer women have always had it easier than queer men!

when you delve even the slightest bit deeper: why do we still believe this

(OP cannot control who does and does not reblog this post, but she firmly believes that trans women are women)

[spocks-kaathyra]

thoughts about the Cardassian writing system

I've thinking about the Cardassian script as shown on screen and in beta canon and such and like. Is it just me or would it be very difficult to write by hand?? Like.

I traced some of this image for a recent drawing I did and like. The varying line thicknesses?? The little rectangular holes?? It's not at all intuitive to write by hand. Even if you imagine, like, a different writing implement—I suppose a chisel-tip pen would work better—it still seems like it wasn't meant to be handwritten. Which has a few possible explanations.

Like, maybe it's just a fancy font for computers, and handwritten text looks a little different. Times New Roman isn't very easily written by hand either, right? Maybe the line thickness differences are just decorative, and it's totally possible to convey the same orthographic information with the two line thicknesses of a chisel-tip pen, or with no variation in line thickness at all.

A more interesting explanation, though, and the one I thought of first, is that this writing system was never designed to be handwritten. This is a writing system developed in Cardassia's digital age. Maybe the original Cardassian script didn’t digitize well, so they invented a new one specifically for digital use? Like, when they invented coding, they realized that their writing system didn’t work very well for that purpose. I know next to nothing about coding, but I cannot imagine doing it using Chinese characters. So maybe they came up with a new writing system that worked well for that purpose, and when computer use became widespread, they stuck with it. 

Or maybe the script was invented for political reasons! Maybe Cardassia was already fairly technologically advanced when the Cardassian Union was formed, and, to reinforce a cohesive national identity, they developed a new standardized national writing system. Like, y'know, the First Emperor of Qin standardizing hanzi when he unified China, or that Korean king inventing hangul. Except that at this point in Cardassian history, all official records were digital and typing was a lot more common than handwriting, so the new script was designed to be typed and not written. Of course, this reform would be slower to reach the more rural parts of Cardassia, and even in a technologically advanced society, there are people who don't have access to that technology. But I imagine the government would be big on infrastructure and education, and would make sure all good Cardassian citizens become literate. And old regional scripts would stop being taught in schools and be phased out of digital use and all the kids would grow up learning the digital script.

Which is good for the totalitarian government! Imagine you can only write digitally. On computers. That the government can monitor. If you, like, write a physical letter and send it to someone, then it's possible for the contents to stay totally private. But if you send an email, it can be very easily intercepted. Especially if the government is controlling which computers can be manufactured and sold, and what software is in widespread use, etc. 

AND. Historical documents are now only readable for scholars. Remember that Korean king that invented hangul? Before him, Korea used to use Chinese characters too. And don't get me wrong, hangul is a genius writing system! It fits the Korean language so much better than Chinese characters did! It increased literacy at incredible rates! But by switching writing systems, they broke that historical link. The average literate Chinese person can read texts that are thousands of years old. The average literate Korean person can't. They'd have to specifically study that field, learn a whole new writing system. So with the new generation of Cardassian youths unable to read historical texts, it's much easier for the government to revise history. The primary source documents are in a script that most people can't read. You just trust the translation they teach you in school. In ASIT it's literally a crucial plot point that the Cardassian government revised history! Wouldn't it make it soooo much easier for them if only very few people can actually read the historical accounts of what happened.

I guess I am thinking of this like Chinese characters. Like, all the different Chinese "dialects" being written with hanzi, even though otherwise they could barely be considered the same language. And even non-Sinitic languages that historically adopted hanzi, like Japanese and Korean and Vietnamese. Which worked because hanzi is a logography—it encodes meaning, not sound, so the same word in different languages can be written the same. It didn’t work well! Nowadays, Japanese has made significant modifications and Korean has invented a new writing system entirely and Vietnamese has adapted a different foreign writing system, because while hanzi could write their languages, it didn’t do a very good job at it. But the Cardassian government probably cares more about assimilation and national unity than making things easier for speakers of minority languages. So, Cardassia used to have different cultures with different languages, like the Hebitians, and maybe instead of the Union forcing everyone to start speaking the same language, they just made everyone use the same writing system. Though that does seem less likely than them enforcing a standard language like the Federation does. Maybe they enforce a standard language, and invent the new writing system to increase literacy for people who are newly learning it.

And I can imagine it being a kind of purely digital language for some people? Like if you’re living on a colonized planet lightyears away from Cardassia Prime and you never have to speak Cardassian, but your computer’s interface is in Cardassian and if you go online then everyone there uses Cardassian. Like people irl who participate in the anglophone internet but don’t really use English in person because they don’t live in an anglophone country. Except if English were a logographic writing system that you could use to write your own language. And you can’t handwrite it, if for whatever reason you wanted to. Almost a similar idea to a liturgical language? Like, it’s only used in specific contexts and not really in daily life. In daily life you’d still speak your own language, and maybe even handwrite it when needed. I think old writing systems would survive even closer to the imperial core (does it make sense to call it that?), though the government would discourage it. I imagine there’d be a revival movement after the Fire, not only because of the cultural shift away from the old totalitarian Cardassia, but because people realize the importance of having a written communication system that doesn’t rely on everyone having a padd and electricity and wifi.

[saturnpanther]

I think everyone is doing Austria a disservice when they write him as a prudish blushing flower, and not as a manipulative bitch who has mastered weaponized sexuality. YES he's an uptight snob, but when you look at the history of Austria's military alliances there is a lot of calculated moves based around arranged unions instead of (or to subdue) all out wars. It's much more fun imo to see Roderich as someone who can seduce you into a strategic marriage for the sake of saving his own ass.

[swamp-adder]

I keep wondering about the financial situation between Holmes and Watson after the Hiatus. At Holmes' request, Watson quits his job and moves back in with Holmes to continue helping him with cases. Did Watson receive any kind of payment for his help -- a cut of the money Holmes received from his clients perhaps? A lot of fanfiction seems to assume they were equal partners and Watson got half; but honestly any scenario I can imagine seems awkward to me in one way or another:

- Watson being treated as an equal partner and getting half the money seems awkward when according to what's depicted in the stories Holmes was doing the vast majority of the actual work and Watson was mostly there because Holmes liked having someone to talk to.

- Watson receiving some money, but not a full half, makes Watson explicitly subordinate to Holmes in an employer/employee relationship, which just seems like an awkward dynamic to introduce into any friendship.

- Watson not getting paid at all would be awkward because Watson just quit his job for the sake of helping Holmes out, and has also been forbidden by Holmes from publishing any more stories for the time being. Meanwhile Holmes at this point in his career we're told is absolutely rolling in dough, creating a serious income disparity between them which could hardly help but be awkward.

Watson's financial resources that we know of at this point would consist of his wound pension and whatever royalties he's still getting from his earlier stories, plus the money he got from "Verner" for his medical practice. We're told in DYIN that Holmes' "payments [for the flat] were princely. I have no doubt that the house might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his rooms during the years that I was with him." That makes it sound like Holmes was more than paying the full rent for the apartment by himself, so at the least Watson was probably living there for free. (This quote is from DYIN, which seems to be set pre-Hiatus, so this arrangement might have begun even by then.) Which also seems potentially awkward -- like something that could make Watson feel like a freeloader or whatever.

Honestly it's very understandable why Watson never explicitly talks about money, because the whole thing is just awkward any way you slice it!!

In the earlier days the whole thing seems less awkward to me because a) Holmes had less money himself and b) Watson is just choosing not to get a job and to run around with his friend instead, rather than having given up his career specifically at Holmes' request.

One thing that makes the "Watson lives for free at Holmes' place, eats out at Holmes' expense etc but doesn't get paid in cash" scenario seem more likely to me is the fact that Holmes felt the need to give Watson a bunch of money sneakily through buying his practice -- it makes me think he felt like he couldn't pay him in a more straightforward, above-board way -- that Watson would be offended by it or whatever.

On the other hand I was also reading some stuff on the wiki about the concept of the "lady's companion", where a usually single upper-class woman would invite a single female friend to live with her and pay her an "allowance" in exchange for social companionship. The companion was technically an employee but was treated more like a member of the family. Now, there are reasons why this arrangement was specific to women: a) there were very few ways for an upper-class woman to actually earn a living that wouldn't compromise her upper-class status; and b) upper-class women were expected to stay at home most of the time, so a woman living alone (especially in the country) could easily become lonely. But it does show that there was at least some kind of concept in this historical era of "living with a wealthy friend and being financially supported by them as if you were family" without it being Weird. So yeah IDK.

[body-to-flame]

If the body and the life were two things that we could divide, I'd deliver up my shell to be filled with somebody else

[its-your-mind]

“Hello? 999? I think I just heard a Triumvir of Rome hug a dude real hard in order to stick them on the thousands of sharp needles poking out of his skin. …The youngest one. … Yeah, him. … Yes, I’ll hold.”

[juniper-clan]

I have two questions if that is okay.

What inspired you to choose 1701 as the time period?

And how far into the game do you get in between posting pages.

Ps i am obsessed with this blog ♡

Thanks!

I'm sure you're well aware from my asks that I am a huge fan of historical reenactment/research/fashion. I originally had this set in 1810, but that was a bit too in my "comfort zone" as I'm inclined to the Regency era / Napoleonic War era.

In the earliest days of the 18th entury, the English had small, sparse settlements around the Eastern Seaboard, and I focused on the "Province of Carolina" that extended from modern day North Carolina to parts of Louisiana/Florida. Since the settlements were so thinly stretched, I would be able to draw Heronstar's interactions with Two Legs without worrying about having a huge, lush colony to draw, and more importantly, worry about them potentially poaching and eating the cats (!!!).

It's also for flavor. I hate drawing cars, so the Thunderpath is replaced with a regular dirt path and horses. Two Leg traps can be replaced with hunting traps. Etc.

All those little things keep it interesting for me and help me get creative.

As for the moons; I finished it already. I already know everything that happens!

[robertisaworkofart]

I can’t stop seeing:

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

Matthias Stom; Onorio Mariani

Luther with the Head of Klaus the Baptist

Netflix

[oddity-txt]

Folks. Its time we acknowledge that buggy the clown. From one piece. is the new tumblr sexyman

[marzipanandminutiae]

kind of wild (read: annoying) how youre on every post and act like youre some sort of historian when half the shit you say is wrong

Like...?

I'm sure I've been wrong before and I will be again. I'm human; we all get things wrong at times. I try to give the best information I know at the time or writing. Sometimes it's not correct. I try to accept correction and learn from my mistakes. Eg. the time I thought perfumed buttons weren't a real thing during the 19th century and they were, or saying that the Victorians heated their homes with natural gas when it was actually coal gas. I Screw Up Sometimes, for sure!

But. I also have people getting mad that their Emotional Support History Myth isn't true and insisting that I don't know what I'm talking about, fairly often. (And t*rfs who are upset because I'm a Dirty Patriarchal Corset ApologistTM).

Unless you tell me what you're annoyed with me about, I have no way of knowing which situation this is.

(For the record, I AM "some sort of historian," depending on your definition of "historian" re: advanced degrees or work in pure academia. I've been working in history museums as an interpreter/researcher/collections assistant for 7 years. That doesn't make me always right, by any means, but...I'm only "acting like" exactly what I am.)

[intoapuddle]

Archive historian my beloved ❤️

[finnlongman]

I love how discussion of "medieval" fantasy novels had me half convinced the divine right of kings was a medieval concept even though I've never come across it in medieval literature, and then I start doing some actual research and discover we can blame that one on James I and the seventeenth century.

Edited to add: I turned off reblogs for a reason, lads. I realise there's a lot more nuance to the history of this phrase than I conveyed here and that versions of this concept have existed in different places. I was talking about a very specific manifestation of it in a very specific (English) context, in terms of how it gets used in popular understandings of the past – nothing else, and purely as a curiosity for myself, not a history lesson or discussion starter. If I could also turn off replies on this post, I would do so. Please stop telling me about the use of the concept elsewhere and during other periods, I am a) aware and b) not actually interested at this time. I have made that abundantly clear in my comments on the post.

[milkywayan]

a thing I don’t understand, and I think a lot of other hobby and proper historians will agree, that in media the medieval time is almost always portrayed as these dark, horrible times full of dirt and dismay. everyone is starving, eating grey mash, there is shit everywhere on the streets, people just throwing their piss out of the window, and like.. why? why?

yea, of course, in today’s standards the middle ages were ‘dirty’ but like.. urine was a very valuable resource for tanning leather and a lot of other practical applications, both industrial and at home. There are reports on toilet facilities in buildings and drains as far back as the 11th century. There are laws in cities that if you leave your trash on the street you have to pay fines.

And the middle ages were COLOURFUL! people did not only dress in sad brown and grey sacks, even the iron age people had dyes for their fabric. poor people did not have extremely vibrant colours, but still colours

there were many holy days (aka you did not work), festivals, fairs and in many cities the people had influence and were not just helpless against the monarch

people ate diverse food depending on the time of the year, with vegetables, meat, fish, bread and of course some kind of mash, but it was not this grey horrid thing we always see in TV. If people only ate this kind of stuff, they would not have been able to work this hard and would have died of scurvy

anyways, I am so annoyed by this. The medieval times of course were not a paradise and there was a lot of war and disease, but it was also colourful and interesting and is the source of many traditions, literature, music and art.

It would be much more fun if media started to represent it like it was, and not portray it in a overly horrible grim way that does not do the people and the time justice.

[pianokantzart]

I dunno if this really counts as desert themed, but in Mario Kart Tour Daisy has an outfit called the Thai Dress!

I am a fan of the Thai dress! Thailand is mostly made up of forested mountains and fertile planes rather than desert, yes, but since I imagine Sarasaland as a Mario-verse reimagining of the Ottoman Empire (particularly when it was at it's height in the 16th century) there is a bit of crossover in terms of style elements, with a heavy focus on fine silks and linens decorated with large intricate patterns and shimmering metallic threads.

Left: Daisy in what I think is a chakri dress Right: An üçetek entari, or three-skirt robe (it's 19th century rather than 16th century, but you get my drift.) The worlds of Super Mario Land were all over place in terms of where they took inspiration from, but most modern interpretations of Sarasaland focus on desert regions like the Birabuto Kingdom (which is heavily Egyptian themed, with Egypt having been a province of the Ottoman Empire for over 200 years) and the closest thing we have to a modern visual for Sarasaland is the Daisy Circuit– an active harbor, like how the Ottoman Empire carried out most of it's trade through the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Uuuh... I forgot where I was gong with this. TL;DR: Daisy's Thailand dress is probably the closest thing I'll get to seeing her in 16th Century Ottoman Empire inspired garb.