#literature – @wtfhistory on Tumblr

science fiction was invented by a woman

don’t you ever fucking forget that

actually a teenage girl

a teenage girl who ran off with a married man

#stealing your man and inventing literary genres

#WHY DOES NO ONE EVER POINT OUT THAT HER MOTHER WAS THE FIRST TO WRITE ABOUT FEMINISM #y’all missing a very important point #That family get shit fucking DONE (via bowtiesandginghamshirts)

wtfhistory

MARY SHELLEY AND MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT ARE GODDESSES.

#i adore them #i should do an episode about them #hm #wtfhistory #history #womens history #mary shelley #mary wollstonecraft #history crushes #literary history #literature #sci fi #science fiction #feminism #feminist history #heroes

wtfhistory reblogged

lostinhistory

ryanpanos

Oscar Wilde’s Lipstick-Covered Tomb | Via

The practice started in the late 1990s, when somebody decided to leave a lipstick kiss on the tomb. Since then lipstick kisses and hearts have been joined by a rash of red graffiti containing expressions of love, such as: “Wilde child we remember you”, “Keep looking at the stars” and “Real beauty ends where intellect begins”.

Kissing Oscar’s tomb on the Paris tourist circuit has become a cult pastime. A fine of €9,000 ($12,000) was imposed on anyone caught kissing or damaging the historical monument, but it had no effect. It was hard to catch people in the act, and most culprits were tourists who were long gone before the police could bring them to court. Appeals from Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland to stop the practice also fell on deaf ears. A plaque asking fans to respect the tomb instead of defacing it went in vain.

Meanwhile, those greasy red lipstick stains seeped into the stone making it harder and harder to clean. Every cleaning eroded a layer of stone rendering it even more porous, so the next cleaning had to go even deeper and wear away the stone even more.

I feel like he’d kinda love this, though.

wtfhistory

Not that I'm condoning defacing a grave.

But he would have been all about this.

#all the better if it's ladies and fellas gettin in on it #he'd have been all about that #wtfhistory #history #oscar wilde #odwg #death #graves #wilde #literature #literary history #queer history #gay history #lgbtqqiia history

wtfhistory reblogged

soyonscruels

also, while we’re at it?

the world’s first novel was written by a woman

and not only that, but the first RECORDED WRITER IN HUMAN HISTORY? was a woman.

trust no one who tells you that we haven’t always been here

So this is pretty fucking badass

At your battle-cry, my lady, the foreign lands bow low. When humanity comes before you in awed silence at the terrifying radiance and tempest, you grasp the most terrible of all the divine powers. Because of you, the threshold of tears is opened, and people walk along the path of the house of great lamentations. In the van of battle, all is struck down before you. With your strength, my lady, teeth can crush flint. You charge forward like a charging storm. You roar with the roaring storm, you continually thunder with Iškur. You spread exhaustion with the stormwinds, while your own feet remain tireless. With the lamenting balaĝ drum a lament is struck up.

My lady, the great Anuna gods fly from you to the ruin mounds like scudding bats. They dare not stand before your terrible gaze. They dare not confront your terrible countenance. Who can cool your raging heart? Your malevolent anger is too great to cool. Lady, can your mood be soothed? Lady, can your heart be gladdened? Eldest daughter of Suen, your rage cannot be cooled!

medievalpoc

This is slightly off topic for a non-themed week, and of course, it’s literature, but I couldn’t resist sharing this little history snippet with you all.

#wtfhistory #history #womens history #literary history #literature #art #art history #books #sexy

wtfhistory reblogged

manticoreimaginary

WOMEN OF HISTORY | MARGERY KEMPE (c. 1373 – after 1438) (Saffron Burrows)

Margery Kempe was the woman behind what is considered to be the first autobiography in the English language - The Book of Margery Kempe. It chronicles her many pilgrimages to holy sites throughout Europe and Asia, as well as her conversations with God and the Virgin Mary. Illiterate, Margery employed scribes and priests to record her work.

During her first pregnancy (she would eventually have fourteen children) Margery became very ill and saw visions of God and the Virgin Mary - visions that would continue on for most of her life. She wished to join join a nunnery at this point but admitted that she couldn’t 'leave her pride nor her pompous array.’ She spoke openly in the book about her struggles with sexual temptation and jealousy, and eventually she would take a vow of chastity and encourage her husband to do the same.

Margery was not popular with church leaders - she was known to interrupt services to argue with the clergy, and was even charged with heresy. The Bishop of Lincoln and the Archbishop of Canterbury put her on trial for her preaching scripture in public, but she defended herself against all charges and escaped punishment. She was often unpopular during her travels as well - she recounts being accused by the Mayor of Leicester of being a ‘cheap whore’ and threatened with imprisonment. Her attempts to defend herself in this case ended with her spending three weeks in jail.

The time and circumstances of her death are unknown, and her book was lost for centuries, existing only in quotes from a few other writers. But in 1934 a manuscript was found in a private library and since then it has been reprinted into numerous editions. Because of its autobiographical nature, Margery’s book provides an unparalleled insight into the lives of middle-class women in the Middle Ages.

#wtfhistory #history #literary history #womens history #literature #autobiography #cool #1300s #1400s #middle ages #medieval history

wtfhistory reblogged

lostinhistory

newsweekscience

Here’s a basic rule: if you’re reading or watching a Shakespeare play, and you’re not imagining the actors standing in front of a mosh pit of jeering Londoners waiting to throw vegetables at the stage, you’re doing it wrong. Shakespeare might have written the best works in the English language, or given us profound insight into the nature of humanity, or whatever — but his works wouldn’t have survived to our day if he hadn’t been popular when he was alive, and he wouldn’t have been popular when he was alive if he hadn’t been able to please the crowd. And that includes a lot of dirty jokes. A lot. Sometimes in incredibly inappropriate places. We’re here to rescue a few of those for you, and retroactively embarrass the heck out of your fourteen-year-old self, who had to stand up in English class and read things that, in retrospect, are absolutely filthy. This isn’t about the stuff that always does crack fourteen-year-olds up in English class, but is totally innocent: the “bring me my long sword, ho!” sort of thing. But the kids who lose it every time the word “ho” is uttered are closer to the spirit of Shakespeare than the teacher who demands they treat the words like museum pieces. Sure, it would be awkward for teachers to explain the Elizabethan double entendres to their students — but pretending they don’t exist makes Shakespeare seem unnecessarily stuffy and difficult. So we’re going to start with the most obvious innuendoes, and move on to some seriously advanced sex punnery that is probably going to blow your mind.

Reading Shakespeare without the sex jokes is the real tragedy. (via newsweek)

Source: vox.com

#wtfhistory #history #literature #literary history #art #art history #shakespeare #theatre

wtfhistory reblogged

cocoalesbean

geekmehard

cumaeansibyl

this is legit btw

I mean, there were folkloric heroes like Robin Hood before the Scarlet Pimpernel, but they didn’t really do the secret identity — people might not have known Robin Hood’s real identity but he wasn’t out living a double life and his costume was just what he and his buds wore in the forest, whereas the Pimpernel was actually doing the exact same thing as Bruce Wayne (pampered aristocrat by day, avenging hero by night)

also I wanna point out that the Scarlet Pimpernel was actually the leader of a league of twenty people also living double lives — Baroness Orczy also invented the first superhero team

laughterkey

Also The Scarlet Pimpernel is goddamned amazing and if you’ve never read it you’re missing out.

barefootdramaturg

Reblogging again due to Sir Percy Blakeney, Baronet.

thesanityclause

*throws hands up in the air* I LOVED THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL SERIES WHEN I WAS A TEEN! They were all so incredible. HE EVEN HAD AN ARCH NEMESIS YOU GUYS.

wtfhistory

But those fake geek girls, amirite?

#wtfhistory #history #fake geek girls #hahahaha #superheros #literature #literary history #womens history #good stuff

wtfhistory reblogged

juliuscaesarofficial

Anonymous asked:

OH MY GOD DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT JOHN IS FUCKING MARRIED TO A WOMAN IN THE BOOK?!?!? IF THEY DON'T MAKE JOHN STRAIGHT, IT WILL BE A GREAT INJUSTICE DONE TO BOTH THE AUTHOR AND THE BOOKS.

wsswatson answered:

Ah, hello, Person Of Immense Politeness. I suspect you’re here to talk about my OTP. Luckily for you, I’m in a good mood, so I’m going to go through this nice and rationally.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am aware of that. As it happens, I’m an English literature student, and have not only read all 4 novels and 56 short stories, but studied them in depth. I’m writing a series of essays on them at present, actually.
Perhaps you’re unaware of other adaptations, so let me inform you that in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes may be interpreted as gay, in Elementary, Watson is a woman, Moriarty is also Irene Adler and the series is set in New York, and in Basil the Great Mouse Detective, the characters are mice. Also, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cared very little for Sherlock Holmes, and, despite claiming that ‘Holmes is as inhuman as a Babbage’s Calculating Machine, and just about as likely to fall in love’ in 1892, he later wrote a play, and when appealed to by William Gillette, who was to portray Holmes, for permission to alter his character, Doyle replied ‘You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him.' HE DIDN’T CARE ABOUT HIS CHARACTERS BEING ALTERED.
You are completely avoiding historical social context. In the Victorian era, MEN COULD NOT MARRY MEN AND WOMEN COULD NOT MARRY WOMEN. In fact, the Marriage Equality Bill was only passed in England THIS YEAR. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s close friend, Oscar Wilde, was sentenced to two years of hard labour which so severely damaged his health that he died 3 years later, because of UNPROVEN CLAIMS that he was a sodomite, i.e. homosexual. Do you know what was used against him in court? The Picture of Dorian Gray. HIS NOVEL. Because it contained homoerotic subtext. Doyle wanted to portray Watson as a heart in contrast to Holmes’ head, and as such, he had to be romantic. HETEROROMANCE WAS THE ONLY OPTION IN THE ERA IN WHICH HE WAS WRITING.
MEN DON’T HAVE TO BE STRAIGHT TO MARRY WOMEN. Wilde himself was gay, and he was married to a woman called Constance Lloyd. In the Victorian era, marriage was nowhere near so much based on love as it is today - it was about money, power, status, convenience, all kinds of things. Now, I do believe that Watson loved Mary Morstan, but this context is important to recognise. Now, onto BBC Sherlock: in the 21st century, far more sexual and romantic orientations are recognised. Bisexual and pansexual men marry women. That doesn’t make them unable to also feel love or attraction for men. In fact, even straight people are capable of finding themselves sexually and/or romantically attracted to a member of the same sex. In any case, to quote Performance in a Leading Role:'I find the concept of binary sexual identity limiting and improbable. As with all else about human beings, sexual responsiveness exists on a continually changing scale that is affected by a dizzying array of variables, so there’s no point in attempting to predetermine a pointless and ultimately confining label.'
The writers were influenced by The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and deliberately establish homoerotic and homoromantic subtext.
It is possible to ship something in fanon without wanting it to become canon. There is also nothing wrong with wanting something that you enjoy to happen on screen and hence be more accessible to you, particularly if that thing would also be socially beneficial by providing positive representation to marginalised groups.
Shipping makes me happy. Fandom makes me happy. Sherlock makes me happy. I think it extremely rude of you to come into my ask box under the cowardly guise of anonymity to try to take that happiness away from me (you failed completely, I might add), when it literally affects you in exactly 0 ways.

So, in conclusion:

thescienceofjohnlock

I know I’ve re-blogged this before but anons like this one are so damn funny.

My only response to this is you guys are butt hurt, clearly. I’m all for gay love anywhere and everywhere, however I draw a line at altering anything written, painted, etc. If he wanted Watson to be gay, he would have made him as gay as the rainbow. Sides, who the fuck uses Elementary as a point in an argument? That show was the worst of all Sherlock reincarnations. I’m gonna ignore the rest of your argument though, it would take too much time to pick apart.

'If he wanted Watson to be gay, he would have made him as gay as the rainbow' - yeah, maybe if he wanted his books to be banned, his career put to an end, his name ruined and to be put on trial on suspicion of sodomy. Pick up a book on the politics of sexuality at the end of the 19th century and then get back to me.

wtfhistory

History - it comes up in everything.

wtfhistory reblogged

vintagegal

explore-blog

www.brainpickings.org

Circles of Influence – visualizing creative debt throughout history.

#circles of influence #music #art #wtfhistory #history #culture #pop culture #art history #music history #sports #sports history #literature #literary history #old dead white guys #odwgs

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whipandapple-blog

[source]

#wtfhistory #history #literary history #literature #old photograph #author photo

wtfhistory reblogged

whimsilica

inkandcayenne

I think fanfiction is literature and literature, for the most part, is fanfiction, and that anyone that dismisses it simply on the grounds that it’s derivative knows fuck-all about literature and needs to get the hell off my lawn. Most of the history of Western literature (and probably much of non-Western literature, but I can’t speak to that) is adapted or appropriated from something else. Homer wrote historyfic and Virgil wrote Homerfic and Dante wrote Virgilfic (where he makes himself a character and writes himself hanging out with Homer and Virgil and they’re like “OMG Dante you’re so cool.” He was the original Gary Stu). Milton wrote Bible fanfic, and everyone and their mom spent the Middle Ages writing King Arthur fanfic. In the sixteenth century you and another dude could translate the same Petrarchan sonnet and somehow have it count as two separate poems, and no one gave a fuck. Shakespeare doesn’t have a single original plot—although much of it would be more rightly termed RPF—and then John Fletcher and Mary Cowden Clarke and Gloria Naylor and Jane Smiley and Stephen Sondheim wrote Shakespeare fanfic. Guys like Pope and Dryden took old narratives and rewrote them to make fun of people they didn’t like, because the eighteenth century was basically high school. And Spenser! Don’t even get me started on Spenser. Here’s what fanfic authors/fans need to remember when anyone gives them shit: the idea that originality is somehow a good thing, an innately preferable thing, is a completely modern notion. Until about three hundred years ago, a good writer, by and large, was someone who could take a tried-and-true story and make it even more awesome. (If you want to sound fancy, the technical term is imitatio.) People were like, why would I wanna read something about some dude I’ve never heard of? There’s a new Sir Gawain story out, man! (As to when and how that changed, I tend to blame Daniel Defoe, or the Modernists, or reality television, depending on my mood.) I also find fanfic fascinating because it takes all the barriers that keep people from professional authorship—barriers that have weakened over the centuries but are nevertheless still very real—and blows right past them. Producing literature, much less circulating it, was something that was well nigh impossible for the vast majority of people for most of human history. First you had to live in a culture where people thought it was acceptable for you to even want to be literate in the first place. And then you had to find someone who could teach you how to read and write (the two didn’t necessarily go together). And you needed sufficient leisure time to learn. And be able to afford books, or at least be friends with someone rich enough to own books who would lend them to you. Good writers are usually well-read and professional writing is a full-time job, so you needed a lot of books, and a lot of leisure time both for reading and writing. And then you had to be in a high enough social position that someone would take you seriously and want to read your work—to have access to circulation/publication in addition to education and leisure time. A very tiny percentage of the population fit those parameters (in England, which is the only place I can speak of with some authority, that meant from 500-1000 A.D.: monks; 1000-1500: aristocratic men and the very occasional aristocratic woman; 1500-1800: aristocratic men, some middle-class men, a few aristocratic women; 1800-on, some middle-class women as well). What’s amazing is how many people who didn’t fit those parameters kept writing in spite of the constant message they got from society that no one cared about what they had to say, writing letters and diaries and stories and poems that often weren’t discovered until hundreds of years later. Humans have an urge to express themselves, to tell stories, and fanfic lets them. If you’ve got access to a computer and an hour or two to while away of an evening, you can create something that people will see and respond to instantly, with a built-in community of people who care about what you have to say. I do write the occasional fic; I wish I had the time and mental energy to write more. I’ll admit I don’t read a lot of fic these days because most of it is not—and I know how snobbish this sounds—particularly well-written. That doesn’t mean it’s “not good”—there are a lot of reasons people read fic and not all of them have to do with wanting to read finely crafted prose. That’s why fic is awesome—it creates a place for all kinds of storytelling. But for me personally, now that my job entails reading about 1500 pages of undergraduate writing per year, when I have time to read for enjoyment I want it to be by someone who really knows what they’re doing. There’s tons of high-quality fic, of course, but I no longer have the time and patience to go searching for it that I had ten years ago. But whether I’m reading it or not, I love that fanfiction exists. Because without people doing what fanfiction writers do, literature wouldn’t exist. (And then I’d be out of a job and, frankly, I don’t know how to do anything else.)

“As a professor, may I ask you what you think about fanfiction?” (via meiringens)

#this is on point as fuck #wtfhistory #history #literary history #literature #educational history #fanfic #fan fiction #fanfiction #writers #welp

wtfhistory reblogged

pbsthisdayinhistory

Mar 26, 1892: A Day to Remember One of America’s Greatest Literary Figures

On this day in 1892, American poet Walt Whitman passed away in Camden, New Jersey. At a young age, Whitman worked as a printer and was exposed to classic works from Shakespeare to Dante. Later on, Whitman explored the world of journalism and founded the Long-Islander newspaper.

Whitman left his mark in the literary world through his self-published collection of poems, Leaves of Grass. His work stirred controversy as it explored sexual themes, which was uncommon at the time. Throughout the remainder of his life, Whitman dedicated his time to revising his work and publishing new editions.

What other events contributed to Whitman’s success? Learn more with American Experience.

Image (from top to bottom): Walt Whitman three-quarter length portrait c. 1887, Leaves of Green title page, Title page of Leaves of Grass (“deathbed” edition) with author’s note to the printer 1892 (Library of Congress)

#wtfhistory #history #historical #1800s #19th century #walt whitman #poetry #literature #literary history #poetic history #whitman #poet #writer #odwg #artifact #writing