went into a dream

she/her - 20s - inconsistent tagging since about 2023 - occasional politics - in this house we hate jkr

[ntrider]

is there any trait less attractive than a lack of curiosity

[dykecinema]

which one is better (no nuance)

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Remaining time: 1 day 11 hours

[shisasan]

July 6, 1920 Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka First published : 1952

[justme--48]

27

[edinburgh-by-the-sea]

Burntisland

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Person who has read a book and maybe taken a college course or listened to a podcast episode: oh yeah I’m a real History buff I know everything about this field

Person who focused on it in undergrad: yea I’m a bit of an expert on that field; it was my major

Person who has done at least some graduate level work on the topic: yeah I specialize in [subsubfield]

Person with over a decade of focused study on the topic, at least partially in an academic setting: here is an in-depth powerpoint highlighting everything I don’t know about my field with footnotes and a bibliographic essay

[kstarlitchaotics]

then people who literal have ancestors who lived in those times: hold my beer

[historicity-was-already-taken]

So I’m going to push back on that. Having ancestors and relatives who lived through those times doesn’t make you an expert on those times; it makes you a recipient of memory from within your in-group.

I am a Holocaust historian, I am Jewish, and I’m part of the 3G survivor community. Judaism is fascinating in terms of memory construction, because our history is deeply intertwined with our liturgy and observance. This leads to many Jewish individuals considering themselves experts on Jewish history, when actually they’re conversant in a very specific, highly curated version of Jewish memory.

As a Holocaust historian, this becomes more acute because people with survivor grandparents assume that having those bonds and receiving their relations’ memories makes them well-versed in those histories. No, it makes them well versed in receiving their grandparent’s memories.

And that’s fine. That’s important. But memories aren’t the same as history. And when we receive our descendants’ personal histories, we are receiving their MEMORIES, shaped inevitably by lack of context, time, and trauma. Or to put it differently, we are receiving their primary source documents.

And that’s important. We need primary sources; without primary sources we would be literally unable to practice history. BUT, the practice of history requires that we interrogate primary sources within all aspects of their context, not accept them at face value.

This can became really messy when you study the history of your own minority identity group. In those circumstances, the experiences of y/our ancestors become a mythology that a large portion of y/our group accepts as fact. But then, when put under the scrutiny of critical historical interrogation, a lot of those agreed upon truths can be exposed as myth, and not fact. And that’s when y/our identity group turns on you.

As a Jew who studies Modern Jewish and Holocaust history, and a 3G Jew who received her grandmother’s memories of growing up in interwar Poland and fleeing from said state in 1939, I have experienced all aspects of this, and it’s weird and frustrating and fascinating. I recommend Zakhor Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi for a deep dive on this.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

And that enforced silence? IS a primary source.

[abfark]

Every story has context, every person creates their own narrative of the events that have happened to them. I love asking family members to tell their version of a story that has not been told and retold by their/our family, because you get disagreement! It’s a beautiful thing to see first-hand how people can experience something and have a different takeaway.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

There are parts of my book where the primary sources contain mutually contradictory versions of events. I handled it by including on-page footnotes explaining the various versions of the story in the sources, and the reason I am presenting the selected one.

A notorious example of this are the multiple versions of Tosia Altman’s death. The parts everyone can agree on:

-the attic of the celluloid factory where Tosia may or may not have been hiding in caught fire, potentially because someone didn’t dispose of a cigarette correctly, or because Tosia was heating ointment to treat the wounds she’d received in the fall of Mila 18 and the fire got out of control

-she jumped from the attic

-the Gestapo showed up and cleared the scene

-she was dead

That’s where the similarities end. Some say she was already dying from smoke inhalation when she jumped. Others say she was gravely injured and close to death on account of burns, wounds sustained in the fighting, and injuries from the jump. Some say she died immediately after the jump. Some say that she was alive after the jump, and then arrested by the Gestapo, and taken to the hospital where she was either: interrogated and denied medical care until she succumbed to her wounds, or tortured to death.

I presented the version of events which seems most likely based on writer and proximity, and explained that in the footnote. We’ll still never know for sure. And it’s that questioning and those determinations and contradictions that make history such a fascinating field.

[retro7wonder4reverie]

[big-barn-bed]

15 year old paul mccartney after practicing twenty flight rock until his fingers bled and picking out the perfect white sport coat/flower combo to wear to the village fete and have his friend introduce him to the cool older guy from the bus/chippy: what if I told you none of it was accidental and the first night that you saw me nothing was gonna stop me. I laid the groundwork and then jus-

[pauls1967moustache]

fete day is kinda like wow happy birthday all of modern pop culture

[bunniboiz]

"it's ok to show (x) in fiction as long as the bad guy gets punished!" the bad guy doesn't have to get punished. in fact the bad guy can win altogether. the bad guy can entirely get away with it. hope this helps

[bunniboiz]

and this part might make some people's head explode but: characters can be written to forgive things you personally wouldn't ever forgive. not everything is written as what you'd perceive to be the right choice. not everything is a self-insert & protagonists don't have to be relatable.

[sweetd3lights]

[twoheadedyounginhuman]

i love making mutuals just to be too shy to talk to them

[matineaux-deactivated20260222]

kind of weird how parts of your soul are left in various locations without any warning… like yes i’m always at the top of that hill, sitting at the bus stop, in the cool light of the Japanese restaurant, standing at the pier etc etc

[killrockstar]

when a celebrity woman does something awesome and people will be like Well i dont like her but -. like omggg we were all wondering. its such a good thing you confirmed that you dont like her but what she did is ok with you. should we invite rolling stone.

[danceundersparklinglights]

i’m going to be really honest with you guys i think the tendency to read the absolute worst possible intentions into every action you don’t agree with is getting too automatic and it’s eating you from the inside out

[goldcrescent]

My new pet peeve is people completely misunderstanding the term Male Gaze and making the term female gaze based entirely on that misunderstanding

[goldcrescent]

the white boy of the month pushing his hair back and reading poetry for the camera is not the equivalent of the dehumanization of women in visual media by way of presenting them primarily as vessels for sexual gratification

[bevsi]

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with relating to characters, “they’re literally me” etc but if that’s the only way you engage with stories you’re kinda missing the whole point of Characters being vehicles through which we can see perspectives outside of our own. and also you’re going to get upset when the Character acts in a way that is not Personally Relatable to You