I don't get the whole "You ruined TNG" thing; not Wesley crusher, not the people who wrote the character, not the fact that the whole first season was kind of a hot mess anyways, or anything else.... not is was 16 year old Wil Wheaton and his nefarious schemes that ruined TNG, that's why it got canceled after the first... oh wait. Anyways keep up the good work preaching the don't be a dick mantra. It's a good philosophy and I try my best to stick to it in these trying times.
The overwhelming majority of people who say that weren’t even born when TNG was in its first run, and they are typically teenage boys who need to feel important and edgy. They barely have the capacity to understand all the weird and unexpected boners they keep getting, let alone the complex steps that go into making a television series.
I do appreciate them taking time away from their quest for Schezuan Sauce, though.
Ahahaa, that’s sooo many questions and I went WAY overboard with the answers so… STRAP URSELVES IN, LADS, WE’RE GONNA TALK ABOUT MY FAVORITE HISTORY SHIT.
9. Favourite historical film?
I’m gonna interpret this to mean “predominantly fact-based films about real-life historical figures and/or events,” not historical fiction. I can’t pick just ONE tho, so here are some of my faves:
All the President’s Men (1976), about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who uncovered Watergate. This movie is two and a half hours of watching men talk on the phone and rifle through stacks of paper…but it’s my fave. I rewatch it at least once a year cus I’m a huge nerd.
And the Band Played On (1993), about the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and (specifically) the U.S. government’s indifference. Powerful but horrifying. Not a movie I’d recommend unless you’re prepared to deal with some pretty intense emotions. Sir Ian McKellen plays a gay rights activist in it though.
The Last Emperor (1987), about the life of Pu Yi, the last emperor of Imperial China. This one’s challengingly long (almost four hours), but by the end you’ll finally know why WWI and WWII were called “WORLD WARS” and not “Europe and the U.S. Wars.”
12. Would you take part in reenactment? In what era and as whom?
Ummm, hell yea I would. Actually it’s something I’d love to get into at some point in the future, if I can find a good group to do it with and a job to fund costume expenditures.
I think it’d be more fun to create a “persona” of my own, instead of reenacting the role of a historical figure. But if I had to pick, probably Alexander Hamilton. He’s a little early for me in terms of era – I’m more Regency/early Victorian than Colonial – but I’ve grown so fond of him through the musical, I almost feel like we have a BOND ahaha.
If I invented my own historical persona, I would be…Gil, basically. Dour mid-1800s newspaper editor in a waistcoat and a cravat with a watch fob and spectacles that I’d constantly readjust. If I went more Regency I could do knee-breeches. How fuckin awesome would that be??
I bet I’d look hot.
[As I said…I went WAY overboard. Click below the cut for overenthusiastic rambling about Imperial China and some other shit!]
17. What historical item would you like to own?
This cuneiform tablet from ancient Mesopotamia inscribed with a Babylonian flood myth, which historians believe to be an early version of the Biblical story of Noah’s ark. I saw this in person at The Met when I was there recently and… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
Other things I’d love to own: an operable 19th century printing press and the ship of the line HMS Victory.
18. Look at the clock and assume the numbers are forming a historical year (e.g. 17;58 would be 1758) What is the world like in that year? Are any significant events going to occur?
It’s the year 725 AD. (Or it was, when I started replying to this question.)
The Umayyad armies of Anbasa ibn Suhaym al-Kalbi capture Carcassonne after a five-year siege, and proceed to sack a bunch of other Gaulish cities. But don’t worry cus in a few years Charles “The Hammer” Martel (a.k.a. Charlemagne’s granddaddy) will send Anbasa and his fellow Muslims packing and the Great White-ification of Europe will begin in earnest.
Meanwhile in China, the 8th century AD is the height of the Tang dynasty golden age; science and culture are both flourishing. Buddhist monk and astronomer Yi Xing applies the world’s earliest hydraulic-escapement mechanism to his celestial globe. The design eventually reaches Europe and becomes the basis for Western clockwork technology. That’s right, fellas, the Chinese invented clocks.
That’s…pretty much where my historical expertise ends so I had to DIG A BIT to find out what’s going on elsewhere. (Wikipedia doesn’t even list any events for 725 AD outside of Europe and China. How shocking.)
In South America, a number of pre-Columbian civilizations are nestled around the Andean Mountains, including the Wari, Nazca, and Moche cultures. The Chachapoya – also called “warriors of the clouds,” how badass is that – are juuust starting to emerge as a civilization. The Chachapoya will later be one of many South American nations ruled by the Inca Empire.
Of course we already know Islam is the hottest new trend in Africa. By 725 AD, the aforementioned Umayyad Caliphate has conquered almost all of North Africa, including Egypt. In the next century, the Islamic Golden Age will make North Africa and the Middle-East world leaders in science, culture, medicine, law, mathematics, and lots more awesome shit.
As for Southern and West Africa and…the rest of the world…I’m gonna be honest, there’s far too much and I’m far too ignorant to condense it into a clever soundbite as if I know things. But this annoys me greatly so I intend to do some reading on pre-colonial Africa, Australia/Pacific, Central/Southeast Asia, and the Americas.
TL;DR for the year 725 AD: Europe’s sort of a dumpster fire, but the rest of the world is doing GREAT.
24. Who do you consider to be one of the most underrated historical figures?
All of them that aren’t rich cishet white dudes.
But to answer with less snark, Zheng He is one of my absolute favorite historical figures that nobody knows about. Though I’ve seen a post about him on tumblr so maybe folks here have at least HEARD of him. He was a Chinese explorer and diplomat in the early Ming dynasty (14th and 15th centuries AD), and a trusted eunuch advisor of the Yongle Emperor.
Between 1400 and 1430 AD, Zheng He led seven sea voyages on behalf of the emperor, journeying all around Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and even eastern Africa to conduct trade, collect tribute, forge diplomat ties, quash piracy, and establish the Ming as the world’s pre-eminent naval power.
And to be frank – they fuckin were.
Admiral Zheng’s first voyage fleet comprised more than 300 fucking ships and 28,000 personnel. As many as 60 of those ships were enormous treasure ships believed to be TWICE as large as any European sea-going vessel of the era. Like…daaaang.
The Imperial court didn’t share Admiral Zheng’s enthusiasm for his expeditions, however. They were viewed as an extravagant expenditure and a violation of the Ming dynasty’s long-standing ban on maritime commerce and military action. After the Yongle Emperor’s death, his successors refused to continue funding Admiral Zheng’s voyages, and his fleet was either destroyed or allowed to fall into disrepair.
Some modern historians think China’s decision to abandon maritime trade and exploration after Zheng He’s expeditions might have contributed to China’s failure to keep pace with Western naval technology and its ultimate vulnerability to conquest by the West in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Whether that’s true or not, we know Admiral Zheng’s voyages left a profound impression in the memories of the places he visited. When the Portuguese sailed around Africa to its eastern coast, they were at first mistaken for Chinese sailors, since no other pale-skinned mariners had been there before. In some parts of Southeast Asia, Zheng He became a venerated figure of local folk legend, with temples dedicated in his name.
Idk whether Zheng’s role in history is one we should necessary praise, but I do think he’s one of those fascinating historical figures who played a more pivotal role than the textbooks give him credit for.
29. Are there any great historical mysteries that you are interested in?
THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT!!
It’s a linguistic mystery, and linguistic mysteries are the best mysteries tbh. Even if it turns out to be a massive prank pulled on the linguists of the world by some historical jackass, WOULDN’T THAT STILL BE AMAZING?
Someone on Reddit made the mistake of saying that “diversity and multiculturalism” is what brought about the downfall of Rome. Matt, our resident Roman Historian, responded with the most fantastically sarcastic answer I’ve ever seen.
@theprof739 replied to your post: I need to buy a pair of vintage-looking eyeglasses...
I recommend against genuine antique frames, they are fragile and as an owner of modern flexible wire frames, that are warped, well…. you get the picture.
The Bracken Bat Cave in Texas is the largest known bat colony in the world. Over 20 million bats live in the cave, which is more bats than there are people living in Mumbai, India—one of the world’s largest human cities. When the bats leave the cave, the group is so large that it looks like a huge storm on radar. The bats will eat over 200 tons of bugs in one night.
send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want
I could give you the scoop on how Armenia was like the most important place in world history for like 1500 straight years. I'm not a primary source though. lol
I’d love to know all about how Armenia was the most important place in world history for like 1500 straight years. However, it would not aid me much in terms of research for my historical fiction project, which isn’t set in Armenia and has almost nothing to do with Armenia except that one of the main characters is an Armenian refugee living in NYC in the early 20th century.
But if you’ve got any good refs about the Armenian genocide or culture in the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, by all means, SEND THEM MY WAY.
@theprof739 replied to your post “Sophia Brown’s great-great-grandfather immigrated to the US from...”
<3 I love this, I actually just made my first male FO4 character a couple weeks ago and I've been trying to figure out his background. Maybe my David knows Liam as fellow Army Vets. lol
I saw you were playing lol, what excellent timing. Tell me about David! They totally might know each other
