Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was a really cool guy, actually @yellowbelliedtoad - Tumblr Blog

Me, thinking I've proofread my paper:

My humble paper:

Learning Latin top experiences: realizing, with developing horror, that so many details I wrote in print about the consideration of a certain translation of Johnson's Latin poetry are all really inaccurate.

Just. I need a moment to accept this. And maybe scream into a pillow.

#In reality it's not too bad #I called something very accurate to source (based off of praise I had heard of it)#and the mood it provokes according to a few authors who do understand the Latin #But even in my really elementary Latin I can tell that I did wrong already #Samuel Johnson #Poetry

I've already enjoyed Classical poetry, but translation has opened up a whole new aspect of impact, and not in the way I expected. Knowing the deeper meanings in the actual words is nice - I mean, of course it's so much better to understand the actual, original words.

But there's also a certain unique comedic anger to struggling through an entire poem that's purposefully strangely written, just to see at the end that the entire thing was leading up to, "You'll ask the gods to make all of you into a nose." What does that mean???!!

#This is indeed Catullus 13 #Which my class gave the first line of #“You will dine well my Fabullus chez moi in a few days Inshallah.”#And now French Catullus haunts my nightmares

kaiserin-erzsebet

The part of the museum on the time period I don't study: wow! Cool! Neat! Fascinating!

The part on the time period I do: ugh, insufficient, trite, clearly drawing from outdated historiography. Who wrote these signs and can I have a word with them?

#This puts. So many thoughts. Into one post.#That being said I am absolutely thrilled to go see an exhibit on the Etruscans later.#The minor historiographical errors I cannot see cannot hurt me. At least emotionally.#(Ah wait that's a negligent idea. Scratch that.)

"MONDAY, 12 JANUARY: Should have laboured. But time just elapsed, know not how."

— Journals of James Boswell (1778)

Me too, buddy. Me too.

#James Boswell #18th Century

The embarrassment of checking in for the first time in months to your research project's weekly discussion.

Like, hello, all..... Long time no see....

#Listen the portal did corrupt for me #So I spent a few weeks working without dropping in on the chat #But..... I barely have an excuse other than that other than oh gosh life has been busy

my-deer-friend

Dissertation word count: 18,758/15,000 Me: Yikes! Time to do some cutting and editing. [four hours later] Dissertation word count: 19,143/15,000

my-deer-friend

[ten days of blood, sweat, tears, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes etc etc later] Dissertation word count: 17,690/15,000

my-deer-friend

Good news: My draft is complete!

Bad news: I need to cut 1,231 absolutely essential load-bearing words to hit my word limit.

my-deer-friend

She's done. 14 words under the maximum word count.

But Deer! Aren't there 8k words in your footno– [gunshots]

#Relatable.......#Do /not/ look too close at the hyphenated words that get counted as a single word.

rslashrats

making up characters is so fun because you can be like “this is johnson he came from my mind” and all your friends will go “yippe!!! horray!!! we love johnson!!!”

rslashrats

very unfortunate but hilarious side effect of calling the example oc johnson in this post is now people are saying this in the tags

yellowbelliedtoad

Sigh. I cannot count how many times the search "Johnson Dictionary" has given me this misinterpretation.

#Johnson's Dictionary

dreaminterlude

we’re never making it out of the labyrinth

yellowbelliedtoad

I think there's something in Rasselas about this.

clove-pinks

Long 18th century vs. Long 19th century: winner gets to claim the Napoleonic Era and the 1790s.

my-deer-friend

Oh, friend, you consider those a prize? Bah. You can have Napoleon, and the 1790s are on thin ice too.

I propose that the long 18th century grows backwards to subsume the 1660s instead. The real victory in century-based expansionism is getting to claim arch-gossip Samuel Pepys.

yellowbelliedtoad

I feel that this is the time to say that, though I know there can be a long, long, academic discussion as what counts as modern, I've always used Samuel Johnson as a marker between whatever age the Baroque is, and whatever age the Early Modern is. Johnson dies in 1784: bam, we're in the modern world. I'm not too familiar with this "Long 19th Century," even less the "Long 18th Century," but I still humbly propose the "Johnson's Corpse" model.

#As unacademic this is for me #This is actually a thing #With English scholars using the term “The Age of Johnson”

I'm finishing up a paper that I should have written a long time ago, supporting myself by far too many cups of tea and lemonade. This is the Samuel Johnson way.

#I do mean this quite literally #Johnson avoided alcohol and would instead drink lemonade or tea when out and abroad #He once drank 21 cups of tea in one sitting!

aynrandbussycrusher

hi, you've reached the marriam Webster hotline. marriam Webster is not in right now.

if you'd like the definition of aardvark press 1

if youd like the definition of aardwolf press 2

#I laughed so hard at this.#This is how we do it at Johnson's Dictionary Online #But first you must listen to our preface about how absolutely depressing it is to work on Dictionaries.

teamhawkeye

We put glow collars on the dogs when we walk them at night, and it is Extremely™️ effective on Boswell

#One day I am going to have a dog called Boswell.#And then possibly name every other pet “Boswell” too.#Best companion name!

yellowbelliedtoad

Our scientific word for beetles, "Coleoptera," comes from the Greek koleos, for "sheath," and ptera, "wing." I'm not exactly sure who popularized this in English, but be glad it was not Samuel Johnson. He had the same idea, with the words for "sheath," and "wing." This is all the same! Unfortunately, he used Latin.

yellowbelliedtoad

His definition of ladybug/ladybird also shows up with this term.

#Samuel Johnson #Entymology

Our scientific word for beetles, "Coleoptera," comes from the Greek koleos, for "sheath," and ptera, "wing." I'm not exactly sure who popularized this in English, but be glad it was not Samuel Johnson. He had the same idea, with the words for "sheath," and "wing." This is all the same! Unfortunately, he used Latin.

#Samuel Johnson #Entymology

yellowbelliedtoad

Good news: I got accepted into a program that teaches around two years of university Latin! As someone who has been working on quite literally the Latin poems of Johnson, it's mortifying to admit that I actually don't know Latin. So, I'm really glad to finally have this opportunity.

Bad news: it is two years of Latin, condensed into ten weeks. This dead language will come easy to me because I might actually be dead by the end of it.

yellowbelliedtoad

I come armed with a fluency in Johnsonese, atrociously accented Spanglish, and a Roman Republic professor (who took this same program many decades ago) who says that I have good historical instinct. Let's see how far I can make it.

Good news: I got accepted into a program that teaches around two years of university Latin! As someone who has been working on quite literally the Latin poems of Johnson, it's mortifying to admit that I actually don't know Latin. So, I'm really glad to finally have this opportunity.

Bad news: it is two years of Latin, condensed into ten weeks. This dead language will come easy to me because I might actually be dead by the end of it.

#Samuel Johnson #Academia

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Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was a really cool guy, actually