A while back I heard about two very weird guys who inhabit an old brownstone in brooklyn. Apparently, they have made it their task to live in the 19th century-no TV, radio, electricity, etc. They dress in antique cloths (stove pipe hats, price albert coats), they even read only literature from the 19th century. Is it totally possible to live in another era? There are theme villages (Williamsburg VBA, Plymouth,MA) where actors get paid to impersonate people from past ages-why would anybody do this seriously?
No phone? No lights? No motorcar?
Not a single luxury?
Sounds primitive as can be.
Sounds to me like an Amish Paradise…
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity
“Apparently, they have made it their task to live in the 19th century-no TV, radio, electricity, etc.”
Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but electric lights and telephones not only existed in (late) 19th Century Brooklyn but were relatively common. Our late 19th Century, at least middle class, predecessors also had elevators (manual), elevated trains (these two guys do NOT have to either walk or ride in horse carriages to get around), central steam or gas heat, electric stoves, and electric fans.
So, when you say they’re emulating a 19th Century existence, the crucial question to me is WHEN in the 19th Century. 1865? Gas lights, wood stoves, and horse carriages. Very tough on a person used to modern conveniences. 1895? Electric lights, electric stoves, and elevated trains. Not too bad if you live in the city anyway and you don’t mind missing your e-mail and “Ally McBeal”.
I remember reading about these guys in some magazine a couple years back. It was fascinating and strange at the same time. I think once a year they toss out an appliance ( out of a window) to show how disconnected they are from the modern world.
As time goes by, I’ve decided these guys are probably: gay and don’t have all their wiring up to code, but harmless to the mainstream population. I don’t recall what they did to support themselves.
I remember reading back in the 1970s about a guy who insisted on living as though it were the 1890s.
So, I wonder—is he now living as if it were the 1910s? Are these two Brooklyn guys going to advance with the times? “Hey, Cornelius—they just invented the photo-play, let’s go see one!”
Has living in the past ever been diagnosed as a bona fide psychological/psychiatric disorder? Just curious, but it does bring to mind the fact that I’ve always had a bit of a fixation on the last century (soon to be the century before last) myself, and I was distressed when that 125 year old French lady (who had met Vincent Van Gogh) finally passed away; it seemed as if she represented the last living memory of that age.
DHR
I still can’t get the hang of these newfangled, indoor, self-flushing outhouses.
I believe the two kooks in brooklyn we in the 1840’s. They were seen walking around in stove pipe hats. In the 1840’s, there was no electricity, but maybe flush toilets.
1840’s? At least they can mosey down to Nassau Street and pick some Nat Currier to hang on the walls.
No Ives, though. John wouldn’t join the operation until 1857.
Don’t worry Zette, I laughed at your Weird Al reference.
awwww funnee, I knew you would!
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity
It’s more Finney than funny…
There’s a Y2K joke in here somewhere, I just haven’t thought of it yet…
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”