In support of what Holly said (childrens’ lives used to be pretty cheap) I once visited an archeological site in Illinois. The dig was from the Mississippian period, about A.D. 1000 (I think). At any rate, I asked if there were any human remains there and they said that no adult remains were found (their cemetery was on a nearby hill) but there were childrens’ bones, since children weren’t considered worth burying properly until they reached an age where there survival was likely, about 5 or 6 years old.
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham
From what’s said here, we’re supposed to believe that in times past children and parents were separated most of the time – and yet the present gospel seems to be infinitely repeated – that many of our social problems today result from our children not having enough contact with their parents. I guess I don’t really believe anything people say about such things.
Should I conclude that Tori Amos’ portrait was removed from my post to this thread on grounds of taste, rather than on violation of copyright? I guess I don’t know the approved mix of emotions “appropriate” to such a picture. I think it generally brings out some conflicting ones. I agree the act depicted clashes a bit with commercial usage of its image, and maybe even with being so photographed. But it always gets me how so much positive raving is done over quite unenlightening fictional writings, discussions and works of “art” which deal with anything controversial that is of a bodily nature; whereas a simple photograph of same can draw forth, in short order, whatever is to be emoted. . .and then we can go on to more intellectually interesting subjects.
The picture came from a small booklet I once found in an urban street next to my car. It contains a range of rather unordinary, down-home, disruptive shots of Tori, along with some dumb song lyrics. None are blatantly pornographic, but two bother me in respect to their implying an association of sex with fire. I don’t know how the pamphlet was used in relation to selling her recordings. I don’t have any money to spend on CDs. It was produced for Atlantic Recording Corporation and WEA International Inc.
I also once found a tape cassette of The Notorious B.I.G. in the street. Unimaginably gross and rotten. Amazing what can sell today.
Ray (Honest, I don’t pick up everything lying in the street. I leave the drunks in their peaceful stupor. )
OK, now, let’s try this again. Perhaps it works better with humans on the other end of the straw, and a sculptor gets into the buffer zone to boot (well, to Italy) (and since BG and his dad are busy giving away BG’s fortune these days, I don’t think they’d care if I momentarily link to this image which says “Copyright Microsoft”):
Well, if your “mammary” serves you right (with a napkin, that is), Romulus and Remus (according to an NQYUL (not quite yet urban legend)), after being suckled for a short time by a wolf, figured out which species they were, and decided to found a city where Caesar, the Pope and many strands of spaghetti could find proper realspace sites in which to hang out. Thus was established the City to Which All Roads Lead. Perhaps this was also the origin of the term ‘to wolf down your meal’. Not sure how that plays in Latin or Italian though.
It is not known whether their parents were well off or poor, or as to the character of the wolf, other than that she was apparently kind to stray humans. This act, however, apparently never got even her name into the history books. She was thinking of cutting a CD and getting her picture taken while nursing, in order to advertise it, but this sculptor happened along and told her other wolves would be shocked by her lactational act with human babies, rather than the ingestive one proper for such morsels – and beside, he’d go ahead and list her CD on the pedestal of his statue of her nursing the foreseen founders of Rome, and give her a small cut of his take from the Roman treasury for his masterpiece of the founders of Rome as viewed at that early human age known as sit-tall nursing. (Do wolves really nurse standing up? Or do they just pose that way when they see a sculptor (excuse the expression) coming. Maybe they are seen as less lascivious in that position. )
Ray (with a preference for goats, I mean when it comes to milk)
The social environment has changed a wee bit since the High Middle Ages. If it were still considered harmless amusement for landed magnates to grab a sword, hack their neighbors’ serfs to death, and demand ruinous ransoms in return for letting said neighbors go back to what passes for a normal life, I think that we’d reckon that there were a lot fewer social problems.
The theory that Romulus and Remus (assuming that they ever existed) were suckled by a wolf is given the same credence by serious historians (i.e., those who don’t wear tinfoil linings in their hats) as is Livy’s hypothesis that “lupa” meant “prostitute” in 8th century BCE Latium, and that they were suckled by a whore – none whatsoever.
“Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away.”
BTW, I hope my illustrations here are not considered kiddie porn. It’s just that wild kids back then didn’t wear diapers. . .even when they were posing for sculptors. . .at least where there wasn’t any city yet to set the rules – because they had to get a little more nourishment first, before starting to pile up the bricks.
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