Sunday, October 26, 2008

What were the commonalities and differences between 18th century elite and popular cultures?

I'm just going to list them.
1.) Their names; "elite" "popular"
2.) The number of letters in their names; "5" and "7"
3.) The word "elite"is a palindrome because it... (I'm just kidding)
Commonalities
1.)They both read books, if they knew how to read.
2.)They both got drunk and drank coffee.
3.)Many of them shared a common religion and even attended the same churches.
4.)Everyone took pleasure in the execution of witch's and believed in magic, but less and less throughout the 18th century.
4.)Both cultures attended carnivals where a good time of cross-dressing and bearbaiting could be had by all, but again, less and less as the century bumbled on.
5.)Both got the common cold (like today, you just had to let it take it's course).
6.)Some attended the same theatres to watch the same plays.
7.)Both had at least one candle.
8.)Both had windows of varying sizes and materials (for some popular persons, their window was the world itself, that's because they were homeless)
9.)Both were humans of varying height and eye color; neither one was perfect.
Differences
1.)They technically spoke different languages (no wonder why you weren't supposed to speak until spoken to, you'd give yourself away) the elite speaking the national language and the popular speaking varying vernaculars.
2.)The elite lived in large houses with glass windows and often times broke down and cried if the curtains didn't match the wall-paper, while the popular might've had a house, a chair, or both!
3.)When the elite were sick, they went to see expensive doctors. When the popular were sick they went to see the old hermit woman in the forest who gave them magic potions (sometimes for just one green rupee) to replenish their HP so that they could continue their quest to save princess Zelda.
4.)The elite often changed their educated minds with the times, while the popular remained barricaded in their huts under the assumption that the Thirty Years War was still being waged (they didn't get the newspaper).
5.)Many of the popular worked all day long in the field harvesting wheat, while muttering to themselves not to eat it, which they sold, and then, that night they sat down to a meal of oat bread and a bean in a wooden bowl. The elite, in an attempt to emulate the peasants' ruggedness, sometimes threatened their cook with a pay cut when he hung himself because the meat was a little dry, or maybe, just for tonight, they might eat from "used" china instead of brand new, "unused" dishware, while staring at themselves in their many mirrors lit by chandeliers.
6.)In famine, the elite worried if their favorite dish was all out, the popular rioted out of fear of hunger and ate acorns.
7.)The elite fancied Roman and Greek mythology, in which the God Saturn enjoyed nothing more than devouring his own children, while the popular were quite pleased with medieval tales of chivalry and heroic, long-legged, men like Robin Hood who lived in the woods and ran about the land tossing out pouches of gold wherever there was a poor person down on his luck in need of some relief.
8.)The popular went to school because all of they're wildest dreams had come true, the elite went to school because their parents said they had to.
9.)The elite studied astronomy, the popular studied astrology (personally I find astrology much more interesting . . . but that's probably because my sun sign is Leo but my moon sign is Capricorn and not to mention there's Jupiter in the third house in opposition with Saturn and to make matters even worse my rising sign is Virgo . . .)
10.)The elite were vegetarians by choice, the popular couldn't afford meat and therefore were vegetarians.
11.)The popular got drunk out in the streets, while the elite perferred to get drunk from the comfort of their own homes.
12.)The elite were born into wealth making them high class, the poor were born into poverty making them low class (good to see they both got what they deserved).

Laramie (sorry Ms. Isikdag, but I read your comment after I made the post, I promise this is the last long one)

2 comments:

Denali said...

The sarcasm in this can make it hard to read...just sayin...

Lena said...

I actually like the sarcasm, it made things more interesting, and since we all read the chapters... we all should see through the sarcasm and appreciate the points being made on how huge the gap between the elite and the populars were.