Comments on: Help A Brother Out

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:09:14 +0000

“Fair” enough! May just take you up on that.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:44:22 +0000

If you want to catalyze carnivals in Minnesota, I have a spare futon and a couch.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:40:51 +0000

Thanks for the reference. That’s a good one. I’m reading a book right now about the French-Indian War as well, so the point is useful there as well.

- Convicts, prisoners is another good one

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:08:04 +0000

marriage law

My coworker turned herself into an expert in Creole geneology just by researching her own family. (Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau and near Catholic Saint Henriette Delille share an ancestor with my coworker.) The history of Black people in America is usually obscure but the history of Black people in territories ruled by the French (Napoleonic Law) is obscure to most Black people too. This is a good place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pla%C3%A7age

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:45:37 +0000

Yeah, there is a bar called “The Rendezvous” here in town. It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy - in the nicest possible way. I think those kinds of seasonal trading-celebrations are pretty much universal around the world.

Incidentally, I’m interested in coming up with a master list of marginal figures in modern culture and history which I can shoe-horn into this series.

Some of my other ideas, which I’d love to have other people expand on:

- Merchants, travelling salesmen {see also: snake oil medicine shows}
- Hospitality industry: waiters, waitresses, hotels, maids
- Healers & hospitals: country doctors, apothecaries, druggists, drug dealers
- Sex workers: strippers, prostitutes, escorts, marriage law, cultural taboos and imprinting around sex and genetics
- Missionaries: priests, pastors and so on
- Soldiers & sailors: mercenaries, army followers, pirates, privateers, the rules of war, martial law
- Pioneers, settlers, mountain-men
- Messengers & diplomats
- Teamsters, truckers, delivery, livery

Just off the top of my head. Please please give me other good ideas. I feel like we’re beginning to be on a roll here… And I personally see this subject matter as becoming more and more important as economic conditions shift downward (at least in the US), and people begin to suddenly have the wool pulled out of their eyes - or whatever the proper expression would be here.

By: Ted Heistman

Ted Heistman — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:08:32 +0000

The carnivals that the mountian men went to were called “fur rondevous” just so you know. They would trap all winter and come to town and celebrate in the spring and sell their furs.

Good luck.

Ted

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:50:55 +0000

Mountain men is a great idea. I will definitely do that, probably combined with pioneers/settlers and maybe with a tangent about colonialism.

Carnival Culture would make a great book, I agree. As you know, all of my writing is now in the public domain, so as it stands, anyone is free to make and sell books using it or any content from my website - free of charge, and without my express permission. Beyond that, I would definitely entertain reasonable offers from editors, publishers and literary agents to develop this content into a more “saleable” mainstream format.

Plans for this next month are already underway: I have been writing and recording poetry and music. There’s a chance I may “go on tour” with an associate of mine, though that may take a little bit longer. Once I’m on the move again and rolling, I essentially want to catalyze carnivals in my wake. Seems like a good goal!

By: Ted Heistman

Ted Heistman — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:25:48 +0000

So what do you plan to do next month? Not trying to be a dick or anything, just wondering. I think Carnival culture would make a cool book.

Ever consider doing a piece on mountian men? Those were some “on the fringe” characters.