In times long since past, if you had a modicum of talent (or even a great deal of it) and prescribed to doing something with it to sustain your sanity and maybe by chance, help make the firmament a better place for all, you studied, took lessons, taught yourself a craft, maybe attended college (during times loooong since past when bat guano was still considered shit and not a new art form) and got on with kicking life’s ass as best as your abilities might afford.
“Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.” ― Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
Mary Flannery O’Connor lived only until her 39th year. She was diagnosed with Lupus at the age of 25, yet still managed to write 32 short stories, 2 novels and other works before succumbing to the disease. If you’ve read any of my shitpostings, you’ll know I adore this woman and her works.
Now, not many of us were blessed with the talents of an O’Connor, Beethoven, Mozart, Poe, Tolstoy and more but we are blessed with the ability to teach ourselves.
Sir Edward Elgar, as an English composer, was mostly self taught. He read books, studied manuals on playing the organ, and read every book he could find on music theory.
“The young Elgar, therefore, had the great advantage of growing up in a thoroughly practical musical atmosphere. He studied the music available in his father’s shop and taught himself to play a wide variety of instruments. It is a remarkable fact that Elgar was very largely self-taught as a composer – evidence of the strong determination behind his original and unique genius. His long struggle to establish himself as a pre-eminent composer of international repute was hard and often bitter. For many years he had to contend with apathy, with the prejudices of the entrenched musical establishment, with religious bigotry (he was a member of the Roman Catholic minority in a Protestant majority England) and with a late Victorian provincial society where class consciousness pervaded everything.” excerpt from Sir Edward Elgar – A Short Biography – by Ian Lace
Other autodidacts (a self-taught person) include:
- Ernest Hemingway – American author and novelist. Primarily self educated post high school
- George Bernard Shaw – Playwright. Quoted as saying, “I did not learn anything at school”.
- Frank Zappa – Musician. “Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you’ve got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read.”
- Frida Kahlo, painter, who is best known for her self-portraits.
- Henry Ford – Founder of Ford Motor Company, who did not attend college.
- David Bowie – Musician
- Jimi Hendrix – Musician
- Frederick Douglas – Editor, orator, statesman
- Malcolm X – copied a dictionary word for word while in prison for 7 years to expand his vocabulary
- Benjamin Franklin
- Jean Michel Basquiat, painter and graffiti artist.
- Frank Lloyd Wright – Architect
- …a more extensive list of Autodidacts can be found here
Meanwhile….all of the above was then, but THIS is now:
Indian woman set to marry herself – via rt.com
The 24-year-old says it is an act of self-acceptance and self-love
She says her decision to tie the knot with herself came after she realized she would become the first woman in India to practice sologamy and “set an example of self-love.”
“Self-marriage is a commitment to be there for yourself and unconditional love for oneself. It’s also an act of self-acceptance. People marry someone they love. I love myself and hence this wedding,” she explained.
Oh dear!
And speaking of commitments to one’s self….is it advisable to be committed to self-love when one’s self is a complete imbecile?
Wait!!! Haven’t we seen this person before?
And then there are those for whom no amount of self-love can help:
Report: White House wants to sell our killer drones to Ukraine – via responsiblestatecraft.org
Biden tells us we are not enabling Ukraine to strike outside its borders, but we seem to be giving it every opportunity to do so.
It was literally only yesterday that President Biden assured the country in a New York Times op-ed that we would not provide weapons to Ukraine that could penetrate deep inside Russia, risking an escalation to a wider war with Moscow. Now reports are emerging that the White House may be readying to sell Kyiv some of our best killer drones which have the capability of doing just that.
more from the article:
In his op-ed in the New York Times Tuesday, Biden assured, “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
Yet the Pentagon announced a new $700 million package just yesterday that includes advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 50 miles, which has the potential of hitting targets within Russia. U.S. officials insisted, however, that they received “assurances” from Ukrainian leaders that they would not be used against Russian territory. The delivery systems, by the way, can be outfitted with longer range missiles down the road.
Yep…no problems, no issues here in the U.S. Everything is jake, right Joey!
Back to the autodidact, Sir Edward Elgar, for sanity…
Dispatches from the Asylum 