I’m glad to have spread the gorey news regarding Daumier. Some commenters were evidently unfamiliar. Here’s a nice Flickr set if you just want to browse. But, for CT’s especially philosophically-minded and discerning readership, one from Daumier’s “Histoire Ancienne” series. (It also belongs in my collection of philosophers looking silly. This one is also good.)
I present: Socrates doing a soft cancan, to Aspasia’s discomfort.
I’m not sure if this counts as manspreading, but I’m sure if he tried that on the train, it would be the sort of thing Jezebel would post a photo of. I’ve never seen this image used on the cover of someone’s book on philosophy and gender. I can’t imagine why not. It would sell.
I feel guilty to have proposed such an awesome science fiction idea at the tail end of the Daumier thread, and then not to be able to devote my life to its production. But I’ve got to pay the bills, man.
As a consolation prize, I bring you the good news that the second best idea ever for an Action Science spoof – after mine – is coming to the web, for free (but they are hoping for your Patreon patronage): Atomic Robo. I’ve praised it before. Both my daughters love it. Belle loves it. The nuclear family that reads Atomic Robo together sticks together – or has a relatively slow, radioactive decay rate. Or something. Look, I’ll just show you a picture.
Futuresaurus Rex!
Dr. Dinosaur’s greatest creation! A killing machine so perfect it coughs up lugers to wield in its tiny claws! Awwww. Dr. Dinosaur is an brilliant villain. The running gag is basically that Robo, who practices the wildest sort of Action Science, is perpetually exasperated by Dr. D’s even more preposterous shenanigans. Hence it comes to pass that if you want something done, around our house, but aren’t sure how, “by timevolution!” is the answer. (Hey, it created Futuresaurus Rex.)
So far they’ve only got the first volume posted, and some FCBD assorted items. You should know: the first volume is good, but the series really hits its stride with volume 3. So be patient. In the meantime, some of the FCBD stuff is the best. Especially the “Perfectly Legitimate Team-Up Issue”, with Dr. D. and Futuresaurus Rex. Also, Crystals!
{ 15 comments }
Minnow 01.22.15 at 4:12 pm
“I’m not sure if this counts as manspreading”
I hope not because it is, after all, just dancing. If it is ‘manspreading’ to dance expressively and ‘dad dancing’ to do the usual embarrassed shuffles, we poor white dudes really have nowhere to go.
lurker 01.22.15 at 4:50 pm
Obligatory gun-nut nitpick: those are broomhandle mausers, not Lugers.
J Thomas 01.22.15 at 5:22 pm
Obligatory gun-nut nitpick: those are broomhandle mausers, not Lugers.
Obligatory semiotic nitpick: Those are cartoon pictures, not mauzers.
MPAVictoria 01.22.15 at 6:11 pm
“Obligatory semiotic nitpick: Those are cartoon pictures, not mauzers.”
Thats not a knife! Its a spoon!
James Wimberley 01.22.15 at 8:36 pm
Daumier also created remarkable caricature sculptures – you can find them in the Musée d’Orsay. Did he invent the genre? Mediaeval gargoyles are not really specific enough. Has he had successors? The marketing problem is that until very recently, mass reproduction has been impracticable.
Collin Street 01.22.15 at 8:52 pm
> A killing machine so perfect it coughs up lugers to wield in its tiny claws!
Small Arms Control Treaty now!
John Holbo 01.22.15 at 11:10 pm
“Did he invent the genre?”
They are pretty unique. One thing he did first was a sculpture of his character, the villain Robert Macaire. The first pop culture action figure?
Ian 01.23.15 at 12:40 am
Most of the Histoire Ancienne series are pretty funny, but given that Socrates never really cared about how silly he looked, and was said to have taken up dancing as an old man, I think he’s still ahead of Daumier on points.
Or perhaps Daumier was actually making fun of the cancan. Which is about as silly as a dance can get.
Hogan 01.23.15 at 12:55 am
I just love that understated “CATCH” sound effect.
John Holbo 01.23.15 at 1:23 am
“Most of the Histoire Ancienne series are pretty funny, but given that Socrates never really cared about how silly he looked, and was said to have taken up dancing as an old man, I think he’s still ahead of Daumier on points.”
I think so, too! Definitely! I was going to say the same but I was too eager to get on to Atomic Robo. I was going to say that the funny thing is this: the whole “Ancienne Histoire” gag pretty much depends on drawing ancient heroes and mythological figures as if they are modern, i.e. a bunch of sorry looking Parisian bourgeois-types. Obviously it’s intended as a vicious cut at ‘historical’ paintings that do the Greeks and Roman up all noble. But you can’t really do that to Socrates, because he’s already so self-mocking. Also, he’s sort of precociously modern. Socrates, as a type, wouldn’t be out of place in 19th Century Paris. So drawing him doing to cancan is funny, but not really any more incongruous than Socrates already was in Athens.
Ian 01.23.15 at 2:56 am
Yeah, on reflection I shouldn’t have implied that Daumier was outsmarting himself. He had a kind of spotty education but with some interesting mentors, and presumably he had the basic classics vocabulary of his time that would have included the Socrates stories. (Cf the presence of Aspasia, with her authentic Athenian violin.) So maybe the cartoon is intended as one sardonic observer’s salute to another sardonic observer. There seem to be several things going on here, unlike the cartoons from mythology which as you say are just satirical bathos – funny, but one-dimensional. Usually in Daumier cartoons what you see is what you get, eg a venal histrionic lawyer probably is a venal histrionic lawyer, a big guy taking up too much space in an omnibus probably is a big guy taking up too much space in an omnibus. This is not an attempt to restart the custard pie fight in the other thread.
rea 01.23.15 at 1:05 pm
‘At this point the boy performed a dance, eliciting from Socrates the remark, “Did you notice that, handsome (kalos) as the boy is, he appears even handsomer (kallion) in the poses of the dance than when he is at rest?â€
‘“It looks to me,†said Charmides, “as if you were puffing the dancing-master.â€
‘“Assuredly,†replied Socrates; “and I remarked something else, too – that no part of his body was idle during the dance, but neck, legs, and hands were all active together. And that is the way a person must dance who intends to increase the suppleness of his body. And for myself,†he continued, addressing the Syracusan [the dancing-master], “I should be delighted to learn the figures from you.â€
‘“What use will you make of them?†the other asked.
‘“I will dance, by Zeus!â€
‘This raised a general laugh; but Socrates, with a perfectly grave expression on his face, said: “You are laughing at me, are you? Is it because I want to exercise to better my health? Or because I want to take more pleasure in my food and sleep? Or is it because I am eager for such exercises as these, not like the long-distance runners, who develop their legs at the expense of their shoulders, nor like the prize fighters, who develop their shoulders but become thin-legged, but rather with a view to giving my body a symmetrical development by exercising it in every part? Or are you laughing because I shall not need to hunt up a partner to exercise with, or to strip, old as I am, in a crowd, but shall find a moderate-sized room large enough for me (just as this room was large enough for the lad here to get up a sweat in), and because in winter I shall exercise under cover, and when it is very hot, in the shade? Or is this what provokes your laughter, that I have an unduly large paunch and wish to reduce it? Don’t you know that just the other day Charmides here caught me dancing early in the morning?â€
‘“Indeed I did,†said Charmides, “and at first I was dumbfounded and feared that you were going stark mad; but when I heard you say much the same thing as you did just now, I myself went home, and although I did not dance, for I had never learned how, I practiced shadow-boxing, for I knew how to do that.‒–From Xenonphon (Plato was not he only pupil of Socrates to write dialogues), Symposium
passer-by 01.23.15 at 1:25 pm
The caricature’s legend:
Socrates at Aspasia’s
As he liked wine and young girls, Socrates after dinner would drop the wisdom, and like a docker at lovely Lorettes’ (high class hookers / escorts), he’d dance his light cancan.
I guess the text (that really does not fit the drawing at all) is mostly there to make it absolutely clear that the drawing is mostly making fun of Parisian bourgeois. I doubt that Daumier could have ignored that Socrates never cared about young girls a bit.
yabonn 01.24.15 at 7:40 pm
the whole “Ancienne Histoire†gag pretty much depends on drawing ancient heroes and mythological figures as if they are modern, i.e. a bunch of sorry looking Parisian bourgeois-types
Also see Offenbach (well, Meilhac/Halévy) for that type of things. La Belle Helene is plenty fun.
Minnow 01.29.15 at 10:50 am
Rea @12
That sounds like Socrates inventing aerobics.
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