Peeking into the rock

It only took me half an hour of fruitless reading in wikipedia and beyond to realize that the people who write about the history of clothes online have no idea what they're talking about and don't care.

It's not that I find a lot of errors in these articles. Who could? They are so vague and unhelpful that they could tell straight-up lies and be no more or less true. I'm trying to find out what a junior clerk in a government ministry would wear to work every day, and what his chief minister would wear, in Eastern Europe, at the turn of the 19th-29th centuries. I know I'm not going to get much that is Eastern Europe specific, but I can hope to get a "continental" look. But no. I get a lot of blather that doesn't distinguish among classes, doesn't distinguish among types of clothing other than "formal" and "informal." Well, in the article on tailcoats there's a lot of discussion as to what to wear when riding horses for recreation. This is not helpful. There's not even an explanation of whether businessmen wore "morning coats," and it can't be taken for granted, as the wording nearby implies that they're only talking about the most rarified members of society.

I have found some pictures of laboring men from the period, over the years, so if Yanek was a miner or a carpenter's apprentice I could dress him rather confidently. Also, I can dress Bulo, the young peasant he admires. I can dress Bulo for plowing, for chestnut gathering, for going to a party, and for getting married. Yanek I just guess at. And when he imagines himself the Chief Minister in the future, as the Duke plans for him, I am forced to try to imagine what dressing somewhat like a prince but less so would look like, because princes and presidents is all you get.

I should go to the library.

Content advisory: this contains very personal, possibly contentious, potentially offensive material about religion and its place in the current cultural and political landscape.  I'm not looking for a fight.  I'm not looking to be convinced I'm wrong, or to be vindicated by other people's experience. I'm mourning a personal loss. (most of the performer links lead to different songs from the ones I'm talking about)


I've told Emma about this.  I've lost a big chunk of my heritage just recently.  I grew up listening to old scratchy records, some of them older than my father, largely from the South (black and white).  The soundtrack of my childhood was the Carter Family, the Ernest V. Stoneman, the Skillet Lickers, Ma Rainey, of course Bessie Smith,  and Memphis Minnie, Bob Wills, Jelly Roll Morton,  Jimmy Rodgers, and I could go on and on but the point is just to express the range.  I remember my mother asking my father how come I sounded like Maybelle Carter whenever I opened my mouth (I wished I sounded like Sarah instead, but there it is). We had a great big speaker (one, this is before most people had stereos, and the old records were all mono), and I practically climbed into it, picking at the woven straw that covered the friont while I sang along with the Blue Sky Boys. (that link leads to "Are You From Dixie?" -- if you're suffering from the same problem I am, you probably shouldn't click this.  On the other hand, if you worship fine mandolin technique . . .)

A lot of those songs are highly religious.  Some of them were really, really reactionary, but in the political landscape of my youth they seemed quaint rather than threatening.  These days, because of the aggressive, highly organized, and increasingly effective war that the religious right is waging against the world, I can't sing some of my favorite songs, and I turn the radio dial when I hear music that should make me nostalgic -- honestly, if I hear even a certain singing style or a certain kind of instrumentation, unless I very quickly recognize the song to be one that doesn't make me sick to my stomach, I'll turn the radio off.

I can't hear Uncle Dave Macon singing "Shall We Gather at the River?" without remembering that at least half a dozen of his songs were direct attacks on learning and science, and without realizing that the import of that song and others like it -- "Diamonds in the Rough,"  "Bringing in the Sheaves," "Where the Soul Never Dies" -- is that the state of this world and its future do not matter because the elect will leave it all behind and go live with their god who made this jewel and then sanctioned its destruction.

I can't hear "Amazing Grace," even, though it was one of my favorites to sing at the sink when the kids were growing up, even though the story -- that the man who wrote it had been the captain of a slave ship, and had come to realize how horrible it was, and quite, and become religious somewhere in the process --that story used to seem so sweet to me.  Now I hear it, and I hear smugness in the voices of the people who sing it (don't bother telling me that there are some upstanding freedom fighters who love to sing this song.  This isn't about that: it's about my own state of terror).



Honestly, it all sounds like the Horst Wessel song to me at this point.  All of it.  Even Blind Lemon Jefferson singing "See that my grave is kept clean."  Even Doc Watson singing about old Daniel (you can see a bit of Pete Seeger listening in that video), or Mary and Martha, or Paul and Simon.  Especially Dock Boggs singing "Oh Death."

It's an extreme reaction, but I'm looking at a hideous, hideous thing, dressed up in traditional values, threatening to make The Handmaid's Tale look like The Poky Little Puppy.  (and what the hell, Wikipedia?  how is that more notable than Nick Mamatas?)  I was raised to embrace everybody's culture, to celebrate the best of everybody's values and traditions, to tolerate different world views.  It all seems so luxurious now, with respectable politicians coming right out and saying out loud in so many words how little they value my people and my land, how much they hate people like me.  And by people like me, I mean: Women.  Mothers.  Working people.  People who don't make a lot of money.  People whose jobs enable other people to work and go to school and live better lives.  People who need health care in order to live productive lives. Non-christians.  People who work to defend the actual living world we're in.

Fortunately, "Life's Railway to Heaven" is not a complete wash -- there's still the labor version,  "Weaver's Life is Like an Engine." (which I cannot find on youtube, naturally)  However, if I should hear the instrumental intro, am I going to stick around for the probably trauma, on the off chance that I'll get to hear the good old voices reminding me that there are times and places where the USian working class thinks for itself and has opinions that are not vile and slaved to the interests of the richest of the rich?