Hello? I'm. Super new.

Ahhhhh, yay! History majors are not super common, tbh. Even in my higher level history classes there are less than expected. Western American history is sooooooo cool, as is Cold War history despite not being my field. I don't know that much about it but I ought to learn more.

 

Hello, stranger ;)

 

I think memes are part of the appeal of pop culture! They've been around for a really long time--much longer than the internet, the internet just caused them to Boom, quite like fanfiction; think Kilroy was here--and I kind of feel like...they bring people together? Plus I think they're funny. Though I find some of them really gross, like Pedobear, even though that one's really old. (I'm not an 'anti', really, I just don't like really really really dark humor and I think it tends to be a little mean because I'm a softie.)

 

I like the concept of pop culture in general and I especially like tropes/narrative conventions (my dad always got mildly irked when I call them tropes, he's a lit professor and is like 'everyone uses that word too much now IT USED TO MEAN SOMETHING DIFFERENT DAMN IT, even if he's accepted it by now). I delight in watching TV and movies and picking out the narrative conventions used, like stock phrases and so on. I even keep a list of common jokes that I call 'Never Gets Old' (among those: 'You should sit down/I'm already sitting down', sudden hyperbolic aggression over something tiny, "if that's even your real name", and then one that my dad noted that he really likes and that I really like too--when someone pretends to be an expert on something for X reason and then ends up talking to an ACTUAL EXPERT ON THE THING and has to bs their way through pretending they know what they're talking about").

So, I like sitcoms, and TV history, and movie history. I also like things 'purely intellectually'--let me explain: I know a lot about a lot of things I haven't actually watched, because they're important but like heck am I watching Cannibal Holocaust.

 

Thank you!!!

 

Welcome!

Oh man, when I was a kid I thought American history was boring. Bad textbooks, I guess. Then I finally signed up for a college class with an excellent history teacher, and that shit is fascinating!

I don't know much about the Old West. I think the closest (really not very close at all) recently encountered tidbit I can think of is from when I read the book The Devil in the White City. It mentioned the Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a show that ended up setting up outside the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. I think they'd tried to get space within the fair but were denied, which in hindsight was probably a mistake because the show was a great success. In addition to Buffalo Bill, I believe Annie Oakley participated. I would have loved to have seen that.

Yeah, so as I was just demonstrating, this is a forum with its own fair complement of people who ramble. You need not worry about that. ^_^

I'm also a big fan of the MCU! Yay, you mentioned Scott! Scott needs more love.

 

I've always loved history and always been #blessed with good teachers (mostly after elementary school). I mean, early in elementary school there was totally the whole ~pilgrims and Indians in harmony on Thanksgiving some people should dress as 'Native Americans', no, not of any tribe/band/Nation, we're not going to mention the fact that there's lots of different tribes/bands/Nations with different names and languages and histories and everything, silly rabbit nuance is for grown-ups, this isn't racist and misleading to impressionable children at all~, but the ancient history generally went well, as well as Civil Rights (which is also a big interest of mine; my Hero when I was in elementary school was Jackie Robinson and a lot of my favorite historical characters were non-white athletes or parts of the Civil Rights movement. Have you ever heard of Maria Tall Chief? She was the first American prima ballerina and part of the Osage Nation! I also thought she was the bee's knees).

Also at one point in seventh grade there was a class about slavery during which we crowded under desks to 'simulate slave ships' and also there was another point where I, who had no idea it was extremely gross because the teacher asked me to and by God I was going to put my heart and soul into playing this white dude plantation owner from the 1800s, played devil's advocate in favor of slavery. I am now horrified, and very glad that as far as I remember there were no black kids in my class or, honestly, my elementary school. My town's black population is, uh...not large, and most were not born in my town but are going to university there.

BUT then, after, I had great history teachers and I'd already read a lot so I knew/know a lot about various things they didn't teach in history classes before, and my AP U.S. History teacher was one of the most amazing teachers I've ever had, hands down. And then my university has a really good history program, and a VERY good Western American Studies program, which isn't all historians but is all scholars of the West. I'm really glad that I ended up in that university with THAT program, given that I entered university with a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences major, even though I suck at science and didn't even like it that much.

Ooooooh, there's an A+ Cracked article about World Fairs that were disasters and the one you mentioned is on the list! It's a very funny article, would you like me to link it? I really, really like Cracked. (It's a comedy website, but it's gotten so much better than it was at the beginning, where they regularly used the r-word in their articles and titles. There's still some clueless ableist and generally gross stuff sprinkled in various articles, but there's also a lot of personal experience articles about really interesting things, from a stunt person to a guy who plays movie monsters to a fantastic article about Syrian refugees from a couple of people who actually went to a refugee camp to talk to them to a series of articles from the guy who runs the Personal Experience section about ISIS after he went to Iraq to talk to freedom fighters, former slaves, and others. There's also just pop culture things and history articles that are really good and at this point it really is a lot more socially conscious and if you already knew about Cracked there was no point in saying that but whatever. Still cool.)

And Scott!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Scott so much that I wrote a 40,000+ word fic about him. He's also one half of literally my only OTP (so a very literal OTP, haha).

(I'm a Gen person, and I pretty much exclusively write Gen with the occasional romantic subplot or a pairing thrown in just as a 'ah yes these two characters are together because they are in canon'; but I have written one Scott/Sam and the 40,000 word fic also has a Scott/Sam romantic subplot even though it's overall Gen. And sometimes I like writing rarepairs/crackships, but tbh that's mostly friendship too. I really like friendship.)

One thing I reaaaaally like is neuroatypical headcanons. Anyway.

That was even more rambly and long than before, I'm so sorry.

 

Don't worry about infodumping! It's very common around here and pretty much accepted. (I for one encourage it--learning new things is fun!)

 

I had not heard of Maria Tall Chief! That's so cool! I used to dance ballet until health issues and a decreasing certainty about the necessary level of commitment came together to stop me. I was honestly sorta relieved. But I still enjoy watching other people dance ballet. I'm very excited to learn of her!

I didn't take AP history but my sister did. She loved it, which was good given that it seemed like lots of work. XD

I do like Cracked. I've very much enjoyed the large majority of things I've read there. I have not read the World Fairs article and would be interested in a link!

So much yay for Scott!!!!!

I'm usually all about the porn when it comes to fics, but I will definitely read gen about favorite characters because there needs to be more of them. There needs to be all of them forever!

(If I wrote fic it would probably be all gen because I lack experience and am also not entirely sure how people realistically get from That's Hot to Hit That. I like reading about it but am unsure of any ability to create a lifelike copy? Oh well, I'm a very bad writer anyway so it's all moot!)

That is an excellent OTP! I like it a lot and it makes me happy to contemplate.

I think I've also only got like one OTP. I'm usually more about mashing together whatever characters are interesting and/or attractive like that and yelling "Now kiss!" like a demented child with dolls.

Yeah, you're in good company with the rambling. Definitely no need to apologize!

 

Oooh, nice! I don't really know much about the Old West- my period of interest is mostly post-war stuff, especially the '60s (and leftist history in general, surprise surprise).