Thanks and history and general babbling

[twasadark]

 Thanks so much to yggdrasilian  and blackbyrdy  for the v-gifts! How kind of you!! *smishes you*

I've been researching for the continuation to my recently posted (and recently whined about) Big Bang story, and let me tell you, history is not for the weak of heart (or stomach). Witness this passage talking about the Arabs besieging Constantinople, ca. 700 ad:

... Soon, too, the food ran out; in such conditions scavenging was impossible and, if [the historian] Theophanes is to be believed, the desperate Arabs were reduced to eating their horses, donkeys and camels and, finally, cakes of dead men's flesh, mixed with their own excrement and baked in the camp ovens. Famine, as always, brought disease; with the hardness of the ground putting burial out of the question, hundreds of corpses were flung into the [sea of] Marmara.

And there are many more titillating tales of tongues being cut out, noses sliced off, powerful hulking eunuchs, and shaggy-bearded barbarian kings. More than enough to get the creative juices flowing!

In ten days I'll be making my fifth annual trek to Comic Con down in San Diego! I'm gearing up for some zombie walking and line standing and Jared and Jensen watching. Woooooooo hoooooooo!

Comments

[chickenfried-jo.livejournal.com]

ah, yes, actual historical details. I can still hear people asking me, wouldn't you have loved to live then? and I always answered a resounding NO.

During my time reading extent journals I came across a description a priest wrote about fucking a boy in the kitchens. He likened the sound to pilgrim's feet in the mud.

Things like that stay with you, you know? Can't un-know, can't un-know.

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear you. I'll take today with its antibiotics and bathing facilities and supermarkets over the past anytime! It is fascinating to learn about from a distance.

Those priests could definitely be randy sometimes! Poor boy!!

[chickenfried-jo.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all sure the boy was unwilling, really. The text was italian fifteenth century. *shrugs*, my take was it was just another day. Sweep the kitchen, put wood on the fire, get fucked.

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

LOL - you're probably right!

[applegeuse.livejournal.com]

and, finally, cakes of dead men's flesh, mixed with their own excrement and baked in the camp ovens.

I suppose one ought to applaud their macabre ingenuity. o__o

Hooray for comic con! :D How fun. Has it changed much, since you started going? (Perhaps that's a better question for when you get back, though.) I've always wanted to go. Even just browsing through their programming, it seems like it would be such an overstimulating experience. How in the world does one pick amongst all the cool things to do?!

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

Macabre ingenuity, indeed! UGH. But strangely fascinating for all that.

OMG, Comic Con!!!! No, it hasn't really changed a whole lot since I started going. It's still completely and wonderfully INSANE. A pop culture EXPLOSION that involves hordes of people, plenty of movie/tv stars, lines that stretch on forever, and various and sundry wildly fun events. Overstimulation is a good word - 4 days of it, nonstop. I love it. If you have a chance to go you should definitely do it. There's nothing like it!