EARLY: Lord Byron: Part 1

You gotta do an episode of Gabriele D'Annunzio another insane poet who did crazy military adventures.

Tom is so Irish that when he almost said 'lord' Byron his throat got fucked up and he couldn't say it

You do not, it turns out, have to hand it to Lord Byron

from what I know, Mishima lowkey deserved death, but Byron deserved James Garfield’s death

Omfg the Byronic Drake concept has sent me.

Hell. Yes. This feels like a spiritual successor to the Yukio Mishima episode

“Welcome to Lions led by Donkeys, a podcast about infamous historical figures being led to ass”

"What I get from my brain, I will spend on my bollocks" goddamn, it sucks that Byron is a nonce.

Fun fact about his daughter Ada Lovelace: she was the first computer programmer. She wrote programs for Charles Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, which were giant purely mechanical computers run on steam power. The Analytical Engine was never actually built, but all the plans for it exist, and the programs she wrote for it work.

The most charitable take on Byron is that he was a person who wanted intense romantic and sexual experiences, but due to his childhood trauma, he was unable or unwilling to form close, personal relationships with his sexual partners. He was a deeply unhappy, self-hating person who took out his anger on others.

Nate

Promiscuity, eating disorder, mood instability. They are hallmarks of being the victim of sexual abuse. I’m not intending to make a psychological assessment of Byron. That’s outside my scope of practice but not outside the experience of family and friends

Didn't know much about Byron before listening to this, but the closest modern comparison that came to me while listening was Neil Gaiman. Both have an abusive childhood, are supremely talented writers that gain fame and wealth because of it, have a magnetic personality that attracts people, and use that to commit horrifying sex crimes.

Does Ohio have a Tambora volcano? Can it?

Militarie gun mentioned!

You really gotta be an exceptional piece of work when the likes of Percy Shelley comes off as the comparatively normal, rational guy in your life story. Because lbr Shelley would never have been the lesser deadbeat in competition with anybody except the archetypal problematic “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” bicon himself. As a bisexual(tm) part of me can’t help but wish someone would one day describe me like that, just without all the awful sex crimes and near equally awful state of being british. It’s a curse. Joe’s escalating disgust with the revelation of a new sex crime per minute is so personally fucking funny. Incredibly cathartic stuff as a suffering english major who has long been driven mad having to study these guys. Sometimes it’s nice to hear others actually acknowledge how deeply fucked up this guy (and most of his compatriots) was without reflexively justifying everything as simply the neurotic processes of a tortured intellectual or more annoyingly, some idiots assuming my acknowledgment of this means I automatically dismiss the magnitude of their literary work (usually also paired with accusations that I must hate “the contributions of white men” in the western canon). Like I said, cathartic.

Byron's grandfather's history is also pretty wild. He was a midshipman on the Wager when it was shipwrecked off Chile

I’m having flashbacks to my undergrad research papers on the Greek War of Independence and having to explain in academic terms the effects of Balkan culture on the British mind

Tambora was the volcano that dumped so much ash into the atmosphere in 1815 it caused the year without a summer. Krakatoa was the volcano that literally exploded in 1883, making a noise heard hundreds of miles away.

When people comment about your excessive drinking in the late 18th century that is saying something.

It only took this many episodes for me to recognize a band- big Deer Hunter fan

Lord Bi-ron amirite

Now you have me thinking about the universal distaste for Byron in some (my) circles, especially as we grow older. I think it's a generational thing that cishet artistic women who were in liberal arts programs in the early 00s and were called "manic pixie dream girls" unironically to have been pursued and seen their friends pursued by these obnoxious Byronic types who wanted to live for pleasure and art to make a Point, but not understanding the point they were making.

Okay. Just gonna chime in on the old husband young wife thing. Not that strange for them to have an understanding, this is still how things were in France in the 70’s when my grandma suggested to my mom an arranged marriage. It’s just old money culture.

Aside from Joachim Murat, Lord Byron, and Alexander the Great, who else is on the mount Rushmore of insufferable lunatic bisexuals of history?

The original dumbass bad boy! Let's go!

What about him and Mary? Shelley and how they created the Gothic icons?

It's high time we got a Kassabianian Hero. Also, speaking of club foot, Joe, do you like the band Kasabian?

"Sherbert and Sodomy" is a great title for a Lords of Acid album.

Hell yeah, Drug Church and Militarie Gun are both awesome

"marble palace of sherbet and sodomy" is actually what I'm going to call my own podcast

Just remember, Joe, you can always ask for animal facts. If you need cool animal facts, check out Jen The Good News Girl, and remember there's always dinosaurs.

In college I had to cosplay Byron for a museum ethics debate. I went to class in a velvet robe, cashmere scarves, & with a bottle of rose (& one to share) I was a danger to my team

Oh hell yes, the archetypal disaster bi! Someone made a single player, one-page TTRPG where you have to spend a weekend with Lord Byron and keep your reputation intact. All you need is a 1d6.

Mad, bad and dangerous to know.

Let me guess: he was just another British psychopath molded by that society and unleashed onto the world through their Imperialist projects?

Ah, awesome! Byron has cropped up a few times recently but I don't actually know much about him! Cheers guys, hope you all have a lovely Christmas!