Left on Read: William Morris

Not me looking up Morris’ wife and the first photo makes it Clear she would have been w Rossetti!?? I know her face so well. Anyhoo thanks for this LOR ep; I’m in the “was gifted a book of Morris patterned wrapping paper as an art tween and never knew he was a socialist” club

I used to agree more with Alice about morris’ designs, but I started to appreciate it a lot more when I started making wood things by hand and had to start thinking about ornamentation and what values/principles should inform, for a communist, design. The arts and crafts movement has been very helpful to me in developing my own style (also, Utility Furniture (CC41) and campaign furniture (problematic))

Whittling an insulin by hand

Morris’ essentially Victorian characteristics was a generalised hatred of the Victorian era - including aesthetically which was sort of the focus of the first half of his life. News From Nowhere seems to better make the case that Morris wasn’t far off a minimalist when it came to his actual preferences of interior design (an example from the quote I half remember, about “the average Victorian home being improved if 95% of the contents was thrown into a pile outside and burnt”). E P Thompson’s biography of Morris is very good, and gives a bit more credit to Morris acknowledgement of women's oppression in his era. He also makes it clear throughout his work that his utopian socialist visions were only his - and that others will have an entirely different vision - he just thought there was value in doing that sort of “dreaming” and encouraged others to do so as well.

I've been slowly lifting myself out of a depressive episode by getting back into painting warhammer, and there's definitely something spiritually nourishing about lining up on my desk all my little plastic bastards. I modeled, 3d printed, assembled, primed and painted them, they're mine in a more meaningful way than most of the things I own. It's not carving The Big Chair, but it's definitely good to make things, to know how they're made and why, and to connect to the process throughout. Even on silly little things like this.

As an artisan from a middle class background who hates how cheaply and carelessly things are made I related a lot to Morris when I read him in high school aside from his virulent homophobia of course* *I am willing to be virulently homophobic in private under previously discussed conditions

finally: socialism for the Fellas

I'm a software dev and when friends ask me over to help with a demolition or construction job at their house I go nuts over it, it absolutely makes my day and I always feel very proud of it after accomplishing something physical and tangibly real, and useful on the 1st degree obviously I'm really lucky to basically have to do very little work that's harmful or genuinely hard, but at face value the way this guy thinks really scratches my brain

The solution to MOLLE on plate is wear a jupon over the plate and stitch it to that.

The SCA is William Morris’s perfect society- I know SEVERAL people who make knives, several brewers, a couple Illuminatiors, etc

You guys gonna do Fourier? Please do Fourier

Leave it to the Germans to ruin a perfectly good idea (elaborate wood carving on a mondane buildung): https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Transformatorenhaus_an_der_Travem%C3%BCnder_Allee?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Keep the faith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQyVUTcpM4

concrete jewelery is the same reason i have a necklace made out of quarter inch chain and another made of a roughly circular slice taken out of a tree branch

Morris wrote an early time travel novel called A Dream of John Ball that describes his experiences in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. It’s not terrible. I’m always a little sceptical of people who are against specialisation but also really skilled in a wide variety of areas.

Fellow lovers of sanding a big piece of wood unite!

Hello, I no longer have a twitter to do this from, but I think Alice is onto something with the MOLLE on plate armor /specifically/ if we incorporate the redhead for Molly on plate armor thank you for your time

I think Morris is over-generalizing, but some of us out there really do just want to or are even obsessed with the dream of "carving the big chair." If we expand that beyond literal handwork, there might be a lot of people out there (not necessarily everyone) who work to live simply as an inferior alternative to the big chair that they haven't found yet or don't have access to. Career day at school, guidance counselors, college, and economic realities aren't great at getting people there.

Ooh, a Left On Ritainology

Victorian libs “one clean room to live in” just like tiny homes FR.

You can probably rivet molle loops onto a chest plate, or you can do like with ceramic armour just put the breastplate in a little coat.

go to a maker space and sand some big pieces of wood with the lads 👍

I think that the same thing that made Morris a socialist makes me a socialist. I want to work hard and help people and leave something beautiful. I spent most of my life making money for small business tyrants instead.

Just saying at the top of the episode that from what I know or think I know about William Morris, I’m a fan (as much as one can be for a middle class Victorian man) so I’m really looking forward to this. Sentimental retvrn type shit but with a socialist bent, very excited to hear your perspective

Looking forward to listening to this. Apropos of nothing, this comments space seems like a safe enough place to mention that the Utopian Studies Society broke up last year due to political infighting.