Nick Mount
@nickmount.bsky.social
Professor, historian, peregrino. Best-selling author of Arrival: The Story of CanLit, currently writing the first history of #vandalism. Believes in naps.
Pinned
Nick Mount
@nickmount.bsky.social
· Oct 16
Hi all just moved in from X. I used to write about Canadian books, now writing about destruction. I'm not sure what the connection is either. Maybe just because there is no connection. Follow if you wonder why people break stuff. Or if you already know.
Sherbourne and Bloor
December 19, 2024 at 3:55 PM
Sherbourne and Bloor
When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917 they "promoted party hacks, corrupt opportunists, and semi-literate elements from the lower classes into positions of power" (Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy).
Sometimes history reads like news.
Sometimes history reads like news.
November 16, 2024 at 9:21 PM
When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917 they "promoted party hacks, corrupt opportunists, and semi-literate elements from the lower classes into positions of power" (Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy).
Sometimes history reads like news.
Sometimes history reads like news.
From an exhibit of defaced currency at Toronto's AGO. Small exhibit, more art than vandalism. Sergio Guillermo Diaz, acrylic paint on Argentinian two-peso note (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge)
November 19, 2023 at 11:53 PM
From an exhibit of defaced currency at Toronto's AGO. Small exhibit, more art than vandalism. Sergio Guillermo Diaz, acrylic paint on Argentinian two-peso note (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge)
Indigo Books in Toronto today. Vandalism of vandalism? For context, Reisman and her husband run a charitable foundation (HESEG) that covers tuition and living expenses for former "lone soldiers" in the IDF who wish to remain in Israel to study after they've completed their military service.
November 10, 2023 at 5:12 PM
Indigo Books in Toronto today. Vandalism of vandalism? For context, Reisman and her husband run a charitable foundation (HESEG) that covers tuition and living expenses for former "lone soldiers" in the IDF who wish to remain in Israel to study after they've completed their military service.
Reposted by Nick Mount
Until about this time, this *would* have been called vandalism. In the early 20th-c, Americans redefined the word for everyone else to mean the youthful vandals most people imagine today.
When ISIS destroyed the ruins of Palmyra in 2015, that was roundly & rightly condemned as wanton cultural vandalism. The purpose it served didn't resonate in the world. But destroying living communities w/ deep history is often given a pass if the purpose *it* serves does resonate. That gnaws at me.
This isn't uncommon. To uncover Athens' agora, the early 20th C Greek govt razed an entire neighborhood, "Vrysaki."
Digging Aphrodisias in Turkey in the mid-20th C meant destroying the centuries-old village of Geyre.
Who is to say what should be preserved & what destroyed? Tye answers aren't easy.
Digging Aphrodisias in Turkey in the mid-20th C meant destroying the centuries-old village of Geyre.
Who is to say what should be preserved & what destroyed? Tye answers aren't easy.
October 17, 2023 at 9:52 PM
Until about this time, this *would* have been called vandalism. In the early 20th-c, Americans redefined the word for everyone else to mean the youthful vandals most people imagine today.
Hi all just moved in from X. I used to write about Canadian books, now writing about destruction. I'm not sure what the connection is either. Maybe just because there is no connection. Follow if you wonder why people break stuff. Or if you already know.
October 16, 2023 at 10:01 PM
Hi all just moved in from X. I used to write about Canadian books, now writing about destruction. I'm not sure what the connection is either. Maybe just because there is no connection. Follow if you wonder why people break stuff. Or if you already know.