Monthly Archives: September 2016

Getting All Geared Up

Posted on by under Fun Stuff, Humanities, School

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So. We’re learning about steampunk, which is, essentially, a subgenre of science fiction, and an aesthetic used in things like art, music, and fashion. The idea of steampunk is that there is an alternate version of the Victorian Era where modern technology exists, but is powered by steam.

So, similar to with Brinton’s theory of revolution, we had to ask a question about something that we didn’t cover in class.

So, I asked myself: can I make a steampunk dress?

Now, I didn’t want to make a full-size steampunk dress. Instead I decided to make a doll dress. Here’s a video, complete with yet more generic iMovie music.

After doing some research on how to make steampunk clothes, I sat down and got to work sketching out a pattern for the dress I wanted to make. As I did so, I realized it would probably be easier to sew a top and skirt separately, so I altered my plan a little bit, and continued on to cutting out the pieces of fabric I would need.

Once I was done that, I sewed the pieces together, and decided that while I hadn’t made exactly what I wanted, it was close enough to keep going.

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It was only when I went to make the dress steampunk that I realized I had no clue what I was doing. For all that I had researched how to make something look steampunk, I didn’t have a plan on how to turn the assortment of steampunk-y things I had into something actually steampunk.

I did my best to attach the random eyelets, safety pins, key, and other pieces of metal to the dress in a way that looked steampunk, and upon failing that, turned back to the Internet for more inspiration, but eventually I realized I just had no clue what to do.

So, to answer my question: could I have made a steampunk dress? With more effort and planning, and the right materials, probably. Did I make a steampunk dress?

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…That about sums it up.

Toodles!

This Blog Post is Revolting

Posted on by under Humanities, School

So, we’ve been learning about revolutions.

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More specifically, we talked about Crane Brinton’s theory of revolutionary process. Brinton defines a revolution as a “drastic, sudden substitution of one group in charge of running the territorial political entity by another group hitherto not running that government.”, and Brinton’s theory states that a revolution has four stages: the incubation stage, the moderate stage, the crisis stage, and the recovery stage.

In the incubation stage, people feel that the government has done something wrong. Often there is an economic crisis, and the current government may be thought to be weak by the general population. People who are considered intellectuals usually speak against the government at this stage.

In the moderate stage, the people leading the revolution try to get the government to change without extreme violence. This can consist of protests, and sometimes violence or threats on a small scale. Here, the revolutionaries are looking for the government to improve, not be overthrown.

In the crisis stage, radicals step up to take over, and sometimes assassinate members of, the government. There is a lot of violence during this stage. The radicals try and achieve justice, but in cruel or harsh ways.

In the recovery stage, things settle down and return to normal… with a few changes to the government due to the revolution.

Here’s a comic I drew showing the four stages of revolution according to Brinton.

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After learning about Brinton’s theory, we were asked to come up with a question about it. My question was whether Brinton’s theory applied to all revolutions, and how it applied to fictional revolutions.

I’m going to stick to the first part of the question… Sort of. The revolution I want to look at, which I don’t think follows Brinton’s theory, is the one against Julius Caesar. However, as I was able to do a lot more in depth research about the events of Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar than the actual event (I.e. actually reading the play), I’ll be following that, and I’m not sure if it’s totally historically accurate.

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So, the first, third and fourth stages of Brinton’s theory actually do fit The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. In the first stage, Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators believe that Caesar is a weak leader, and has done wrong by killing Pompey. In the third stage, the conspirators assassinate Caesar, and subsequently go to war with Caesar’s supporters. In the fourth stage, they are defeated, and Caesar’s supporters, specifically Octavius, take over as government.

However, they kind of skip over the second stage, where they would try and get the government to change somewhat peaceably. Here is a video with the stages of my comic from earlier versus the events of Julius Caesar.

*cue generic iMovie music*

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Yeah, so there’s a bit of a difference there…

I think this answers my question. Basically: no, not all revolutions necessarily follow Crane Brinton’s theory of revolutionary process, but that doesn’t mean that most don’t.

Toodles.

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