Notes & Quotes

In Neal Stephenson’s new novel Reamde, there is a passing reference (page 33) to an article that the main character once read about virtual currencies. Given that this character is a draft-dodger who lives in British Columbia, chances are pretty good that the article was this one published in The Walrus in the spring of 2004. (And which I linked to on my blog-project Goodreads at the time).

The article in turn references the work of Edward Castronova, whose paper on this subject can be found here.

The Alchemist by Thomas Wijck

“He might have shielded himself from the cold and the wind by walking up the length of the Privy Gallery, but he’d had quite enough of Whitehall, so instead he went outside, crossed a couple of courts, and emerged at the front of the Banqueting House, directly beneath where Charles I had had his head lopped off, lo these many years ago. Cromwell’s men had kept him prisoner in St. James’s and then walked him across the Park for his decapitation. Four-year-old Daniel, sitting on Drake’s shoulders in the plaza, had watched every one of the Kings’s steps” – Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver (2003)

A young Daniel Waterhouse sits atop his father’s shoulders

The execution of Charles I occurred on Tuesday 30 January 1649, depicted as rather mild day (one of many inaccuracies) in the 1970 film Cromwell from whence these images are taken. Charles I, played by Alec Guinness is shown addressing the crowd in this scene, wearing a white shirt and a cape, delivering the lines recorded by historians, “I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be”.

In reality, historians record that Charles wore two shirts (to prevent shivers being mistaken for fear) and this waistcoat, shown in the British Archives at the beginning of the BBC’s The Seven Ages of Britain – The Age of Revolution (viewable online from TVO.org).

In introducing the waistcoat, host David Dimbleby notes that it is made of silk, and points out the details of the stitching and the buttons.

Then he notes the brown stains on the front. These are the blood stains from that day three hundred and sixty two years ago.

One can see from these images that Charles I was a small man, reportedly 5’3″.

“Dramatic growth in consumption has happened in the last thirty years: a period when the arts and the humanities have been unambitious in their efforts to guide and educate taste. The accumulated wisdom of humanity, concerning what is beautiful, interesting, fine or serious, was – to a large extent – left to one side at the precise time when the need for guidance was greatest, and when guidance was hardest to give, and so required maximum effort and confidence.

When one looks at celebrated figures of those worlds – such as Andy Warhol or today, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst – and asks what does their art say to people about consuming, the answer is very little. I do not want to attack those particular individuals; they seem, amoung other, to be creations of a profoundly damaged culture that tells itself it is being clever and sophisticated and up to date for the wrong reasons. The cultural laurels – and a species of authority that goes with them – have been awarded in unfortunate directions. Mockery, irony and archness are not what we need.

While the works of these artists have gained amazing commercial success, they suggest a loss of purpose in the arts. Loss, that is, of a really central and powerful claim upon the education of taste: upon the sense of what is beautiful, gracious or attractive.

We have suffered an astonishing corruption of consciousness practised upon us by a decadent cultural elite. Think of the language of contemporary praise: a building is admired because it is ‘interesting’ – like the average newspaper column. The gap between ‘interesting’ and ‘glorious’ or ‘adorable’ is vast. An artist is praised for being ‘provocative’ – like someone bleating into a mobile phone on a crowded train. We are miles from ‘profound’,’tender’, ‘magnificent’.

All of this has come about because of a misreading of history. It has been supposed that the point of high culture – of the greatest imaginative and creative effort – is to unseat some fantasized ruling class who had to be provoked and distressed into change. But that is not the task of art or intelligence. Their real task is to shape and direct our longings, to show us what is noble and important. And this is not a task that requires any kind of cagey, elusive obscurity. The way forward here is to be more demanding, truthful and – at first – courageous. We have to forget the shifting patterns of fashion. Something is good because it is good, not because it was created yesterday or five hundred years ago.”
- John Armstrong

$600.xx Chili Sept 1 1866
Received of James Goldw
Six hundred dollars to
apply one contract for the
building of his house in Chili
Henry B Kimble

$450.xx Chili Sept 8 1866
Received of James Goldw
four hundred and fifty dollars to
to apply on contract for the
building of his house in Chili
Henry B Kimble

$200.xx Chili Sept 15 1866
Received of James Goldw
two hundred Dollars
to apply one contract for
the building of his house
in Chili
Henry B Kimble

In order to fund the Civil War, in July 1862 Congress created the United States’ first income tax as well as the Internal Revenue Service. Taxes were also collected on documents through the use of stamps.

“Schedule A described the income tax and other taxes payable directly to the Office of Internal Revenue, including inheritance taxes; duties on carriages, yachts, and other luxury goods; and various duties on business activities. Schedule B described the taxes to be paid on documents, which required the use of adhesive stamps directly on these documents”. Revenue Stamps: Financing the Civil War (PDF)

This document, which I purcharsed for $3 at the Christie Antiques Show appears to show both levels of tax collecting: one on the contracts, and the other in the use of the 2 cent document stamps.

Chili appears to be an area outside of Rochester NY, and a search for Henry B Kimble of Rochester shows he may have been granted a patent in 1854 for a sash fastener.

(Ancestry.com)