Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900 1939

  Рет қаралды 66,788

GBH Forum Network

GBH Forum Network

10 жыл бұрын

Virginia Nicholson explores the way of life of the Bohemian artists of the early 20th century - the majority of them artists, poets, writers, and composers - who were brave enough to jettison Victorian conformity and to invent a whole new way of living. Rebels and free spirits, they pioneered a domestic revolution, carrying idealism and creativity into every aspect of daily life. From Dylan Thomas to Robert Graves, Katherine Mansfield to Dora Carrington, they rejected tea parties, chaperones, monogamy, and mahogany. Deaf to disapproval, they painted, danced, and wrote poetry with passionate intensity, they experimented with homosexuality and open marriages, and often sacrificed comfortable homes to take to the road or to move into Spartan garrets. Yet their choice of a free life led all too often to poverty, hunger, addictions, and even death. This lecture brings to life the flamboyant, eccentric pioneers to whom we owe so many of our freedoms today.

Пікірлер: 42
@christineparis5607
@christineparis5607 6 жыл бұрын
I have read this book over and over and over! Unbelievable stories and the most intense dedication to art as I had never imagined! They influenced me to such a degree that I felt I had discovered a long lost family. This, I knew, was the life for me. Humor, love and passion, art as life, friends, food, music, wine, dancing and all reflected in painting and drawing and photographs. Perfect, imperfect and wonderful.
@tchrisou812
@tchrisou812 4 жыл бұрын
I would like to know you, I think we could be good friends.
@mesolithicman164
@mesolithicman164 Жыл бұрын
I think that's all fine. Their mistake was to bring children into the arrangement. Not good.
@christineparis5607
@christineparis5607 Жыл бұрын
@@mesolithicman164 YOU try to prevent children from coming on back then! We are talking about life finding a way, if a woman or man had working equipment, they were going to create children. Only the richest could (rarely) prevent pregnancy. I know there were ways to prevent things back then, but most didn't work, and people in that era were raised by Victorian parents to believe that children were gods will. They might have wanted to be free and wild, but kids were going to be collateral damage, no matter what they did. Angelina Garnett, Vanessa Woolf's daughter, famously was raised as Vanessa's husband's, Clive Bell, when, in reality, she the actual daughter of Vanessa's affair with companion Duncan Grant. Being raised in what was supposed to be a "protective" environment, meant being raised among shadowy secrets, always suspecting something, several things being wrong or sketchy in fact, which sadly, caused her to dislike and distrust her mother. This was never resolved and led to Angelica marrying her father's ex lover, who was very much older than her, and had four children by him. Obviously, this did not last, although it lasted around 20 years....people don't realize today that it was considered almost criminal for a woman to "refuse" to have children, since she was often still referred to as a, "vessel" an object more than a person, whose only purpose was to carry life considered only created by a man. She was supposed to only be competent as a wife if she was an unthinking servant. To assume that having kids was every womans choice is naive, and frankly untrue. Most women then didn't even understand that women could avoid getting pregnant, their men had all the control of their bodies by English law, and choice wasn't part of the wedding vows....
@mesolithicman164
@mesolithicman164 Жыл бұрын
@@christineparis5607 I agreed with some of that and then you went from the specific to the general. At which point it turned into a generalised rant about womens lot in life back in the day. So, on the specific. They had a thing called 'prophylactics' or 'rubbers' back then. So it was not exactly 'pot luck' if someone fell pregnant as you describe. You then said something to the effect that children were, essentially, the collateral damage of people living in this way. The point that you never address is that these people were all highly intelligent, educated types, not naive teenagers. They were old enough to take responsibility for outcomes. Which they didn't do, leaving their kids to tidy up after the metaphorical party was over. Let's be real, these people, euphemistically called Bohemians, were selfish, morally infantile and absolutely misguided in the way they chose to live their lives. But because they were middle class, educated and creative there's a frisson of raciness about their lifestyle that if it were happening on a council estate people like them would say, "dirty pigs, typical working class immorality". So, my point is although I think they were misguided about their lifestyle choices, I would let them get on with it, but when they started bringing children into the 'experiment in modernity' they were wrong and absolutely harmful. Not people to be respected, despite their various talents.
@christineparis5607
@christineparis5607 Жыл бұрын
@@mesolithicman164 We just have different opinions, just like people always have. When someone starts to accuse you of going into a "generalized rant about women", you know the whatever you say, they are not going to ever listen, because there is only room for one opinion in their books, and it's not mine...
@joannak7526
@joannak7526 6 жыл бұрын
A beautiful and inspiring lecture. Very thoughtful and thought provoking. Nicholson displays wit, humor, respect and a deep understanding and appreciation of the Bohemian movement of the early 20th century. Thank you!
@JNeil1975
@JNeil1975 3 жыл бұрын
This book is wonderful. It gives you such a clear view, fascinating view into how they truly lived, thought and struggled. A must-read for anyone interested in bohemia.
@carolsaia7401
@carolsaia7401 Жыл бұрын
Thank you Virginia, You did a wonderful job describing the Bohemian Bloomsbury experience in the time you had. Funny, piquant, colorful, sensual.
@caseypromise
@caseypromise 7 жыл бұрын
Great video, I'll have to get the book...my great grandmother was Bohemian, a Novak, and my family thinks I got my artistic talent, rebellious nature, and existential spiritual wandering from that side of the family. I've been wanting to learn more.
@marsattacks9003
@marsattacks9003 3 жыл бұрын
My great grandmother was chased out of Bohemia 1890, she was a Beran, what you have said about yourself reflects me and my aunty and cousin,mum was deeply spiritual,my aunty tells me of her time amongst the bohemian community here in NZ ,I made sense of me when i learned i was from gypsy heritage,not many around i had to acknowlege your post
@divaden47
@divaden47 8 жыл бұрын
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting and amusing!!
@davidstepanczuk
@davidstepanczuk 4 жыл бұрын
This was done very well, and was very informative. Thank you.
@sebastianmelmoth685
@sebastianmelmoth685 5 жыл бұрын
What an excellent speaker.
@robertwalker951
@robertwalker951 Жыл бұрын
Superb in every way bravo !!!!!!
@29008000
@29008000 Жыл бұрын
Brilliant! Thx!!
@kellyanquoe
@kellyanquoe 3 жыл бұрын
Youth is the most honest lifestyle there is...all the world before us
@carolsaia7401
@carolsaia7401 Жыл бұрын
I had a past life reading by Melissa Free Range Psychic, an MFCC Therapist as well. she got 1873, Oxford area of England and a large Estate for starters, She searched for homes that fit that bill and got a hit on Garsington. She looked at the details, read about Lady Ottoline and was surprised to find she was born in 1873. She and I do have things in common and look alike a bit... I was born in Berkeley, loved reading DH Lawrence, questioned religion, sought out Truth and ancient civilizations, astrology. Danced with an amateur folk dance group and skinny dipped at Harbin Hot Springs in Middleton CA. I had several lovers before marriage and had a girl and a boy. I love art and gardening, wrote a few poems, loved horses. my English German mother married a Sicilian and I have lg green eyes and curly red highlighted brown hair, a strong nose and a smaller chin than Ottoline had.
@arrystophanes7909
@arrystophanes7909 2 жыл бұрын
'we were going to do without table napkins'. so that's where i've been going wrong.
@aurorarose7239
@aurorarose7239 2 жыл бұрын
I am a conservative; however, surprisingly even a conservative woman can be a fan of Virginia Woolf. Imagine that! I have a great curiosity about Virginia Woolf and am really wanting to read Mrs. Dalloway, which as a woman of a certain age I can appreciate the stream of consciousness, life’s questions and moving into a new stage of life. Also I admire her ability to cope with her bipolar disorder for as long as she did without the medical community having any concept or understanding of the disorder. If anyone wishes to criticize me, just remember unless you have walked in another person’s shoes or another parent’s shoes , please do not judge.
@aurorarose7239
@aurorarose7239 2 жыл бұрын
It is certainly obvious that this lecture was 8 years ago. Look at the world now in 2022.
@kionaokay
@kionaokay 2 жыл бұрын
My grandma on my dad's side spoke Bohemian, I never got to learn from her but I would still like to learn it one day. I remember her telling me she was going to spank my butt for getting into things and that's the only thing I learned. Her parents were both Bohemian and my dad and I have a bit in us as well. Gypsy life is the life for me 🥰 if I'm not traveling, I'm not happy!
@ShinyFlakesShinyFlakes
@ShinyFlakesShinyFlakes 4 жыл бұрын
Damn beatniks
@poetryjones7946
@poetryjones7946 3 жыл бұрын
😂
@FrickFoster
@FrickFoster Жыл бұрын
A tale as old as time
@jamesanonymous2343
@jamesanonymous2343 5 жыл бұрын
this offering strictly for tourists
@AliceP.
@AliceP. 3 жыл бұрын
I have a lot of interest on the subject but, as a fan of Virginia Woolf, I would find it hard to read a book by Quentin Bell's daughter, assuming that she probably learned a lot about VW through his distorted view on his aunt's private life and women's sexuality. It makes me quiver to think about the excerpts of his writing that I have had to read while researching her.
@jasperdrak
@jasperdrak 2 жыл бұрын
Just toffs trying to live without servants for once.
@jonmarccabinets9154
@jonmarccabinets9154 Жыл бұрын
Nothing new under the sun.
@dawnemile4974
@dawnemile4974 4 жыл бұрын
A overly positive description of social freedoms today vis a vis Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
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