it’s talking heads kermit friday
Medieval scribes writing things like “fuck the abbot” (their boss) and “I am so hung over I feel dead” and “that goddamn cat got in here and pissed on the manuscript” and drawing penis monsters and purposefully unflattering portraits of public figures and animals in the marginalia is funny, yes. But more than that it is so deeply quintessentially human. It reminds you that they were largely just frustrated young adults who did an extremely repetitive and tedious job 6 days a week during daylight hours in poor conditions and felt the same malaise young adults feel now.
"This parchment is very hairy" is my favorite. That poor scribe, trying to write on hairy parchment, so annoyed.
How low quality it would have to be since parchment back then was literal animal skin stretched to the max
imagine copying text by hand from dawn until dusk 6 days a week doing what is essentially thankless unpaid labor (since you’re a monk) and they have the audacity to give you low quality materials that are difficult to work with
HEY HEY LISTEN THE VOICE OF THE MTA TRANSIT SYSTEM, ALL THE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON THE NYC SUBWAY LINE??
SHE'S A TRANS WOMAN AND TRANSITIONED AT 66!!!!!! THE BACKGROUND HUM OF MY CHILDHOOD, AND SHE'S LIKE ME!!!! WHAT THE FUCK
