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| Author |
Message |
keesan
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What's entertainment?
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Oct 21 22:25 UTC 2000 |
I have been reading Jane Austen, and what people did to pass time in the early
19th century included: visiting relatives and friends, often for dinner, and
often for several weeks or months; playing and singing and sometimes
listening to music; dancing to music; reading; going for walks in the park;
travelling to scenic and historic spots; hunting (if you were rich);
gardening (fruits, flowers, vegetables); playing cards and word games such
as charades; gambling and drinking at saloons. What do people do nowadays
for entertainment? Are there any of the above categories that are no longer
popular? Are there new types of entertainment? What did your parents do for
entertainment and how does it differ from what you do?
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| 33 responses total. |
gull
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response 1 of 33:
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Oct 22 00:24 UTC 2000 |
Nowadays, entertainment for most people consists of sitting on a couch,
staring at a TV set, and trying not to drool.
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johnnie
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response 2 of 33:
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Oct 22 00:34 UTC 2000 |
And then there's the Internet...
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birdy
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response 3 of 33:
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Oct 22 07:27 UTC 2000 |
I do a lot of what's mentioned in #0, only I don't visit family and friends
for quite that long. ;-)
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keesan
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response 4 of 33:
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Oct 22 20:08 UTC 2000 |
Jim's mother used to go on pilgrimages around the world. I don't know if she
thought of it as entertainment. How would you define entertainment?
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katie
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response 5 of 33:
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Oct 22 20:52 UTC 2000 |
My friends and I play canasta.
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happyboy
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response 6 of 33:
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Oct 22 21:17 UTC 2000 |
i shoot stray cats.
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keesan
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response 7 of 33:
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Oct 22 22:17 UTC 2000 |
I read that tennis is an ancient game. Does anyone know how long Canasta and
other card games have been around? Stray cat shooting is not essentially
different from fox hunting, though it might be considered lower class.
Jim said he and his friends used to pass time by throwing bottles into the
lake and shooting them to pieces (before he knew that lakes were not
bottomless?).
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katie
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response 8 of 33:
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Oct 22 23:09 UTC 2000 |
Canasta was invented in the 50's, I think. Card games in general have
probably been around for centuries.
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bdh3
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response 9 of 33:
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Oct 23 04:28 UTC 2000 |
Most people in the early 1800 works 7 days a week to put food on the
table -"from can see to can't see".
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jazz
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response 10 of 33:
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Oct 23 13:24 UTC 2000 |
Jane Austen's a bit romanticized.
I've been reading a bit of Dumas lately and some of the cultural
differences still amaze me.
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flem
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response 11 of 33:
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Oct 24 17:03 UTC 2000 |
Jane Austen is a bit romanticized, but OTOH, the subclass of a subclass that
she's concerned with is, basically, the female members of the rich leisure
class. She's quite explicit in stating that 1) their money comes mostly from
rent on their estates and interest from hereditary fortunes, and 2) that even
these rather trivial financial matters are handled exclusively by men,
whose time is much less well accounted for. I'm on the whole inclined
to believe Austen's descriptions of the leisure activities of that
particular group of people.
One such leisure activity mentioned in Austen that always strikes me
as significant is correspondence. It seems that it was common for
women to spend several hours a day writing letters. 'Course, this may
have been exaggerated for plot reasons...
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mwg
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response 12 of 33:
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Oct 24 20:31 UTC 2000 |
My father mostly watched TV and got drunk, often concurrently. My mother
was fond of jigsaw puzzles. There was probably more, but it escapes me.
I am a bit more varied. I read (I'm so busy that I'm down to 2-3 books a
week), watch videos (logos drove me to have the cable taken out), fiddle
with the computer, use the computer to arrange visits with friends, visit
friends. My life is many things, boring isn;t on the list.
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jiffer
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response 13 of 33:
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Oct 24 21:08 UTC 2000 |
Are logos that annoying with people?!?! wow...
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cmcgee
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response 14 of 33:
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Oct 24 22:14 UTC 2000 |
Good thing Austen's heroines didn't have access to bbs, email, chat rooms,
etc. Imagine spending several hours a day writing to people!!
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birdy
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response 15 of 33:
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Oct 24 23:37 UTC 2000 |
Before I had email I spent an hour a day writing to various out-of-town
friends and cousins. My mom still does that since she only uses email at
work.
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keesan
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response 16 of 33:
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Oct 25 15:26 UTC 2000 |
I probably spend an hour a day reading and writing e-mail. Chat rooms may
be the modern day equivalent of visiting friends, same for bbs. Would you
classify reading things on the internet in the same category as 'reading'?
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happyboy
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response 17 of 33:
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Oct 25 22:17 UTC 2000 |
re7: elitist.
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birdy
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response 18 of 33:
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Oct 25 22:26 UTC 2000 |
Re #16 - it depends on what I'm reading. If it's research, then yes. If it's
just for fun or a personal website, then not really. Of course, I've read
some fiction stories on amateur writer sites that would fall under "reading",
but whenever I use the term "reading" as a *hobby*, I generally think of
sitting in a chair or lying in bed with a book (and cats).
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mwg
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response 19 of 33:
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Oct 30 21:15 UTC 2000 |
Re: #13. Yes, they are that annoying to some people.
Visit http://www.msen.com/~mwg/obnoxicons.html for some resources on the
subject, I'm many months overdue to update things, but there are some
links to other sites.
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mooncat
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response 20 of 33:
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Nov 6 21:08 UTC 2000 |
One of the reasons they stayed so long with friends was in part how
long it took to get to a friends home. <grins> And more time to be able
to spend places as opposed to know where most people can't take the
time from work.
Also, the women had to entertain themselves more often because, in
Austen's novels, they had too much money to 'work' (as a governess) and
yet too little to be in London (unless a wealthier friend invited
them). So they had to have various amusements to fill the days.
Personally, my leisure time is spent with friends- either they visit me
or vice versa, reading, writing perhaps, listening to music, watching
movies (no cables, no local channel reception) and stuff like that. So
in a way, my pursuits are much like the ones Austen describes.
Sindi- I'm curious, what Jane Austen novels are you reading/have read?
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birdy
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response 21 of 33:
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Nov 7 02:01 UTC 2000 |
Anney and I also sew. =)
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jazz
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response 22 of 33:
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Nov 7 14:33 UTC 2000 |
Coincidentally, my leisure time is spent much like L'Comte De Valmont!
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mooncat
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response 23 of 33:
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Nov 7 16:18 UTC 2000 |
<laughs> Umm... yeah, sure...
Right right, sew... (well, I cross-stitch more than sew)
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birdy
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response 24 of 33:
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Nov 8 05:49 UTC 2000 |
John... <shakes her head>
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