Read Online Stranger Than We Can Imagine by John Higgs - Free Book Online
Authors: John Higgs
Ads: Link
single perspective could be overcome. In 1878 Nietzsche wrote that ‘There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.’ Einstein and Picasso were both offering their own solutions to Nietzsche’s complaint.
The importance of the observer had been recognised. That such a strange idea should play out across both the creative arts and the physical sciences at the same time is remarkable in itself. That people as radically different as Einstein and Baroness Elsa were working on the same problem indicates that a deeper shift was at work. Something big was happening, and its impact on our culture was widespread.
Even more remarkably, the same idea was emerging from the babbling chaos of international politics.
The munitions store of a weapons factory, c.1918
(akg)
THREE: WAR
Hoist that rag
O n 17 September 1859 Joshua A. Norton issued a letter to San Francisco newspapers which began, ‘At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States.’
Norton was an example of the globalisation and migration which became increasingly common in the mid-nineteenth century. He was a British-born, South African-raised businessman who had lost a great fortune in a failed attempt to monopolise the rice market, been declared bankrupt after many years of legal difficulties, and was then living in reduced circumstances in a boarding house. He signed his letter ‘NORTON I, Emperor of the United States’. It was duly published and Norton’s career as an emperor began.
Following his declaration, Norton began to dress in a blue military uniform with gold epaulettes. He wore a peacock feather in his hat, an imperial sword on his belt, and took to walking with a cane. He added ‘Protector of Mexico’ to his title but dropped it a decade later, after the realisation that protecting Mexico was a little beyond his powers. The existing photographs of Norton, with his elaborate facial hair and slightly crumpled uniform, show that he somehow managed to look like both a regal emperor and a crazy homeless guy at the same time.
He began issuing proclamations, including one calling for the abolishment of the Republican and Democratic parties, and one which declared that anyone who referred to San Francisco as ‘Frisco’ would be subject to a twenty-five-dollar fine. Proclamations such asthese were as popular with the people of San Francisco then as they no doubt would be now. Although largely penniless, Norton was allowed to eat without payment at the finest San Francisco restaurants, travel for free on municipal transport, and a box was kept for him in a number of theatres. He began issuing his own currency, which was accepted in the bars he used to frequent. When he was once arrested ‘for lunacy’ the public outcry was such that the police force issued an apology, and took to saluting him when they saw him in the street. He was made a 33rd degree Freemason, and the City of San Francisco provided him with a new uniform when his existing one started to look shabby. When he died in 1880, after more than twenty years as Emperor, thirty thousand people crowded the streets for his funeral. He became immortalised in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
, when Mark Twain based the character of the king on him.
Norton is something of an enigma. It does not appear that he adopted the title as a joke or a scam. He genuinely believed that he was the rightful emperor and thus had a duty to live his life in the manner his status dictated. The public’s reaction to Norton points to there being more at play than just the humouring of a crank. In 1969 the American satirical philosopher Greg Hill, the founder and indeed only member of the Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society, pointed out that ‘everybody
The importance of the observer had been recognised. That such a strange idea should play out across both the creative arts and the physical sciences at the same time is remarkable in itself. That people as radically different as Einstein and Baroness Elsa were working on the same problem indicates that a deeper shift was at work. Something big was happening, and its impact on our culture was widespread.
Even more remarkably, the same idea was emerging from the babbling chaos of international politics.
The munitions store of a weapons factory, c.1918
(akg)
THREE: WAR
Hoist that rag
O n 17 September 1859 Joshua A. Norton issued a letter to San Francisco newspapers which began, ‘At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States.’
Norton was an example of the globalisation and migration which became increasingly common in the mid-nineteenth century. He was a British-born, South African-raised businessman who had lost a great fortune in a failed attempt to monopolise the rice market, been declared bankrupt after many years of legal difficulties, and was then living in reduced circumstances in a boarding house. He signed his letter ‘NORTON I, Emperor of the United States’. It was duly published and Norton’s career as an emperor began.
Following his declaration, Norton began to dress in a blue military uniform with gold epaulettes. He wore a peacock feather in his hat, an imperial sword on his belt, and took to walking with a cane. He added ‘Protector of Mexico’ to his title but dropped it a decade later, after the realisation that protecting Mexico was a little beyond his powers. The existing photographs of Norton, with his elaborate facial hair and slightly crumpled uniform, show that he somehow managed to look like both a regal emperor and a crazy homeless guy at the same time.
He began issuing proclamations, including one calling for the abolishment of the Republican and Democratic parties, and one which declared that anyone who referred to San Francisco as ‘Frisco’ would be subject to a twenty-five-dollar fine. Proclamations such asthese were as popular with the people of San Francisco then as they no doubt would be now. Although largely penniless, Norton was allowed to eat without payment at the finest San Francisco restaurants, travel for free on municipal transport, and a box was kept for him in a number of theatres. He began issuing his own currency, which was accepted in the bars he used to frequent. When he was once arrested ‘for lunacy’ the public outcry was such that the police force issued an apology, and took to saluting him when they saw him in the street. He was made a 33rd degree Freemason, and the City of San Francisco provided him with a new uniform when his existing one started to look shabby. When he died in 1880, after more than twenty years as Emperor, thirty thousand people crowded the streets for his funeral. He became immortalised in
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
, when Mark Twain based the character of the king on him.
Norton is something of an enigma. It does not appear that he adopted the title as a joke or a scam. He genuinely believed that he was the rightful emperor and thus had a duty to live his life in the manner his status dictated. The public’s reaction to Norton points to there being more at play than just the humouring of a crank. In 1969 the American satirical philosopher Greg Hill, the founder and indeed only member of the Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society, pointed out that ‘everybody
Similar Books
