Seriously?
Can you imagine the conversation in the lobby of the Hilton?
HOTEL GUEST #1: Wow, so many people with badges! What are they here for?
HOTEL GUEST #2: I asked one of them: apparently, they're professional historians, here for their annual convention.
HG1: Really? How fascinating! You know, I've always wondered what it would be like to be a historian. I wonder what they get up to all day... Hey! I know! Let's go back to the hotel room, turn on "Historians TV", and check it out for ourselves!
Honestly, I can't imagine what else it might be for. God knows that, after days long of the AHA, the last thing that any of us wants to do is watch more historians on TV.
8 comments:
What's wrong with this picture: individuals were expected to pay $15/day for wifi, but there's a TEEVEE STUDIO in the conference hotel? Way go to with the use of cutting-edge 80 year old technology.
Maybe the video clips will become cult classics on YouTube for their unintentional hillarity.
Yes, I think you may just be right. Sad to say.
This just in! While sitting here in the hotel lobby, checking my e-mail, a young woman (grad student age, I'd guess) came up to me and said "Excuse me, but weren't you the woman who yelled out that thing at the [$30 yogurt and bagel sponsored] breakfast?" [I had made some smartass remark that was supposed to be under my breath, but apparently the acoustics in the ballroom were better than I thought.] I had to admit that, yes, that was me. Apparently she thought it was hilarious. Still, now for some people, I'm forever going to be that historian. You know, the one that said that yes, embattled white men maybe should have their own departments.
::sigh::
Can we get that sotto voce comment on the YouTube? (HA!) I think you've earned the right to be a bit of a crank now, don't you? (Your idea really has merit--I don't know why you're being so shy!)
For more on "historianstv," see the comments by Classy Claude over at Historiann.com. (Not snarky, just a bit more of an explanation that makes it seem otherworldly, if you can imagine that that otherworld is about 1997 instead of 2009!)
MLA TV could be totally awesome if it involved people throwing chairs and/or staging Gossip Girl style drama. But it would be sort of extraordinary to see a convention of people watching themselves.
The worst thing about Historians TV was that it was either boring or an advertisement for a department...
As for Notorious's terrific comment (I was sitting next to her) it's useful to note that it was in response to Deborah Gray White's description of the discussion in the 1970s -- now we have women's studies and black studies, what's next? Departments for white men?
My own thought -- what we said at the time, too -- was "we already have that, it's called the university."
The worst thing about Historians TV was that it was either boring or an advertisement for a department...
As for Notorious's terrific comment (I was sitting next to her) it's useful to note that it was in response to Deborah Gray White's description of the discussion in the 1970s -- now we have women's studies and black studies, what's next? Departments for white men?
My own thought -- what we said at the time, too -- was "we already have that, it's called the university."
I have to admit, when I saw Natalie Davis being interviewed, I kinda wanted to hear what she had to say, because she's teh cool.
Historians TV--Television for historians by historians?!?! Ugh. I am not sure if I have ever been so embarrassed of my chosen profession. I was kind of hoping that I was the only one who thought it was a miserable idea.
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