The most treasured object of childhood is my scout badge, I kept it all these years. It dates to the mid-80s before I emigrated to Australia with my mum. Scouts in the People's Republic of Poland were required to make an oath - which of course included the obligation to uphold socialism. So even that innocent memory is tainted. Regimes cannot leave children alone because indoctrination for ideologies is kind of a political reproduction.
How fascinating. Not in a good way. Having grown up in the hey day of the Counter Culture, in NYC, I’ve always known of the Bread & Puppet Theater but not the Vermont commune. It was always on the periphery of my knowing about the many avant guarde theatrical and artistic activities that many people I grew up knowing did find compelling. I was one of the few in my milieu who was immune to the obvious propaganda, though I found it interesting to contemplate. I sure never bought into it. There was an article about Bread & Puppet that came into my email feed from possibly the NYT. I went, oh, I remember this, and scrolled on by. Thanks for the personal report on the center of it all, which I did not knew existed (maybe if I had read the article I would have found out about it; but I have more important things to do). Sorry it freaked you out like that. But your account and photos are truly fascinating.
Holly's right. The feeling of dark was oppressive; unusually so. It felt like it felt as a kid watching Twilight Zone episodes that scared me. If I were a believer in the supernatural, I'd describe it as a psychic impingement of some sort; it was that kind of subjective experience.
Holly has done as well as a writer can to get this across, but believe me, you don't really get it because you haven't been there. Some of you will have visited similar places, I'm betting.
People are variously sensitive to this type of stimuli; Holly and I both are certainly over-sensitive, but typical of badly abused kids. I think, though, that even "normal" people would have felt some level of off-putting creepiness.
The intensity of the experience may be reflected by your decision to leave comments open longer than usual. So, it is over, and while catharsis doesn’t seem to work well for you, at least you won’t be required to repeat the visit. Thank you for the warning.
Well, perhaps you are right, and I was reading too much into circumstances. I was thinking that the usual practice would have been to close comments on the holiday evening. In any event, I appreciated the opportunity to register my appreciation.
When the comments are open is in flux. I am hoping to get acclimated to my new job sufficiently that I can go back to the way it was before. That means that if something is going on where work isn't going to get done anyway – like election day afternoon and night were -- they may be on. I'm still figuring out things at the moment. But I'm trying to head in the direction of returning to having them on all the time for paid subscribers.
Ever been to D Acres in NH? It at least is a working farm (with comfy accommodations and lots of cute animals), but yeah, all the collectivist art stuff there can be a bit disconcerting. Otoh, before everyone totally lost their minds, it did allow some gender critical Greens to do a talk there.🤷♀️
I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed this, as I was a diorama kid.
I loved seeing all the created sets (small and large) and had to fight the urges to cross the red ropes or open the cases, to manipulate the figures and setting. This would've been pretty cool.
Is that a play on "giving them bread and circuses so they don't revolt?" Creepy.
It's weird how some places have an atmosphere that feels heavy and dark. At times foreboding. We have a hippie-ish tourist town in NW Arkansas called Eureka Springs. It's got a heavy feel to it despite being a beautiful town.
It does have a haunted hotel though. Probably not helping.
I haven't read it yet, I just wanted to say that when I read your note saying you'd seen a communist puppet museum with Joshua Slocum, I thought at first that some communists had opened a museum and put a puppet of Mr. Slocum on display. Glad to see it hasn't come to that, quite.
What an insanely awful place. Having seen places where Communists ran things (parts of the former East Germany and a small part of North Korea), I have to say this is worse. Only a crazy person would be involved in something like this, but then you would have to be crazy to believe in Communism or any other flavor of Marxism.
If you think this is a culture war take, then I feel sorry for you. It means you've fully bought into the leftist take that literally everything, including basic humanity, is political.
OOOKay. Hey I didn't mean to offend you. I do think communism is kind of political. I enjoy your writing which is why I subscribed. I looked you up after Heather read something of yours on Darkhorse. Anyway just know that I appreciate you. 🙂
I’m not offended. I’m sad for you. If not wanting to be in a death cult is political then everything is political including not committing suicide, since the latter is refusing to join a death cult. How sickening and empty.
Don't be sad for me. But yes, unfortunately in 2024 not wanting to be in a death cult is political. I'm Canadian, we've had a wannabe communist dictator running our country for 8 years. He's won 3 elections in that time. Yep it's political.
The most treasured object of childhood is my scout badge, I kept it all these years. It dates to the mid-80s before I emigrated to Australia with my mum. Scouts in the People's Republic of Poland were required to make an oath - which of course included the obligation to uphold socialism. So even that innocent memory is tainted. Regimes cannot leave children alone because indoctrination for ideologies is kind of a political reproduction.
How fascinating. Not in a good way. Having grown up in the hey day of the Counter Culture, in NYC, I’ve always known of the Bread & Puppet Theater but not the Vermont commune. It was always on the periphery of my knowing about the many avant guarde theatrical and artistic activities that many people I grew up knowing did find compelling. I was one of the few in my milieu who was immune to the obvious propaganda, though I found it interesting to contemplate. I sure never bought into it. There was an article about Bread & Puppet that came into my email feed from possibly the NYT. I went, oh, I remember this, and scrolled on by. Thanks for the personal report on the center of it all, which I did not knew existed (maybe if I had read the article I would have found out about it; but I have more important things to do). Sorry it freaked you out like that. But your account and photos are truly fascinating.
Holly's right. The feeling of dark was oppressive; unusually so. It felt like it felt as a kid watching Twilight Zone episodes that scared me. If I were a believer in the supernatural, I'd describe it as a psychic impingement of some sort; it was that kind of subjective experience.
Holly has done as well as a writer can to get this across, but believe me, you don't really get it because you haven't been there. Some of you will have visited similar places, I'm betting.
People are variously sensitive to this type of stimuli; Holly and I both are certainly over-sensitive, but typical of badly abused kids. I think, though, that even "normal" people would have felt some level of off-putting creepiness.
That is indeed creepy as $expletive . My instinctive reaction to your photos is "burn it with fire!"
Oh my. I have memories of the Minneapolis puppet scene that I think I need to unpack. i was unaware this was not a localized phenomenon.
The intensity of the experience may be reflected by your decision to leave comments open longer than usual. So, it is over, and while catharsis doesn’t seem to work well for you, at least you won’t be required to repeat the visit. Thank you for the warning.
And here I thought the comments open longer was because of the holiday.
Well, perhaps you are right, and I was reading too much into circumstances. I was thinking that the usual practice would have been to close comments on the holiday evening. In any event, I appreciated the opportunity to register my appreciation.
When the comments are open is in flux. I am hoping to get acclimated to my new job sufficiently that I can go back to the way it was before. That means that if something is going on where work isn't going to get done anyway – like election day afternoon and night were -- they may be on. I'm still figuring out things at the moment. But I'm trying to head in the direction of returning to having them on all the time for paid subscribers.
I'm just guessing. I don't know.
A cult by any other name.
Ever been to D Acres in NH? It at least is a working farm (with comfy accommodations and lots of cute animals), but yeah, all the collectivist art stuff there can be a bit disconcerting. Otoh, before everyone totally lost their minds, it did allow some gender critical Greens to do a talk there.🤷♀️
Wow!!
I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed this, as I was a diorama kid.
I loved seeing all the created sets (small and large) and had to fight the urges to cross the red ropes or open the cases, to manipulate the figures and setting. This would've been pretty cool.
Points for the crafting of the items.
What was the gift shop like???
It was horrifying. So much darker and uglier than photos can show.
"Bread and puppets"
Is that a play on "giving them bread and circuses so they don't revolt?" Creepy.
It's weird how some places have an atmosphere that feels heavy and dark. At times foreboding. We have a hippie-ish tourist town in NW Arkansas called Eureka Springs. It's got a heavy feel to it despite being a beautiful town.
It does have a haunted hotel though. Probably not helping.
I haven't read it yet, I just wanted to say that when I read your note saying you'd seen a communist puppet museum with Joshua Slocum, I thought at first that some communists had opened a museum and put a puppet of Mr. Slocum on display. Glad to see it hasn't come to that, quite.
What an insanely awful place. Having seen places where Communists ran things (parts of the former East Germany and a small part of North Korea), I have to say this is worse. Only a crazy person would be involved in something like this, but then you would have to be crazy to believe in Communism or any other flavor of Marxism.
Holy. Hannah. That's like something straight out of "Tales From the Crypt".
Damn. Now I'm hearing the Crypt Keeper cackling.
Yikes. There are a lot of Bread and Puppet people in my neighborhood. Yes they are so scary
Yeah I didn't think you could stay away from the culture war.
If you think this is a culture war take, then I feel sorry for you. It means you've fully bought into the leftist take that literally everything, including basic humanity, is political.
OOOKay. Hey I didn't mean to offend you. I do think communism is kind of political. I enjoy your writing which is why I subscribed. I looked you up after Heather read something of yours on Darkhorse. Anyway just know that I appreciate you. 🙂
I’m not offended. I’m sad for you. If not wanting to be in a death cult is political then everything is political including not committing suicide, since the latter is refusing to join a death cult. How sickening and empty.
Don't be sad for me. But yes, unfortunately in 2024 not wanting to be in a death cult is political. I'm Canadian, we've had a wannabe communist dictator running our country for 8 years. He's won 3 elections in that time. Yep it's political.
Then the left has won so fully that there is no hope.