Lasting cultural productions from 1939 include Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (written by Abel Meeropol), John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the original Batman, Gone With the Wind and the New York World's Fair. LaGuardia Airport opened, while Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began HP Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto garage with a little over $500. The Great Depression continued, though mass war mobilization would "help" end it.
As during most milestones of the human race, 1939 saw numerous wars and atrocities. Francisco Franco established a long-running dictatorship in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. Nazi Germany invaded Poland, sparking (or widening) the Second World War in Europe.
In 1939, the Japanese Imperial Army, already rampaging through much of China, met its first match fighting the Soviet Red Army. The Battle of Khalkhyn Gol resulted in the Japanese being defeated, blocked and kept apart from Germany and Italy, and in the Japanese high command deciding to go in other directions instead (including Pearl Harbor). This key battle is still hardly known in the West, despite its major impact on the strategic flow of WWII.
To connect with events in Iran and the Middle East, let's not forget the marriage of Fawzia Bint Fuad of Egypt and Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Crown Prince (and subsequent Shah) of Iran. The marriage didn't end well, but Fawzia is alive and free.
So here we are now, seventy years after 1939. . .
With the death of Michael Jackson, the Benjamin Button of American Pop stars will become less the butt of late-night jokes, more a universal tragedy. And beyond Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon, have we already forgotten the strange death of David Carradine? Such is cultural ADHD, I guess. Don't even mention Burma/Myanmar these days. Though all the pop rage in 2007, that's already "forgotten history."
Today's Rune: Wholeness.
6 comments:
The worst of it is that the death of no man at any time ever changed the way other men conduct themselves afterward.
Gandhi
King
JFK
RFK
Che
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Erik, cultural overload and too much media stimulation, I guess. Still tragic overall.
Looks like Jackson is set to become another Elvis. Wonder how soon it'll be before there are Jocko sightings.
I first heard of the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol when Alvin Coox, the author of Nomanhan, one of the only books ever written on the battle, died, and I read his obit in the New York Times. Fascinating story, with major consequences-- specifically, the Japanese turned their imperial ambition eastward, rather than west.
Michael Jackson's story is so unfathomably sad. The guy was hugely talented, but lacked the life skills to deal with it all.
MY MOM TOOK ME TO THE WORLD'S FAIR WHEN I WAS 4. I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH OF ANYTHING. I DO HAVE A SMASHED PENNY SOMEWHERE.
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