Althouse: "Do We All See the Man Holding an iPhone in This 1937 Painting?"

August 27, 2017

"Do We All See the Man Holding an iPhone in This 1937 Painting?"

"So, what is it?"

45 comments:

Matt said...: Chocolate bar.; 8/27/17, 8:37 AM
chuck said...: Looks like a mirror.; 8/27/17, 8:39 AM
Heywood Rice said...: paint; 8/27/17, 8:45 AM
Heywood Rice said...: paint; 8/27/17, 8:46 AM
rehajm said...: It's an old picture. Obviously a 4th generation Gameboy.; 8/27/17, 8:51 AM
Heywood Rice said...: still paint; 8/27/17, 8:53 AM
MathMom said...: I agree with rehajm. 4th gen Gameboy. An Indian wouldn't be able to afford an iPhone.; 8/27/17, 8:58 AM
Matt Sablan said...: "It's not clear exactly who this man is, but he might as well be popping off a selfie or thumbing through his news feed. He seems to gaze into the handheld device in such a way that renders all-too-familiar today, as if he's just read a bad tweet or recoiling from a Trump-related push notification from the Times."

-- He's EVERYWHERE.; 8/27/17, 9:03 AM
Curious George said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/17, 9:05 AM
AllenS said...: It's a mirror.; 8/27/17, 9:09 AM
Curious George said...: Easy. It's a deck of cards. He's dealing blackjack. Like Native Americans have for generations.; 8/27/17, 9:09 AM
AllenS said...: Blogger is a little sticky this morning.; 8/27/17, 9:11 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Oh by the way. Sell your Apple stock. My wife has always been the original fanboi of iPhones. This week she bought a Samsung.; 8/27/17, 9:14 AM
khematite said...: Didn't we go through this exact same thing back in 2010 when a woman with a cell phone to her ear was spotted walking through the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film, "The Circus"?; 8/27/17, 9:16 AM
robother said...: "Mirror"= the first selfie-taking device.; 8/27/17, 9:17 AM
Known Unknown said...: "or recoiling from a Trump-related push notification from the Times."

Rent-free, baby. Rent-free.; 8/27/17, 9:18 AM
Oso Negro said...: It's an I-phone 6 at that. That painting is sooo 2016.; 8/27/17, 9:19 AM
Sydney said...: A bar of some precious metal?; 8/27/17, 9:22 AM
Fernandinande said...: Part of his sardine-can necklace.; 8/27/17, 9:30 AM
rhhardin said...: Mirrors reverse front and back. Iphones don't.; 8/27/17, 9:38 AM
mockturtle said...: Yep. A mirror.; 8/27/17, 9:39 AM
Darrell said...: I would say it's a plane iron--blade. He's holding the tapered part down, so it's being covered by his fingers. Yes, he can see himself in the polished metal, so he's using it as a mirror at this point.; 8/27/17, 9:43 AM
CWJ said...: A white man is being whipped. Wait! That can't be right.; 8/27/17, 9:54 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Android; 8/27/17, 9:54 AM
The Godfather said...: What phone? I was looking at the ass on the Indian mama.; 8/27/17, 10:00 AM
traditionalguy said...: It's a.list of trade goods he demands or he will slaughter the Whites. Nothing has changed that much.; 8/27/17, 10:29 AM
David said...: My virus screener (Bitdefender) got a positive on the linked website.; 8/27/17, 10:31 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/17, 10:36 AM
William said...: I get the sense that this painting is not politically incorrect and there will be no great outcry against it. The settlers are shown bringing witches, stockades and beatings. They are the force of superstition and cruelty. The Indians look rather noble. This is a painting to celebrate. I have some questions about the pink outfit of the lead settler though. He may have been drawn in pink to make him look effete. That's no longer politically correct. Perhaps they can paint him over in orange with a MAGA hat without doing too much damage to the integrity of the picture.; 8/27/17, 10:42 AM
JAORE said...: Of course it's an iPhone. The real question is who is receiving his text, and in what time continuum do they exist?; 8/27/17, 10:44 AM
Charlie said...: It's proof time travel is real.; 8/27/17, 10:44 AM
Charlie said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/17, 10:45 AM
JAORE said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/27/17, 10:48 AM
Bob Boyd said...: They're whipping that guy because he won't tell them his WIFI password.; 8/27/17, 10:52 AM
Wince said...: He wants a selfie with whitey.; 8/27/17, 12:36 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Why a witch riding a broom in the right-hand background?

From Wikipedia on "Bad Willy" Pynchon:

In 1649, William Pynchon found time to write a critique of his place and times' dominant religious doctrine, Puritanical Calvinism, entitled The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption. Published in London in 1650, it quickly reached Boston and caused a sensation. Pynchon was one of Massachusetts' wealthiest and most important men, and in his book — which confounded Puritan theology by claiming that obedience, rather than punishment and suffering, was the price of atonement — was immediately burned on the Boston Common (only 4 copies survived), and soon after became the New World's first-ever banned book. Officials of the Massachusetts Bay Colony formally accused Pynchon of heresy and demanded that he retract its argument. Coincidentally, Pynchon's court date took place on the same day and at the same place that the New World's first witch trial — that of Hugh and Mary Parsons of Springfield — took place.

What exactly Pynchon was trying to say about the Atonement isn't really clear from what I just posted, so I don't know why his book got "Banned in Boston".; 8/27/17, 12:54 PM
Etienne said...: It's a magic mirror. You give the mirror to someone, and you tell them to kill the man in the picture.; 8/27/17, 1:50 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: A trade goods mirror of course. Like all trade goods, cheap and undersized. People are dorks.; 8/27/17, 1:59 PM
Fernandinande said...: YoungHegelian said...From Wikipedia on "Bad Willy" Pynchon:

I like the way he split town. Besides writing the first banned book..."In 1641, Pynchon became the first commercial meat packer in the new world, exporting salt pork. In 1651, Springfield was the site of the first witch trial in America when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons accused each other of witchcraft. While both were acquitted of witchcraft, Mrs. Parsons was found guilty of murdering her own child and sentenced to death."; 8/27/17, 2:10 PM
Fernandinande said...: These are worth gawking at -
"Indians at the Post Office
Native Themes in New Deal-Era Murals"; 8/27/17, 2:14 PM
MrCharlie2 said...: A mirror.; 8/27/17, 7:33 PM
Big Mike said...: If it's an iPhone, where's the cell tower? Who's supplying the WiFi hotspot?; 8/27/17, 9:51 PM
Steven said...: If it's an iPhone, where's the cell tower? Who's supplying the WiFi hotspot?

Haven't you seen a recent iPhone commerical? You know, with the tagline "Practically magic"? The witch is flying the mobile WiFi (Witch Fiber) hotspot.; 8/28/17, 12:15 AM
SeanF said...: rhhardin: Mirrors reverse front and back. Iphones don't.

They don't? I have a Samsung, not an iPhone, but when I use the phone with the front facing camera, as to take a selfie, the image displayed on the screen is reversed exactly like a mirror.

That being said, though, I give you props for not saying that a mirror reverses left and right.; 8/28/17, 10:54 AM
Mitch H. said...: Ingot. Iron, lead, or silver. One of those.; 8/28/17, 3:12 PM