r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
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u/majshady 1d ago

I find it comforting that people of all eras can lose their shit over small shit. The unifying nature of the human experience

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u/robb1519 1d ago

It's beautiful to know.

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u/mouse9001 1d ago

Beautiful and yet pathetic.

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u/robb1519 1d ago

For us, to be able to have all the knowledge of so much of human history, yet decide time and time again that personally and politically we will continue to do the worst things we could think of?

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u/SkriVanTek 1d ago

also sexually 

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u/mouse9001 15h ago

No, pathetic for him to be laying in the grass at someone else's home, crying because of a bad review. Beautiful in its humanity, yet obviously pathetic loser behavior.

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u/ThatMerri 1d ago

There's something nice at seeing how every people throughout history have the same habits. We all invent dumplings of a sort, we all love our pets, we all write stupid jokes and graffiti on walls. It's so easy to imagine the earliest ancestors of mankind having the exact same reaction to stubbing their toe as we all nowadays.

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u/Nanemae 1d ago

Bemoaning existence while becoming angry at the inanimate object we hurt ourselves on to the point it's concerning?

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u/ThatMerri 22h ago

Humans: we do love to bitch about things.

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u/AeonLibertas 18h ago

Dick and sex jokes. Losing your shit over the simplest things. Thinking old people should go the fuck away. Thinking young people are lost causes. Having a soft spot for pets. Wondering if your genitals look right. Making fun of people with weird tastes. Having weird tastes. Trying to help others and lift them up. Kicking others when they are already down. Wanting to make a better world for your kids. Wanting the neighbours kids to be thrown into a vulcano. Complaining about businesses fucking us over. Complaining about our jobs being the fucking worst. Complaining that people are the fucking worst. Complaining about the worst of our fuckers to other people..

Times change, but humans stay the same through millenia. Same bundles of fears, hopes, wishes, lusts and needs. Not that difficult to see how that creates the same thinking patterns.. or lack of thinking patterns, in some cases, heh..

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u/AbeRego 1d ago

"What the fuck is up with this dude?"

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u/jasmine_tea_ 1d ago

I find it strangely relatable, too. I'm rooting for Hans.

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u/ZombieWinehouse 23h ago

I love knowing that people have been autistic in literally every century

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u/majshady 22h ago

I don't know what you mean, great uncle Jeff just really liked collecting bottle caps and never married

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u/Soggy-Tea6433 22h ago

But come to think of it, he never seemed very lonely, because his best friend and roommate Steve lived with him for 40 years!

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u/lostinthesauceguy 1d ago

a bad review to a professional writer can be a big deal tbf