Sedulous

Sedulous

This morning I saw on Facebook a posting from a woman who wrote "ADVENTURE!" and then had a link to The House on the Rock. There is a bit of a conversation under it which ended with her telling a friend if "you haven't been there, you absolutely must go. You'd love it." Uh oh. I really want to respond to this, but how? Hey, I hope yer being ironic! But what is she wasn't? What if she thought HotR was actually some sort of cultural phenomenon that should be experienced in all its wonders*?

If you haven't been to House on the Rock <- read this. I'll wait.

Done? Welcome back!

I went to the House a couple times when I was a kid and it was fascinating. It was a beautiful collection of stuff that made my young mind explode in wonder. My parents loved it. I even went once by myself when I was around 20 and was impressed. Have my tastes changed that much, or has the whole place just recently gone to sensory-overload hell? I swear, when I was younger, there was the House and then you walked to the collections. Now there's so much crap, there are collections in the House! Seriously, you want to see architectural coolness? This is so not the place. And the whole place really really needs to be dusted. Boy, that would keep an army of  house cleaners busy for months. Oh, and all those musical rooms with the "player" animatrons? I coulda sworn when I was younger they actually played. Lord knows it would cost a fortune to keep all the stringed instruments in tune, but they could at least fake it. Half the strings aren't even attached to their instrument - they might be at one end, but the other end just hangs there, impotently, with the bow going over, well, nothing.

So I know what you're saying. You're saying, "Hey Briedank, what does any of this have to do with sedulous?"

I'll tell you what this has to do with sedulous. See the picture in the upper left corner? Upon coming to that, the 'sband uttered,

"Oh, god..." and his face fell visibly in despair.

That's right, the true definition of sedulous is walking through all the House on the Rock exhibits without either A) speeding up and staring straight ahead to avoid the hell that's trying to force its attentions upon you, or, B) collapsing into a heap and sobbing for security to come and show you the short cut to the end.**

When we were there, the main demographic was younger families - you know, mom, dad and a coupla kids. I really wanted to ask them what they thought. They didn't really seem like the type to spend close to a hundred bucks for a day of irony. But, good news (thankfully), the Facebook entry was indeed meant ironically.

PS: After a discussion with the woman on Facebook, I feel the need to add the addendum:

"I regret to inform you, that I was not being ironic in the least. :) I adored the place, and it's right up Gabe's alley of interest in weird shit. I am not sure who the intended audience is--I could see it both fascinating and terrifying children. I could see adults bored to tears and/or feeling took, trapped in the labyrinth of some madman's illusory dreamscape cruel joke (at cost). But I enjoyed having my senses smashed to bits, and was entirely, intriguingly disoriented by the questionable authenticity of anything. It was great! and fitting for our fractured times. I've long been fascinating by the history of (our ideas about) the future. This was like the reverse--a museum of fantasy antiquity. LOVED IT."

It's so odd when I meet someone who thinks differently than I do...or was that just me being ironic...??

*Or perhaps "wonders" is more appropriate.
**And you thought shortcuts at Ikea were useful!