As a cultural phenomenon, Tumblr fascinates me. Perhaps more than anything, it’s the way that the platform seems to have developed its own culture that intrigues me most. Due to the incredibly slow nature of print, however, my thoughts on it still won’t be out for a few weeks. In the meantime though, I wanted to share my favourite Tumblr ever: Slaughterhouse 90210.
The premise of Slaughterhouse 90210 is simple: each post is a screenshot of a popular TV show or film paired with a quote from classic literature or philosophy. The results are sublime.
At times, they are delightfully unexpected and profound, reframing both halves of the pairing in novel and provocative ways:
At others they are more subtle, but no less evocative:
Sometimes, I love them simply because they draw out the beauty and depth of something I already love:
And occassionally, they say more in one captioned image than I could say in 20 posts:
Of course sometimes, they just give me a reason to break out a wry, if slightly sad smile:
I know this is rather effusive, glowing praise. But this really is my favourite thing on the internet. It captures everything I love: the collapse of high and low; the promise of non-linear of thinking; and the poignancy and ache of the fragment, the way the fleeting, microscopic thing can just stop you dead in your tracks.
As it turns out, the site is somehow connected to the magazine Details. Who knew?
Highly, highly recommended.
#1 by mir on August 12, 2009 - 12:02 pm
That is genius. My way of experiencing media represented in a 3 second pastiche.
The Sense and Sensibility/ 30 Rock snapshot was like ‘yeah – of course that’s the geneology of this show – how did I not see that?’
ps: Yes using geneology is lame, I can’t think of a different word.
#2 by Nav on August 12, 2009 - 2:44 pm
Genealogy is a great word! Use it more!
And thank you for the comment. I had a very similar reaction too – that sort of head-smacking “Of course! How did I not see the connection between those two things before”.
But what’s also great is that Slaughterhouse produces those connections as much as it reveals them – maybe more, in fact. And that’s what I like most about it.
#3 by Fern on February 19, 2010 - 9:13 pm
I feel the same way about this blog. Sometimes I forget about it and go back and check out the new entries and am blown away. The uncomfortable, yet appropriate pairings are amazing.