CoL49 Group reading - The bust & Jay Gould

[Joseph Tracy]

It’s true,  I don’t know or recall anyone who has an actual bust of an historic person. It is something you only see in public buildings. The Greeks did Gods and heroes, but the Romans, more earthly  status oriented, did detailed likenesses, even castings of famous people, made death masks..  Seems like real macho culture to me, but for some these busts ( and other busts as well)could be aspirational, an homage to a guiding figure. Gould, the Golden Guiding Light  or the guiding light to gold, and Scottish to boot.




> On May 9, 2024, at 11:20 PM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I don’t know anybody who has a bust of anybody in their house. Does anybody
> here?
> 
> Would you call it an affectation?
> 
> Schroeder has a bust of Beethoven on his piano. Presumably for inspiration.
> 
> The Schroeder character was introduced in 1951 - so this oddity could have
> been an inspiration for Pierce’s bust of Jay Gould.
> 
> 
> I’m not thinking of the bust of Jay Gould in terms of gnarly symbolism but
> just, like, wouldn’t you agree that it might be significant -
> 
> “if this is who Pierce admires enough to have a frickin’ bust” in a
> position near to the frickin’ marriage bed because he wants, while
> sleeping, a-and while copulating, to have the bust nearby -
> 
> (ok, I’ve typed “bust” enough times, it’s starting to sound weird)
> 
> 
> I refreshed my memory of Jay Gould in Wikipedia.
> Fairly typical robber baron, n’est ça pas?
> 
> 3 standout tidbits:
> 
> - Tried to corner gold, screwed a bunch of people & businesses up for
> months, & didn’t even make a net profit after the lawsuits
> 
> - Quoted (somewhere) as saying something about “he could hire one half of
> the working class to kill the other half”

Howard Hughes once said,’ you have to remember  I can buy or destroy anyone I want to.'

> (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/10/29/hire-half/?amp=1 someone chased
> this down - pretty interesting - sounds like not a very accurate quote
> 
> 
> - mentioned in GR in context of being the partner of Jubilee Jim Fisk in
> the “cornering gold caper”;
> 
> (From _Gravity’s Rainbow_
> “It is gone where the woodbine twineth.” Exactly what Jubilee Jim Fisk told
> the Congressional committee investigating his and Jay Gould’s scheme to
> corner gold in 1869.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, May 4, 2024 at 7:19 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I learned Putin does not have a bust of Lenin
>> In his residence, but of Peter the Great.
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