Vincent Van Gogh was a fucking Genius!

[wildhorses]

as proof I offer this:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5404407


on edit: obviously I'm NOT....thank the gods for spellcheck!

[Swede]

1. Nice to see some one get it.

Yes he is.

[wildhorses]

2. kinda slow I am but, the beauty can NOT be denied!!!

thanks for the link.

[Swede]

5. Nice graphics also.

Nt.

[LeFrancais818]

3. van gogh's one of my heroes

too bad he never escaped his depression from being rejected by society.

transcend cultural perception controls.

[wildhorses]

4. welcome to the Lounge!!!

excellent first post!!:hi:

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. And yet almost no-one in America knows how to pronounce his name properly.

Dutch pronunciation almost-rhymes with Scottish 'loch' and doesn't have a hard 'g' sound; it's more like 'van khokh'...

[wildhorses]

7. is that the long 'o' or the short 'o'?

thanks:hi:

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. rhymes with 'loch'...

not with 'oak'

[Nevernose]

8. I blame the French

Not only did they own Scotland for a while (making Middle English really, really hard for me to pronounce -- every time I tried to read the "Canterbury Tales" aloud, I sounded like the Highlander), but they are convenient.

Convenience: so as it is written, so shall it be done. It is the nation of France's fault, and shall be the French people's fault until the end of time.

[wildhorses]

9. I am thinking the long 'o'...

:rofl:

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Well, it is their fault...

they're the ones who started this 'Van Go' thing.

And if you think Middle English is bad, you should try reading Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon. (Anglo-Saxon is where most of the Middle English pronunciations that sound 'odd' to modern ears came from, anyway; it was the Great Vowel Shift in the 14th-15th centuries that changed pronunciations to something closer to modern English).

[Nevernose]

12. I blame the Saxons for the consonants

And the French for the vowels. Those other people trying to blame the Saxons? They were lying to you.

I did read Beowulf in the Old English. I seemed to enjoy it more when it was written by Seamus Heaney and he was out winning nobel prizes for how well he translated it than I did in the Olod English.

Also, "Hrothgar" has too many vowels, for which I have not yet blamed the French, but am planning on doing so in the near future. What man in his right mind outs an H next to a G in the same word? Clearly a Frenchman, or one of their surrogates.

[LeFrancais818]

13. hahaha

don't all dominating smothering political states change pronounciations to suit their needs?

didn't america?

Why don't I MAKE YOU pronounce my entire name in French?

That'd be ridiculous, but I'd certainly prefer it.

I don't speak "true english," I speak american english. that doesn't mean it's bad or wrong.

thank you for fueling the boycott of ethnicly clensing the french in american society. It gives me the opportunity to show off some forbearance.

hahaha.

[txwhitedove]

17. Hi, LeFrancais818. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Kajsa]

14. He's my all time favorite artist.

I was fortunate enough to see his work at the Stedelijk Museum
in Amsterdam, many years ago.

I spent the entire day there!

[catbert836]

15. Whenever I'm feeling sorry for myself...

I think of Van Gogh. Now THERE'S someone who was miserable. He had about every common disease known to man at some point, including the mental ones, lost every job he ever had, was incredibly unlucky in love (his cousin), and had to live off the largesse of his brother for his older years. He truly never had peace. He was even a failure at killing himself.

[txwhitedove]

16. Van Gogh's work is phenomenal no matter how you pronounce his name.

Read Irving Stone's book "Lust for Life" about Van Gogh when I was 16, and still one of my favorites.
My daughter gave me a reproduction of Cypresses for my birthday. This picture doesn't do justice to
the colors and brushstrokes ---