Skip to content

Tulipomania

2011-04-20 · John · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · reflection essay

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

In Amsterdam, John retells the 1630s Dutch tulip mania and its 1637 crash, but says what fascinates him is that the prized flowers were sick with a virus and are gone: we will never know what it felt like to see the Viceroy.

What is said

00:00:00 — Really in Amsterdam: two months finishing the new book; the Yeti's Venice Biennale work; a child of the brothers is portable; heading to the flower market

  • ★★ The description urges viewers to buy Atlas by Katrina Vandenberg now: you will not regret it. — 00:00:00
  • ★ The description calls the 1636-37 flower bubble the original irrational exuberance, then asks whether it was irrational. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John says he is really in Amsterdam, not before a green screen, for two months finishing his new book; the reason for Amsterdam will become obvious when you read it. — 00:00:03 · Amsterdam
  • ★★ John says the Yeti needs to be in Europe because she is working on the U.S. pavilion for the Venice Biennale. — 00:00:07 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★ Everyone has a reason to be in Amsterdam except baby a child of the brothers, John jokes, but he is portable. (playful) — 00:00:14

00:00:22 — Tulip mania: tulips reach Holland, the Viceroy, prices rise through the 1630s, what a bulb could buy, the 1637 collapse, one of the first bubbles

  • ★★ John says that when tulips first came to Holland in the early 1600s they were prized for their rich color, and multicolored ones were especially beloved. — 00:00:22 · Netherlands
  • ★★ John says rare, fragile, sickly-looking bulbs produced the most beautiful tulips, such as the Viceroy. — 00:00:33
  • ★★ John says tulip prices rose steadily through the first half of the 1630s, and by the winter of 1636 the Dutch had become total tulip maniacs, especially for the sickly bulbs. — 00:00:42 · Netherlands
  • ★★ John says one Viceroy bulb in 1637 cost as much as all the goods shown, joking he could live happily with just the suit of clothes, the bed and 4,000 pounds of butter. (playful) — 00:00:54
  • ★★★ John says that in 1637, almost all at once, the tulip bulb market collapsed, falling about 99% in two months. (hedged) — 00:01:12
  • ★★ John calls tulip mania one of the first great bubbles of capitalism, but says that is not what fascinates him. — 00:01:16

00:01:27 — The prized bulbs were sick with a virus and died out; we will never see the Viceroy; Atlas by Katrina Vandenberg and her lines; sign-off

  • ★★★ What fascinates John: the fragile-looking bulbs behind brilliant flowers like the Viceroy were sick with a virus, which he calls the tulip mosaic virus, and have long since died out. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John reflects that although we can look at paintings, we will never know quite what it felt like to see the Viceroy. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ John first heard of tulip mania in Atlas by Katrina Vandenberg, a brilliant book of poems that has shaped his thinking while writing the new book. — 00:01:40
  • ★★★ John closes with Vandenberg's lines asking whether we aren't sorry we will never see a tulip worth offering all we own for its promise. — 00:01:49 > «…a tulip that would make you offer all you own for the layered, translucent promise in its brown paper wrapper»

Threads in this video

BR2_57c0a759ef