entertaining ourselves back to life: part 1 (wsc 2025)

Horus

- Egyptian god of kingship

- depicted as a falcon

- right eye was the sun and his left eye was the moon or evening star

Yudhishthira

- wise lord of dharma from the revered epic Mahabharata

- ruled as king but loses his throne due to gambling having been tricked into wagering everything

- fights in the Kurukshetra War of succession

Richard the Lionheart

- English king and military leader who lead the Crusaders in an attempt to regain the Holy Land from Saladin

- negotiated a truce from Saladin despite his military prowess

- was regarded as a model king in his time but irresponsible now

Charles II

- son of Charles I, and his father's execution led to a period where Oliver Cromwell ruled

- he was exiled but asked to return, marking the Restoration period

- lived through religious troubles, the Great Fire of London, the Great Plague etc

Louis XVIII

- King of France after the fall of Napoleon

- exiled himself to escape execution, returned, fled again after Napoleon came back

- returned permanently after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo

Henry VII

- first monarch of the Tudor dynasty

- known for ending the Wars of the Roses

- was in exile but defeated Richard III and became King of England

- married Elizabeth of York despite being on opposite sides of the civil war

Juan Carlos

- King of Spain during its transition from dictatorship to democracy after the Franco era

- was in exile, pushed for democracy, joined the EU, prevented a coup

- faced backlash for scandals like hunting when Spain was in an economic crisis and abdicated to his son

Prince Caspian

- fictional rightful Telmarine heir to the throne of Narnia

- fights to reclaim his kingdom from King Miraz, his evil uncle

- not the main character of Narnia but rallies the Old Narnians and the Pevensies (Lucy, Peter etc)

Kimba the White Lion

- known in Japan as the Jungle Emperor

- the fictional young cub was born on a ship after his mother and father were captured/killed

- escapes and rallies the jungle for his late father, fighting rivals and teaching friends

Albert Einstein

- German physicist who developed the theory of relativity

- was granted American citizenship after being horrified by the Nazi's rule

- wrote to Roosevelt about dangers of nuclear weapons

- worked on a quantum theory against randomness and a unified field theory, both not working out

Leon Trotsky

- Russian revolutionary and central figure in the establishment of the Soviet Union

- inspired a form of Marxism called Trotskyism, but was himself a Marxist and Leninist

- wrote the paper Iskra (The Spark) under the pen name Pero (pen/quill) with a bunch of others

- was exiled many times, and got assassinated by Stalin's comrades

Jimmy Carter

- well liked 39th US President, longest-lived

- pardoned all Vietnam draft evaders, negotiated major foreign policy agreements, created a national energy policy

- his presidency was marked below average but was a great man after his term ended

- made the Carter Center to promote human rights, earning him Nobel Peace Prizes, stood up for Gaza by saying Israel was an apartheid, ended neglected tropical diseases and dracunculiasis

Friedrich Engels

- German philosopher and revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx's lifelong friend, co-founder of Marxism

- critic of capitalism and stood up for the lower classes' working conditions

- created the daily newspaper Neue Rheinische Zeitung along with others

- his parents disliked his activism

- exiled from Prussia after joining a failed coup, and wrote many books afterwards

Dante

- Italian poet that created poems like Comedy (christened Divine by Giovanni Boccaccio)

- depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for Western art and literature

- exiled, wrote Inferno and Comedy to make sense of his anger and his spiritual journey to understand God

- wrote about people he disliked, sending Romans to hell, and criticizing the Medieval Church for its wealth

Confucius

- Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period

- advocated for filial piety, championed the Silver Rule [don't do to others what you don't want to happen to you], became mandatory reading

- Qi state was afraid that the Lu state, under Confucius's reform, was getting too powerful, so they sent 100 horses and 80 beautiful dancing girls to the duke of Lu, who "Indulged himself" on them

- Confucius was disappointed that the duke left his duties, so he exiled himself and went to other kingdoms to seek opportunity, but he found none

Rodrigo Belmonte

- fictional military captain, one of the three protagonists in the historical fantasy novel The Lions of Al-Rassa by Guy Gavriel Kay

- about the relationship between three peoples: The Kindath (protag: Jehane), the Asharites (protag: Ammar) and the Jaddites (Rodrigo)

- was exiled, but a war started and he was promoted to a constable, offered to be co- with Ammar who declined and became leader of the opposing side

- Ammar eventually kills his friend in a battle, his poetry being quoted on Rodrigo's gravestone

Malala Yousafzai

- Pakistani female education activist (her homeland doesn't allow girls to study)

- youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate (17), youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada

- youngest ever Honorary Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford

- survived at the age of 15 a Taliban assasination attempt

Sun Mu

- North Korean defector and satirical artist

- known for his bold, Socialist Realist paintings that critique the North Korean regime, in the style of North Korean propaganda

- the pseudonym "Sun Mu" means "no borders", he adopted it to protect his identity

Belarus Free Theatre

- underground theater group in Belarus

- performances are about censorship, authoritarianism, and human rights violations under Belarus' oppressive regime

- operates in secrecy due to government persecution, most members are in exile

An-My Le

- Vietnamese-American (refugee from the Vietnam War) photographer, filmmaker, author, professor

- known for her black and white images that go in depth with war, memory, and landscape

- work blends documentary and staged photography, often on military training exercises, historical reenactments, and war's lasting impact on the environment

Gregor Mendel

father of modern genetics, studied pea plants and was a monk

Alfred Wegener

in his lifetime known for meteorology and polar research; but today for his theory on continental drift, which was rejected until paleomagnetism was discovered

Emily Dickinson

poet who wrote about love, death, and immortality; was considered odd and reclusive and wore white often; in love with her sister in law Susan but Mabel Todd didn't publish the works about her love

Franz Kafka

famous Jewish Austrian-Czech novelist from Prague who wrote in German, fusing realism and bizarre fantastique with alienation, existential anxiety, guilt and absurdity; destroyed many of his own works and had poor self-esteem

Anne Frank

German-born Jewish girl who died 15 years old in a Nazi camp, wrote The Diary of A Young Girl (biggest source on camps), her father Otto being the only one who survived, his secretaries keeping Frank's diary safe

Vivian Maier

took over 150,000 photographs of Americans and architecture, mainly unknown even when she auctioned her photos; John Maloof made her known by buying some and sharing them on Flickr, creating a film on her and making a Vivian Maier Scholarship Fund for needy female students with no requirements

Otis Redding

King of Soul, American R&B singer who died in a plane crash, but his song (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay reached no. 1 after his death

Jim Croce

American folk and rock singer-songwriter, who had one no. 1 during his lifetime and another after his death in a plane crash, being Time in a Bottle even though ABC didn't mean to release it as a single, however it had an extra kick because of his premature death

Nick Drake

English musician, and accomplished acoustic guitarist, depressed and unwilling to perform in front of a crowd during his life but gradually received wide recognition following his death due to overdose of antidepressants; he went viral because of US radio