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on this day that marks 20 years of Shrek, we ask you this question:
is Shrek rural life?
is Shrek rural life?
This is true! But also, it's how he lives. In a cottage. With a fire in the hearth. And even with his own artisanal candles on the dining table (even if dubiously made from his own earwax). https://twitter.com/SweAtilaa/status/1385239951873384450
We don't have any earwax candles in The Museum of English Rural Life collection, but we should like to get some for our gift shop, if we can find an ogre happy to provide.
Also, Shrek honours the age-old tradition of making hand-made signs. One of these pictures is from our archive, and we will let you decide which one it is.
(MERL P FS PH1/K46950)
(MERL P FS PH1/K46950)
Yes! He grows his own weeds we think, if we remember right? We are a museum which is designed to remember things, but only the things in our collection. Which unfortunately, Shrek is not. At least, not yet. https://twitter.com/smitch1983/status/1385242525045252096
Scenes when we get official confirmation from Mike Myers that Shrek makes all his own furniture as well as the tools he used to make the said furniture.
Did you ever stop and think: how did Shrek get this cool chair? Who made it? Well, not only are you doing it right now, but you are also engaging with rural history in ways that none of us could have ever imagined even 1 second ago.
OK so Shrek is not just a small-time grower. The guy has an entire industry. Crops, check. Livestock, check. We're half-expecting him to have an entire John Deere hidden away in one of his hand-made cabinets.
More progress is being made in this important investigation into Shrek's material culture.
We're smashing the refresh button repeatedly, like Shrek hammering away at his table, for the full overview of the cottage's furnishings to be completed. https://twitter.com/EaglePursuit/status/1385245630663114760
We're smashing the refresh button repeatedly, like Shrek hammering away at his table, for the full overview of the cottage's furnishings to be completed. https://twitter.com/EaglePursuit/status/1385245630663114760
with each passing tweet we grow closer and closer to the same depths of theory-crafting from which soared the fan theory that Jar Jar Binks is a powerful member of the Sith
Not sure but either way to make it true please can someone draw us this? https://twitter.com/cfraser513/status/1385246149175545856
smocks have layers
Yes! We are nothing without each other, as clearly shown in some future Shrek instalment where he trades his boutique earwax candles for both essentials and luxuries with swamps near and far. https://twitter.com/SweAtilaa/status/1385243973569159175
We can't believe we're saying this but we feel we are getting infinitely closer to unlocking the true rural potential of Shrek. https://twitter.com/DCWillbanks/status/1385251634175827972
Shrek may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he did build the shed himself and his entire homestead. And he grows crops and farms livestock. And makes candles. And
When in Hamilton they sing 'the man is nonstop', we feel that. About 2001's most iconic rural protagonist: Shrek
We recently did an online exhibition about rural protest and foolishly we never thought to include Shrek within it https://twitter.com/traybim/status/1385254496301985794
we look forward to appointing our first MERL Shrek fellow https://twitter.com/Maggie_Perhaps/status/1385253781223485444
Shrek is love
Shrek is rural life
Shrek is rural life
this is the closest we will get to Shrek declaring he is rural life himself https://twitter.com/BlaireMoskowitz/status/1385257456041963523
our mission is WORKING https://twitter.com/KevinGPrice/status/1385257820157739008
And by WORKING we mean SHREK
A few folks are mentioning cottagecore in replies, and we will take this as an opportunity to share our Big Cottagecore Exposé from last year, which stars none other than unfortunate cottagecore influencer: Marie Antoinette https://twitter.com/themerl/status/1290590669157867520?lang=en
Thank you @BlaireMoskowitz for these brilliant passages!
And for everyone who doesn't know: William Steig was the author of Shrek.
And for everyone who doesn't know: William Steig was the author of Shrek.
Like Shrek, like the countryside, this thread has developed layers. And together, Twitter, we have journeyed into an area of rural Shrek-based scholarship that we are both surprised and delighted to have arrived at.
