It's so easy for stodge to be twisted and turned into something sinister or unpleasant. This is, we feel, a bastardization of the stodge paradigm and in fact gives stodge, most of which is good and helpful, a bad name. Bad stodge can come in two forms - it can come in the form of tacky stodge, manifested in terms of overblown self-importance and pretention - making a parody the art or subject they are trying to support.
The second type of bad stodge is much more sinister. It is the perversion and twisting of stodge. The subjugation of stodge to serve the narrow-minded views of a few. This is the "community values" stodge pilferage. It is not the true nature of stodginess. Stodginess does not imply intolerance. Stodginess does not even imply, necessarily, conservatism. It is a fallacy that these stodge misfits are associated with the wholesome, intellectually unafraid stodginess that we love.
Yes associated they are, and perhaps they are even stodgy after all. Perhaps there is a sinister side to stodginess that we must look out for. Let these people and things be a lesson to us all. We must not hesitate to examine and learn more about these evil stodgers. Perhaps we can learn from their mistakes and sinister ways.
The Bad Stodge Hall of Fame
Rococo - centuries of stodginess
Sir Lawerence Alma-Tadema - bad stodgy painting
Thomas Aquinas - despite his merits, his stodgy flaws were unforgivable
Kenneth Brannaugh - bad stodgy acting. seriously flawed
Calvin - thought Luther was frivolous. Hmm.
Caviar - seriously stodgy food (not in the english way, either)
Civil War Surgical Techniques - Megan explores what happens when medical stodge loses it
Jacques Louis David - french romantic stodge
Bill Gates - stodgy approach to computing
Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry - goth and stodge - can they mix?
Jean-Luc Goddard - lost his mind to the joys of erudition
Jessie Helms - sinister stodge incarnate
Luther - thought Catholics were too frivolous. Scary thought.
Cotton Mather and Johnathon Edwards - bringing stodginess to colonial america
Hans Morgenthau - developing a sinister new way to look at diplomacy
The Papacy - millions subjugated to an overly stodgy intistution
Maxfield Parrish - yetch
Reader's Digest - stodge for the masses
Sir Joshua Reynolds - Stodgy British academic painter with no merit whatsoever
Normon Rockwell - stodgy pallid family values pap
The Scarlet Letter - The book mistakenly made into a movie. Twice. Annie explores
Martha Stewart - Bringing stodge to suburbia in a bad way
Sting - gives stodge a bad impression to millions
Strom Thurman - transcends the scope of evil stodge
Joseph Mallard William Turner - see Sir Joshua Reynolds
Queen Victoria - turned a whole culture into seriously stodgy stiffs
Andy Warhol - kitch turned stodge turned kitch turned stodge and vice versa