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This is a great post, and timely, because one of my kids just sent me a baffling Ea-nasir TikTok last week.

To me, it's part of the impulse we have (at least in contemporary America) to turn historical figures into cartoon characters. According to online culture, a lot of figures from the past are either worthy of obsessive fandom (as, say, amazing badasses or cuddly, relatable pals) or total derision.

As a history educator, I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, at least high school kids are learning a little history from their TikToks. On the other hand, much of this is, as you say, pretty distorting.

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Sep 26, 2023·edited Sep 26, 2023Author

I didn't know Ea-Nasir was on TikTok, but not surprised! On the whole I think the fandom you mention is a good thing *if* it creates opportunities for actual classroom learning.

What I worry about more than the fandom/meme-ification of certain figures is the tendency to reflexively attack *any* historical figure because they don't adhere to students' own cultural norms. "The past is a foreign country" is one of the main things I try to get across to my classes, and at some level I feel like reading Nanni's complaint tablet or Enheduanna's poetry is helping people get a glimpse of that.

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Regarding the fragmented lines by Enheduanna, have scholars written estimates of what it might look like without the missing words?

https://chat.openai.com/share/0ff592a0-0f03-4b33-963a-66ec0abdbf58

Not that this explains what it means, but the missing pieces feel so unimaginable to me that filling them in makes it feel closer

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The only one of these I'd heard of was Ea-nasir. And the version I heard of him did have something of a resolution: he had to lease part of his house to someone else as his poor business practices caught up to him.

I don't know if the correct interpretation is that he "ignored" such complaints, he kept a lot of them stored in his home. But he doesn't seem to have been once-bitten-twice-shy about ticking off his customers, since he kept accumulating them.

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