History Creator / HenryDarger

* Finally, a series of 300 paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers. (The majority of his pictures are [[http://nliventech.net/downloads/ebooks/rawvision_december/chapter2.html heroic portraits]], ordinary action-adventure scenes or [[http://www.ideafountain.ca/1/post/2012/11/little-boy-lost-henry-darger.html colorful, flower-filled panoramas]]. However, the 1% of his output that covered the Glandelinian massacres are the ones that get the most attention.)

Henry Joseph Darger (April 12, 1892–April 13, 1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageOfFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace creating an internal fantasy world]]. At sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Marion, Illinois, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a succession of Catholic hospitals. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

* Darger's 4,878 page autobiography, which spends only 206 pages on his life before [[OffTheRails veering off]] into a story about a sentient tornado [[FluffyTheTerrible named "Sweetie Pie".]]

!!'''''In the Tropes of the Unreal'''''
* AmbiguousDisorder: Was Darger autistic? Schizophrenic? Did he have multiple personalities? Or was he just a normal guy with a traumatic childhood and rich inner fantasy life?
* AmbiguouslyGay: Darger has been occasionally hypothesized as being a closeted homosexual.
** There's also some evidence (particularly in Literature/InTheRealmsOfTheUnreal with several female-appearing characters that are shown to have penises) he may have [[{{Transsexual}} thought of himself as a little girl]]. Or -- and it's not impossible -- he simply did not know.
* DisproportionateRetribution: When he was a adolescent, he was sent to an insane asylum after being [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown caught masturbating.]]
* FriendToAllChildren: Darger definitely saw himself as this, and there's every indication he really was.
* MadArtist: Not so much mad as extremely socially isolated due to his abusive childhood.
** ReclusiveArtist is more like it. He was very aware of what he was doing and thought of himself as an artist.
* NoSocialSkills: Rather, few social skills. He had a good relationship with his pastor, and he had a best friend, Willie Schloder. They had ideas for a protective society and OrphanageOfLove for abused children. According to his diary, he worked very hard on controlling his temper.

Henry Joseph Darger (1892–1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageOfFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace creating an internal fantasy world]]. At sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Marion, Illinois, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a succession of Catholic hospitals. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

Henry Joseph Darger (1892-1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageofFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace creating an internal fantasy world]]. At sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Marion, Illinois, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a succession of Catholic hospitals. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

* Its 10,000 page handrwitten sequel ''Crazy House: Further Adventures in Chicago'', featuring the Vivian Girls and their "secret brother" [[AuthorAvatar Penrod]] exorcising the ghosts from an evil haunted house.

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers. (The majority of his pictures are [[http://nliventech.net/downloads/ebooks/rawvision_december/chapter2.html heroic portraits]], ordinary action-adventure scenes or [[http://www.ideafountain.ca/1/post/2012/11/little-boy-lost-henry-darger.html colorful, flower-filled panoramas]]. However, the 1% of his output that covered the Glandelinian massacres are the ones that get the most attention.)

[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390123 A documentary]] about Henry Darger's life was released in 2004. A second film, ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDOfEsaPAeY Revolutions of the Night]]'', released in 2012, gives more detail about his background.

!!Tropes applying to Darger himself

* Darger's 4,878 page autobiography, which spends only 206 pages on his life before [[OfftheRails veering off]] into a story about a sentient tornado [[FluffytheTerrible named "Sweetie Pie".]]

** There's also some evidence (particularly in Literature/InTheRealmsOfTheUnreal with several female-appearing characters that are shown to have penises) he may have had [[{{Transsexual}} gender dysphoria]].

Henry Joseph Darger (1892-1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageofFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace creating an internal fantasy world]]. Eventually, at sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Marion, Illinois, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a succession of Catholic hospitals. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

** ReclusiveArtist
* NoSocialSkills

* AmbiguousDisorder: Was Darger autistic? Schizophrenic? Did he have multiple personalities? Or was he just a normal guy with a traumatic childhood and an rich inner fantasy life?

Henry Joseph Darger (1892-1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageofFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace retreating into an internal fantasy world]]. Eventually, at sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Marion, Illinois, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a Catholic hospital. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers. (The majority of his pictures are [[http://nliventech.net/downloads/ebooks/rawvision_december/chapter2.html heroic portraits]], ordinary action-adventure scenes or [[http://www.ideafountain.ca/1/archives/11-2012/2.html colorful, flower-filled panoramas]]. However, the Glandelinian massacres are the ones that get the most attention.)

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers. (The majority of his pictures are [[http://nliventech.net/downloads/ebooks/rawvision_december/chapter2.html heroic portraits]], ordinary action-adventure scenes or colorful, flower-filled panoramas. However, the Glandelinian massacres are the ones that get the most attention.)

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers. (The majority of his pictures are heroic portraits, ordinary action-adventure scenes or colorful, flower-filled panoramas. However, the Glandelinian massacres are the ones that get the most attention.)

[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390123 A documentary]] about Henry Darger's life was released in 2004. A second film, ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EIWNi1ots4 Revolutions of the Night]]'', released in 2012, gives more detail about his background.

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers.

[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390123 A documentary]] about Henry Darger's life was released in 2004.

* The 15,145 page novel ''The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion'', chronicling a fictional war between the Christian nation of Angelinia and the militantly atheist nation of Glandelinia.

[[folder: Tropes applying to ''In the Realms of the Unreal'']]
* BigBad: Glandelinian General John Manly.
* BloodSpatteredInnocents
* ChildSoldier
* [[ChristianityisCatholic Christianity is Catholic]]: The majority of the Angelinians are Catholics. Darger himself was a very devout Catholic, taking Communion every day and sometimes attending Mass five or seven times.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Frequently involving evisceration, crucifixion, and strangulation.
* DoorStopper: Probably the ultimate example.
* FashionVictimVillain: The Glandelinian Army is portrayed as wearing Confederate uniforms with academic mortarboard hats.
* HollywoodAtheist: The Glandelinians are motivated to wage war against Angelinia due to a seething hatred of Christianity (and [[ChildHater little girls)]]
* MultipleEndings: Different parts of the novel end with either Angelinia or Glandelinia winning.
* SelfInsertFic: Darger himself appears several times in the novel, portraying both good and evil characters.
* SlaveLiberation: The goal of Angelinia's war is to liberate the child slaves.
* WriteWhatYouKnow: Darger based the experiences of the child slaves on his own experiences of abusive orphanages and mental asylums.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: Darger also included a fictionalized version of William Schloder, his OnlyFriend, as a FourStarBadass Angelinian General.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes applying to Darger himself]]

* NoSocialSkills
[[/folder]]

Henry Joseph Darger (1892-1973) was an outsider artist and author from Chicago. After losing his parents at an early age, he spent the majority of his childhood in a series of abusive [[OrphanageofFear orphanages]] and [[BedlamHouse insane asylums]], and responded by [[HappyPlace retreating into an internal fantasy world]]. Eventually, at sixteen, he escaped the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children, and walked 160 miles back to Chicago, finding work there as a janitor in a Catholic hospital. Apart from a short stint in the US Army during WorldWarI, he lived quietly as a janitor and dishwasher all his life, hardly ever speaking in public and emerging from his apartment only to go to work and Mass. Eventually, he died in a nursing home in 1973. When cleaning out his apartment, his landlords found an immense treasure trove of artwork and stories that Darger had been working on for more than sixty years.

* ChristianityisCatholic: The majority of the Angelinians are Catholics. Darger himself was a very devout Catholic, taking Communion every day and sometimes attending Mass five or seven times.

* DoorStopper

[[caption-width-right:302:Henry Darger]]

* FashionVictimVillian: The Glandelinian Army is portrayed as wearing Confederate uniforms with academic mortarboard hats.

* Darger's 4,878 page autobiography, which spends only 206 pages chronicling Darger's life before [[OfftheRails veering off]] into a story about a sentient tornado [[FluffytheTerrible named "Sweetie Pie".]]

* MultipleEndings: Different parts of the novel end with either Angelinia or Glandelinia winning.
* SelfInsertFic

* MadArtist: Not so much mad as extremely socially awkward due to his abusive childhood.

* Finally, a series of three hundred paintings, some more than thirty feet long and double-sided, illustrating ''In the Realms of the Unreal'' and infamous for featuring numerous drawings of naked little girls with penises being Gorn tortured, strangled, and hacked to pieces by Glandelinian soldiers.

!!Tropes applying to Darger

* AmbigiousDisorder
* MadArtist: Not so much mad as extremely socially awkward due to his abusive childhood.