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Immersion in Knowledge: Writings, Readings, Viewing
The past few days I have placed finger to keyboard, eye to screen and page, ear to video audio, and even podcast. I do this regularly of course, I am not just a man of letters (albeit weak in popular culture), but also a man with a few letters after my name. I have been working my way through the transcript of the "Cyberpunk 2020: Year of Stainless Steel Rat" convention from last year (I should try to finish this by February 11, for aesthetic reasons). In addition, I have the eResearchNZ conference next week and because I like to be somewhat prepared, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man" (Francis Bacon) which of course I provide the slidedeck in advance: "Interactive HPC Computation with Open OnDemand and FastX", a thoroughly enticing title. In addition to this, I've elaborated and composed notes from a Facebook discussion some months back on different referencing styles, specifically "APA Style vs IEEE Style: Fight!", where I have ended up quite in favour of the latter. Finally, I have written a shorter piece on "Coronavirus Vaccine Policy in Australia", which dovetails quite nicely with the short not-for-degree Epidemiology in Public Health course I am doing with John Hopkins University. This is, of course, in addition to my studies in economics at the University of London, and the studies in higher education at the University of Otago (I have just started my final unit, the masters thesis).
In evenings, before turning in, I have taken to watching an episode or three of Horrible Histories which, on first blush, is a children's show (of course I am charmed by the hand-puppet host, Rattus Rattus). I was first exposed to the series through their Scholastic books with the memorable reference to the slogan of the artisans against the aristocrats in early renaissance Florence: "Death to the hats and long live the capes!", itself an inversion of the slogan used by the aristocrats some decades prior when they had the upper hand. But it doesn't take one to realise that the series is very much in the black-comedy tradition like Monty Python, albeit with even more adherence to the historical than even that famous collection (and they did pretty damn well). The author, Terry Deary, has a very good sense of pointing out how awful the ruling class invariably is, how stupefying ignorance has plagued us throughout the pre-scientific ages, and how actual the visceral experience of lived history is more important than memorising people, dates, and places. This said, if criticism can be given it does over-emphasise the British story, and doesn't really give a good sense of historical development and turning points. But for pure educational entertainment it is superb.
In evenings, before turning in, I have taken to watching an episode or three of Horrible Histories which, on first blush, is a children's show (of course I am charmed by the hand-puppet host, Rattus Rattus). I was first exposed to the series through their Scholastic books with the memorable reference to the slogan of the artisans against the aristocrats in early renaissance Florence: "Death to the hats and long live the capes!", itself an inversion of the slogan used by the aristocrats some decades prior when they had the upper hand. But it doesn't take one to realise that the series is very much in the black-comedy tradition like Monty Python, albeit with even more adherence to the historical than even that famous collection (and they did pretty damn well). The author, Terry Deary, has a very good sense of pointing out how awful the ruling class invariably is, how stupefying ignorance has plagued us throughout the pre-scientific ages, and how actual the visceral experience of lived history is more important than memorising people, dates, and places. This said, if criticism can be given it does over-emphasise the British story, and doesn't really give a good sense of historical development and turning points. But for pure educational entertainment it is superb.
IMHO
The history of libraries is complicated, and included chained libraries and reading-room libraries (like the British Library), and Parish Libraries, which collected uplifting works of theology for the edification of the vicar and any parishioners who could read and had an interest.
It wasn't until the mid 19C that more general libraries became a thing, and even then many were by subscription. The concept of public libraries paid for by public taxes is more recent yet.
But in all cases, the concept is the same: democratisation of learning. What Deary would seem to want is a return to where you had to be able to afford to buy a book before you could read it... which 1) if you can't afford it you can't read it so sad sorry not sorry, and 2) published reviews suddenly become much more important, rather than guidelines of taste. It also meant you weren't limited by how much space you had available to store books in, which for poor folk until very recently was a severe consideration for almost all, and even today for those without housing security, is a real problem. Even if they could afford to buy books, which they can't. And if they had time and inclination to read, which they largely don't.
The whole point of publicly funded public lending libraries was to make knowledge and entertainment available to even the poor.
Deary's attitude would seem to be that so long as he's getting paid, he's perfectly fine with the poor not even getting the right to read anything. (And that the Internet exists is completely beside the point, because if he doesn't like people borrowing his books, why would he be OK with putting them online?)
It's explicitly an unwinding of the liberalisation and levelling of the early 20C, a retreat to the attitude that the poor get what they're given or what they can afford, and they'll like it.
Which is to say, he's written a lot about the Georgians, and medieval poverty, and doesn't seem to have learned a damn thing from any of it.
Re: IMHO