I know I'm not the person they're talking about because not only am I smart and an avid reader, I grew up in a different country AND I grew up reading old books from childhood so I'm used to parsing old references and figuring shit out from context, but DAMN, you people have Google too! - ThreadSky

erislovesmovies.bsky.social • 8 days ago

I know I'm not the person they're talking about because not only am I smart and an avid reader, I grew up in a different country AND I grew up reading old books from childhood so I'm used to parsing old references and figuring shit out from context, but DAMN, you people have Google too!

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erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

Upsetting!

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

There is a sense that in demanding literature courses in schools to rightly include writing by those who aren't/weren't old white English men blah blah, it's made it seem as though the writing of the old, the white, the English, the men is inherently unworthy?

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

They also weren't all old white English men either

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

I'm rereading North and South at the moment via an exquisite audiobook by Juliet Stevenson and I remembered that in reading it before and watching the show, I didn't really grasp what the fuck was up with her father's religious issue that kicked it all off so I googled it (idk, some Protestant shit)

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

When reading books for Leaving Cert English, I made notes on them in class, scribbled like "ref to religion" or "hills = freedom??", that's how you understand more than on your first read

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

At least if Dickens or Brontë or whoever the fuck makes a reference to Greek literature or Henry VIII or Martin Luther, those references are much more available to readers who want to figure that shit out than modern references to wildly popular swiftly vanishing viral crazes of the last few years

msleedy.bsky.social•8 days ago

But not just unworthy, unintelligible. Like not just that you couldn't read it for fun, you couldn't be expected to understand it without assistance.

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

I was referring to the screenshot above with that - the dusty old story - but yes, the assumption there's an inherent impossibility of getting the gist of something because you don't understand specific things!

fancyvegaspro.bsky.social•8 days ago

"I'm not sure how good I'd be at deciphering it"

DECIPHERING WHAT IT'S DICKENS

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

What do you mean the immensely popular writer whose works are still enjoyed to this day

msleedy.bsky.social•8 days ago

Good Christ.

bioniclaura.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah I don’t get this like you have the internet you can look things up. Years ago when I was a student I read Paradise Lost on a whim and even in the early days of the internet there was guide to reading to it available.

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

Like, I find that it can be hard with say modern poetry (that's not on a curriculum somewhere!) for me to get a key to it without a nudge in the right direction of the meaning, but with classics there's always a ton of information online if you're reading solo and you want a steer! So it's easier!

bioniclaura.bsky.social•8 days ago

So true. And like I often read books set in other countries and I expect not to know stuff because I’m reading it to learn a bit more like.

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah, I've read a ton of Scandi and Icelandic books in the last few years, mostly crime but some historical stuff, and while I'm sometimes flummoxed by contexts and my limited understanding of their history and geography, it's SO interesting to be thrust in without constant explanations

karlusss.bsky.social•8 days ago

I know what "Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall." means due to various aspects of my life but I'm not sure I'd have 100% hit rate on Dickens tbh - he's dense, often trying to be funny and very concretely Victorian in a way that's just hard

erislovesmovies.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah and I do too (as a retired lawyer) but I'm also capable of working the Google on the internet machine

karlusss.bsky.social•8 days ago

Fair

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