tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post300739764507475426..comments2024-03-27T23:59:01.850-07:00Comments on Writing About Writing (And Occasionally Some Writing): Why is Old Time Writing so Pompous? (Mailbox)Chris Brecheenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07819138776404280633noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-32218525554637607602020-05-29T21:42:21.000-07:002020-05-29T21:42:21.000-07:00I don't know if it was true for Melville, but ...I don't know if it was true for Melville, but Dickens and Thackeray<br /> were paid by the word. So while some of it really is pompous, padding didn't help.AlphaBitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12810116549585431853noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-17775359018473800762018-02-27T02:23:07.480-08:002018-02-27T02:23:07.480-08:00I think it's also worth remembering who was in...I think it's also worth remembering who was in the readership for 'old time' writers. I wonder whether it wasn't a very 'respectable' middle-class club, with writers using a style that showed they belonged. <br /><br />To be a reader you have to have ticked a lot of boxes that used to be harder to tick *in Western democracise, at least):<br /><br />You had to have been taught to read - which meant money time, or a system of state education.<br /><br />You had to have access to books - either money to buy them, or a friend or public library to lend them. And books were expensive.<br /><br />You had to have leisure time during daylight, or you had to be able to afford artificial light to read by (and have leisure time to read rather than work while your expensive candle burned down).<br /><br />All those things are still true, of course, but the Nineteenth Century included changes that widened the pool of readers (in countries such as the UK and USA at least). <br /><br />There's also the role of censorship. Writers who wanted to write like DH Lawrence's use of 'unprintable' words in Lady Chatterley's Lover (as well as his subject matter -an affair between a married aristocratic woman and a working-class man) was too much until court cases were won in the USA (1959) and the UK (1960). ChrisBakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08917911308844564119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-64006068439166158102016-03-02T06:40:39.324-08:002016-03-02T06:40:39.324-08:00A reasoned and well-written response. It also hel...A reasoned and well-written response. It also helped stoke my anger about people who just don't get what it's like to be poor.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-3260369102958864652016-03-02T02:52:58.544-08:002016-03-02T02:52:58.544-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.When Dads do Hairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00555107873438647651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-86502920406027225772016-03-02T02:52:46.064-08:002016-03-02T02:52:46.064-08:00Well articulated... I enjoyed reading your respons...Well articulated... I enjoyed reading your response to the question. When Dads do Hairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00555107873438647651noreply@blogger.com