Friday. um, several
On the one hand: James argues that digital technologies privilege our impulses over our intentions, and are gradually diminishing our ability to engage with the issues we most care about; on the other: A longitudinal study of student writing finds that digital technology has not been the downfall of written expression: Students in first-year composition classes are, on average, writing longer essays (from an average of 162 words in 1917, to 422 words in 1986, to 1,038 words in 2006), using more complex rhetorical techniques, and making no more errors than those committed by freshman in 1917.
But they are making different errors: which is sort of similar to my argument about any historical epoch, that there has never been a perfect age, but that they have been imperfect in different ways.
And sort of fitting onto that, I was irked, peeved, niggled, by someone making the blanket statement that in Ye Victorianne Era, 'in that era, women had no power, with men deciding what was best for them'. I'm not just 'tell that to the Queen Empress', I am, look at all the Victorian woman who achieved a helluva a lot, including changing laws, reforming hospitals, etc etc. It All Depends What You Mean By Power, and indeed, I am seldom inclined to get Foucauldian on anyone's ass, but I might make an exception.
And honestly, if it took this much faff to get dressed every morning (especially if you had to keep changing), I'm all about massive props to how much women achieved in the C18th and C19th.
E.g. Frances Rolleston - am tempted by a new biography of her.
And, on amazing C19th women, I had occasion during the week to look up Harriet Martineau, and find that she wrote a novel about Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2648607.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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