loc on Lofgeornost #108
Dear Fred,
Your opening section certainly brought back memories of when I used to actively collect pulp magazines, mainly during my first decade of fan activity (the 1970s, to be precise). I didn't have the income to acquire the truly rare or important issues of Amazing, Astounding, Weird Tales, and the like, but I did have a fair amount of those magazines, mostly from the 1940s and 1950s. They were more common issues - even the first issue of Dynamic Stories with its wonderful Frank R. Paul cover was fairly easy to acquire - but it was fun to have them in my collection.
Very cool to read about the Railroad Stories magazine, though. It doesn't surprise me that the stories in that pulp are virtually interchangeable with the stories in the science fiction and western pulps. After all, that was the age of pure escapist writing, and many of the writers followed tried and true formulas, changing the appropriate items to the genre being written. If I ever get the chance to visit some of the antique shops in this area - and there are a lot of them - I will have to keep my eyes open for the old magazines that sometimes are piled up on shelves or in boxes. Taken as a whole, the popular magazines of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century are an interesting portrait of American society back then. Reading those magazines now would be quite enlightening and educational, I would think.
A couple of your letter writers mentioned my earlier comments about the textese my colleagues and I encounter in student papers. I definitely agree that the usage of informal language finding its way into a student's paper is to be expected, especially if they are really getting into their argument, but the informality is often distracting and weakens rhetorical argument. When a student is engaged in a topic, that is definitely one of the joys we teachers, well, enjoy. It makes my day, for sure. The problem is, when they are that "into it", they slip into more informal language, and one of our objectives at Blinn College is to direct students into using more formal, academic languages; if anything, writing for their intended audience. Depending on who they are writing for - and we use many different scenarios and assignments to work on this aspect of literacy - students need to adjust their tone of voice, point of view, and the language they're using to get their point across. For a college writing assignment such as the major researched essay, they need to use more formal academic language. Textese and other language shortcuts are not accepted. Such are the rubrics of evaluating freshman English papers.
A good issue, Fred, with good topics and feedback in the locs. Many thanks for sending it to me.
All the best,
John Purcell
"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a
shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."
- John Adams (1735 - 1826)