Paul Krugman wrote a short piece yesterday, October 28, that he called "Poetry and Blogging."
Since I love poetry and write and edit a blog (although I dislike the word), Krugman caught my attention. He's been reading a fascinating book about both pursuits, considered in historical perspective: Tom Standage’s Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years. A great
title. Standage is an editor at The Economist and author of five well-received history books,
including An Edible History of Humanity (2009), A History of the World in Six Glasses (2005), and The Victorian Internet (1998). He also is a regular commentator on BBC radio, and has written for other publications including the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times and Wired. He has a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford, and says he is the least musical member of a musical family.
He begins Writing on the Wall by quoting Cicero:
"Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge."
Paul Krugman's question, "[W]hen and why did we stop reading poetry? Educated people used to read it all the time, or at least pretend to; that’s no longer the case. Frankly, I don’t read poetry except on very rare occasions. What happened?" — is worth a response.
My own thought is too simple, so I can share it briefly. I haven't stopped reading poetry. It's central to my life, as any passing reader of Reckonings knows. I didn't know others had stopped, but Krugman knows far more others than I do, so I imagine by and large he's correct. If so, that worries me, and becomes of a piece with my worry about the decline of literacy in our culture. The costs of that decline are not up there with those of American warmaking, but I suspect not as far from it as might appear, nor unrelated to it. I do recall someone reporting that Mitt Romney had never heard of One Hundred Years of Solitude. A sobering thought. Perhaps now that he has more leisure... but I imagine not. Current and recent American politicians, by and large, with some notable exceptions, and despite the sheer volume of their speech, are not particularly literate. They haven't the time. I gather the same is true of too many journalists and purveyors of other media. More's the pity, for them, their families, and for their country. Given the awful weight of American influence abroad, the whole earth suffers as well.
Here's a contextual note: Humanities in American colleges and universities are suffering seriously declining enrollments compared to a more vocational focus on science and technology. “College is increasingly being defined narrowly as job preparation, not as something designed to educate the whole person,” said Pauline Yu, president of the American Council of Learned Societies.
October 28, 2013
Poetry and Blogging
I just want to give a shoutout to a book I’m reading and really enjoying: Tom Standage’s Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years. I’ve been a big fan of Standage’s ever since his book The Victorian Internet, about the rise of the telegraph, which shed a lot of light on network technologies while also being great fun. Now he’s done it again.
Standage’s argument is that the essential aspects of social media — exchange of information that runs horizontally, among people who are affiliated in some way, rather than top-down from centralized sources — have been pervasive through history, with the industrial age’s news media only a temporary episode of disruption. As he shows, Cicero didn’t get his news from Rome Today or Rupertus Murdochus — he got it through constant exchanges of letters with people he knew, letters that were often both passed on to multiple readers and copied, much like tweets being retweeted.
Even more interesting is his discussion of the Tudor court, where a lot of the communication among insiders took place through the exchange of … poetry, which allowed people both to discuss sensitive topics elliptically and to demonstrate their cleverness. You could even build a career through poetry, not by selling it, but by using your poems to build a reputation, which could translate into royal favor and high office — sort of the way some people use their blogs to build influence that eventually leads to paying gigs of one kind or another. The tale of John Harington — of the famous “treason never prospers” line — is fascinating.
[I had to - was pleased to - look up John Harington. Wilipedia says that Harington "(4 August 1561 – 20 November 1612), of Kelston, was an [Elizabethan] courtier, author and master of art, popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet." His famous line that Krugman mentions was, "Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason." Well said. A wise comment worthy of the inventor of the flush toilet, an extraordinarily important gift to us all. Some of our most important reading...]
Incidentally, when and why did we stop reading poetry? Educated people used to read it all the time, or at least pretend to; that’s no longer the case. Frankly, I don’t read poetry except on very rare occasions. What happened?
Anyway, interesting stuff. And since I don’t think Standage is likely to get favors showered on him by our latter-day Queen Elizabeth, buy his book!
[I did.]