Novels – 'a great obstacle to good education'

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  • September 24, 2019 at 6:17 pm #105621
    Avatar photowv
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    Somethin i read in “Part Of Our Lives: A people’s history of libraries”

    “…America published one novel between 1770 and 1779, twenty-five between 1800 and 1809, 128 between 1820 and 1829 and 765 between 1840 and 1849. These numbers continued to perplex cultural authorities. ‘A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion prevalent for novels,’ argued Thomas Jefferson in 1818. ‘When this poison infects the mind, it destroys it’s tone and revolts it against wholesome reading.’ …authorities addressed this ‘problem’ in different ways….”

    September 24, 2019 at 11:33 pm #105635
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    wv wrote:

    Somethin i read in “Part Of Our Lives: A people’s history of libraries”

    “…America published one novel between 1770 and 1779, twenty-five between 1800 and 1809, 128 between 1820 and 1829 and 765 between 1840 and 1849. These numbers continued to perplex cultural authorities. ‘A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion prevalent for novels,’ argued Thomas Jefferson in 1818. ‘When this poison infects the mind, it destroys it’s tone and revolts it against wholesome reading.’ …authorities addressed this ‘problem’ in different ways….”

    As always it depended on what the novel WAS. The dates in question here basically means the novel at that point was the gothic.

    People have always condemned new media. Especially when it’s a popular medium. Remember when tv was irredeemably bad, an inherent brain waster that discouraged people from using their minds. That was of course before The Wire etc. Before that it was the novel. Before that it was print. Plato condemned writing (yes, written language, he spoke out against written language) for much the same reasons people used to condemn tv.

    September 25, 2019 at 10:47 am #105641
    Avatar photoBilly_T
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    This was also a gendered critique in many cases. Novels were considered fluff for women, that stuffed their heads with (supposed) nonsense. Which was likely a big factor in women writers sometimes taking male pseudonyms when they tried to publish. Women writing fluff for women . . . was adding insult to injury, in the minds of the conservative establishment, including the pedant class, which was pretty stuffy itself.

    Trying to boil a complex thing down into soundbite form . . . It really wasn’t until the latter half of the 19th century — at least in the English speaking world — that these attitudes began to change. In cultures with a longer history of the novel, it happened much sooner than that.

    Ironically, today, women dominate the field of the novel, and in my opinion — again, to generalize — produce the most great works. They innovate more. They go deeper. They take on social critique better, etc. Again, in general.

    September 25, 2019 at 4:36 pm #105662
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    Well, if its true, what was the one american novel published between 1770 and 1779?

    w
    v

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