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Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

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Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#41

Post by sandworm101 »

ridhwaan wrote: post #3

Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…

>> I think that has huge consequences on human behavior.

They once said that about reading. The invention of the printing press made books cheap. Suddenly everyone was learning to read. They spent time with their noses in books rather than knitting sweaters, toiling in the fields or praying. Then it was TV. Then the internet. Then social media. There is always a new medium that threatens to "change behavior" to the detriment of society. Somehow we have muddled through.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#42

Post by robryan »

roosterdawn wrote: post #10
ridhwaan wrote: post #3

Our culture is moving or has already moved away from a reading culture. Instead of spending free time reading, people watch Netflix, Youtube, TikTok etc. I think that has huge consequences on human behavior. Where as once people would read the newspaper and be able to think about what is happening in the world, people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in…

> people today scroll through their feed where in one instant they are reading an article about war crimes in South America committed by the U.S. and in the next instant what Kylie Jenner wore to the MET gala Doesn't this completely invalidate your argument? If it's that much easier for folks to read an article about war crimes in South America committed by the US and the next about Kylie Jenner at a gala, how is tha…

Most newspapers have never really been much different, same with the nightly news on TV. Everything is presented in such a way to give a very brief surface level look at a lot of stories without really giving a level of deep understanding of anything.

Online that level of deep understand is there if you want it, but most people scrolling through a feed won’t seek it out.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#43

Post by [deleted] »

save_ferris wrote: post #32
dean177 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.

> it never had one. How can you say that? Literacy was once a very strong proxy to wealth, and still retains a connection today. Books have been fundamental to many aspects of human history. If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television?

[deleted]

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#44

Post by the_af »

michrassena wrote: post #25
DoreenMichele wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read lots of books in my life. There's nothing wrong with reading books if that's something you wish to do. But not reading books doesn't mean you don't have an intellectual life and spending your entire day futzing around on the internet does not mean your brain is clearly and unarguably going to rot. That's all I'm trying to say.

I sometimes am bothered with how reading, or reading books in particular is used as a proxy for that intellectual life. A significant proportion of anything ever published is absolute drivel and is no better than whatever proxy we wish to compare with reading, like reality television.

> A significant proportion of anything ever published is absolute drivel

Well, if Sturgeon's Law is true -- and I think it is -- that doesn't say much about reading or books ;)

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#45

Post by monadic2 »

wahern wrote: post #36
save_ferris wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it never had one. How can you say that? Literacy was once a very strong proxy to wealth, and still retains a connection today. Books have been fundamental to many aspects of human history. If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television?

> how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television? It didn't and couldn't. That was the conceit and power behind Lenin's "vanguard" concept. Only a small minority needed to be ideologically driven; everybody else could and did join sides based on more practical, individualized motivations. See, generally, https://en.wikipedia…

I agree with your statement, but I feel like it's rather splitting hairs in terms of the entire conversation. Both the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks came out of Iskra (and it's impossible to describe Lenin without it), and reading culture very much fueled the rise of the vanguard and Lenin's immense popularity. The narrative passing from Lenin to Stalin was also driven by essays in newspapers by political figures. Reading culture was inseparable from political culture at the time!

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#46

Post by dsfyu404ed »

dang wrote: post #35
dean177 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.

Some parts of the world certainly did. Read Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". He talks about how Midwestern farmboys would read while they ploughed fields, with one hand holding reins and the other holding an open book.

They were for the most part not reading fine literature, they were reading low quality trash fiction adventure stories while their wives read trash fiction romance novels. It was the Netflix/Youtube of it's day. Of course some people read "good" things or consume "high culture" but most people consume whatever the mass market media of their day is (hence why it's called "mass market").

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#47

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

save_ferris wrote: post #32
dean177 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.

> it never had one. How can you say that? Literacy was once a very strong proxy to wealth, and still retains a connection today. Books have been fundamental to many aspects of human history. If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television?

> If Russia never had a culture of reading, then how does the Communist Manifesto drive an entire society, millions of people, to overthrow its familial leaders before the era of television?

Firstly, the leaders whom the Bolsheviks overthrew in October 1917 were not familiar to most Russians. The Provisional Government instituted after the February Revolution was a messy affair.

Committed Bolsheviks were a minority at the time of the Russian Revolution. However, there were just enough of them in the railroads, ports, army and other key infrastructure that they could carry out a coup against the Provisional Government.

As with many radical movements, most of the ordinary Bolshevik sympathizers had never actually read the foundational texts of Communism (Marx' writings are often a challenge even for intellectuals). They only knew some simple agitprop distillations thereof.

That the Communist regime spent the whole 1920s and early 1930s carrying out literacy campaigns and establishing written standards for most of Russia's languages also underscores how little of a culture of reading existed in the country pre-1917 outside the elite cities like Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#48

Post by grawprog »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #19
dean177 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.

I disagree. And sure, the new thing comes along and isn't really all that new or bad until it actually is. Sometimes a new thing really is bad. Sounds like a fallacy to think that since every past advance was a good thing that every future advance must also be a good thing. You don't think digital media has caused a huge and rapid shift in the way humans entertain themselves and communicate? I'm not sure if it's for…

I have to admit, I read books a lot less than I used to, but many of the books I read weren't really much more substantial than a TV show in the end. For every high quality book that makes you think i've read, i've read a dozen or more fluff fantasy or sci-fi stories.

Whereas my web browsing habits have probably changed for the better. I spend far less tine reading random nonsense now and most of my time spent on the web is spent either reading things at least I find productive or talking to people.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#49

Post by blondin »

dang wrote: post #35
dean177 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The new thing is bad, people should do more of the old thing”. If people couldn’t watch Netflix they certainly wouldn’t be using that time to think about important issues. The world has not moved away from a reading culture, it never had one.

Some parts of the world certainly did. Read Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". He talks about how Midwestern farmboys would read while they ploughed fields, with one hand holding reins and the other holding an open book.

> Some parts of the world certainly did.

i believe that's all they had. if they had other choices...

i do agree with OP. it just seems like whatever the era provided to you to occupy your mind.

Re: Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression

#50

Post by eddyl »

ruffrey wrote: post #29
golf3 wrote: post #6

Americans were always voracious readers before television, has nothing to do with women or the Great Depression.

That's interesting. Do you know of any hard stats comparing to other countries?

This probably isn't exactly what you're looking for, but you might find Robert Darnton's essay "First Steps Toward a History of Reading" interesting. [1] It mostly covers the early modern period, if I remember correctly, not contemporary reading practices.

[1] http://robertdarnton.org/sites/default/files/First%20Steps%2...

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