re: #955 buzzsawmonkey

Texting has developed of itself—which is to say, I don’t see a “plot” in it—but the general spread of functional illiteracy (and the shortening of attention spans, which goes back to the advent of Sesame Street) is bidding fair to make all of Western literature quite literally a closed book to all but the most highly educated, and even there, increasingly, only to those who specialize in it.

The diminution of literacy—and the expectation of getting “information” in small dribs and drabs, predigested, on the computer instead of slogging through a multi-page article or even (gasp!) an entire book has accelerated the lack of historical knowledge as well as any grasp of metaphor or any ability to distinguish between fact, opinion, and rhetoric.

It was not always thus.

Yes.

My “texting” comment was not intended to posit a plot. It’s just an indication of the general tendency to shorten, chop, abbreviate written and spoken communication to the point where what people are trying to say is more indicated than articulated.

I recently had supper at a restaurant where the table next to me was a group of maybe six seniors from Johns Hopkins University - supposedly one of the top institutions in the land. (I know they were seniors because they had a standing toast at the start of the meal.) Their talk (I really couldn’t help listening, though I was trying to read) was almost entirely made up of two- or three-word interjections, all of which were quite expressive in their way (“as if”, “don’t go there”, “he’s a stoner”), but there was no talk. No politics, no literature, nothing but in jokes and sly digs. The most expansive statement was when one girl boasted about how much money she would soon be making. (They were all girls, and before someone calls me sexist, let me state that if they had been guys the level of communication would surely have been much lower.)

I recently came across this: McGill University’s exam book for 1905-06. Browse through it and see if you think any undergraduate anywhere could take any of these tests today.

I was lucky: Born into a family where books were treasured, our parents read us to sleep each night. Between them and my siblings we probably own 10,000 volumes.

Even so-called specialists today aren’t up to the job. If you want to read my review of one on Amazon (completed just last night), click here. It’s the second of two reviews.