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larryhammerReading? Reading! Well, some. Specifically, aside from finishing Books and Characters, all I've done is grazed selective* articles from a random slices of the 11th edition Encyclopedia Britannica snaffled from Project Gutenberg.**
Which is something to do carefully, of course -- as Wikisource notes: "The point of view held by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is roughly the one of the British and American educated classes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Any topic that would be sensitive to this point-of-view (POV) should be considered potentially biased … Changing circumstances and more recent research may have rendered this information obsolete or revealed it to be inaccurate, especially in the areas of science, law, and ethnography."
To give an example, the literature articles were edited by Edmund Gosse, who wrote several himself, and are, let us be diplomatic here, very late Victorian in mindset. Himself on John Donne:
OTOH, the math articles were overseen, and many written, by Alfred North Whitehead, so while they are firmly in the Principia Mathematica mindset, they are nicely lucid and readable.
Anyway, articles from a couple eighths of an encyclopedia volume, all either beginning with B and D.
* As in, what looked interesting.
** Pro-tip: to create an ebook TOC, use regex to parse out bolded article titles and stick them in heading tags.
---L.
Subject quote from "Wernher Von Braun," Tom Lehrer.
Which is something to do carefully, of course -- as Wikisource notes: "The point of view held by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is roughly the one of the British and American educated classes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Any topic that would be sensitive to this point-of-view (POV) should be considered potentially biased … Changing circumstances and more recent research may have rendered this information obsolete or revealed it to be inaccurate, especially in the areas of science, law, and ethnography."
To give an example, the literature articles were edited by Edmund Gosse, who wrote several himself, and are, let us be diplomatic here, very late Victorian in mindset. Himself on John Donne:
The influence of Donne upon the literature of England was singularly wide and deep, although almost wholly malign. His originality and the fervour of his imaginative passion made him extremely attractive to the younger generation of poets, who saw that he had broken through the old tradition, and were ready to follow him implicitly into new fields…Needless to say, I disagree with much of this.
The first impression of an unbiased reader who dips into the poems of Donne is unfavourable. He is repulsed by the intolerably harsh and crabbed versification, by the recondite choice of theme and expression, and by the oddity of the thought. In time, however, he perceives that behind the fantastic garb of language there is an earnest and vigorous mind, an imagination that harbours fire within its cloudy folds, and an insight into the mysteries of spiritual life which is often startling. Donne excels in brief flashes of wit and beauty, and in sudden daring phrases that have the full perfume of poetry in them.
OTOH, the math articles were overseen, and many written, by Alfred North Whitehead, so while they are firmly in the Principia Mathematica mindset, they are nicely lucid and readable.
Anyway, articles from a couple eighths of an encyclopedia volume, all either beginning with B and D.
* As in, what looked interesting.
** Pro-tip: to create an ebook TOC, use regex to parse out bolded article titles and stick them in heading tags.
---L.
Subject quote from "Wernher Von Braun," Tom Lehrer.
no subject
Date: 13 July 2016 06:14 pm (UTC)I grew up with that line as an all-purpose household responsibility-disclaimer, to be used only in circumstances where there wasn't a chance of being believed.
The point of view held by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is roughly the one of the British and American educated classes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Any topic that would be sensitive to this point-of-view (POV) should be considered potentially biased
When I first discovered it in 2005, the Wikipedia article for Eduard Graf von Taaffe was cribbed almost entirely from the Encyclopædia Britannica, which made it an absolute delight to read with lines like "Not a great creative statesman, Taaffe had singular capacity for managing men; a very poor orator, he had in private intercourse an urbanity and quickness of humour which showed his Irish ancestry. Beneath an apparent cynicism and frivolity Taaffe hid a strong feeling of patriotism to his country and loyalty to the emperor. It was no small service to both that for so long, during very critical years in European history, he maintained harmony between the two parts of the monarchy and preserved constitutional government in Austria . . . he was essentially an opportunist: in no way a party man, he recognized that the Government must be carried on, and he cared little by the aid of what party the necessary majority was maintained." Which is all the sort of thing that interests me in a historical figure whether or not I'm distantly related to them. Also, the line about the Irish ancestry.
no subject
Date: 14 July 2016 07:22 pm (UTC)As did I. My mother was at Radcliffe when Lehrer was still at Harvard, and an early fan.
There are delightful passages to be savored in this thing. Carefully. Am working through the article on Poetry (as distinct from the one on Verse).