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To: allmendream

Yup. That’s a great quote, and a true sentiment. I love Burrough’s writing style. I like reading older books because they don’t talk down to the reader. Writers who consider their readers more literate than a ten year old appeal to me.


76 posted on 03/06/2012 11:01:39 AM PST by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: zeugma
It is an amazing phenomenon, one I have observed frequently. Authors of not so very long ago assumed their readers were intelligent people who were very well educated.

I remember in “Uncle Tom's Cabin” a particularly striking looking slave from Africa was named “Scipio” and it was said as a joke that the reader should be aware of and laugh at - but to be “in” on the joke you had to know that Publius Scipio was the Roman General who defeated Hannibal and was given the title “Africanus”.

She just assumed the reader would know this!!! She was obviously writing for an audience with an education level far in excess of what is generally attained in this benighted age.

78 posted on 03/06/2012 11:21:41 AM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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