Long Article: The working class and the classics (could be a political thread)

[haldir]

Literacy has always been a political tool. In the UK there was a great outcry and debate in parliament in the 19th century when it was proposed to make elementary education compulsory (and thus literacy as universal as possible). The ruling classes looked at educated workers as a threat - which they were and are thankfully.

Early trade unions saw education and literacy as an absoulte must and founded the "athaneum" movement where working men (and sadly it was mostly men to start with) could "improve" themselves by reading and studying. The suffragette movement also encouraged women to educate themselves and increase their literacy.

Dickens deliberately serialised his books in papers read by working people.

However, prior to the industrial revolution, reading was the domain of the ruling elite and church. Theatre was where working people were exposed to literature. WHich was why, of course, it was subject to so much sensorship and repression.

My ex-wife's Grandfather was a miner and he was as well read as any man that I have met - he introduced me to several writers that I would not have been exposed to without him.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Same here, LJ. My father finished 8th grade, my mom 2nd (both working class laborers all their lives). It was my father who made up stories for us every night and bought us books (me and 3 bros.)

Perdita

Oh, my dad is a great story teller too! When he and his brothers and sisters get together (all of them working class as well), they would try to out-do each with stories until we hurt from laughing.

Books were one of the few 'luxuries' my parents were always willing to buy for me without question, from fairy tales and Curious George to Shakespeare.

I can't tell you how shocked I was when my first serious boyfriend (who was from a college educated family), didn't understand that I considered reading an activity and if I was reading, I was BUSY DOING SOMETHING. I thought everyone did that!

 

[Guest]

I can't tell you how shocked I was when my first serious boyfriend (who was from a college educated family), didn't understand that I considered reading an activity and if I was reading, I was BUSY DOING SOMETHING.

That is a phenomenon that always stuns me. I recall a TV show wherein a character reluctant to join a 'book club' said, "I just don't get reading." Sad, sad, sad.

Haldir, the African slaves in the colonies were also forbade learning to read.

I would appreciate some reading recommendations from you. I try to keep up with lit. outside the states but I know I miss out on much from the U.K. (See my thread, haha, can't recall it's title now, re. a Glaswegian author I was introduced to by Earl and Gauche.) I've come to enjoy movies from Scotland and can only wonder at the literature I'm missing.

Perdita

 

[haldir]

Here are a few that you might enjoy

"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh (but not much of the rest of his work in my opinion)

"The Holy City" by Meg Ritchie

anything by AL Kennedy

"Swing Hammer Swing" by someone whos name I cant remember.

I'll do a good trawl through my library for you and post some more.

I'm sure that you've read Robert Burns - and if not why not? But try to get his complete works.

Anything by Liz Lochead (poet and playwrite)

 

[Guest]

Haldir, thanks. That's a good start as I haven't read any of them (except of course Burns).

Perdita

Edited to add: Here's the thread on one of your countrymen.

 

[haldir]

Thanks Perdita

 

[KarenAM]

I was fortunate in that my mother saw reading as essential. I remember her saying that a book should never be left on the floor. She read to us from classics like R.L. Stevenson (I still remember Treasure Island). It helped, of course, that we didn't have a television until I was in my teens.

I still remember being a kid and finding my steelworker dad in the living room one day with tears running down his face, nose buried in a book. I wish I remembered what it was he had been reading.

Some books can do that. I'll never forget when I read Of Mice and Men the first time. When I hit the end it was like an anvil had been dropped on my head, and I literally was numb for several days. That was when I think I first realized what the written word could really do.

 

[haldir]

Perdita

Just remembered - "Swing Hammer Swing" was by James Kellman