tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post4918833163264400089..comments2023-05-30T08:29:42.770-04:00Comments on The Erotica Readers & Writers Association Blog: MeaningsCroco Designshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04417265522875605547noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-62470739403053776392015-01-07T22:43:38.415-05:002015-01-07T22:43:38.415-05:00True. :(True. :(Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-47203472710237147922014-12-31T09:02:53.052-05:002014-12-31T09:02:53.052-05:00You need idealism to imagine a great future. You need idealism to imagine a great future. Remittance Girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07902713020074243375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-26578268516153409872014-12-31T09:00:24.625-05:002014-12-31T09:00:24.625-05:00The more, the merrier!The more, the merrier!Remittance Girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07902713020074243375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-15941021923617374282014-12-29T08:57:18.238-05:002014-12-29T08:57:18.238-05:00Hmm. This is all too convincing.
Care to share t...Hmm. This is all too convincing. <br /><br />Care to share the gin?Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-90993072860068211692014-12-28T14:22:13.635-05:002014-12-28T14:22:13.635-05:00As usual, RG, you've nailed the problem. As a ...As usual, RG, you've nailed the problem. As a product of that great democratization of learning, I would really like to pass on its benefits, and I keep preaching that improved skill at using language will change my students' lives (it changed the lives of my parents, who climbed into the middle class by getting graduate degrees). I think most of my students are more in tune with the times than I am. They don't see any evidence that literacy leads to interesting jobs or decent incomes. Some come from cultures in which democracy has never gained much traction, and they assume that knowing the right people is the key to starting a career. Even still, I sometimes wonder if they are aware that we are all here until we die, regardless of culture or social system, and enslaving oneself doesn't lead to a great future. Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-89017632091738859682014-12-28T11:06:10.986-05:002014-12-28T11:06:10.986-05:00I think it is important to look back to the 19th C...I think it is important to look back to the 19th Century and acknowledge that 80% of the population was only barely literate. The working class, for the most part, was not concerned with the rules of grammar - just feeding itself. The stark separation of classes was easily discerned by listening to a person speak or reading letters.<br /><br />During the 20th Century, an incredible democratization of learning took place. In Western Europe and on the North American Continent, literacy rates soared. Mandatory, publicly funded education, state subsidization of tertiary education and even quaint institutions such as secretarial schools played important roles in raising the bar on what 'educated' meant.<br /><br />The era of universal education (offering everyone the opportunity to gain as much education as they want or can achieve for very little cost) was a short one, and it is definitely over. For all the nasty things we have to say about modernism, that *was* a modernist project. One that was, at least publicly, embraced by anyone in a position of power who wanted respect. There is lip service to it now, but the ethics that underpinned that great project are dead. We don't need educated consumers - just consumers. The more able people are to produce a cogent argument or think critically, the less acquiescent they become as consumers. The rate at which a small elite are accumulating wealth has reached levels not seen since the turn of the last Century. This oligarchy isn't interested in a widely- and well-educated population. It doesn't serve their interests or agendas and, it follows logically, that they don't fund politicians or parties who still support it.<br /><br />I think we are people at the twilight of a truly wonderful period in human history, in which we believed passionately in equality and saw education as one of the main vehicles for attaining that equality. It's over ladies. We're going to be grammatically correct dinosaurs. <br /><br />Just bring me my gin so I can forget about the plight of the peasants, won't you? Because this is the first generation that chose to enslave itself.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Remittance Girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07902713020074243375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-64723856110677521092014-12-28T04:41:17.032-05:002014-12-28T04:41:17.032-05:00My colleagues used to (rather sarcastically) refer...My colleagues used to (rather sarcastically) refer to me as the Apostropher General. I was very anal, according to a few people. <br /><br />I stand by my insistence on clarity, accuracy and well-managed tone, though. A lot of damage can be done with a stroppy, badly-written letter. Especially one printed on government headed paper! <br /><br />Most writers take crit well, I find, if positives are picked up alongside the errors. But there will always those who resent being told that there is still more work to do...Tighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08201951133464625185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-51179858096665477762014-12-27T14:45:16.845-05:002014-12-27T14:45:16.845-05:00Too true. Yet people who think the nuts-and-bolts ...Too true. Yet people who think the nuts-and-bolts of composition are unimportant sometimes have extreme reactions to what they think they read. It is worrisome.Jean Robertahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08805088081675965859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-24861901001363389702014-12-27T00:27:15.487-05:002014-12-27T00:27:15.487-05:00Sigh. I see these sorts of errors in published - a...Sigh. I see these sorts of errors in published - and supposedly edited - books, by self-styled "professional" authors. It's epidemic. <br /><br />What worries me most is that most people don't seem to be worried. ;^) There appears to be a popular consensus that grammar and spelling are unimportant, indeed, that written language is old-fashioned and can easily be replaced by a set of YouTube videos.<br />Lisabet Saraihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05162514190572269660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7396437919069310850.post-86616992168936779902014-12-26T17:05:35.859-05:002014-12-26T17:05:35.859-05:00Fascinating insight. Thank you.Fascinating insight. Thank you.Rachel Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13048590167153841615noreply@blogger.com