Talk:The Dunciad

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It is not finished. I will be working on this for a very long time, and it will be a pretty long article when I'm done. I hope folks won't jump the gun and jump in editing without talking to me on my talk page first. Geogre 03:21, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Weeks, folks. Weeks and weeks and weeks. That's what it's going to take. If it looks far too long or too rambling, that's because I'm adding in the kitchen sink and plan to edit out the drains and taps afterward. Don't be alarmed. Geogre 19:54, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I mean weeks. It's too long, yes. It's "original research," no. Will it get you an A on your midterm exam for sophomore survey classes? It could, if you have brains of your own. Is anyone reading this? Heaven forefend.Geogre 05:41, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

You're doing a great job: keep it up. Of course we're reading it! LOL! Antandrus 05:44, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Oh damn! Now I have to do a good job of it. I'll have to stop making stuff up. (I'm joking! I have no imagination and am incapable of making stuff up, and I certainly couldn't make up anything as good as Pope's Dunciad (although, when I was getting my Xx.X degree at XXX, I did propose to my colleagues in 18th c. British Lit. studies (and there were some) that we write our own satire of the English department and call it The UNCiad).) Geogre 03:24, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I think Pope is hilarious, second only to Swift when I'm a darker mood. Since my advanced degree isn't in English I usually stay away myself ... btw the Dunciad has an interesting, um, applicability to this project in some of its aspects (maybe you could work "inclusionists" in there somewhere?). Antandrus 03:32, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'm going to have to refactor this talk page before too long, but yes, absolutely. I often think of the Moderns when dealing with some folks. The Atari muses to the ear of kings, the blogs and comix and stews, the mystical truth of the miracle cure, and a fry of these folks crawling about. I have very nearly used the King of Brobdignag's sentence on VfD: "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of odious little vermin nature ever suffered to crawl upon the face of the earth." (Best insult ever.) Honestly, I think that what Swift and Pope were facing was remarkably similar to what Internet users are facing today. The printing press was 15th c., but the print revolution was 18th c. With cheap paper and no royal control, Protestant nations (i.e. where there was no Church to be afraid of printing) were very suddenly awash in print. It only took a little money, and your Private Theory could be printed. Printers were themselves eager to feed their shops. The more scandalous, the better. Newspapers began. Long books now had people coming up with the SparkNotes of the day. Those who had grown up in the old world, of reading expensive books and becoming expert in Latin and Greek, were now facing yammering yokels who wanted to say that they'd read that the Bible clearly shows that Lord Somers is the anti-Christ, that they didn't need Cicero, etc. There was too much information for anyone to figure out the good from the bad. So, some people got to be silly asses who believed what they read, and some people became information Luddites who only read Homer and Virgil. And some, like Pope and Swift, shouted at the morons who read ignorantly and became ignorantly read, whether they read old books or new ones. Geogre 05:33, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

An excellent article so far: keep up the good work! --Tom 5/Jun/05

Not sure but I think the New Dunciad was published 1742, not 1743