The Copy Book

The Abuse of Literacy

Reading and writing should have taught the people more than name-calling and how to manipulate opinion.

Abridged.

Part 1 of 2

1825
In the Time of

King George IV 1820-1830

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The Abuse of Literacy

By Clara Taggart MacChesney (1860-1928), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source

‘Girl Reading in a Window’ by Clara Taggart MacChesney.

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‘Girl Reading in a Window’ by Clara Taggart MacChesney.

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By Clara Taggart MacChesney (1860-1928), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Introduction

The spread of literacy, said William Hazlitt, should have taught us judgment and taste. Instead, it has taught us how to heap hurtful abuse on anyone who makes us feel challenged or humbled. Critics lavish praise on writers who sneer with them in all the right places, and then suddenly destroy them in the most public fashion — and the reading public laps it up.

If, with the diffusion of knowledge, we do not gain an enlargement and elevation of views, where is the benefit? [...] All can now read and write equally; and, it is therefore presumed, equally well. Anything short of this sweeping conclusion is an invidious distinction; and those who claim it for themselves or others are exclusionists in letters. Every one at least can call names — can invent a falsehood, or repeat a story against those who have galled their pragmatical pretensions by really adding to the stock of general amusement or instruction. Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination. It is curious that, in an age when the most universally admitted claim to public distinction is literary merit, the attaining this distinction is almost a sure title to public contempt and obloquy. They cry you up, because you are unknown, and do not excite their jealousy; and run you down, when they have thus distinguished you, out of envy and spleen at the very idol they have set up.

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Précis

William Hazlitt complained that increased public literacy had not brought the promised benefits. Instead of widening knowledge and raising the tone of debate, it had led to a literary culture dominated by name-calling, mud-slinging and clever lies, and those writers who did display some dignity were sure to attract the worst treatment. (52 / 60 words)

William Hazlitt complained that increased public literacy had not brought the promised benefits. Instead of widening knowledge and raising the tone of debate, it had led to a literary culture dominated by name-calling, mud-slinging and clever lies, and those writers who did display some dignity were sure to attract the worst treatment.

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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, because, despite, just, must, since, unless, whether.

Word Games

Sevens Based on this passage

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What had Hazlitt hoped to see from the growth of public literacy?

Suggestion

Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.

Jigsaws Based on this passage

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Public debate was low in quality. Hazlitt hoped more literacy would raise it. He was disappointed.

Variation: Try rewriting your sentence so that it uses one or more of these words: 1. Fail 2. Talk 3. Write

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