Unfortunately, many people don't read and aren't big fans of reality or science or the educated folk trying to tell them things. How do we reach them? Hasn't Franzen said that too much nature writing is nice prose about this or that natural place, or an expression of how someone feel about a place, when what might really be helpful is more character-driven nature writing. A story about someone doing something interesting in a beautiful place may capture more attention and readers than a story describing that beautiful place, for example?
Thanks—isn’t it intriguing to read this a century later—the American Century, as Walter Lippman called it— about how Marx and Engles felt that “The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development”?
I agree, intriguing on two levels: first, that the American Century didn't play out like they expected, and second, that maybe the class struggles aren't as important as the natural relationships. "... opened up fresh ground for those who favored extractive approaches to commodities generally."
Unfortunately, many people don't read and aren't big fans of reality or science or the educated folk trying to tell them things. How do we reach them? Hasn't Franzen said that too much nature writing is nice prose about this or that natural place, or an expression of how someone feel about a place, when what might really be helpful is more character-driven nature writing. A story about someone doing something interesting in a beautiful place may capture more attention and readers than a story describing that beautiful place, for example?
Right, I love the phrase "character-driven nature writing." That's what I'll try to do!
Thanks—isn’t it intriguing to read this a century later—the American Century, as Walter Lippman called it— about how Marx and Engles felt that “The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development”?
I agree, intriguing on two levels: first, that the American Century didn't play out like they expected, and second, that maybe the class struggles aren't as important as the natural relationships. "... opened up fresh ground for those who favored extractive approaches to commodities generally."