Addison Exchanged

These are my notes from the seminar discussing Joseph Addison. Of the 2 texts we read in preparation, the first we looked at was the Spectator article. Addison begins by comparing his 2 writing styles, those that are written with "regularity and method" (which to me, speak of newspaper styles), and the more meandering, wild compositions which are his essays (these put me in mind of an archaic version of a blog). He compares the styles as, one being in plantation, with several centres and many paths; and one, a wood with many interesting thoughts and ideas though they are all in disarray.

Addison writes that a methodical approach to writing appeals to both the reader and the writer. For the writer, he may find that as he writes, new thoughts come to him that wouldn't have else. For the reader, it is an easier read as the subject is more intelligible and better explained when thoughts are "placed in their proper light, and follow one another in a regular series".

On the subject of works that show irregularities and may be unordered, Addison argues that this is only excusable in "men of great learning or genius, who are too full to be exact, and therefore choose to throw down their pearls in heaps, rather than be at pains of stringing them". What I think he means by this is that intelligent men, such as philosophers, have so many good ideas that it would be next to impossible for them to explain how they link together. Therefore they display them all separately for others to make of them what they will.

Addison goes on to give examples of the 2 styles, this time using 2 people (perhaps real, probably not) that demonstrate the fallibilities of the one, and the virtues of the other. He presents Tom Puzzle as his example of the unmethodical. He is the worst of the 2 extremes of learning. He knows enough to raise questions, but not enough to answer them. He is looked up to by those with less learning than him, and looked down upon by those with more. Puzzle's antithesis is a man called Will Dry, who, knowing the way that Tom thinks, is able to destroy his arguments by stopping him waffling and telling him to simply answer the topic at hand. Indeed Addison writes: "I have known Tom eloquent half an hour together, and triumphing, as he thought, in the superiority of the argument, when he has been non-plus'd on a sudden by Mr. Dry's desiring him to tell the company what it was that he endeavoured to prove". Thus demonstrating the preference of a clear methodical approach, to cluttered, incoherent blather. Personally I am a great fan of good laconic wit, which I think all journalism students should endeavour towards. However, I fear I am currently a more proactive Puzzler. I shall have to gain more learning.

The second text, The Royal Exchange, discusses the exchange as a symbol of the international trading of countries, and the various benefits that all gain from it. He describes how, when in the exchange, he feels at one with everyone from all the different countries. In many ways the Royal exchange seems to be a review of politics in england, masked by the talk of trade. He often mentions the various things traded with other countries and have made the world a better place, "food often grows in one country, and the sauce in another. The fruits of Portugal are corrected by the products of Barbados". He goes into great deal explaining how countries help one another. How through foreign trading, prosperity is gained. England would have completely relied on foreign trade at this time, and while this is not ignored, I could not help but get the feeling that addison was somewhat smug about the arrangement. "my friend Sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our gardens; the spice-islands our hot-beds; the Persians our silk-weavers" etc.

He seems amused by the fact that "while we enjoy the remotest products of the north and south, we are free from those extremities of weather that give them birth". I feel that while he is obviously appreciative of other countries, and of this trade which links them all together; as indicated in the first paragraphs when he calls himself a "citizen of the world". There are times other than than those I have mentioned where he seems to think of England as being a first among equals, if even equals, as though everything came to England first. Not to mention that though we do export certain products: tin, wool. We are traded back with much superior items: gold, rubies. As though english merchants are far superior to all others.

I may have digressed there for a time, but I think that as a whole, The Royal Exchange is a piece talking about the international language of trade as a way for countries to mediate with each other as well as benefit. That, as a whole, all countries are better off united than they are alone.

Early Journalism - the Birth of Language, the Rise of the Newspaper, and the Debauchery of Gin

The lecture on early journalism started at the beginning. And when I say beginning, I mean the very beginning. We start with a timeline at 6000BC with the first evidence of any kind of written language, the Chinese pictographic script. This was a system in which a picture represented a word, or perhaps a phrase. This was followed 2000 years later by Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was in turn followed by Summarian cuneform script. This was the first written language which could be used to form sentences, albeit rather crudely. Fast-forward a few thousand years and we come to a much more advanced language, Latin, complete with the alphabet that we still use today. In 1440 comes Gutenberg's printing press. The first movable-type printing press meant that books could be produced at an extraordinary rate, in comparison to the previous printers, monks who could produce a few books per lifetime. The new press allowed ideas to be recorded, and as a result, the rate of technological and philosophical innovation skyrocketed.

From this point in the timeline, the dates of important events begin to appear much closer together. A mere 20 years after Gutenberg's invention, came the Italian Renaissance, which further influenced various philosophical creativity. Not to mention improving technology with the rediscovery of ancient Greek manuscripts. In the centuries following, there are countless religious bickering, the colonisation of America, and the English civil war. This brought about a new type of thinking with philosophers like John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes both writing about social contracts and states of nature, changing the way that sovereignties were viewed, and upheld. The 1700s show a dramatic improvement to science and mathematics thanks to Isaac Newton and his many scientific laws. Also, not insignificantly to us budding journalists, 1702 was the year in which the first daily newspaper was created, the Daily Courant. The Courant concerned itself with foreign news and was in no way confined in any regulations or codes of conduct. It set itself as the standard for all newspapers that were to follow. Although they would end up slightly longer than a single sheet, especially the Sundays.

The birth of a true journalistic media having finally arrived, the next thing to happen would be the coming of the journalists. Daniel Defoe, considered by some to be the first ever journo, arrived on the scene in 1703, and made his career by pamphleteering all kinds of subjects. Eventually however, he was arrested for his pamphlet 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters', which was judged to be critical of the Anglican church, and he was locked in a pillory (a device somewhat like the stocks) for 3 days before being sent to prison, and released in return for his services as an intelligence agent. This is not to say that he was only a pamphleteer. he wrote many novels, most notably, Robinson Crusoe, which made him famous.

After Defoe and the Courant, came other paper media in the form of the Spectator and the Tatler, created by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. I will discuss Addison in more detail in a future blog.

What I consider to be the last directly journalism-contributing part oh the timeline, was the possible birth of photojournalism by William Hogarth. Now obviously this was not photography, rather a depiction of events. Perhaps the most famous being 'Beer Street'  and 'Gin Lane', prints showing the debauchery and evils of drinking gin, compared to the great merits of drinking beer (substitute cider for beer and I heartily agree).

If this brief timeline of the history of early journalism has whetted your appetite. Please feel free to badger your teacher or local librarian. I'm just far too busy and important.
Not necessarily in that order.