Eheu Sean, As you say, 'Obscurity, especially in latin, is not a guarantee of anything.’ A training in Latin used to be regarded as a portal to the full resources of the English language, which is in effect a post-1066 Anglo-Norman creole. Historically this involved a training in “classics” (no accident that “classics” is cognate with “class”) and typically correlated with a privileged education.
The Welsh critic and tribunus plebis Raymond Williams grappled head-on with the problem of English as a two-tiered diglossia. (He was looking in at English from the outside, approaching the language as a native Welsh speaker.) He saw clearly the problems produced by a language with class inscribed so deeply in the structure, and for that reason he suggested a regular column in the Tribune newspaper on 'difficult' words, especially those with polysyllabic Greek and Latin roots. The editors turned the proposal down, and so Williams published Keywords, never having had the chance to take on, in the pages of Tribune, what he thought was the disastrous policy of George Orwell, who had suggested that proletarians (or ‘nobodies’, in Morlock’s formula) stick to simple Anglo-Saxon monosyllables, more honest and less liable to fall into Stalinist obscurantism and gobbledegook. Williams considered this strategy a bogus and condescending populism that was all too easy a recommendation coming from the dissident Etonian and classical scholar Eric Blair. Ironically, learning Latin was, for Williams, a means to the precise antithesis of Morlock’s conceited proposal. Iain On 10 Nov 2019, at 07:14, Sean Cubitt <s.cub...@gold.ac.uk> wrote: Eheu Morlock sadly you picked the wrong language: the UK premiere B Johnson has made a habit of adding latin tags to his outrageous posh-boy persona behind which hides a refusal to publish a budget, the official financial predictions for Brexit, the results of an enquiry into alleged financial impropriety and the results of a major enquiry into Russian interference and donations to his party. Obscurity, especially in latin, is not a gurantee of anything perhaps ancient Greek . . . Sean Cubitt Goldsmiths, University of London (U of Melbourne from Jan 2020) From: nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org> <nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org>> on behalf of nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org> <nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org>> Sent: 10 November 2019 11:00 To: nettime-l@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l@mail.kein.org> <nettime-l@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l@mail.kein.org>> Subject: nettime-l Digest, Vol 146, Issue 17 Send nettime-l mailing list submissions to nettime-l@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l@mail.kein.org> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l <http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org> You can reach the person managing the list at nettime-l-ow...@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l-ow...@mail.kein.org> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of nettime-l digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Latin as revolutionary act? (Morlock Elloi) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2019 14:48:36 -0800 From: Morlock Elloi <morlockel...@gmail.com <mailto:morlockel...@gmail.com>> To: nettime-l@mail.kein.org <mailto:nettime-l@mail.kein.org> Subject: <nettime> Latin as revolutionary act? Message-ID: <5dc74244.8090...@gmail.com <mailto:5dc74244.8090...@gmail.com>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed What would be consequences of using Latin language among group/clique/cabal/underground/elite for discourse, publishing, idea exchange, tweets? (let's ignore for the moment how does one get the above set to learn Latin) First of all, the noise goes down, as there is intellectual effort barrier involved. Feeble-minded, distracted, low IQ, vacuous, and other nobodies are out. It would be like early Internet (1990s) - only nice and interesting people, no rabble. Only more resilient, because the 'price' of learning tongue will never go down, unlike computer equipment and access. Second, the cross-pollution from deluge of mechanically augmented media firehoses goes way down. Language is the medium, and, of course, the medium is the message. It's much harder to influence those thinking in a foreign tongue. Third, the isolated hermetic nature of such setup would allow thinking to mature, being spared from cretinous cheering and booing from the unwashed crowd. At the same time, it can use modern networking technology to attract interest globally. Perdidi unum in mediis soccus lauandi, et iam sentire perfecta! ------------------------------ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l <http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l> End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 146, Issue 17 ****************************************** # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l <http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l> # archive: http://www.nettime.org <http://www.nettime.org/> contact: nett...@kein.org <mailto:nett...@kein.org> # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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