What are some concepts that were difficult for people to grasp in the past but are now common place?

Answer by Steve Tamburello:

1. Silent Reading

Silent reading was quite unusual in the west, at least until the 10th century. Rather it is thought that you had speak the words out loud to read them. One of the first people to be actually recorded as doing so was Ambrose in the 4th century AD. It was noted by St Augustine of Hippo on his visit to Milan.

This is an extract from:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/hi…

"Ambrose was an extraordinary reader. "When he read," said Augustine, "his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud."

 Eyes scanning the page, tongue held still: that is exactly how I would describe a reader today, sitting with a book in a cafe across from the Church of St. Ambrose in Milan, reading, perhaps, Saint Augustine's Confessions. Like Ambrose, the reader has become deaf and blind to the world, to the passing crowds, to the chalky flesh-coloured facades of the buildings. Nobody seems to notice a concentrating reader: withdrawn, intent, the reader becomes commonplace.

 

To Augustine, however, such reading manners seemed aufficiently strange for him to note them in his Confessions. The implication is that this method of reading, this silent perusing of the page, was in his time something out of the ordinary, and that nomal reading was performed out loud. Even though instances of silent reading can be traced to earlier dates, not until the tenth century does this manner of reading become usual in the West."

 
2. Segmented Sleep

Another fascinating difference is normal sleep patterns in Pre-Industrial societies. So your average medieval serf might find it difficult to grasp the concept of sleeping for 7 or 8 hours straight. They would have been used to getting up in the middle of the night and getting up to all sorts of things.

In 2005 Roger Ekirch, a historian at Virginia Tech published a book called At Days Close: Night's In Times Past. It was the culmination of 20 years research into references to sleep patterns from Homer's Odyssey, through ancient texts, medieval writings and all the way to modern day African tribes. He concluded that many of the references described a  a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep.

"It's not just the number of references – it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge," (Ekirch).

So you came in from the fields exhausted, the sun has gone down and all you can do is collapse onto your bed. So what do after you have refreshed yourself with a few hours sleep. Well apparently some got up and ate, some entertained or went around to neighbours houses to socialise. Reinvigorated from their nap some muster the energy for more energetic night time activity! Some doctors even recommended there was a better chance of conceiving after 'the first sleep'.

After a couple of hours of night time activity a 'second sleep' or morning sleep was had until sunrise.

This seems like such a fundamental difference to the daily routine that it really didn't occur to me before I read of the research a few years ago. Here are a few leads if you wish to find out more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seg…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazi…
http://books.google.co.uk/books/…

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Gwyn

 

Like many other journeys this year I sat down this morning and looked over the crossword in the i newspaper.  Frequently I would have been asked after 10 minutes “have you finished it yet?” by Gwyn in front seat. Sometimes I had, sometimes he had, whichever it was by first break between us and a couple of others we normally had it cracked.

 

To say it was surreal going to Gwynfor’s funeral today would be an understatement. I still can’t match what happened today to the bloke we all knocked about and bantered with only last month. Although we all only  found out yesterday what had happened I’m glad we made the effort to get to Aberaeron in West Wales for the ceremony. I think it was good for many of the very separate groups to come together to remember and piece together some of the details and memories from our encounters.

Gwyn was one of a kind, one of the big characters on the digging circuit. I first met him back in 2003 on my very first dig and subsequently over in Ireland. I hadn’t seen him in quite a few years until earlier this year in South Wales on a Cotswold job. The hair was shorter and neater but he was unmistakable, striding around site. Perhaps calmer than the last time I had worked with him but as sharp and witty as ever. There were very few boundaries with Gwyn which meant some were more cautious with him at first, but it also meant that everything was open to be discussed. From philosophy to religion to history to politics he had a huge knowledge to draw on. On a lower level he could leave a newcomer to site quite shocked if they weren’t used to his unique style of break time banter.

Although it was hardly believable to be in the situation of attending his funeral today I think it was a fitting send off. His family, some diggers and his neighbours from the farm gathered together for a simple and honest service before he was buried next to the sea nearby.

 

He had plenty of stories that deserve to be recounted but maybe that is for another time.

Gwynfor, what can I say, you will be missed.

Luke Haines got a Casio VL Tone

It was only a matter of weeks ago that I was in a car, flying down the motorway to my last dig, discussing musical heroes with Sir Julian. New Wave and Now I’m a Cowboy were on repeat on the stereo. Chinese Bakery, Junkshop Clothes, Don’t Trust The Stars, Lenny Valentino. So many great songs and so many memories associated with them.  Yet I had had never managed to catch him live.

Shoot forward to last Saturday evening. The New Continental in Preston. A rare live appearance in the north west. Rare also for its intimacy and relaxed nature. I have a live recording of Haines  entitled “No dialogue with C**ts” where lets say he is not so open to interaction with the audience. It was with this in mind that I approached him to see if he would sign some old Auteurs and Baader Meinhof records I had. In fact he was a complete gent, self effacing even.

Luke Haines is loosely touring his latest concept album, “9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling in the 1970′s and early 80′s”  Just like his Baader Meinhof album I have been gradually drawn into to his chosen subject matter as I have listened to the album over the last few weeks. The people and images are just on the edge of my childhood memories. Even though I was only a few years old in the early 80′s  Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were familiar household names. And it was their faces on the backdrop that greeted us as we arrived.

An album solely about British Wrestling may sound crazy or like a gimmick but believe me it isn’t. If you happen to read either of his books you will know that Haines is the first to point out that he should get more credit than he has done and he not wrong. In “Rock Opera in the Key of Existential Misery” he admits he is ‘no Leonard Cohen and definitely no Nick Drake’ yet he encapsulates the sights and sounds of a bygone England in the way that is equal to Drake .

So we are given an insight into the characters of each of the faces on the wall (when he can find them) and also a glimpses of what it was like to grow up in the Haines household of the 1970′s. A young Luke eating liver sausage sandwiches and cheese while watching World of Sport.

After a rousing group chorus, a memorial to the departed wrestlers ‘in heaven’, we were treated to his latest revelations as written in his book ‘Post Everything’. Never one to hold back, Luke Haines gives us the inside story of his ill fated, if not slightly tongue-in-cheek National Pop Strike of 2001. Funny stuff, even to a slower witted northern crowd.

 If an album of wrestling themed music isn’t for you then perhaps neither is one recounting an alternate British history where Osward Mosley held the sway of power for two terms. Too much for MP and Poet Laureate ‘Enoch Powell, Space Poet’ who left the front bench to join Gong. All revealed on the elusive North Sea Scrolls.

The night was capped off perfectly by a gracious Haines in the bar, holding court for the many fans who had appreciated his musings from afar for many years. He did well to listen to the ramblings of many starstruck punters and yes i’m including myself in that group.

Big Daddy Got a Casio VL Tone

It’s the end of rem as we know it

So this was the week that rem split. It was only the day before that lisa and I were watching an old rem storytellers on MTV. At the time I reflected on how even hearing one song takes me back immediately to my teenage years. I used to listen to those albums so much. Strangely because they are so familiar I maybe forget to listen to them now. I can kind of play them in my head but from time to time one song will kind of sound new again. Most recently it was Harborcoat. I suppose because Stipe mumbles through the first few albums it’s easy to miss the lyrics and just like the song for its overall sound. The words just being another instrument.

That said its not as though any of them died. Some of the reports kind of felt that way. It does make sense looking back. Collapse into now was the last album of their deal with Warner bros and there was already speculation as to whether they would do a radiohead or commit again. Of crowded house or gorky’s are anything to go by some of the most interesting stuff comes after the split.

eating dried squid with my head in the cloud

so i’m typing this from my reinvigorated laptop. once so slow that it was easier just to go out and actually speak to people face-to-face. i know. that bad. that was before a embraced cloud computing. Jolicloud to give it a name. i believe its a linux based OS but you can install it alongside windows so you can choose which one to boot up. when you are using Joli OS you dont have all the baggage of Windows as its all in the cloud man. so i now have a zippy little, app based laptop. There is nothing worse than waiting for computers to do something then just beeping at yo
so lots of other important things this week:

Bin Laden killed – i guess like most I feel uneasy about the whole business though of course intrigued also. With each new bit of information that comes out and not so sure they couldn’t have taken him alive. obviously an assassination makes things simpler and i’m sure not much will come of it but I think the US (and us) walk a very tight moral line. If anything is to come of this I think the west need to look at the root causes of the animosity. obviously nothing justifies the tactics of al qaeda but often the response has not been justified either.

Lib Dem bashing- we actually didn’t get to vote this time as we didnt manage to register at our new house in time. but I would have voted yes to AV and probably for the Lib Dems in the locals. As it happens the LD’s kept Marple and most of Stockport but suffered most palces. It seems quite narrow sighted to blame everything on the Lib Dems yet let the tories get away unscathed. How much influence do people think 50 or so MP’s have compared to the tories 300 or whatever. seems like the Tories have done very well with a designated scapegoat. And as for AV well i think the LD’s were set up a little. It’s not Proportional Representation by any means yet that is all the Tories would allow a referendum on. Labour are no better. they had years to reform the voting system when they were in power but they quickly dropped those ideas in 1997 when they saw they didn’t need to. Now i’m not saying the Lib Dems automatically have my vote any more but i refuse to get caught up in this idea of voting for ‘change’ and swinging between parties from one election the next.

Finally we got a care package from korea through the post. pretty exciting eh. who knew these things were 2 way. our man in korea, mark payne kindly sent us a box of asian goodies to turn a questioning eye on. verdicts so far: dried squid is very tasty, sort of a fishy beef jerky, soju- a bit bland, higher quantities needed, korean tea – ok once you get used to the bits. Not forgetting 2 very colourful tshirts for the twins birthday. That man mark- never forgets a date.

followed by my iPhone

There’s been quite a lot in the news recently about the tracking data that is stored in your iphone. Since i don’t actually have anywhere exciting to go that I dont want anybody to know I think its actually quite cool. Well i found a program to view it on windows so here it is. My exciting travels over the last 8 months or so.

The MDZ (Marple Demilitarised Zone)

What you see here is the result of the recent escalation in first marple war. The erection of the Marple Demilitarised Zone.

Over the past few week Snoop, a forward soldier of the Canine Brigade has been making numerous incursions in our garden on ‘bombing’ raids while also ‘claiming’ extra territory for himself.

Peace talks were attempted after said agent was captured in the act. Red pawed, so to speak. But to no end. Another day, another covert sortie.

So today has been a day if fortification and diversion. And thus stands the Great Wicker (and chicken wire) Wall.

to be continued in sure…