Bad Ass

Deborah Brandt states, “my interest is in how the proliferation of print across the twentieth century affects the occasions and motivations for learning to read and write” (653). This caught my interest because even prior to the 20th century, the “proliferation of print” has been the driving force behind the motivation for reading and writing.

People would write books and whatnot in longhand. This made books expensive and out of reach for many people. As time went on, printing books became easier, faster, and cheaper. This opened up reading for many more people. Additionally, Benjamin Franklin (this guy was bad ass) worked to get libraries up so that people who couldn’t afford books could still have access to them.

So, with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the wooden block printing press, then Lord Charles Stanhope’s metal printing press invention, and Richard Hoe’s invention of the faster rotary press, reading became more common (e-book.com). But, reading became more common because of the advancements and “proliferation” of the printing press.

Even today, the invention of e-books had motivated reading and writing. Granted e-books aren’t on paper (some are and then converted to digital format–I know because I was hired for a one-time job to do just that very thing), but the digital format is an advancement of the “printing press,” so-to-speak. More people are reading now and people are reading more due to this advancement.

Personally, my siblings and I as well as our parents are writers. My older brother (Jerry) and sister (Michele) have a different dad than my younger brother (Charles) and I have. Our mother had wanted to be an English teacher–she never got to realize that dream. My dad is a short story writer–never published. I don’t know if Jerry and Michele’s dad wrote. Both of my brothers write lyrics and are musically inclined. My sister writes poetry and I write short stories. The interesting thing is that Jerry and Michele were raised in Indiana by their father. Charles and I were raised here in California by our mother (we left Indiana in ’79 when I was four-years-old).