Submitted by OneLastConquest t3_yaqi45 in todayilearned
Reply to comment by PolyPanFemme in TIL about the famous American novelist Winston Churchill who was the reason why the British prime minister referred to himself as Winston Spencer Churchill. They met on occasion, but gradually Spencer Churchill’s rise to power steamrolled the American into obscurity. by OneLastConquest
I find oddly satisfying the prose in which they used to write in those times. Compare it with nowadays correspondence. We come across as brute chimps in comparison.
I was thinking this too. If I were to compose emails like this, I would be told to stop it, lol. I feel that we have a lot more information to convey than letters by overseas post back In those days ever had to process, so I think our values have just changed. We can't be long-winded and focused on prose because we have stacks and stacks of communications records stored up in the back room. We need to convey information in shorter, more efficient ways since there's so much taking up our time during the day, so we value convenience.
Winston Churchill was an utter master of the English language.
Which one?
British English.
Ah, the old Reddit Churcharoo!
Hold my Spencer, I'm going in!
Are you comparing a cheeky letter with extra formality added for effect written by a master of the English language, to your work emails?
Next up: were the top painters of the Renaissance better than my webcomic?
That’s a really weird and rude way to respond, dude…
It’s a valid observation that sheer volume of correspondence humans have with eachother in the 21st century might… you know, influence how we talk and write compared to correspondence in 1899.
It's not oddly satisfying, it's completely understandably satisfying!
The eloquence of the people of yesteryear is a pleasure to hear/read, and it seems that that level of command of the English language is pretty rare these days, unfortunately.
[removed]
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments