#literacy

[escapismsworld]

[raspberrysgod]

A Dostoyevsky line has never hit me so hard

[bauliya]

ever since i got access to american library cards thanks to tumblr user anneemay (pbuh) 2 weeks ago ive lost even the 3% sympathy i had for americans crying ofc we’re stupid and illiterate our schools suck!!! because you assholes have had FREE ACCESS to THOUSANDS of books and audiobooks and classic films this ENTIRE TIME you’ve been blaming your schools for your elected ignorance!!! from my home in India I’ve listened to eight audiobooks and watched half of cronenberg’s oevre and I’m watching nosferatu (1922) today and I can’t even go to a library in person and you people have had these things your entire life yet you come on tumblr at 18 19 20 and say you don’t know who james baldwin is and if you expect me to you’re classist and 18 year old Americans are too stupid to know bombing foreign countries kills people so it’s okay if they choose to do that rather than work at McDonald’s and of course I have no idea what stocks are or what colonialism is and MCU is the height of cinema and it’s feminist to wear makeup like. my god. you people are going to go through the rest of your life being incoherently stupid and it’s not because you’re poor and it’s not because your schools suck but its because you’re so ensconced in your American privilege that you will never be forced to confront the realities of life and you can go on living your Disney adult fantasies because you’ve destroyed your innate human curiosity and potential at the altar of hyper consumption.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

okay what did i miss

(yes some of these overlap and some are suppositions. for example if parchment is always used for ephemera, rough drafts, notes, and never re-used or re-purposed, we can also assume that the author is unaware of wax tablets as a concept)

[sl8tersstuff]

I live my life in a constant state of grief of what I did, what I didn’t do, and what I can never do.

[embodiedfutures]

original post: february 17, 2024 | last updated: april 4, 2025

new link! the author created their own blog rather than using substack a while back, so please boost this version instead!

we've also received feedback that an abundance of screenshots of white text on the author's originally burgundy background is not reader-friendly. so, we've removed them.

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[mydownloadedfyp]

Not my vid

[hephaestusshield]

man of the house (eldest daughter)

[fandomsandfeminism]

This is just a semi-regular reminder that the idea that all people in a society *can* and *should* be literate at even a basic level is an incredibly modern concept. For the vast majority of human history, only an incredibly small percentage of the population was literate; was ALLOWED to be literate.

Some points to draw from this:

Despite the talking points about how awful the American education system is (and there are flaws and serious underfunding, yes), literacy rates are higher now than they have ever been in human history.

Being literate, especially literate at a collegiate level, is an incredibly specialized skill. It's a difficult, though valuable, skill. Struggling with it is not a sign of low intelligence or low effort- its natural to struggle with difficult things.

One of the best ways to improve literacy is exposure and easy access to a wide variety of texts. Anyone who shames, restricts, or disparages whole genres of text (graphic novels, fantasy, romance, etc) as being frivolous, dangerous, etc does not have the best interest of potential readers at heart.

[miseria-fortes-viros]

this is probably really fucking pretentious of me but i cannot STAND it when there’s a discussion around a classic story or art piece or whatever and somebody pipes up like “it’s giving (modern media)” UMMMM no. actually (modern media) is heavily based around one of the oldest stories in the history of time. this is literally the inspiration for your obsession of the week it’s not “giving���. IT IS !!! THATS WHAT IT IS!!!

[theonion]

Thanking everyone who had helped her make the world a more unequal and uneducated place, actress and comedian Roseanne Barr announced Monday that her illiteracy charity had snatched its 100 millionth book from a child.

Barr, an outspoken critic of childhood literacy, has spent more than 15 years working tirelessly with a nonprofit she founded to empty bookshelves, destroy literature, and deny children of all ages access to adequate reading materials. In a ceremony held at a local elementary school, the outspoken celebrity marked the achievement by forcibly ripping the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie from the hands of a shocked 5-year-old surrounded by dozens of screaming, crying classmates.

Full Story

[jstor]

Be all that you can be: read.

These timeless messages from Senator Claiborne Pell in 1968 resonate with us even today. His address on the importance of libraries and literacy programs highlights how these resources answer the millions of questions we have and why we should utilize them.

Explore the full video.

📽️ : Senator Claiborne Pell. Literacy and Libraries, 1968. University of Rhode Island.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

1,700-Year-Old Writing Kit from Georgia (South Caucasus): this writing kit was found in an unmarked grave located in the foundations of a cathedral, where it lay buried next to the body of a 40-50 year old woman; it's decorated with images of the Greek muses

The unmarked tomb was discovered at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, which is located in the city of Mtskheta, in modern-day Georgia. The burial site dates back to about 250-350 CE, when Mtskheta served as the capital of Kartli (also known as the Kingdom of Iberia), which covered most of what is now Eastern Georgia.

The tomb lay undiscovered for more than 1,600 years, as it was tucked into the foundations of the cathedral; it contained the body of an unidentified woman in her 40s or 50s, along with an assortment of jewelry and a gilded writing set, which had been placed by the woman's waist. Her identity is still a mystery, but the contents of her tomb suggest that she was a member of royalty and/or nobility.

The writing set contains several different components, including a gilded pen case with the Greek muses depicted across the back, a silver frame depicting three historical figures, an openwork cover made of gold, a gold ink pot, three silver pens, and a small "pencil-box" made of silver.

All nine of the Greek muses are depicted on the pen case. The figures are divided into three rows; each muse is identified by name, and each is depicted with its own unique attributes/objects.

Above: the top row of the pen case is decorated with gilded images of Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia

The three figures in the top row are identified as Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia, which are the muses of history, lyric poetry, and comedy, respectively. Clio is shown holding a slate pencil in her right hand and a book in her left, while Euterpe is depicted with a trumpet and a wind instrument, and Thalia carries a comic mask and ploughshare.

Above: Melpomene, Terpsichore, and Erato

The figures in the second row are identified as Melpomene, Terpsichore, and Erato, who are the muses of tragedy, dance, and romantic poetry. Melpomene carries a tragedy mask, Terpsichore has a lyre in her left hand and a plectrum in her right, and Erato is depicted with a flanged lyre.

Above: Polyhymnia, Urania, and Calliope

The figures in the third row represent Polyhymnia, Urania, and Calliope. Polyhymnia is the muse of song, sacred dance, and mime, and she is depicted with a scroll in one hand and a mask in the other. Urania is the muse of astronomy, so she carries a pointed slate pencil in her right hand and a globe in her left. Calliope is the muse of epic poetry, and she's depicted with a scroll.

Above: the writing kit also includes this silver frame, which features three more figures that are identified as Menander, Homer, and Demosthenes

A small silver frame attaches to the front side of the pen case. That frame is decorated with portraits of Menander, Homer, and Demosthenes, who are identified by the Greek inscriptions above each figure ("MENAN[ΔΡΟΣ], OMEROC, ΔHMOCΘENHC"), though the inscription of Menander's name is partially damaged.

The frame fits neatly around a small ink-pot, which is then fixed to the front of the pen case, along with an openwork cover made of gold.

Above: the openwork cover was crafted from a sheet of gold, and it features an elaborate laurel motif along with a Greek inscription

The cover includes a two-line Greek inscription ("BACIΛEΩC OΥCTAMOΥ TOΥ KAI EΥΓENIOΥ") that can be translated as "king Oustamos-Eugenios" or "kings Oustamos and Eugenios." There is no written record of any king(s) by that name in Kartli, nor in any other part of Georgia, but the written history for this period is sparse, and the names of many Georgian rulers have been lost.

The writing set also includes three silver pens and a "pencil box" made from a pair of silver sheets. One of the silver sheets has a corrugated design that holds the pens in place.

Above: three pens and a silver "pencil-box" are shown on the right, while the openwork cover, frame, ink-pot, and pen case are shown on the left; the "pencil-box" is supposed to slide between the pen case and the other components

The artifacts from this unmarked tomb (along with the ink pots and styli that have been found at other sites nearby) suggest that there was a high level of literacy among the elites of Mtskheta during this period. The burial also contains several artifacts that were likely crafted in foreign workshops, reflecting the significant trade relationships and cultural exchanges that existed between Kartli and the peoples of Colchis, Greece, Rome, Iran, Armenia, Scythia, and the Levant.

Sources & More Info:

Phasis: A Rich Burial from Mtskheta (Caucasian Iberia)

Georgian National Museum: Pen Case

Colors and Stones: Writing Tools from Mtskheta

Greek and Latin Inscriptions from Classical Antiquity in Georgian History: Inscription on a Pen-Case from Mtskheta (p.269)

Hadrian and the Christians: Georgia in Roman Times (1st to 4th Centuries AD)

Phasis: Judicial Practices in Ancient Georgia (p.7)

International Black Sea University: Reinterpretation of a Late Roman Artifact

The Greeks and Romans in the Black Sea: What's in a Name? Who Might be Basilissa Ulpia from Mtskheta?

Journal of the Otar Lordkipanidze Centre of Archaeology: Archaeology of the Roman Period in Georgia

[chaoticaesthetician]

change is hard but staying somewhere you don't belong will destroy you

[sl8tersstuff]

I feel so shameful for just existing

I don’t want to be perceived

I don’t even want to be alive