EnlightenmentFan writes "When technology improves a book that was already good, that's good news for nerds. I'm not talking about the Two Towers, but the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) (pronounced Peeps, as in marshmallow peeps), whose diaries record not only the Great Fire of London and the plague but his many seductions, trickeries, encounters with the king, almost getting executed, etc. Brit blogger Phil Gyford realized that this diary would make a great weblog--clickable footnotes, online feedback and all. So now he is serializing it daily, starting Jan 2, 1660, supposedly over the next ten years. The BBC has the backstory. I hope Gyford will deviate from Gutenberg's 1893 version to include some of Pepys's more outrageous sexual adventures, reduced by the 1893 version to "....""
The good stuff isn't lost to history - you never know how many great works are destroyed by censors. Did Shakespear ever recover from being Bowlderized?
Via blogs4God [blogs4god.com] I found "the Fathers of the Christian Church [wayneolson.com] as well as a few other blog that basically take books, devotionals or diaries out of the past and post them blogs.
I personally think this is a cool way to teach history. I'd like to see more of this on the high-school level as a means of familiarizing students with the great men and women of antiquity on a personal level.
I personally think this is a cool way to teach history. I'd like to see more of this on the high-school level as a means of familiarizing students with the great men and women of antiquity on a personal level.
Perhaps blogs might work as a supplimentary source, but not as a replacement for actually reading the assigned text. What happens next week when blogging becomes passe? Is this promoting form over content ("I'll read Marie Antoinette's web log, but pick up a book?!?! Yucko! That is just so 20th century"). Is it the job of educators to reformat content to display in the currently accepted paradigm, which is likely to be supplanted before the reformatting is complete?
Depends on if you consider it to be history, or fantasy.
He's talking about actual historical people here. What they believed in (religiously or politically) is another matter entirely. Surely you are not questioning the historicity of Clement of Rome or Gregory of Nyssa here? What's next, questioning the historical existence of Julius Caesar?
And if you consider them to be "great men."
Or are you just bashing them because they were Christians? Is that what you meant by "fantasy"?
If that is the case, that would bring up an interesting follow-up point: say someone made a blog out of Caesar's "The Gallic Wars". Caesar believed in Roman gods, and his political scheme included murdering his enemies and their families to become Emporer of the World. Would you make some crack about "fantasy" in that case just because you don't believe in his religion or disagree with his politics?
It's not a diary as such, but this reminds me of the excellent Bloggus Caesari [sankey.ca] ("The Original Warblogger") - Julius Caesar's ruminations from Gaul, now in weblog form, a tad over two thousand years later.
While I'm as big a fan of weblogs as anyone, I gotta say this just proves a point I've been making for a while... there's not much really cutting edge about them. They're diaries that happen to have hyperlinks. The only reason they get read, I think, I is people like to look in other people's windows.
And the view is a lot more interesting in some of those windows than others. Pepys lived a life that's a lot more interesting than almost anything today.
But the difference between a standard blog and, for example, Pepys Diary, is the audience. Weblogs are meant to be viewed by anyway, by everyone.
Pepys diary was encoded and the code wasn't even cracked until long after his death. This, you get a brutally honest portrayal of what actually happened. Whereas with blogs, basically people are just trying to prove how witty they can be.
...Security through obscurity doesn't work:) I know, I know - that was awful.
Well, what's really awful about it is that this case has nothing to do with "security through obscurity". He coded his information, that code was cracked. That's normal and good standard practice encyryption. It was just weak encryption. STO would be as if his diary was unencrypted, but just hidden from direct view.
STO is not always a bad policy, by the way, like many want you to believe. But that's a topic for another time.
I thought it was just a "special form of shorthand", not really actual encryption. I find it difficult to believe that he was doing hard-core mathematically-based encryption
Encryption doesn't have to mathematical. Anything that takes a message, applies a transformation to it and is reversible through another transformation can be said to be a cypher. I could make an alternate alphabet with funny symbols and do a 1-1 correspondence of the English alphabet and that would still be a cypher. A weak one, but still encrypted.
maybe in the year 2300 someone will take the slashdot archives and start posting them daily to a web log...i wonder if people will get the "FP" and "In Soviet Russia" references...
I hope Gyford will deviate from Gutenberg's 1893 version to include some of Pepys's more outrageous sexual adventures, reduced by the 1893 version to "....""
I hope Gyford will deviate from Gutenberg's 1893 version to include some of Pepys's more outrageous sexual adventures, reduced by the 1893 version to "...."
Oh, I don't know. I browse at -1: it's amazing what images can be evoked using only punctuation.:-)
Jan 11, 1660: Not much happening today. Lost one o my kids in the bog.
Jan 12, 1660: Damne bog ate my dog. Off to the pub for a pint.
Jan 13, 1660: Walking back from the pub early this morn, almost fell into the bog.
Jan 14, 1660: Good Lord.. the Mayor fell into the bog. Presumed lost. Kenny Axeblood wants to take over. 'Aye' I say.
Jan 15, 1660: God hates our wee village; Kenny Axeblook walked into the bog and disappeared from our sight. We think it's that woman with the wart. Off to burn her.
Jan 16, 1660: Burnt the witch and threw her remains into the bog.
> Jan 11, 1660: Not much happening today. Lost one o my kids in the bog.
> Jan 12, 1660: Damne bog ate my dog. Off to the pub for a pint.
> Jan 13, 1660: Walking back from the pub early this morn, almost fell into the bog.
> Jan 14, 1660: Good Lord.. the Mayor fell into the bog. Presumed lost. Kenny Axeblood wants to take over. 'Aye' I say. > Jan 15, 1660: God hates our wee village; Kenny Axeblook walked into the bog and disappeared from our sight. We think it's that woman with the wart. Off to burn her. > Jan 16, 1660: Burnt the witch and threw her remains into the bog.
Jan 17, 1660: 1) Elected new mayor in the bog. He fell into the bog before he could be sworn in. Burnt another witch. That witch burned down, fell over, and then sank into the bog, but the third witch stayed up!
Jan 18, 1660: 2) In pagan Denmark, bogs fall into you!
I've seen several sites that do this kind of thing, but usually via email instead of a blog. Every week a new chapter of a public domain book is sent to subscribers.
It'd also be interesting to see other famous diaries given this treatment. Think Anne Frank, or Anais Nin. However, in the later case, the blog's past entries would have to be heavily revised every once in a while.
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday January 03 2003, @10:51AM (#5006483)
(from his blog:)
"The best thing about Pepys, I thought, when I read the diaries, some years ago, was watching him change, with the country, from the puritan days to the restoration -- watching him discover the theatre (to which he slowly becomes addicted), watching him grow and reinvent himself. The other best thing is that, confiding in a coded diary, he gradually becomes unutterably honest, and thus human, sometimes shockingly so."
I'm all for folks reading the "great men" of the past (and the women too), but even after reading the BBC link I'm at a loss to see what makes this medium an improvement.
Yes, you can read a little bit each day -- but is that not equally possible with a book (or even the online version of the diary)?
Yes, people can add comments explaining the "archaic" English (according to the article), but should I trust these explanations? How many Samula Pepys experts will be following this, and how many yowzers?
Blogs can be great tools, but I don't see how in this particular case the medium is especially useful. There's so much hype about technology improving learning, but after watching many a powerpoint presentation, I'm wary of too much hoopla with too little benefit.
But hey, the internet really does need more blogs, so I guess a new one can only be a good thing;)
Yes, you can read an entry from a book each day, but for many people these days, who read a number of sites (like/.) every day, it's easier to slot another website into that routine.
There's no reason you should trust the annotations any more than on any other site (like/.). You have to use your own judgement.
The Two Towers film did not improve upon the book. Faramir is spinning in his grave.
Uh... you are aware, right, that Lord of the Rings is not actually a history? Just to be clear: fictional character, never existed, not in grave. Okay?
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) (pronounced Peeps, as in marshmallow peeps)
Was that really necessary? I mean, are there really
people out there who don't know how to pronounce
Pepys? Did you not learn anything
at school? Sheesh!
BTW, I haven't the faintest clue what
marshmallow peeps are...
Never argue with the Viscount Crowhurst, as according to the NYT 9/27/61:
London, Sept. 26 Members of the historic Pepys family said today they pronounce the name "Pepp-iss" not Peeps"
On the other hand, the Encyclopedia Britannica asserts: "The name was pronounced in the seventeenth century and has always been pronounced by the family, 'Peeps.' "...
The discrepancy came to light when Lady Paulina Mary Louise Pepys faced a magistrate on a traffic charge. The magistrate, A.A. Pereira, pronounced it "Peeps."
"Sorry," Lady Paulina said, "but it's Pepp-iss."
The magistrate, thus corrected, then fined her two pounds.
"Of course I'm related to Samuel Pepys, and if he called himself 'Peeps' he was the first member of the family to do so and none has done it since. I don't like it pronounced 'Peeps.' "
The present head of the family is John Digby Thomas Pepys, the 7th Earl of Cottenham and the 10th Baronet Pepys. His secretary said:
"I can assure you that Lord Cottenham pronounces it 'Pepp-iss' and so do his son, the Viscount Crowhurst"
Man, what a bunch of sissies. My wife has a friend that married a gentleman named "Dorkson".
Yup, you heard me, "Dorkson".
He's a great guy, and all, but man - what do you say to that? Understandably, she insists that we pronounce it "Dorrson" because the 'k' is silent, you know.;)
Apparently the sage of Walden grew up using the old New England pronunciation of his family name, accent on the first syllable, rather than the (original, French) pronunciation now popular, accenting the second syllable, according to this website [abaa.org] and a bunch of other guys. And of course Albert Einstein pronounced his last name "Ine-shtine," as German-speakers still correctly do, but English-speakers sound funny saying it that way in the states. Or how about the correct Dutch pronunciation of "van Gogh" with full gutteral g-sounds?
Anyway, it is cool to discover that the Pepys family prefers Pee-piss to Peeps, but since most people don't know this, you'll probably be understood by more people if you still just say Peeps, IMHO.
I worked on a similar project a few years back: the diary [dohistory.org] of a revolutionary-war era Maine midwife. No one thought to call it a blog, but that's basically what it is--along with some teaching tools (this was NEH-funded). It's called dohistory.org [dohistory.org]. A lot of her diary focuses pickling vegetables and birthin' babies, but there's some real drama too; she testified in a gang rape trial, and her husband went to jail (on unrelated tax charges).
I've read the book A Midwife's Tale [amazon.com] transcribed from the diary in the above post. Its an excellent read.
What would have been dismissed at the time as the mundane details of a New England midwife has proven to be an invaluable historical register of the area. Births, deaths, business transactions, travel routes, etc all preserved for future study.
What better way to learn about history but from the perspective of the one who lived it (to the best of the writers recollection, anyway).
I hope Gyford will deviate from Gutenberg's 1893 version to include some of Pepys's more outrageous sexual adventures, reduced by the 1893 version to "...."
Sorry, you're going to have to find outrageousness elsewhere. A footnote for Jan 1 reads, This is the first of too many censored passages marked by "...." wherin Mr. Wheatly determines (in this unabridged edition) that some of the words of Pepy's are too raw for our eyes.
The University of California's edition [ucpress.edu] is fairly recent -- I'd imagine there wasn't much in the 1970s that could shock Californians. I'm guessing this edition is more complete, and I'm asking my public library for a copy of it. Here's hoping it's got fewer ellipses (and more eccentricity).
I admit to enjoying Pepys's sex tales, though I'm not so interested in his bowels. I also get a bang out of the polyglot mix of Spanish, French, and Latin he used to disguise these bits in case his wife figured out the rest of his shorthand.
To quote a Boston Globe article, now available only in the Google cache: [216.239.33.100]
"Edited out until as recently as 1970 were the clumsy rolls beneath alehouse tables and the gropings in horse-drawn carriages, generally rendered in his unique personal porno style: 'and yo did take her, the first time in my life, sobra mi genu and poner mi mano sub her jupes and toca su thigh, which did hazer me great pleasure.' "
presents the answer to a question posed to me here on Slashdot a few days ago when I was talking about eBooks and Project Gutenberg.
What happens when the language changes only scholars can read Dickens and Twain?
This is what happens.
This can only happen *because* the work is in the public domain and presents one of the greatest arguments for works not remaining in the private domain overlong.
It also serves as a great example of the true social utility of a free internet and I applaud the author for making this great literary and historical document accessable in a modern and entertaining manner.
His diary was written in a shorthand code called tachygraphy that was not deciphered until the 19th century. Pepys never expected the diary to be decoded and so wrote only for himself--the diary is brutally frank
This is a clear example of DRM circumvention! Stop the terrorists! Now, where did i put my UAV?
I fear that I am missing something here. I get the impression that the explicit bits (i.e. the '...' bits) are being left out because they are not included in the version which Project Guttenburg copied.
So what? Presumably they are in the original and since that is 300 years old it must be out of copyright by now. Surely there are more recent editions which include the full unexpurgated text? Why can't the 'naughty bits' just be copied from one of them?
Now, I understand that when someone re-prints an old text they are allocated a new copyright, but only on new work (text formatting and layout, footnotes, updated punctuation and spelling etc). But, we don't need any of that, just the original words. If these were just copied into the blog, how would anyone know whose edition they had come from anyway?
It is (or soon will be) sem-automated. I have to copy and paste all the text from the Project Gutenberg file by hand. But having prepared these entries in advance, a handy bit of experimental perl will (fingers crossed) publish a new entry each day.
The problem with that is something that every Slashdot reader should be familiar with: copyright infringement.
As mentioned in the BBC article about Pepys' diaries, "Copyright isn't a problem; the remarkable Project Gutenberg, a community effort to make electronic texts of copyright-free books available to everyone, has produced a version of the diary dating from 1893."
Well lets hope (Score:3, Insightful)
blogs from history happen ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Via blogs4God [blogs4god.com] I found "the Fathers of the Christian Church [wayneolson.com] as well as a few other blog that basically take books, devotionals or diaries out of the past and post them blogs.
I personally think this is a cool way to teach history. I'd like to see more of this on the high-school level as a means of familiarizing students with the great men and women of antiquity on a personal level.
Re:blogs from history happen ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps blogs might work as a supplimentary source, but not as a replacement for actually reading the assigned text. What happens next week when blogging becomes passe? Is this promoting form over content ("I'll read Marie Antoinette's web log, but pick up a book?!?! Yucko! That is just so 20th century"). Is it the job of educators to reformat content to display in the currently accepted paradigm, which is likely to be supplanted before the reformatting is complete?
Re:blogs from history happen ... (Score:4, Insightful)
He's talking about actual historical people here. What they believed in (religiously or politically) is another matter entirely. Surely you are not questioning the historicity of Clement of Rome or Gregory of Nyssa here? What's next, questioning the historical existence of Julius Caesar?
And if you consider them to be "great men."
Or are you just bashing them because they were Christians? Is that what you meant by "fantasy"?
If that is the case, that would bring up an interesting follow-up point: say someone made a blog out of Caesar's "The Gallic Wars". Caesar believed in Roman gods, and his political scheme included murdering his enemies and their families to become Emporer of the World. Would you make some crack about "fantasy" in that case just because you don't believe in his religion or disagree with his politics?
Belloc
Parent
Bloggus Caesari (Score:4, Interesting)
Same as it ever was (Score:4, Insightful)
And the view is a lot more interesting in some of those windows than others. Pepys lived a life that's a lot more interesting than almost anything today.
Re:Same as it ever was (Score:4, Insightful)
Pepys diary was encoded and the code wasn't even cracked until long after his death. This, you get a brutally honest portrayal of what actually happened. Whereas with blogs, basically people are just trying to prove how witty they can be.
Parent
Re:Just goes to show you: (Score:2)
Well, what's really awful about it is that this case has nothing to do with "security through obscurity". He coded his information, that code was cracked. That's normal and good standard practice encyryption. It was just weak encryption. STO would be as if his diary was unencrypted, but just hidden from direct view.
STO is not always a bad policy, by the way, like many want you to believe. But that's a topic for another time.
Re:Just goes to show you: (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought it was just a "special form of shorthand", not really actual encryption. I find it difficult to believe that he was doing hard-core mathematically-based encryption
Encryption doesn't have to mathematical. Anything that takes a message, applies a transformation to it and is reversible through another transformation can be said to be a cypher. I could make an alternate alphabet with funny symbols and do a 1-1 correspondence of the English alphabet and that would still be a cypher. A weak one, but still encrypted.
in the year 2300... (Score:4, Funny)
Outrageous! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, the one thing the Internet lacks is sex.
Re:Outrageous! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Outrageous! (Score:5, Funny)
Or, the voices in my head could be wrong this time.
Likewise.
Parent
reduced to "...." (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, I don't know. I browse at -1: it's amazing what images can be evoked using only punctuation. :-)
Re:reduced to "...." (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, like some jackass in a robe with a Bible in one hand, a torch in the other, and a stack of "lascivious writings" in front of him...
mirror (Score:5, Funny)
Jan 11, 1660: Not much happening today. Lost one o my kids in the bog.
Jan 12, 1660: Damne bog ate my dog. Off to the pub for a pint.
Jan 13, 1660: Walking back from the pub early this morn, almost fell into the bog.
Jan 14, 1660: Good Lord.. the Mayor fell into the bog. Presumed lost. Kenny Axeblood wants to take over. 'Aye' I say.
Jan 15, 1660: God hates our wee village; Kenny Axeblook walked into the bog and disappeared from our sight. We think it's that woman with the wart. Off to burn her.
Jan 16, 1660: Burnt the witch and threw her remains into the bog.
Re:mirror (Score:2)
Re:mirror (Score:5, Funny)
> Jan 12, 1660: Damne bog ate my dog. Off to the pub for a pint.
> Jan 13, 1660: Walking back from the pub early this morn, almost fell into the bog.
> Jan 14, 1660: Good Lord.. the Mayor fell into the bog. Presumed lost. Kenny Axeblood wants to take over. 'Aye' I say.
> Jan 15, 1660: God hates our wee village; Kenny Axeblook walked into the bog and disappeared from our sight. We think it's that woman with the wart. Off to burn her.
> Jan 16, 1660: Burnt the witch and threw her remains into the bog.
Jan 17, 1660: 1) Elected new mayor in the bog. He fell into the bog before he could be sworn in. Burnt another witch. That witch burned down, fell over, and then sank into the bog, but the third witch stayed up!
Jan 18, 1660: 2) In pagan Denmark, bogs fall into you!
Jan 19, 1660: ...
Jan 20, 1660: 3) ...geld!
Parent
Along the same lines as serialized books (Score:3, Interesting)
It'd also be interesting to see other famous diaries given this treatment. Think Anne Frank, or Anais Nin. However, in the later case, the blog's past entries would have to be heavily revised every once in a while
Neil Gaiman had this to say ... (Score:4, Interesting)
"The best thing about Pepys, I thought, when I read the diaries, some years ago, was watching him change, with the country, from the puritan days to the restoration -- watching him discover the theatre (to which he slowly becomes addicted), watching him grow and reinvent himself. The other best thing is that, confiding in a coded diary, he gradually becomes unutterably honest, and thus human, sometimes shockingly so."
I thought you guys might be interested.
Why is this an improvement? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, you can read a little bit each day -- but is that not equally possible with a book (or even the online version of the diary)?
Yes, people can add comments explaining the "archaic" English (according to the article), but should I trust these explanations? How many Samula Pepys experts will be following this, and how many yowzers?
Blogs can be great tools, but I don't see how in this particular case the medium is especially useful. There's so much hype about technology improving learning, but after watching many a powerpoint presentation, I'm wary of too much hoopla with too little benefit.
But hey, the internet really does need more blogs, so I guess a new one can only be a good thing
Re:Why is this an improvement? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's no reason you should trust the annotations any more than on any other site (like
Haha (Score:5, Funny)
Bet he didn't see that one coming.
a coupla points (Score:2)
You mean Project Gutenberg's version of Henry Wheatley's 1893 edition? It just sounds like you are referring to the great Johann Gutenberg.
When technology improves a book that was already good, that's good news for nerds. I'm not talking about the Two Towers
Just to clarify: The Two Towers film did not improve upon the book. Faramir is spinning in his grave.
Re:a coupla points (Score:4, Funny)
Uh... you are aware, right, that Lord of the Rings is not actually a history? Just to be clear: fictional character, never existed, not in grave. Okay?
Parent
Pronunciation (Score:4, Funny)
Was that really necessary? I mean, are there really people out there who don't know how to pronounce Pepys? Did you not learn anything at school? Sheesh!
BTW, I haven't the faintest clue what marshmallow peeps are...
Re:Pronunciation (Score:4, Informative)
Thats too bad, because Just Born [marshmallowpeeps.com], the makers of Marshmallow Peeps have a great web page.
Personally, Marshallow Peeps are delicious. They are a staple of every Easter morning. Unless of course you are a nasty heratic.
Parent
Aged Peeps (Score:3, Funny)
I think he is just smoking crack entirely too much.
Hope no one else has mentioned this one (Score:3, Funny)
http://www.progress.demon.co.uk/Fun/AOLer-diary
"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family... (Score:5, Informative)
London, Sept. 26
Members of the historic Pepys family said today they pronounce the name
"Pepp-iss" not Peeps"
On the other hand, the Encyclopedia Britannica asserts: "The name was
pronounced in the seventeenth century and has always been pronounced by the
family, 'Peeps.' "
The discrepancy came to light when Lady Paulina Mary Louise Pepys faced
a magistrate on a traffic charge. The magistrate, A.A. Pereira, pronounced
it "Peeps."
"Sorry," Lady Paulina said, "but it's Pepp-iss."
The magistrate, thus corrected, then fined her two pounds.
"Of course I'm related to Samuel Pepys, and if he called himself 'Peeps'
he was the first member of the family to do so and none has done it since.
I don't like it pronounced 'Peeps.' "
The present head of the family is John Digby Thomas Pepys, the 7th Earl
of Cottenham and the 10th Baronet Pepys. His secretary said:
"I can assure you that Lord Cottenham pronounces it 'Pepp-iss' and so do
his son, the Viscount Crowhurst"
Re:"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family.. (Score:3, Funny)
"No, it's Frederick. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know."
"Let's go, Igor."
"That's Eye-gor."
Re:"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family.. (Score:4, Funny)
In other news, hillbillies today said that they would prefer to be called "sons of the soil."
Parent
Re:"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family.. (Score:3, Funny)
Man, what a bunch of sissies. My wife has a friend that married a gentleman named "Dorkson".
Yup, you heard me, "Dorkson".
He's a great guy, and all, but man - what do you say to that? Understandably, she insists that we pronounce it "Dorrson" because the 'k' is silent, you know.
Re:"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family.. (Score:3, Funny)
his son, the Viscount Crowhurst"
If they can't hire a secretary that understands subject/verb agreement, I have doubts about their ability to pronounce their own last names.
Henry David Thero' or Tho'row? (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, it is cool to discover that the Pepys family prefers Pee-piss to Peeps, but since most people don't know this, you'll probably be understood by more people if you still just say Peeps, IMHO.
Re:"Peeps" pronuciation disputed by Pepys family.. (Score:3, Funny)
Pepys: It's Pepys, Papa Homer
Old lies (Score:2, Insightful)
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Another blog from the past (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Another blog from the past (Score:3, Insightful)
What would have been dismissed at the time as the mundane details of a New England midwife has proven to be an invaluable historical register of the area. Births, deaths, business transactions, travel routes, etc all preserved for future study.
What better way to learn about history but from the perspective of the one who lived it (to the best of the writers recollection, anyway).
Not outrageous (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry, you're going to have to find outrageousness elsewhere. A footnote for Jan 1 reads, This is the first of too many censored passages marked by "...." wherin Mr. Wheatly determines (in this unabridged edition) that some of the words of Pepy's are too raw for our eyes.
A more complete edition (still under copyright) (Score:4, Informative)
"mi mano sub her jupes and toca su thigh" (Score:5, Interesting)
To quote a Boston Globe article, now available only in the Google cache: [216.239.33.100]
"Edited out until as recently as 1970 were the clumsy rolls beneath alehouse tables and the gropings in horse-drawn carriages, generally rendered in his unique personal porno style: 'and yo did take her, the first time in my life, sobra mi genu and poner mi mano sub her jupes and toca su thigh, which did hazer me great pleasure.' "
This story, in and of itself. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
What happens when the language changes only scholars can read Dickens and Twain?
This is what happens.
This can only happen *because* the work is in the public domain and presents one of the greatest arguments for works not remaining in the private domain overlong.
It also serves as a great example of the true social utility of a free internet and I applaud the author for making this great literary and historical document accessable in a modern and entertaining manner.
KFG
DMCA violation! (Score:4, Funny)
His diary was written in a shorthand code called tachygraphy that was not deciphered until the 19th century. Pepys never expected the diary to be decoded and so wrote only for himself--the diary is brutally frank
This is a clear example of DRM circumvention! Stop the terrorists! Now, where did i put my UAV?
Copyright? (Score:3, Interesting)
So what? Presumably they are in the original and since that is 300 years old it must be out of copyright by now. Surely there are more recent editions which include the full unexpurgated text? Why can't the 'naughty bits' just be copied from one of them?
Now, I understand that when someone re-prints an old text they are allocated a new copyright, but only on new work (text formatting and layout, footnotes, updated punctuation and spelling etc). But, we don't need any of that, just the original words. If these were just copied into the blog, how would anyone know whose edition they had come from anyway?
The best diaries online.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is this automated (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:kurt cobain's diary (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with that is something that every Slashdot reader should be familiar with: copyright infringement.
As mentioned in the BBC article about Pepys' diaries, "Copyright isn't a problem; the remarkable Project Gutenberg, a community effort to make electronic texts of copyright-free books available to everyone, has produced a version of the diary dating from 1893."
Ye Olde LiveJournal (Score:3, Funny)
"You are so offeth my friends list!"