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Imagine a jester from King George III’s court, charged in 1790 with writing a comedy about the new American Republic.... It annoys me that in a piece attacking
by bokonist 16y ago
Imagine a jester from King George III’s court, charged in 1790 with writing a comedy about the new American Republic....
It annoys me that in a piece attacking Sorkin for having a cartoon vision of the world, Lessig uses an analogy with a cartoon understanding of the world himself. The British monarch in 1790 did not have court jesters, they were long gone ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester ).
- martey 16y agoI think this point is similar to that made in Nathan Heller's Slate article - http://www.slate.com/id/2269308/ http://www.slate.com/id/2269308/ - that Sorkin believes that Ivy League schools are still controlled by some kind of elite class (if not the WASP elite of old, some kind of new Internet-connected parvenu elite). Similarly, a member of King George the Third's court (jester or not) might assume that the United States was controlled by a landed aristocracy similar to that in England. The fact that the 18th century British court did not have jesters is tangential at most. Call our theoretical author a macaroni (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_%28fashion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_%28fashion%29 ) if you must.
- Alex3917 16y agoI've been to parties in the bike room of the porc and I've been to Henley, both are pretty much as described. If anything Harvard is actually a lot more waspish and cliquey than they make it out to be. It's not the majority of the students but it has an enormous effect on the culture.
- Confusion 16y agoWell, imagine there were. He's writing a piece of fiction to convey some point. It doesn't matter that it is a revisionist history.