NP Comic for Tuesday, Sep 2, 2025

[Amiable Dorsai 74]

  https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/cinder-082 (Link button wouldn't work) It seems that in any universe, Tedd's partner will have led a "sheltered life."

[Darth Fluffy 378]

57 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

  https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/cinder-082 (Link button wouldn't work) 

I get stuff like this from this forum from time to time. The cause is the full page contains code, which loads near the end, and on occasion, it has trouble loading. I don't know which end the issue is on, my PC is old and slow to load pages, but my guess is that it coincides with maintenance on the website. It might also be an intervening ISP. The fix is to try a reload, and if that doesn't work, try later.

 

1 hour ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

  It seems that in any universe, Tedd's partner will have led a "sheltered life."

Anyone from a time before CinderTedd who received much of an education was either very fortunate or learned by exposure. CinderTedd has a feel of being in the tail end of that era, before the rise of widespread education. 

But even in our era, what you learn is filtered by cultural bias, and now the dilution of credible sources. What does it take to be truly 'sheltered'? Home schooling is recognized as doing this. I know home school families, and the end result is generally not 'sheltered'; different, but not naive like Grace. 

 

[Amiable Dorsai 74]

Yes, the one person I know who was entirely home schooled is hardly naive. 

But in this case, "sheltered" would consist of not being educated to relate to people outside of his rarified social bubble. "Elrick" simply doesn't know how to react to the physical contact he obviously enjoyed.

[AFNB 42]

"If I am meant to reject your embrace, then it's the fault of my teachers that I know no better.
Though if they had taught me that, I think it would be their teachings I would reject."

Does anyone else feel  like the phrasing feels more Shakespeare than Perrault?

[Amiable Dorsai 74]

1 hour ago, AFNB said:

Does anyone else feel  like the phrasing feels more Shakespeare than Perrault?

With the caveat that I've only read an English translation of Perrault, yes.

[mlooney 3,839]

I repeat, this may be the first non-family/close retainers hug “Ellrick” has gotten in his life.

[Amiable Dorsai 74]

Seems very likely.

[ijuin 611]

15 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Anyone from a time before CinderTedd who received much of an education was either very fortunate or learned by exposure. CinderTedd has a feel of being in the tail end of that era, before the rise of widespread education. 

Yah. Serfs/laborers were illiterate, with just enough mathematics to count money and reckon measurements. Craftsmen knew the “Three R’s” plus their own field of endeavor. It was only the people above that who got much history, literature, or rhetoric.

[mlooney 3,839]

12 hours ago, ijuin said:

On 9/2/2025 at 6:59 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

Anyone from a time before CinderTedd who received much of an education was either very fortunate or learned by exposure. CinderTedd has a feel of being in the tail end of that era, before the rise of widespread education. 

Yah. Serfs/laborers were illiterate, with just enough mathematics to count money and reckon measurements. Craftsmen knew the “Three R’s” plus their own field of endeavor. It was only the people above that who got much history, literature, or rhetoric.

There is some evidence that the lower classes were literate before common “modern” belief says they were.  Granted not all of them, but a large number, possibly even a majority, were.  The popularity of broadsides, even pre-printing press era, shows that there were some lower classes that could read.

[Darth Fluffy 378]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

There is some evidence that the lower classes were literate before common “modern” belief says they were.  Granted not all of them, but a large number, possibly even a majority, were.  The popularity of broadsides, even pre-printing press era, shows that there were some lower classes that could read.

I've heard mixed things about this, and none of the sources were particularly credible, but I agree that the rudimentary publishing lends credence to the notion that people could read. Guessing they learned it later in life as the need arose.

[Don Edwards 583]

I also suspect significant asymmetries in the distribution of literacy. Namely, a lot more of it in cities. In small villages, I suspect it was common that only the village priest - who might be on a circuit with four or five other villages - could read.

[mlooney 3,839]

14 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

I also suspect significant asymmetries in the distribution of literacy. Namely, a lot more of it in cities. In small villages, I suspect it was common that only the village priest - who might be on a circuit with four or five other villages - could read.

That, of course, depends on the era.  By mid-medieval era, there were leadership cadres in almost all villages of over 50 people.  It's strongly suggested that some, if not most, of them were literate.  General literacy was, according to some, a feature of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.