Media, subclassification: historical; hobbies, subclassification: obscure.

[sapote]

Okay, here's where people reading on Dreamwidth with the nesting tags have the advantage, because this is going to get long. Here is the full title of "The Athenian library" by John Dunton:
The Athenian library, or A universal entertainment for the lovers of novelty: Containing six thousand essays both in prose and verse, upon such nice and curious points in divinity, history, philosophy, &c. as were never handled before, and are thus entitled, viz. 1. The lost rib restor'd, or An essay attempting to prove that the relation between man and wife is not dissolv'd by death but abides for ever; and that those virgins who dye unmarry'd are yet related to husbands, and will be united to 'em in the other world. 2. The progressive knowledge of the saints in heaven. (by intuition, revelation, and otherwise) or an essay proving that the blessed above will be eternally making new discoveries of their happiness. 3. Female courtship, or The honesty, necessity, and modesty, of changing the old custom of the men's first courting the women, into the women's first courting the men, (as discover'd by the virgins in a complaint to the batchelors of their backwardness in making love, and) publish'd that sorrowful widdows may no longer be forced to spin out miserable lives on earth for want of husbands, or any virgin dye that despisable wretch an old maid. 4. An essay in praise of poverty, or A paradox proving he is the happiest man that has neither money nor friend, as 'twas sent in a letter to an honourable lady to quiet her mind under the loss of all earthly enjoyments, with her ladyship's answer, greatly approving this new and surprizing notion. 5. The wedding night, or A modest essay upon the loss of a maidenhead, (occasion'd by Mr. Dunton's good luck in marrying a pure virgin) in which is discover'd with what caution and decency a young and unexperienced couple should act, that they might not exceed that chaste and lawful use of the marriage-bed; the whole essay divided into three parts, and publish'd to promote chastity in that state of life, wherin men and women (if they first say grace) think they may fall to as they please. These five essays (with 5995 novelties more that are to compleat this Athenian Library) contain whatever new and curious thoughts may shew us our mental errours, reform our morals, and prepare us for a future state. Part I. Written by Mr. John Dunton, the first projector and author of The Athenian oracle, a work resolving all nice and curious questions, concealing the querists, and dedicated to his honoured friends and brethren those sons of the clergy that lately presented a petition to His Majesty, proving 'tis a national complaint that the author of these new speculations has gone ten years unrewarded, for his early, bold, and successful discoveries of Oxford's and Bolingbroke's plot to restore the pretender, entitled, Neck or nothing, for which six warrants were issued out for seizing the author, by the principal secretary of state.

I was looking for Spin State by Chris Moriarty when I found this, by the way.

John Dunton was apparently a bookseller and holder of various political opinions in London; he wrote the first advice column in the English language and, according to all information I can find about him online, wandered around making marriages of convenience, running from political persecution, and getting into debt. Anyway, the key point for me were his essays on the Duties of the Young Couple Upon Entrance into Marriage, viz:



"Since woman's Natural Modesty will not suffer her to acquaint her husband as to when her genital facilities are most ripe, it is up to the husband to take note of Hints and Intimations... for when a Woman's Desires are powerfully bent that way, and by an unusual Fondess she endeavours to make her Bedfellow sensible, that Nature is disposed for a "Joyful Minute", and he either thro' Indifference to the Sport, or a morose Temper that makes him slow of obliging, shall be negliglent of so kind an Opportunity, the Wife, tho she conceals the Reason, will become angry, froward, and jealous."

"Therefore every marry'd Man that has a due Regard to the Peace and Quiet of himself and Family, ought to be ready at such times to administer that Refreshment to his Wife which she has just Reason to expect in Moderation from an honest, loving, and sufficient Husband. Women are naturally of a flexanimous Temper, and cannot bear a Frustration of their Hopes, or a Disappointment of their Desires without great Pain and Impatience."

Do you hear that, gentlemen who like ladies? Take care of our FLEXANIMOUS TEMPERS! You wouldn't want us to become froward! There's also a little section for women on how to rouse the - and I quote - Lion of the Bedroom when he is sleepy, though there's also a warning that husbands whow are just going through the motions are probably not going to produce vigorous offspring.

There then followed a downright contemporary essay on how a man who courts a woman by pretending to be an equal and a friend and then turns out to be a domineering jerk after marriage has only himself to blame when she runs off with the stableboy and is in fact contemptable. Also an essay on how if your pregnant wife starts to seem glum, first a husband should try to divine the cause of her melancholy, and then if that's not working or she was not forthcoming send for a midwife to come speak to her, as they are more practiced and subtle in divining woes.

And then there's a boring essay on Paul's epistles in which Dunton tries to insist that it's okay to have sex for fun a little - he throws in lightening household woes and expressing tenderness as acceptable motivations - but birth control is definitely out. Oh well, 1717, what can you do. (A lot, apparently). He's also weirdly eugenicist and offers a separate booklet of essays on VICES women commit with OTHER WOMEN through LUST, so, you know. YMMV. At least I got to use the phrase "lion of the bedroom" a lot.

"The Girl Who Went Wrong" by Reginald Wright Kaufman, otherwise known as "four hundred ways you, well-brought-up girl of 1911, could END UP A PROSTITUTE if you're not careful.

So this book is REALLY RACIST about Asian people (specifically, it firmly insists that while, and I quote, "racial generalizations are always dangerous", the natural consequence of going to a Chinese restaurant in the book is becoming an opium addict and being sold into slavery. Well hey, at LEAST IT NOTED THAT YOU SHOULDN'T BE RACIST before that!). In general, the girls in this book are well-brought-up girls of decent families who happen to Fall due to failings in their upbringings, and the author blames Society. It's an interesting picture of what was considered lurid at the time, and the author tries really hard to insist that he's just painting a journalistic picture of the Problems of Society, but I can't help but read these as moral stories or instructional tales. There is absolutely bumpkiss about him online, though.

Interestingly enough, one of the girls in the story who Falls through an unintended pregnancy goes to New York and gets an abortion, and while it's described as painful and dangerous, the moral censure attached to the incident seems to be over the pregnancy, not the abortion. V. interesting. She does wind up stabbing her would-be babydaddy to death in a carriage and being sentenced to death, though, so maybe censure was implied. The writing is surprisingly gripping!



Maybe it's the prospect of a settled schedule, or long autumn evenings, or the fact that one can now move about outdoors without heat stroke, but I always have crazed craft impulses in the fall. This week's is good old-fashioned "Why don't I ferment woad?", in which I attempt to convince myself that I'm the kind of person who would plant, harvest, process, ferment, and dye with woad just for authenticity. See also: an Amazon search history full of rigid heddle looms, even though I own an Easy Weaver and never got the damn thing rethreaded after I finished the pre-warped project it came with.

Still: just a little woad! I could just plant it and see if I liked it?

Comments

[rydra_wong]

the natural consequence of going to a Chinese restaurant in the book is becoming an opium addict and being sold into slavery.

Ooh! You should read Marek Kohn's Dope Girls! It rocks! (And is very much about this era and racist panics about Asians corrupting the pure white girls with their ev0l drugs.)

[sapote]

I have been looking for a book about this era and racist panics! Because surely there is a Whole Context which I am not getting, though the broad lines of "anti-immigrant panic, villianize, villianize!" are of course sadly familiar.

[willful_zephyr]

Flexanimous? That'll be my new word for the day.

[sapote]

Isn't it excellent? I tried to use "froward" yesterday, but the pronunciation is tougher.

[wychwood]

I think it's like "fro-wud", the "ward" as in "forward" and the "fro" as in "frozen"?

I think my favourite bit was this:

An essay attempting to prove that the relation between man and wife is not dissolv'd by death but abides for ever; and that those virgins who dye unmarry'd are yet related to husbands, and will be united to 'em in the other world

So, what, marriage is INEVITABLE? Even if I succeed in staying single life-long, after I die I'm gonna have to look after some dude in heaven? I feel like this is a serious failure of awesomeness on the part of God, I have to say.