Blog of the week
Samuel Pepys, the role model for most daily chroniclers and, in a certain sense, the ürblogger, began his diary on 1 January 1660 or, if you want to be fussy, 1659, as back then the New Year didn't start until 25 March. Pedantry aside, the idea of bringing Pepys to cyberspace must have crossed a few minds when blogging began to hit its stride last year, but it was Phil Gyford who made it reality. His Pepys' Diary blog went live on 1 January this year and it's been a huge success. Lots of press attention and tons of positive feedback have come his way from people who always intended to read Pepys but had never managed to buy the diaries or find the time to work through them.
Gyford, a "Creative Technologist" at UpMyStreet.com in London who programs PHP for a living, knows his interfaces and information architecture and this means he understands how to exploit the strengths of Moveable Type, the publishing software that powers the Pepys diary blog. For example, one of the nicest features of the site is that, like most blogs, it allows comments, which means that people who enjoy looking things up and sharing their findings can add snippets for the collective good. Another nice touch is that entries are posted at the end of each day. We can tell from Pepys' writing that he tended to write late in the evening about the day's events. Therefore, Gyford posts each day's entry at around 11 p.m.
One of the challenges of reading Pepys today is the language, because usage and meaning have changed a lot since the seventeenth century. Here's a sample of false friends from those days (modern meanings in brackets):
able (wealthy) dress (prepare food) effeminacy (love of women) family (household, including servants) grief (bodily pain) ingenious (clever) light (window) meat (food) owe (own) ready (dressed; unready: undressed) strangers (foreigners) tell (count) ugly (awkward) vaunt (sell) warm (comfortable, well off)
Thanks to Phil Gyford, the most famous literary diary in history is now being posted online, as if it were a blog. What makes it different from the printed work is that it allows for shared commentary and analysis — which greatly enhances the reading experience and its pedagogical value. Ingenious.
Diarist of the day: Eug讥 Delacroix, 18 January 1824"I have been reading about an English judge who desired to live to a great age and accordingly proceeded to question every old man he met about his diet and the kind of life he led — whether his longevity had any connexion with food, alcoholic liquor, and so forth. It appears that the only thing they had in common was early rising and, above all, not dozing off once they were awake. Most important."
