The Nelson Institute Talks
Date
Categories
2pm, Sunday, October 6th, Elma Turner Library.
Cost: $3. Payment can be made by direct credit to 03-1354-0183881-00
Know you not the good Dr J? No? You don’t know what fun you’re missing. What Dickens was to the Victorians, or Shakespeare to the Elizabethans, Samuel Johnson was to the Enlightenment. He’s the only writer I can think of who was a classicist, defender of traditional Christian values, advocate for science, poet, and a postmodern. His most decided views expressed in clear vigorous English, brimming with wit and common sense.
His dictionary -compendium/encyclopedia too - is one of the great achievements of the human mind. It is the Sistine Chapel of literature, and, after the King James Bible, one of the most influential books ever written. Johnson through 10 years of arduous toil – through sickness and sorrow – sought to tame the English language by ‘fixing’ it. In both senses of the word. Permanent definitions fixed in place, and, because it was obviously badly broken, fixed with elegant definitions, that were purged of barbarous manglings and abbreviations. With the explosion of knowledge from the world of exploration and science by the middle of the 18th century a dictionary was urgently needed.
Nigel is a retired journalist, beekeeping tutor, and is president of the Nelson Institute.
For further information, please email to costleymarr@xtra.co.nz.
