Monday, December 3, 2012
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July 1851
I think I would have liked periodicals like this. I love that it is mostly essays and stories, but they cover various subjects. Though I really only skimmed through the issue (it's so long compared to modern magazines!), I saw different types of stories- short ones a page or less, on- going ones in with chapters in the thirties, and an autobiography- and essay topics ranged from politics to astronomy to giraffes (I've been told that this is around the time giraffes were discovered, but still, it made me laugh to be skimming and skimming and then come across "A Chapter On Giraffes"). Though these are what made up the majority of the content, there were also some informative sections (statistics, eclipse dates and explanations, etc), a short editorial type section, and a small bit of fashion. I find this length and variety much more appealing than today's extremely short, very focalized magazines. I may pick up and issue of Scientific American or Scientific American Mind every so often, but I find they cost too much money for half an hour of reading.
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I completely agree with you! All of these periodicals for our library research are so much more intriguing than what we have now. With the periodicals, I found myself mesmerized, reading every story and looking forward to what would be next. With modern magazines, I constantly find myself perusing until I find something that interests me. Short stories is something I also really like from the periodicals. The only thing that reminds me of them in modern magazines now is the occasional sports story about a good comeback or redemption, or something along those lines. Now-a-days magazines are so focused on the negative, whether it be gossip or someone's failure.
ReplyDeleteI know! I makes me really sad that a magazine like this would not do well today. I think it should be an option. We can keep printing the "normal" magazines but also print periodicals like this for people like us that would rather read short stories and other literature. I know just about every college has a literary magazine, but they're not gonna include things like the science or politics that I found in this issue.
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