Simpler Times Vs Modern Times
An Essay by
J. C. Jenkins Jr
There are so many distractions today; we don’t know what it was like to live in Simpler Times. I often wonder as a writer what it would be like if I do not have all the distractions in our lives. Somethings that distract us have their uses like, Television, Cellphones, The Internet and social media do have their uses I have learned overtime if used in Moderation.
Alas for some; these trivial things in our can and do become a major distraction in our lives. They can either help us or hinder us from becoming the very best we can be if we are not carful.
Looking back to Simpler Times by reading my favorite Authors, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Godwin, Lord Byron and others between 1775-1850 when times were much simpler than they are today.
These great authors would change the lives of many for the next two centuries with their writings in ways we take for granted. In Mary Shelley’s time; Science Fiction did not exist or even conceived of at the time before Mary Shelley wrote her greatest Work, Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley was still a young woman trying to find her way in the world influenced by the writings of her mother and father since she was a young girl. Mary had yet to meet the love of her life, Percy Bysshe Shelley as she tried her hands at Scribbling sentences on a page inspired by the numerous books in her father’s shop. Today we have Libraries everywhere and even some My Little Free Library built by private individuals spreading the gift of reading and the love of books
William Godwin once said to a young Mary Shelley, “To have reading is to have everything in your reach.” You can find this quote in the movie, Mary Shelley which has inspired me gratefully and one of the sources of inspirations of this Essay.
In the time of Mary Shelley, television did not exist to distract humanity from reality. However, television does have it’s uses. If not for television we would never learn what’s happening in the world today and not all of it good. Television also inspires people in ways books and the written word cannot but not even television would exist if nor for the written word.
In the times of the great writers this Essay is about; life was so much simpler, so simple we cannot even imagine what life would have been like for them without he many things we have today and take for granted. We lose ourselves in such mundane things as social media and Internet Porn satisfying every sexual fantasy, we can imagine many of us have forgotten what it is like to create something out of nothing.
One thing absent; in the times of the greats when these great writers were children were such things as Dragonlance, Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek and Star Wars did not even exist. Science Fiction and yes even Fantasy was something unheard of at the time, so, no sitting around the living room living and writing Adventures, nor did people dress up and have Light Saber battles.
No, dear reader; Science Fiction and Fantasy just did not exist; at least not until one young lady by the name of Mary Shelley thought to write about the wretchedness of humanity and how humanity create monsters out of everything he does.
Frankenstein was that great novel and with this well-known work of fiction that children do not even bother to read in school, focus on so many of the Distractions of modern-day life. It is important that we never forget our roots and to do that we must study the past through our Literature.
At the time of this writing, I haven’t finished reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and I am going on forty-two. Like our great writers; I didn’t grow up with such things as Amazon or have a Kindle until I was thirty-five and discovered Delphi Classics. Oh, how my mind was opened to all the wonderful works of Literature out there, especially the Classics form the distant past. I wish that such things existed when I was growing up in Simpler Times myself in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kids today have now Idea what it is like today with all the modern conveniences they take for granted. A quick search and a click of the mouse they have access to anything they could ever dream of. I know, I brought my first computer in, 2001 when I was twenty years old. But it would be nearly eighteen years before I would have internet access and still my internet access is not as great as other people due to where I live. So, I don’t get to enjoy all the benefits of the Internet.
What I do know is that in simpler times; information was much harder to come by. But if it was not for bookshops and libraries then people would not have all the access to the information they are looking for.
William Godwin the father of Mary Shelley had a bookshop, but struggled to make ends meet and suffered from the harassment of Creditors. It is amazing that people survived in such times; though things are not so different in Modern Times then they were in Simpler Times. Sure; we have Libraires every where and those who have the internet have access to millions of free books and billions of books they have to pay for from all over the world.
What holds us back in Modern Times is all the distractions in our lives. It is even harder for people with obsessions for the Modern Conveniences of daily life. The only differences of Modern Times are that for writers there are numerous Publication Platforms to publish Works of Literature, and writers have the added benefit of reaching a Global Audience.
As a writer; I know what some writers went through in Simpler Times when it came to finding a Publisher having wrote for seventeen years before finding a Publisher. A Publisher I had to pay a fortune to publish my first two books. It would be four years before I would find the true benefits of the internet after opening a Facebook account. I would soon find a Publisher; one I didn’t have to pay to pay to publish my Works. For this I am thankful.
The truth is; I like some of the aspects of Simpler Times just like I like some of the aspects of Modern Times. Both have their benefits and both have their traps. It is what we do with our time that either benefits us or hinders our true potential.
J. C. Jenkins Jr
7/09/2022
J. C. Jenkins Jr 