h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here's one http://www.h2g2.com/A289163 that I started a long while ago and never got around to submitting under the old system. It's a nice little piece about the 19th Century American philosopher, writer, environmentalist, civil rights campaigner, and general good-natured oddball Henry David Thoreau.

Researching Thoreau was one of the more humbling pleasures I've enjoyed recently. To think that someone was able to see, 150 years ago, the mess that we were getting ourselves and the rest of the world into - and that he got so much of it right - makes me wonder why we seem to see so little of it today...

I'm not American, by the way, so I've got most of this material at one remove, so to speak. Any additions, corrections, etc, from anyone who knows better, would be gratefully appreciated...

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This is an outstanding entry, and definitely up to your usual standards, Lear. There is a common misconception of Walden, though, that I would like to bring to your attention. Not only did Thoreau have many visitors, but he also did quite a bit of visiting himself. He was not a deprived hermit communing with nature, as history likes to portray him. He lived less than two miles from his mother and his sisters. They used to bring him food every Saturday, and he raided the pantry on his visits to them. A joke made its way around Concord that when Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson rang the dinner bell, Thoreau was the first in line. His line in the opening paragraph "... and earned my living by the labor of my hands only" is absurd. Not only did he do very little cooking and very little communing with nature alone, he also gave lectures in the Concord Lyceum

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It might be a little less garbled if you took the first 'h' out and called it 'Worcestershire', as we do over here...

Seriously, though, about the spelling - I think it does matter. If it's a text by an American writer, then it seems fair to me that direct quotes should respect the American version of the spelling rather than any other version. Spirit, I think it has less to do with 'political correctness' than with respecting other people's cultures in the hope that this respect will be reciprocated. So it's an attempt to keep hold of one's own cultural identity (or bits of it) by allowing others the space to do the same. The argument that language differences don't matter boils down to arguing that culture doesn't matter, and to me that stinks of philistinism...

How's that for a rant?

Hey Lear,

Congrats. The entry's been picked for editing for inclusion in the edited Guide. Don't hold your breath for the post sub-ed email, but it'll come. Or maybe you could hold your breath and it'll be so much more exciting when it's in the guide . Actually, please don't. What'll the nayborz think?

Cheers

Haze

Lear: Not too bad, but needs more venom.

I don't think it's a major issue in this situation, though, because it is all too likely that Thoreau used the British spelling. This was rather early in American history we're talking about, and he was from New England, where even today they seem to speak noticeably more Englishy than anywhere else on the continent. Short of digging up a first issue publication, I don't think we'll know for sure, and I don't care enough in this particular issue to do so.

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Nice to see so many people bursting with indifference. For myself, I'm too English to get really venomous about anything much, so I'll just say thanks everybody for your comments and, well, Hurrah - I'm going to have a brace of edited entries to look forward to... some day... maybe (not all that) soon...

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

Congratulations!