"Women, of every age, of every condition, contract and retain a taste for novels.... [T]he depravity is universal. My sight is every-where offended by these foolish, yet dangerous, books.... I have actually seen mothers, in miserable garrets, crying for the imaginary distress of an heroine, while their children were crying for bread."
The Sylph, No. 5, Oct. 6, 1795
#MoralPanic
@jeffjarvis The history of moral panics is pretty absurd and reading about it has really altered my response to modern analogues (e.g. smartphones, the internet). It has also made me much warier of anyone hypothesizing the dangers or harms of some new thing - we are very, very bad at predicting the future, and so they mostly come across as an attempt to manipulate and control others, rather than as genuine concern.
@hankteford Glad to hear that because I'm working on a next book with that at its center.