John Stuart Mill And The Proliferation Of Print

With the proliferation of print emerging in the 18th century, there is an anxiety that crops up concerning the fabrication of literature. Literature has taken on a symbolic feature, that within commercial society, books are regarded as material possessions meant to demonstrate wealth and social status. And thus while there is indeed concern in regards to how literature fits into this commercial society; the quantity of print is a problem, for with the saturation of print comes this compulsion to become an author, to write and become published. However, if everyone is to become an author and writer, then there will be no one to read the works that are being published. Vicemius Knox is concerned with how literature fits in with commercial life, for the sole purpose is not to spend one’s entire life reading. The problem that arises, however, …show more content…
While Knox is concerned about what people are reading, J.S. Mill is concerned about who the readers are. His main argument with the proliferation of print is that it breaks down class distinctions, that literature once available to only a small elite group, is now available to a reading public who seek pleasure rather than knowledge. Considerable emphasis has therefore not only been placed on the proliferation of print, but also on the proliferation of audiences for print and the emergence of a mass reading public. Through a comparison of excerpts from Knox’s Essay and J.S. Mills The Present State of Literature, this essay will demonstrate that the concerns about the proliferation of print and the proliferation of the reading public are two distinct arguments; Knox is concerned with literature within a commercial society and the types of reading that people should be reading, while J.S. Mill is concerned with an uneducated public seeking pleasure through