We’ve come a long way, baby

aka: An update to our Wright History Manifesto, and advance notice re next term’s programme

Team Wrightington (not, alas, getting any thinner).
aka: Screenshot from Crush! (advertisement for Apple’s latest iPad Pro), 2024

Taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

You may have seen the advert released last week by Apple for their latest iPad, in which we learn that “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”

That wasn’t, however, the central message which many people took from the beautifully-shot ad. Instead, it was lambasted for what was seen as a nightmarish depiction of a soulless and crushing (both literally and metaphorically) destruction of culture, creativity, and, by extension, humanity, at the hands of technology and the increasingly dystopian onslaught of Artificial Intelligence. As just one example, national treasure Hugh Grant lamented on TwiXter that the advert represented “the destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.”

Some might feel that that’s hyperbole, but regardless, last week’s ad certainly conveyed a very different message to that of Ridley Scott’s ad from 1984 (see left). This was our first introduction to a company which purportedly celebrated and enabled creativity and humanity (unlike, we were to infer from the general messaging, “certain other” Big Brother-esque tech goliaths).

The widespread backlash to Crush! led to a hasty apology from Apple, which insisted that the brand remains the champion of creatives and creativity the world over.

[And in breaking news as we go to press… Samsung has just weighed in to the arena, by trolling Apple with an anti-Crush! ad (tagline: “We would never crush creativity. #UnCrush”). This could run and run! Or of course it could, like so many social media phenomena, fizzle out tomorrow. Either way, here we are, adding to the story in our own little corner of the internet!]

When we saw this media kerfuffle, we instantly thought of our own part in the technification (I know that’s not a real word, but do please indulge me…) of things which have been rightly treasured as they’ve been for a long time.

Inevitably, this led us to reflect on what we’re seeking to achieve here at Wright History, and we realized that it’s a long time since we set down our Wright History “Manifesto”, which was itself an update on our early “mission statement” back in the depths of 2020’s lockdown, as we were offering our very first freelance online history courses!

You, O Denizens, being interested and interesting in a convivial environment

aka Boccaccio, Decameron, tr. Laurent de Premierfait (mid C15), f.001r

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Douce 213: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/abf539db-6a16-4a69-bc16-9edea59c7cde/

So it’s time for some reflection, to ensure that we remain on the right path for you, O Denizens….

When revisiting those now-historic posts, I was pleased (albeit not surprised, because we’re still who we were then!) to see that we have managed to hold true to our core aims from those early days.

Our main objective from the get-go has been to carve out a space in which lovely people can come together to share something enjoyable and, hopefully, life-enhancing.

In the Dark Days of Lockdown, many people were feeling isolated, and it was an absolute privilege to play a small role in helping to mitigate that. But now that the world has been open again for “business as usual” for some time, and many of you are rightly enjoying things like holidays, exhibitions, and catching up with loved ones, there are also many who still feel isolated or discombobulated, for a whole range of reasons.

Whether you’re joining us as welcome respite from Other Things or Just Because It’s Good even now other things are possible, come one, come all - it’s an honour to spend time with you!

This leads me to this post’s title… we have indeed come a long way together!

Health and Feminism, 1974-stylee

Image here via Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA), at https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarettes/womens-cigarettes/youve-come-along-way-baby/

Depending on the vintage and/or predilections of you and yours, my headline may have brought to mind Loretta Lynn, Fatboy Slim, or even, perhaps, a long-running advertising campaign which was […how can I put this tactfully…?]… very much of its time (it’s feminism, Jim, but not as we know it… And for some truly jaw-dropping - to a C21 viewer - videos from this campaign, see here. I’m not sure whether I should await thanks or castigation for bringing this to your attention….)*

*[Those of you have recently, via our Wrightington Notes courses, learned of Robert’s aversion to the subtleties of literary plot, narrative, and characterization will, I’m sure be impressed to know that he did in fact manage to tease out the central message of these advertisements. True, he got a little flummoxed by the nuances from about 10:42m, but I am nevertheless very proud of him. And in the spirit of meeting each other on common ground… who knows? I may even be encouraged to remember a significant historical date soon!]

Anyway…

This little historical trip down Memory Lane brought home to us the difference that even just a few years can make. And as we all know, the last few years have been momentous in all sorts of ways.

Unfortunately, one of the upshots of this is that we’ve had to review our pricing for next term.

You will all, I know, be (possibly painfully) aware of the cost of living crisis which has afflicted many of us recently. We’ve worked hard to maintain the status quo since our last main price increase (for courses starting from April 2022), but alas, our suppliers of various services have been less restrained, so we finally have to bite the bullet.

We are keeping our Short & Sweet pricing the same for now, but reluctantly, we need to increase our pricing for longer courses.

We’re in the throes of finalizing our Autumn programme - watch this space! - but the headline news is that the standard rate will be £120 for ten-week courses and £65 for five-week courses.

We know that many of you will be feeling the pinch as much as we are. We are, therefore, about to release our Autumn programme a couple of weeks earlier than we usually do, with a short promotion offer…

All registrations completed by the end of May will be at the “old” rates.

I’ll be posting our new programme within the next few days, and shall mail all who are on our mailing list to let you know as soon as registration is open.

We know that some of you still prefer in-venue courses, and continue to offer them where and when we can. We’re still in the throes of working out the practicalities of these for autumn, and shall be in touch again as soon as we have.

In the meantime… are we still on the right track? Do please let us know in the comments below, and/or via the usual channels.

On a practical note, registration for all courses which start before autumn remain, of course, as listed (including our newly-opened Cabinet of Curiosities). And for a list of currently available live courses, please see here.

We’ll be in touch again very soon, when our Autumn programme is live!