Samuel Pepys and the blogosphere

In my way home I 'light and to the Coffee-house, where I heard Lt. Coll. Baron tell very good stories of his travels over the high hills in Asia above the clouds, how clear the heaven is above them, how thicke like a mist the way is through the cloud that wets like a sponge one's clothes, the ground above the clouds all dry and parched, nothing in the world growing, it being only a dry earth, yet not so hot above as below the clouds. The stars at night most delicate bright and a fine clear blue sky, but cannot see the earth at any time through the clouds, but the clouds look like a world below you. Thence home and to supper...

The "coffee-house" nature of the internet, especially the blogosphere, has taken a while to sink in, but the news and discourse offered by these new channels of communication are becoming wondrous in diversity and, most importantly, in depth. I checked randomly as to how Samuel Pepys saw the situation of his day, and the above is part of a long entry for February 1, 1664. As for February 2:

At noon by coach to the 'Change with Mr. Coventry, thence to the Coffee-house with Captain Coeke, who discoursed well of the good effects in some kind of a Dutch warr and conquest (which I did not consider before, but the contrary) that is, that the trade of the world is too little for us two, therefore one must down.

And February 3:

In Covent Garden to-night, going to fetch home my wife, I stopped at the great Coffee-house' there, where I never was before; where Dryden the poet (I knew at Cambridge), and all the wits of the town, and Harris the player, and Mr. Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at ether times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is very witty and pleasant discourse.

   Hearty discourse at Will’s Coffee House

  

Though Pepys was a rich and influential man in government and at the court - he humbly thanked God for this - he obviously found much to attract him at the coffee-houses and taverns he visited, giving him access to fresh ideas and news about people and places near and far.

Likewise myself with regards sites like Salon, Slate and Huffington Post and Daily Beast to a certain extent, but pre-eminently Andrew Sullivan's The Dish, which I have subscribed to, marvelling at the quality of the material offered and the low annual fee (US$20). I wish the newspapers would set their subscriptions at a similar level, making it possible for the average Jane or Joe to read what is behind the paywall. 

Using The Dish as an example, the discourse, that is the viewpoints tapped and the range of topics broached, as well as the merry items, is more than worth the money of a subscription. The purview is wider than what the Arts and Letters Daily started offering many years ago, before sinking from sight after being bought from its creator, a countryman of mine, by the owners of the Chronicle of Higher Education. What makes The Dish distinctive is the voice of Sullivan, who uses his background in journalism and controversy to shape a strong perspective, but one that does not seem to want to dominate the discussion, which makes for an invigorating 21st Century coffee-house.