Jonathan Sawday

Jonathan Sawday teaches at Saint Louis University. Blanks, Print, Space and Void in En­g­lish Renaissance Literature is out next month.

Letter

Experimental Network

4 January 2024

James Meek’s account of the technologies that have enabled companies like Netflix to ‘drown the world in small-screen entertainment’ omits a crucial social and technological shift concealed by the term ‘small screen’ (LRB, 4 January). Growing up in Britain in the 1960s, I watched black and white TV on a screen that was indeed very small by today’s standards. But the advent of low-cost...

Fill in the Blanks: On Army Forms

Jonathan Sawday, 29 June 2023

InHow to be Topp (1954), Nigel Molesworth unveils ‘the Molesworth Self-Adjusting Thank-you Letter’. The sender is instructed to strike out the words which don’t apply, before thanking the present-buyer for the

Train. Tractor. germ gun. kite.delicious present. sweets.Space pistol. Toy socks.

The letter ends with a blank space to be filled in with a date to remind the...

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