When I chose the name Literary Lotus for this site, I had no knowledge of this 1859 New York Times article “A Bonaparte Among Books–Literary Lotus-Eating.” Here’s the first paragraph:
“While the most successful member of his family is sending the souls of men to Hades, working unnumbered woes to Europe, and subjecting England to ten millions of unnecessary taxation, Prince LUCIEN BONAPARTE is, we hear, staying in north of England, for the purpose of translating the” Song of Solomon” into the dialect of Durham.”
The author clepes the Prince’s endeavor, not positively, one of pure literary leisure, carrying it to the highest point–literary work that makes no contribution to literature.
As I look around my site, I have to ask, in 2007, is literature for leisure so bad?
Literary Lotus 