In 1739, Jonathan Swift wrote a viciously satirical poem imagining the reaction to his death. His friends are all two-faced hypocrites; everyone's obsessed with their own fame. Literary Britain in the 18th century was just like Twitter: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45272/verses-on-the-death-of-dr-swift-dspd … Let's read it!
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Yep yep. It was everywhere back then
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The printing press allowed a dissociation between person writing and their public persona -- Kenner is good on this in The Stoic Comedians.
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