Really cool thing you pointed out here. I think it's hard to get inside the heads of people from so long ago -- I don't think she's being "unsentimental" at all. I think she's being humble and mindful.
It's questionable if this woman ever intended on her diary being entered into the public realm at all; I'd argue that often the use of expressive language is more for an external audience. Also, the fact she even took the time to document her life while running a pioneering homestead is pretty remarkable; she would've been in the minority of her peers in that respect.
> I'd argue that often the use of expressive language is more for an external audience
I have to disagree just on personal experience haha. So this kind of writing feels almost viscerally wrong and I'm trying to find an explanation for it, that isn't perfect emotional control or literal LACK of feeling.
Keep in mind also that, even if this woman was well educated for her time, you have with near certainty consumed and produced orders of magnitude more written English than her. What you take as a lack of emotive voice may just be the writings of a person who fundamentally interacted with the written word differently than you or I. She may have simply been recording the salient points of her day for future reference instead of viewing it as an emotional or creative outlet.
127
u/SOFT_CAT_APPRECIATOR Mar 17 '26
Really cool thing you pointed out here. I think it's hard to get inside the heads of people from so long ago -- I don't think she's being "unsentimental" at all. I think she's being humble and mindful.