Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 September 1

= September 1 =

Reading-induced blindness in The Return of the Native
In Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, Clym goes partially blind from excessive reading. Is this phenomenon at all based in reality? I guess this could go in the science reference desk, but I was hoping to also find out what Thomas Hardy based this on. Cheesycow5 (talk) 01:48, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * One might develop a severe case of myopia to the point of being legally blind. -- ("I'm not a doctor, but I play one on Wikipedia"). 2606:A000:1126:28D:CD7E:4F39:22E5:B0FF (talk) 02:18, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Not speaking to the medical aspect of it, but the supposed detrimental effects of being a scholar are very, very well-documented in literature. To the point that it's honestly a cliche. Whether it was cliche in 1878, I'm not as sure. Medical science of the late 19th and early 20th centuries often claimed to substantiate or lend a veneer of modernity to things that were more folksy beliefs, or were used to prop up ethnonationalist and racist political claims. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 03:30, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Could you provide another literary example of a scholar experiencing detrimental effects? Cheesycow5 (talk) 03:43, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Blindness in literature might be helpful!
 * Also, this may be the bias of the writers, but the bulk of the results I am seeing in google scholar are people asserting that the blindness is to be read symbolically, and its literary function is wholly in that sphere: based on evidence such as the multiple references to Samson and Oedipus and the fact that the blindness comes to a character pursuing knowledge fanatically. That may well have been Hardy’s primary concern rather than a physically realistic occurrence.
 * Hardy apparently did not discuss his inspirations, see so I don’t know if we will be able to answer the part of your question about what Hardy in particular based this on. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 18:23, 1 September 2020 (UTC)


 * An extreme case of near-sightedness can lead to real blindness later, as mentioned in the article. This near-sightedness can be caused by focussing too much on nearby objects (like when reading) while the eye is still growing, so that's until you're about 20 years old. Using glasses to correct for the near-sightedness and still wearing those while focussing on nearby objects only makes it worse. So, yes, excessive reading (or playing computer games) as a teen can cause blindness when you're 60. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:33, 1 September 2020 (UTC)


 * See also the section Environmental factors in our article on Near-sightedness. Whether there are documented cases of environmentally induced myopia being so severe by itself (without concurring etiological factors) as to cause blindness is another issue. --Lambiam 19:08, 1 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Genetic and environmental effects on myopia development and progression: "Recent studies have confirmed the old observation that myopia most frequently occurs and develops during school-going age. The prevalence of myopia is particularly high in college and university students, whereas myopia rarely occurs in less educated populations".


 * This seems like a good overview as well. -- Jayron 32 16:09, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Do the names of TI calculator models follow any rule??
We know that in general numbers of the 8X kind (optionally followed by a suffix) mean a graphing calculator. However, doing a Google Image search on "TI-88" reveals something with this name that's not a graphing calculator.

Moreover, let's look at the 7X kind. The TI-73 is a graphing calculator for students 10-14 years old. The TI-80 is an old form of the TI-73. TI-75, TI-77, and TI-79 reveal nothing. TI-74 reveals a non-graphing calculator, TI-76 reveals a graphing calculator exclusive to the French-speaking world (it has no English language edition,) and TI-78 reveals a kind of calculator that's intermediate between a general scientific calculator and a graphing calculator. Do the names of TI calculator models follow any set rule?? Georgia guy (talk) 15:03, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * No. They're semi-random numbers.  -- Jayron 32 15:47, 1 September 2020 (UTC)