My roommate and I are currently addicted to the show Reign. We are still on the first season, but I doubt that will last for long. She loves history, particularly European history, so she spends most of the show ranting about historical accuracy and the differences between their culture then and ours now. Well, since I listen to her talking over the show (until I begrudgingly pause it), I made her listen to me talk about literacy a few episodes ago.
There was a scene where Greer, one of the Queen of Scotts’ ladies, was in the kitchen planning a picnic with a guy she was interested in. She had a kitchen boy, Leith, cornered and was aggressively reading off her list of demands for the picnic. When she is about half way through, Leith stops her and asks why she doesn’t just leave the list with him.
She pauses, confused, and asks, “Who would read it to you?”
She continues reading before he can explain that he can read, but snatches it from her hand when she’s done.
I paused the episode and pointed out to my roommate that its interesting that she assumes that he can’t read, but its more interesting that he can and doesn’t tell her. By becoming literate (we aren’t sure yet if he can write, but for argument’s sake I’ll assume so), he aims to work his way up the social latter. He implies this in the show when he talks about how he’s proud to have worked his way up to being a court cook. He later tells Greer that he can read, once they become close, but it was interesting to me that, in her world, it didn’t matter if he could read or not; he was still lower status than her. In Leith’s case, literacy was meant to be a tool to move up in the world, but it ended up not working for him in that way.
