Drop!! ~A Tale of the Fragrance Princess~ - Vol. 2 Ch. 10 - What I Can Do Now

I just find it weird that with such a low literacy rate, a kid would get her hands on a book.
Books should also be ridiculously expensive in that world due to the low literacy rate, price of the materials, and the act of transcribing them, doubly so if its a picturebook, since the drawings would also have to be drawn by hand for each copy.
If it was just a series of pictures on wood tablets, that seems more like the kind of thing that would be done for that. Story without words on a cheap material.
 
@PhantomStarlight that assumes that only mundane methods exist. If there are magical methods of mass production, or just natural plants well suited to paper then prices would be lower. Plus, it may just be a family heirloom, something passed through the family like a treasure.
 
Thanks for update
Tbh how the guy declare his love is annoying, no woman wanna get shit like that
 
@PhantomStarlight - I think the low literacy rate is particular to this fief - could be there are other fiefs with higher literacy rates where books are cheap and they find their way via trade routes to this one (just speculating). Though why they'd be considered a good worth having if they are of no use the peasantry that do the trading is another matter.

@Kamelpov - not necessarily - the current British dynasty managed to keep their throne intact despite the spike of literacy brought on by the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, whilst the Romanov dynasty was overthrown by illiterate peasants led by a very small class of literate agitators in the early 20th. In fact, increased literacy in Prussia through the 19th century was a factor in its dominance of other German states, bringing about the rise of the Second Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I (and Otto von Bismarck). Literacy without avenues to affect change might be a better formula, as the British had limited monarchy and the Prussians had the ability to start stomping on non-Germans, which is fun for everyone *cough* 1870! *cough*
 
@sylvacoer if you remember litteracy propagated in germany after Napoleon come and converted them with their revolutionnary ideal and added code civil and they required then to reform .
As england they go constitutional early so easier to say not my fault cut those lords head. As revolutionnary dudes cut absolutist monarch.
 
@Kamelpov - the Germans were highly literate due to the Reformation and the availability of the printing press in the early 16th century, well before the French Revolution and Napoleon's invasion(s). German nationalists, like the Brothers Grimm, attempted to combat French incursion through the spread of nationalist literature that emphasized stories recorded in their original dialects (Hoch Deutsch really wouldn't become a standard for modern German until around the time of unification under Prussia - thanks, once again, to men like the Grimms who published the first standard German dictionary in the late 19th century).
 
@silvacoher you have right it's not necessarily a overthrow. But if there is a major foreign power that subside a revolt then the revolt would be worse than with illiterate people as they can be more insidious. Revolution Era provides that effect.
 
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Rereading is fun.
 
But... if their wheat is their pride, how come making homemade bread isn't part of it too? And making bread isn't labor intensive, just a little time consuming - like most baked things.
 
Who gives a book, even a picture book, as a gift to a child whose entire village can't read?
 

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