🚀 go-pugleaf

rte@elmo.lz.att.com (Ralph T. Edwards) wrote:
>In article <DMn187.2r2@news.tcd.ie>, rafael <keelerad@tcd.ie> wrote:
>
>> Please, don't use statements like "everyone can use a little beauty in 
>> their day", you mark yourself as being either a naive, sultry 
>> Frenchwoman or a schmaltzy American. Nobody, but nobody in England 
>> (unless their doing a washing up commercial on television), would be 
>> seen dead using such a phrase.
>
>Well, keep in mind that not all people are as resolutely joyless as the British
>(Irish?) academic.  Here in America we started out with the northern
>European malaise, but since then we have been partially liberated by the
>Mediterranean
>and African elements of our culture.  Take a trip to Italy and join in the fun.

If you are describing the English and Irish as "Joyless" simply because I cringe at the use of "everyone can use a little beauty in =
their day", not only are you commiting a generalisation, but also demonstrate your lack of knowledge of subtlety and humour in the E=
nglish (as in England) language. Take a stanza of Keats "ode to a nightingale" 
" My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense...". Not only is the imagery of the verse beautiful and dripping with imagery,=
 you may inevitably however, perceive it as being "Joyless". Yes, it may be claimed that a great deal of English verse is pessimisti=
c and morose but it is also better written than the crass and presumptious statement: "Everyone can use a little beauty in their day=
" It doesn't describe anything, and could probably be found as a little "thaught for the day" on the back of a packet of industrial=
 detergent. You also state that in America you started out with the "northern European malaise". That is an awful lot of countries y=
ou identify as being "joyless", the French with their `joi de vivre', the Irish with their love of music and literature etc.etc. If =
you term "started out", as being the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century, then I would argue that probably America's finest statesm=
en and authors ( Washington, Abe Lincoln & Herman Melville for example) emerged in this period. Conversely, in this century when you=
've been "liberated by the meditteranean and African elements in your culture", you produce excellent but morose authors such as Ste=
inbeck, McCarthy, and even Kafka (writing whilst in New York). Along with recent films such as "Seven", and "Leaving Las Vegas", I w=
ould possibly say that these American films are artistically and  dramatically brilliant, but with a stong veneer of being "Joyless"=
 You also fail to recognise the huge ethnic melting pot in Britain, particularly London, Birmingham and Manchester with the importa=
nt contribution both Asians, Carribeans and Africans have made to the British development of the English Language.   
>
>One manifestation of that was the explosion of rock music in the fifties
>and sixties, which hit Britain as hard or harder than America.  Of course
>then the British had to turn it into something melancholy with punk.  I've
>long said that we should have a British heritage celebration from time to
>time.  We'd sing sad songs and make hard moral choices, especially for
>other people.  Now pray tell us, why should we avoid reference to beauty
>or joy?  For fear it will disturb your melancholy?  Why would we care? 
>Hope you find something to feel joy about soon.

You make a strong assumption that I am morose, melancholy and "Joyless" simply because I dislike the phrase "everyone can use a litt=
le beauty in their day". Thats a pretty strong assumption. Perhaps, I could suggest rather tentatively, that it is "the phrase" that=
 I dislike not its contents. Certainly that would concur with the bulk of what has already been said. As to British Music being full=
 of "sad songs" with "hard moral choices", I've never heard such a poorly constructed argument in my life. Bob Dylan, Neil Young whe=
re did their morose ramblings come from in the sixties and seventies? As to the Eighties and Nineties, well we gave you bands like E=
lton John, Seal, George Michael and especially Queen, and you gave us Grunge, neo-punk thrash music, immersed in maudlin lyrics. Whe=
n England gave you one of our most famous, influential and talented songwriters, namely John Lennon, you shot him.   
>
>Come to think of it, since you're writing from ireland, shouldn't they
>have loosened you up a bit?  I presume you're British because of your
>reference to England.

I'm English, British if you want. I don't like dragging Scotland and Wales into this because I respect them too much. Yes, Ireland h=
as loosened me up, I've just been in a bad mood all week.  
>
>Most of the above is gentle fun-poking, but there is a core of truth to
>it.  Having lived in northern Europe, I suspect it's the weather that
>makes the folk so melancholy.  It certainly had that effect on me.  Take
>heart, spring is coming soon.

I hope most of the above IS gentle fun-poking, otherwise I would have taken you for a congenital Idiot. As to the weather, well in n=
orthern Europe we get rain and snow in winter and sun and rain in summer. As to America, you get Huricanes, Blizzards, Droughts resu=
lting in death in Summer as well as the more tolerable European weather conditions. I don't know how this effects you. 

P.S. I'm really, really glad that Spring has arrived.
>
>-- 
>Rafael