Plus ca change . . .

[black_dog]

Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866), from his preface to his collected novels:

. . . But the classes of tastes, feelings, and opinions, which were successively brought into play in these little tales, remain substantially the same. Perfectibilians, deteriorationists, statu-quo-ites, phrenologists, transcendentalists, political economists, theorists in

Comments

[bookshop]

spoken like a dude who was just so over pop culture. i totally get it.

i'm so glad you are posting things :D it makes me want to start using LJ again. WHO KNOWS.

[black_dog]

Hey again! I saw your LJ post and it's definitely kind of fun to hang out in the old back alleys and see who's around. :) I hope you saw my second reply to your comment a month or so ago, because my first was a little fast and glib.

so over pop culture

Maybe not "over," exactly, but a little detached, mildly entertained, not expecting much from it. In politics, for instance -- the Trump thing, the support he gets, is just a reminder of the amount of stupefying idiocy that prevails in the general culture. Not a thing to rely on or take seriously.

I've never gotten as deeply into Peacock as I've wanted to, but I started trying again. Also reading, at the same time, Smollett's Humphry Clinker and Petronius' Satyricon so maybe I'm just feeling receptive to the idea of the Eternal Ridiculous. Too prevalent, too fundamental a thing to be angry about, just a comedy to enjoy while you look, personally, for something more solid.