If we keep our ears to the ground, we can hear echoes, though faint, of some of the attitudes from Edwardian and Georgian times in contemporary English culture.
Here are two examples.
The perennial and deep-rooted English attitude that all the world's troubles are ultimately the result of French perfidity or decadence is evident in Marxist literary critic Terry Eagleton's new book Holy Terror. The left-wing (formerly Manchester) Guardian describes Eagleton as "the High Priest of Lit Crit .... a Catholic-turned-Marxist from a working-class background." Nonetheless, Eagleton's thesis in Holy Terror is that "Terrorism itself may be a new concept – it arose with modernity in the French revolution."
And in general, the English perennially fret about decadence. Theodore Dalrymple merely continues a type. And it's in the water there. Madonna - yes, that Madonna - has now married an Englishman and is evolving herself into a model of English country life propriety: literally, modelling herself on the cover of Ladies Home Journal.
The English press have re-christened her with the very English name "Madge." And in due course she has delivered a screed against .... decadence: "Madonna warns how people 'are going to go to hell, if they don't turn from their wicked behavior;" protests that "most priests are gay;" and, waxing eschatological, declares that "'The Beast' is the modern world that we live in."
And it is like way that the English class system, so strong a concern in our course texts, will persist despite official policy designed to eradicate it.
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In an interview for American television tonight that was designed to drum up support for Prince Charle's impending visit to the United States, the narrator said that he was often accused of being too "Edwardian". They also stated that the Prince's handler's had told them they were not to ask about his sons or his wives (past and present) because: "They were specifically told by Charles' aids that there is nothing proper English gentlemen or ladies find more impolite than talking about their feelings"
Dear Karen:
Brilliant! How can one ever be too Edwardian?
In the vernacular, "good catch" Karen ....
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