More Provincialism
I do a lot of web browsing throughout the day. Being unemployed gives one the opportunity to do things like that. (And to raid the fridge every couple hours. One would think that I would realize it's still the same stuff I didn't want to eat the last time I looked in there. Still the stomach stirs a little I get up and look). In my browsing, I'm always looking for more blogs to comment on and thereby attract the attention of readers. This is all part of the master plan to achieve global domination detailed in a post I can't seem to find. (I was going to link it but I've got a headache and I'll try again later). In these writings, especially in those of people my age or younger, I often see a glorification of Europeans.
For some reason these kids feel our culture and society fail to measure up to some ideal they have of Europeans. Apparently love joy and happiness flow from every stream and rise from every breast just across the ocean. The grass is always greener.
So anyway I'm reading Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut right now. At one point the main character is off to be an apprentice to a great painter of the day and the man at the newspaper who is employing him tries to give sage advice to said main character. The employer lets the young man know that New York is but a stop on the artist trip to greatness and that sooner or later he would be off to Europe. The Newspaper man asks the protagonist to remember that these superior Europeans just got out of war and that they are, "looking forward to one thing: the time when it will become legal to kill each other and knock everything down again." (P. 71)
In another novel, Hocus Pocus, Vonnegut talks about Americans who promote globalization. He calls the Europeans because they take the wealth of this country and they ship it over seas. He predicts that when things get really bad the American Aristocracy will just sell off everything they have left in America and relocate. Good stuff. And how many books are there with a main character who has TB?
So in Summary: Read Vonnegut. Europeans will probably go back to killing each other soon. Web browsing is more fun than thinking about looking for work.
Now Pictures of the books I've discussed.
More Laters
For some reason these kids feel our culture and society fail to measure up to some ideal they have of Europeans. Apparently love joy and happiness flow from every stream and rise from every breast just across the ocean. The grass is always greener.
So anyway I'm reading Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut right now. At one point the main character is off to be an apprentice to a great painter of the day and the man at the newspaper who is employing him tries to give sage advice to said main character. The employer lets the young man know that New York is but a stop on the artist trip to greatness and that sooner or later he would be off to Europe. The Newspaper man asks the protagonist to remember that these superior Europeans just got out of war and that they are, "looking forward to one thing: the time when it will become legal to kill each other and knock everything down again." (P. 71)
In another novel, Hocus Pocus, Vonnegut talks about Americans who promote globalization. He calls the Europeans because they take the wealth of this country and they ship it over seas. He predicts that when things get really bad the American Aristocracy will just sell off everything they have left in America and relocate. Good stuff. And how many books are there with a main character who has TB?
So in Summary: Read Vonnegut. Europeans will probably go back to killing each other soon. Web browsing is more fun than thinking about looking for work.
Now Pictures of the books I've discussed.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 9:40 PM
3 Comments:
We cannot help but both love and despair of our parents. Most of us in this country descend from Europeans, thus an ambivalent relationship. We admire their style and lack of puritanism, but deplore their jadedness and disdain of the shiny and new, like America. At least that's how I feel.
When I went overseas, I was amazed at the age of the place. Everything carries this incredible sense of antiquation but also permanence.
One of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, happens to be English. He once said, paraphrased of course: America is so big, that if something exists, you can find it there. That's the kind of the attitude they have about us. Maybe we just need to develop a better feeling about ourselves.
i know, isn't it funny, the SAME stuff is in the fridge the last time you looked....but somehow, you think what you REALLY want will magically appear
Where is the chocolate torte cake? Half the time I loomin the fridge and I wonder why we have most of the stuf in there that we do. I can not think of anyone woh eats it.
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