Misers

[poliphilo]

Whatever happened to the misers?

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries people loved their misers. There was a whole literature about them. They were mean, they stank, they hid guineas in dung-heaps, they made pies out of long dead sheep. Mr Boffin in Our Mutual Friend is an avid collector and consumer of miser-porn. Daniel Dancer, John Elwes, Vulture Hopkins- these guys were famous.

There were famous fictional misers too- Scrooge, Silas Marner, Uncle Ebenezer Balfour.

But then along came the 20th century and misers- both real and fictional- dropped out of sight.

So why don't we have them any more?

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Too close to real life, I would imagine. But I WORK with a couple of them, at least. One person I can think of who bought candy from one of the professor's kids and then had me fill out an employee expense voucher - "Candy for Class" - so the University would pay for it. Too bad you can't come visit when I'm filling out travel vouchers - you'd know we still have them, and they are worse than ever!

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

Welfare.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Maybe they've lost relevance in a consumer culture where one's value is determined by the power of the purchase?

[jenny_evergreen]

Capitalism; there's no greater enemy to it than a miser, so it was the first thing to go. No one wants to be a Scrooge! (And those who are keep it to themselves as much as possible, 'cause they're really going to hear it if they don't.)

[shullie.livejournal.com]

i was married to pne for 17 years!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

They exist as positive pessimists. Like me, for instance. ;)

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Kate and I joke about a "ha-penny newspaper," from an old book I have, The Lodger, in which a man and woman were so poor they had to save up to buy a newspaper, so it was a special treat.

When I get all frugal (soup for three-days-running, or re-using old teabags), Kate accuses me of having a "ha-penny newspaper" mentality...

Scrooge is my favorite miser. I love his cold room, his meager fire...how delightfully gloomy!

miser mike

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

I was a total miser in my first year out here in Japan. I used to skip breakfast and lunch, and not eat a thing until about 11pm (we`re talking all day nothing but water here) when i would have a massive meal for about 500 yen ($5) at home.

I went out to eat maybe once a week, and one movie too, with Yuka, and we ALWAYS went Dutch. I hardly ever drank, and I never had desserts or snacked. I NEVER turned the air conditioner in my apartment on. In fact it was broken, and I was quite happy about that, because it meant I would never use it. Instead I lined my windows with cardboard boxes (seriously!) to insulate them in the winter, and huddled under like 5 blankets (from school- I wouldn`t buy them!) whenever I was at home. In the summer, I slept with all windows open.

We took one holiday all year, and it was this fantastically cheap 5 day package deal to Saipan, the poor man`s Guam. It was great still.

I never bought new clothes. Buying a winter jacket for me almost had both me and Yuka in tears cos she thought I needed one and I thought I`d rather just be cold.

I never bought a bicycle and walked whenever I could to skip the few hundred yen a train might cost me.

I never bought a computer or a heater or CD`s or DVD`s or a TV or a DVD player or an i-pod or a plate or a pan or anything at all...

I was a total miser. And. It felt really good ;)