Gladiators

Archaeologists in York have uncovered what they think is a cemetery full of Roman gladiators. Up until now it has been the received opinion that when fighters were finished off in the ring it was done with a single thrust to the throat- but most of these men had been decapitated. One skeleton had been mauled by a large predator- either a bear or a big cat. The theory that the men might have been executed criminals is undermined by signs- including substantial food offerings and the use of coffins- which suggest that these were honoured graves.

Sentimentality

So what's the problem? Why is that word still used as a put-down? We all like a good cry, don't we?  Speaking for myself I love it when Dickens emotes over a dead kiddy or Richard Curtis makes amends to Van Gogh. I don't find such moments embarrassing. I don't find them cheap. Life is sad and tears are the proper response to a lot of what goes on in it.  Is making people weep any less respectable than making them laugh?

We've all been intimidated by Oscar Wilde- and his bon mot about Little Nell. He's made it uncool to be moved by fiction. And yet Wilde was the most sentimental writer going. Have you read the Selfish Giant or the Happy Prince? He makes Dickens look stoical.

Wilde- and the twentieth century opinion makers that followed him- had daddy issues with the Victorians.  Their mockery isn't thought through. It's instinctive and defensive. The Victorians were sentimental, therefore sentimentality is bad.  But it's the Twenty First century now,  the Victorians are our great-great-great grandparents- and it's time we dropped our great-great grandparents feud with them.