"Oblivion's Deepening Veil"

[poliphilo]

When I was a kid there were still plenty of people around who had grown up in the Victorian age. Not any more. And last time I checked there was only one man left in Britain who had served in the trenches of World War I. Time is like a rain storm coming up the valley.  The first half of the 20th century is deep in shadow and the mid century is under threat. One by one the landmarks are blotted out.

Deborah Kerr- film star
Joey Bishop-  last surviving member of Sinatra's rat-pack
Alan Coren- British humorist.

Minor figures all of them,  but  links to a past that we will soon only be able to touch in its artefacts. Kerr becomes her films, Bishop becomes whatever it is he left behind, Coren becomes a talking head in a radio and TV archive that only scholars will bother to access.

Comments

[algabal.livejournal.com]

It is the minor figures, good and bad, who truly define an age, and with care, may allow us to see beyond the superficial clichés that so often count for cultural history.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe you've got a good point there.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more or less the same thing yesterday, when I read an article about how "Communist mess hall" restaurants are becoming popular in China. I couldn't figure out why until I realized that most of the people who had participated in the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution were dead or emigrated. Only people who didn't know the horror personally could participate in nostalgia about it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's strange.

It's a bit like the phenomenon of "ostalgia" in the former East Germany- only there it's people who lived through the horror who want to return to the communist past.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I knew I was getting older when at last I joined in that game I always heard my parents play -

"Did you hear so-and-so died?"
"NO."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, yes- sad, ain't it?

Reminds me of the old boy who used to turn to the obituaries column first to make sure he wasn't in it.

[sovay]

I learned about Deborah Kerr two days ago. Perhaps because of these artifacts, I was stunned; I had been watching so many films by Powell & Pressburger, I was thinking of her as Colonel Blimp's Indian rope trick, who is always young and over and over comes back.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think she did her best work for P&P- in Colonel Blimp and Black Narcissus.

Unless I'm very wrong she and Michael Powell had a long, on-off affair.

[alice-g.livejournal.com]

Hello pops, how are you and Ailz? Whats with all the travelling about the country. I like your pics. I was in Dublin a few weeks ago - it was pretty interesting, I write for a website called www.cosmotourist.com - my name is Alibaby, you can see my travels on there. THey pay me too, not a lot but a little bit - cool eh!! xx

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, we've taken to having these short breaks- a couple of nights here, a couple of nights there. If we book in advance we get excellent rates with Travel Lodge.

I've taken a look at cosmotourist. Very nice. How does that work? Do you have complete freedom in your choice of holiday venues or do they make suggestions?

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

We're losing WW-2 as well. Anyone aged 18 in 1945 is eighty now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, 20 more years and it'll be history- beyond living recall.

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

I used to love Alan Coren's stuff. It came as a shock to learn he'd died.

Yeah, this is what time does... but change is natural, like the turning of the tides, changing of the seasons. We can't alter it, can only go on to appreciate what is becoming new every day.

Not only were there people who'd grown up in the Victorian age (I'm the same age as you, it seems, according to your userinfo page), in our childhood, but there were still Victorian ways. I spent a lot of time as a child in a childrens hospital and it had never come out of that period.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My wife- as a very small child- spent nearly a year in a TB isolation hospital. Yes, autre temps, autre moeurs.

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

Poor thing. I wasn't in for very long periods each time, but was in there every two or three weeks for about six years (asthma, bronchitis and one life-threatening pneumonia).

I saw her journal - does she still write in it? I would mind friending her.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

She isn't using the journal at the moment, but there's always the possibility she might return to it.

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

Sorry - typo again (I think my brain must've gone off by itself), that should have read 'wouldn't mind'.