"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

[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'.