Not too much noteworthy inanity this morning:
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102589
24 posts and counting about shoe horns - not even that entertaining, but spectacularly inane.
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102593
A helpless iGent has injured his knee and needs a thick, rubber-soled shoe for the next six months. He wants one in cordovan or calfskin (nothing beats a nice rubber-soled cordovan shoe!). He claims to be unable to find anything similar to an LL Bean penny loafer with a rubber sole. Let me get this straight: he can't find a rubber-soled dress/casual shoe, in America. Try going to ANY STORE. Of course the first response suggests Alden, the source of all light and joy in the universe.
When I run out I go over to the newspaper office and steal some. Talk about deep discounts.
Someone needs to do a sociology thesis on the correlation between a ludicrously affected iGent lifestyle and writing in such a way that the reader wishes to buy a plane ticket and travel to wherever you may be so that he (the reader) can kick you repeatedly in the balls.
You know, it makes me really sad to see dreck like this because I dearly love Wodehouse (both Jeeves and Wooster and his other equally delightful writing), and I get the distinct impression that these people think that they are the modern-day Wodehouse, or the modern-day Bertie Wooster. They seem to forget that Wodehouse wrote satire, not a manual for proper living, that Wooster was a borderline imbecile, and that both Jeeves and Wooster spent relatively little time thinking about clothing. In fact, Jeeves subtly and quietly guarded Wooster against excursions into foppish affectation (white hats, etc.), but this was only in the mornings and evenings when Wooster was getting dressed - the rest of the time Wooster was out socializing, not shopping for the perfect shoe-tree or asking Augustus Fink-Nottle where to get factory second sweater vests or deep-discount Grensons. Wodehouse was also very funny and clever and basically good-hearted, unlike the standard iGent. I suspect that the majority of iGents have never read Wodehouse's books anyway (- not that reading the books is some heroic accomplishment), though I'm sure they've seen the inarguably delightful Fry/Laurie BBC series.
And was not most of it written in America for the Yank market? A bit of a jape to ginger up the old oak chest?
I actually have a few letter from Plum via my wife's side of the family...
Last edited by Junior Astaire (2010-02-23 17:51:27)
Last edited by Voltaire's Bastard (2010-02-23 22:10:05)
Last edited by The_Shooman (2010-02-24 01:30:32)
Gilgamesh, your edited highlights are a wonderful feast of research and editorial flair. If I was a multi-millionaire in publishing I would commission you to write abridged versions of all the weighty tomes in the universe, starting with War and Peace and Ulysses.
Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2010-02-25 12:10:35)