“A Cab at the Door” was Pritchett’s detailed account of his semi-impoverished, bounced-about Edwardian childhood, and the means for survival he devised while he was in the toils of a dramatizing, self-destructive floorwalker-and-salesman father, whose repeated scruffy business failures and the family’s furtive decampings explain the book’s title.
“I remember Pritchett, at dinner one night, telling us that no one had been invited to a meal at his house when he was a boy; and that if someone rang the doorbell unexpectedly at mealtime his mother would keep the visitor waiting outside until every crumb and vestige of the meal had been hurriedly swept off the table.
“There was something shameful or sexual about being caught eating,” he said. “I never understood it.”
Lots of good thoughts here (as usual). And thanks for the link to Bob Rae's talk on Orwell. When he was Premier of Ontario, he sent around a note to the public service (or those of us who did policy at least) directing us to read "Politics and the English Language", to clarify our thinking and our writing (the latter not being possible without the former.)
While he was still in opposition in Ontario, he once described a press release about a policy I had been involved in developing as "Humphreyesque bafflegab" (the reference to Yes, Minister being very clear at the time). I don't think it was entirely fair, but it was definitely effective rhetoric - though certainly not what is now called Orwellian. (The legislation passed and was duly ignored...)
When I was a student, 50+ years ago, and much more mobile than I have been since, I picked up a copy of Homage to Catalonia in a Paris bookstore (not Shakespeare & Co) just because of the author (having read the big two earlier). I loved it and went on to read everything I could of his. And this year, I found a Spanish version of Animal Farm in a B&B (Rebelion en la granja) and brought it home. It's my bedside reading, very enjoyable, though the effort to read it puts me to sleep quite promptly.
Moving often seems to have been my fate. Within country mostly. It was both physically and psychologically dislocating and invigorating. A nice essay. Thank you.
“A Cab at the Door” was Pritchett’s detailed account of his semi-impoverished, bounced-about Edwardian childhood, and the means for survival he devised while he was in the toils of a dramatizing, self-destructive floorwalker-and-salesman father, whose repeated scruffy business failures and the family’s furtive decampings explain the book’s title.
“I remember Pritchett, at dinner one night, telling us that no one had been invited to a meal at his house when he was a boy; and that if someone rang the doorbell unexpectedly at mealtime his mother would keep the visitor waiting outside until every crumb and vestige of the meal had been hurriedly swept off the table.
“There was something shameful or sexual about being caught eating,” he said. “I never understood it.”
-Roger Angell
Lots of good thoughts here (as usual). And thanks for the link to Bob Rae's talk on Orwell. When he was Premier of Ontario, he sent around a note to the public service (or those of us who did policy at least) directing us to read "Politics and the English Language", to clarify our thinking and our writing (the latter not being possible without the former.)
While he was still in opposition in Ontario, he once described a press release about a policy I had been involved in developing as "Humphreyesque bafflegab" (the reference to Yes, Minister being very clear at the time). I don't think it was entirely fair, but it was definitely effective rhetoric - though certainly not what is now called Orwellian. (The legislation passed and was duly ignored...)
When I was a student, 50+ years ago, and much more mobile than I have been since, I picked up a copy of Homage to Catalonia in a Paris bookstore (not Shakespeare & Co) just because of the author (having read the big two earlier). I loved it and went on to read everything I could of his. And this year, I found a Spanish version of Animal Farm in a B&B (Rebelion en la granja) and brought it home. It's my bedside reading, very enjoyable, though the effort to read it puts me to sleep quite promptly.
Nathan Hill,book you are currently reading.My you do read a lot….
But one concept of imagining a future which is better than today ,is pretty difficult with Trump trumping away.
Moving often seems to have been my fate. Within country mostly. It was both physically and psychologically dislocating and invigorating. A nice essay. Thank you.