I asked, 14 years ago, in a blog post titled "Jacques Barzun has died... at the age of 104."
I landed there because I had the idea that people don't talk about decadence anymore, and Grok reminded me that Barzun had published "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present" (commission earned) in 2000.
That was a quarter century ago. How long past decadence do you need to get before decadence isn't even an issue? And then, what?
As for the question in the post title, pressured, Grok to came up with 300 to 500. There are super-centenarians in this world, though you never encounter them when you're just out and about. It would be cool if you did.
Barzun was 9 and living in Paris in 1914, when the war broke out. He was one of the students who had to become teachers, teaching younger students when so many of the real teachers were drafted. He became deeply depressed, contemplated suicide, and — it seems like a solution — travelled to America. There he attended Columbia University, where he wrote a Ph.D. thesis in which he "attacked the popular notion of 'the French race.'"
पोस्ट्स
८ टिप्पण्या:
We don't talk about "decadence" because we are too busy talking about decline. "Decadence" was used to describe a falling away from the norm. We don't have those norms anymore, but we are worried about society surviving and continuing, and about what comes next.
Barzun's incredible book. The learning of those one to two generations gone, now, was impressive -- inadequate word here. Barzun would probably have said we have continued the decadence of the 20th century into the next "era," but that some conflict or development is going to cause a major reordering of our western world. It may be well underway but simply not entirely clear to us, living in the present as we are forced to do. Islamists, one obvious factor at this moment. Or whatever follows a giant peak in prosperity.
Lee Grant, actor/director, turned 101 yesterday.
"How long past decadence do you need to get before decadence isn't even an issue? "
I dunno, maybe ask those that are bitterly opposing the construction of a decadent White House ballroom?
@Lazarus
We don't "talk about decadence" because we are actually living it every day and don't even think about it.
I was surprised at how many of the TV actresses in the 70s had careers going back to the 50s. Sure, they had to start out somewhere, but it was a little like realizing that one's parents or teachers had lives before one came along. Lee Grant started out even earlier, but the blacklist delayed her rise. It had more to do with her husband at the time than herself.
I'm not sure what she's doing lately, but like Bill Shatner she had a career stretching over decades. She was an understudy for the original performance of Oklahoma! in 1944!
Something was lost when “actress” stoped being used.
stopped
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.