Saturday, March 21, 2009

"Or what about -- no presents, because of unemployment?"

I adore my beloved Mapp and Lucia novels, but it pains me to realize that the great and glorious Lucia would logically have voted for Obama. Her economic sense was non-existent. And her attitudes toward the masses precisely mirrored his: lordly, condescending, and damaging all at once, with that veneer of inauthentic noblesse oblige laid over. " 'We must help little lame dogs over stiles,' " she tells Georgie, who sensibly does not favor the higher taxes that will be needed to do all she wants to do for the lame dogs.

But even he doesn't always get it, either. When they get married, he encourages her to announce that they don't want any wedding presents, " 'because of unemployment.' " She agrees, but then picks up her pen to write a dress making order for " 'that good little milliner's in the High Street,' " to send business her way.

Ah well. I suppose this is why it's called escapism. Au reservoir.

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