(no subject)
This entry is far too personal, snarky, and drunken for my blog. That means it goes here.
Was watching BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS with my live-in sweetie earlier, and got sidetracked on an interesting terminological issue. One of the joys of DVD is the ability to pause a movie so one can argue a linguistic point, then resume the film as though there'd been no interruption.
(Admittedly, in practice the discussion often turns into utterly perverse discussion of my sweetie's crush on Stephen Fry and how she's got as much chance with him as I do with my celebrity crush Melissa Etheridge, but this time it was terminology.)
The argument was about the precise distinction between bohemian gentility and genteel poverty. Bohemian gentility, we agreed, is the state of having plenty of money, but living entirely as you please without regard for what other people think. We are told Isadora Duncan was raised under these conditions. Genteel poverty, on the other hand, is one of two things, at least within the structure of the argument.
Either it is the condition of families that used to have money and lost it, but still raise their children to know how to treat servants long after the last servant has been dismissed, (her contention), or the condition of having no money to speak of, but still living with a certain degree of creature comforts and, let's just say it, class. (My contention) Eventually the argument was settled in my favor, based on the evidence available in the film, and the fact that we ourselves had just enjoyed a dinner of herbed salmon with white wine, and were enjoying complex and sophisticated films together, but are perpetually behind on our rent. Of course, we live with roommates, salmon is cheap here in the Northwest, the wine was Charles Shaw Chardonnay, and we were eating off of dishes acquired at Goodwill, but frankly that only served to underline my point.
The moral of this story is that the delights of long-term cohabitation are many, but winning an argument is perhaps the sweetest of all.
Was watching BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS with my live-in sweetie earlier, and got sidetracked on an interesting terminological issue. One of the joys of DVD is the ability to pause a movie so one can argue a linguistic point, then resume the film as though there'd been no interruption.
(Admittedly, in practice the discussion often turns into utterly perverse discussion of my sweetie's crush on Stephen Fry and how she's got as much chance with him as I do with my celebrity crush Melissa Etheridge, but this time it was terminology.)
The argument was about the precise distinction between bohemian gentility and genteel poverty. Bohemian gentility, we agreed, is the state of having plenty of money, but living entirely as you please without regard for what other people think. We are told Isadora Duncan was raised under these conditions. Genteel poverty, on the other hand, is one of two things, at least within the structure of the argument.
Either it is the condition of families that used to have money and lost it, but still raise their children to know how to treat servants long after the last servant has been dismissed, (her contention), or the condition of having no money to speak of, but still living with a certain degree of creature comforts and, let's just say it, class. (My contention) Eventually the argument was settled in my favor, based on the evidence available in the film, and the fact that we ourselves had just enjoyed a dinner of herbed salmon with white wine, and were enjoying complex and sophisticated films together, but are perpetually behind on our rent. Of course, we live with roommates, salmon is cheap here in the Northwest, the wine was Charles Shaw Chardonnay, and we were eating off of dishes acquired at Goodwill, but frankly that only served to underline my point.
The moral of this story is that the delights of long-term cohabitation are many, but winning an argument is perhaps the sweetest of all.