Loaded phrases
There was a joke on The Adam and Jo Show about the film The English Patient. From shonky memory:
Chap A: Look at these ancient cave paintings - these people lived amazingly communally, sharing everything, with no property...
Chap B: What does that mean?
Chap A: It means I'm going to have sex with your wife.
I thought of this while watching the updated Upstairs, Downstairs, set in the late 1930s, on the telly on Monday. I'd feared that the episode would be all about the sauce, because people tend to make things new and updated and 21st C by adding sauce. 'Dickens... with the sex!' say the cover blurbs, as though what was really missing from Chas. D. was the word 'moist'.
Upstairs, Downstairs was much more restrained than I'd expected, but every line felt to me like the Adam and Jo parody:
Posh girl: You know, Fascism is going to break down class barriers. I'm glad.
Chauffeur: What does that mean, Milady?
Posh girl: It means I'm going to have sex with you.
Refugee maid: Marriage makes a woman holy to her husband. But with the distance, I feel - less holy.
Art Malik, playing a secretary: What does that mean?
Refugee maid: That eventually I will accept your offer of tea, and we will have sex.
That was just a drop in the ocean of loaded lines compared to the episode of The Archers I've just heard. It was the show's 60th anniversary, and every other line seemed to stamp doom on some much-loved characters' head. I think my favourite was 'I'll get us to the hospital, if I have to run a few red lights to do it!' but hyper-vigilance started to colour even lines like 'What is Kenton doing with the children?' (THRESHING MACHINE). I feel toyed with.
Posted on Dreamwidth also (http://slightlycanted.dreamwidth.org/2289.html, with
comments so far). Comment wherever you'd like to.
Chap A: Look at these ancient cave paintings - these people lived amazingly communally, sharing everything, with no property...
Chap B: What does that mean?
Chap A: It means I'm going to have sex with your wife.
I thought of this while watching the updated Upstairs, Downstairs, set in the late 1930s, on the telly on Monday. I'd feared that the episode would be all about the sauce, because people tend to make things new and updated and 21st C by adding sauce. 'Dickens... with the sex!' say the cover blurbs, as though what was really missing from Chas. D. was the word 'moist'.
Upstairs, Downstairs was much more restrained than I'd expected, but every line felt to me like the Adam and Jo parody:
Posh girl: You know, Fascism is going to break down class barriers. I'm glad.
Chauffeur: What does that mean, Milady?
Posh girl: It means I'm going to have sex with you.
Refugee maid: Marriage makes a woman holy to her husband. But with the distance, I feel - less holy.
Art Malik, playing a secretary: What does that mean?
Refugee maid: That eventually I will accept your offer of tea, and we will have sex.
That was just a drop in the ocean of loaded lines compared to the episode of The Archers I've just heard. It was the show's 60th anniversary, and every other line seemed to stamp doom on some much-loved characters' head. I think my favourite was 'I'll get us to the hospital, if I have to run a few red lights to do it!' but hyper-vigilance started to colour even lines like 'What is Kenton doing with the children?' (THRESHING MACHINE). I feel toyed with.
Posted on Dreamwidth also (http://slightlycanted.dreamwidth.org/2289.html, with
comments so far). Comment wherever you'd like to.