Wednesday 6 October 2010

Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff!

My reading at the moment is swapping between Green Lantern and Duff Cooper's diaries. They read like a parody of aristocratic life in the early twentieth century, or like this guy:


A typical day would be something like 'got up at 12, strolled into the Foreign Office, lunched with the Duchess of Wherever, loved her in the pantry, played tennis with the King of Portugal, loved his wife in the car, put in another hour at the FO, chatted to Winston [Churchill] about who hates the poor most, dined with the Crown Prince of Serbia who made a pass at my wife, the bounder, had his servant in the hallway, wrote a sonnet about my wife who I love very much, remembered all my friends were dead in the war, ordered more suits while drinking a '78 Pommery'.

Names are dropped like clocks tick. He knew everybody and, while not being overburdened with brains, he had a certain ratlike cunning and will to succeed which led him to the highest offices. His entire class seem to have spent their time shooting birds, having sex with each other's wives and husbands, and losing money in the casinos. They all have very silly names too: 'Kakoo' springs to mind.

In their spare time, they ran the country. Badly.

I'm having a very highbrow day: teaching King Lear for two hours, then straight into another couple of hours on Kantian ethics. 

3 comments:

Connie said...

Teaching King Lear for two hours? I was convinced you had fallen asleep at one point!

The Plashing Vole said...

Not this time. I fell asleep in a lecture last year. Very embarrassing.

Connie said...

I can imagine. Though probably slightly more embarrassing for the lecturer who managed to send you to sleep.