English decline/History

English decline/History
Message de delphinuus posté le 02-04-2013 à 14:51:29 (S | E | F)
Hello,

I'm reading "Queuing for beginners" by Joe Moran and I was wondering what "national decline" means.
Does it refer to a special event in the history of England in the XX century?
Thank you for your answers
Delphine

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Modifié par lucile83 le 02-04-2013 20:51

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Réponse: English decline/History de bluestar, postée le 02-04-2013 à 18:03:01 (S | E)
Hello,

It probably refers to the loss of the British Empire in the 20th century. Dean Acheson was US Secretary of State under President Truman and he is credited with the observation: "Great Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role"

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Réponse: English decline/History de lucile83, postée le 02-04-2013 à 21:13:17 (S | E)
Hello,


This review is from: Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime (Hardcover)

Hitting on this book was a real turn up. Inside its delightfully pyjama bottom striped blue and white hardcovers is a wealth of social history chronicling the flotsam of our everyday lives. Joe Moran has an eye like a diligent housekeeper for the quotidian, and has collected a wealth of information on his studies of the banal. Taking the reader through a typical British day, he begins with breakfast, explaining the origins of the full English 'heart attack on a plate', toast, packet cereal, and the 'go to work on an egg' advertising campaign. Through the tedious commute to work, those hours lodged behind the office desk, the lunchtime sandwich, the post office queue, the email, the after work drink, the ready meal, the sofa, the tv, the remote control, the weather forecast, Moran plots a minute social history of how the objects of our routine existence came about, and how they change over time.

English novelist Will Self once wrote a magnificent short story 'Grey Area' picking up on the pieces of office furniture to paint a picture of a life that never changes day in day out, leading to madness. Joe Moran does a similar thing here in non-fiction form. Read this book, digest its contents, then embark on a new found interest in the everyday - become your own Magus of the mundane, a Brahmin of the banal, and you too may find that your eye alights on ever more interesting little details and you can escape the unthinking hoards who pass through life like a man falling from the top floor of a skyscraper, never taking a look in the windows as he passes down.

I think it is rather referring to the 'national decline' of English everyday life and traditions.

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Réponse: English decline/History de notrepere, postée le 03-04-2013 à 07:18:13 (S | E)
hello

It's possible that Lucile is correct, but more context would certainly be useful.

Cordialement

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