AIBU?
Anybody up for discussing "Brideshead Revisited"?
questionzzz · 06/10/2018 21:52
I read the book many years ago (late teens/early twenties?) and it totally charmed me, as it was meant to.
Back then, I never even realised Charles and Sebastian were "doing it".
Now I am watching the old Granada ITV TV show with the young Jeremy irons (though he cannot quite pull off 19), with DD16.
She keeps chanting "do it" whenever they come on the screen.
I am confused.
autumnwalksguide · 08/10/2018 00:12
One of my favourite shows of all time.
I agree with PP's; the focus that Waugh seems to have intended is Catholicism, rather than the individual relationships.
Waugh came as a late convert to Catholicism almost as a reaction against socialism/communism and the like. I think he viewed it as 'above all else' - something that united people above politics, as something good and pure and worth believing in.
That people had to sacrifice their own personal happiness (Julia and Charles; Cordelia) at the altar to something greater than themselves I think is key.
What he wanted to say was - you and your needs/loves are not bigger than the ultimate power of God/religion/catholicism. Ultimately, everyone needs to sacrifice their greatest love for a good so much greater and bigger than a single person.
Fascinating. Still one of the most beautiful and seminal books I have ever read.
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