Comments on: The ironic-gnome rule

By: soru

soru — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 23:37:26 +0000

(1) celebrities don’t place themselves in the labour market as commodities, instead they pursue projects that interest them, like a Duke pursuing war against some continental army or breeding a better racehorse.

Like capitalists, celebrities very rarely stop doing what they do just because no longer need money.

(2) those two didn’t, but being the son or daughter of a celeb is sufficient qualification – see Stella McCartney, Priscilla Presley, etc.

Given that the term ‘mixed marriage’ is apparently used in the rare cases when a celeb marries a non-celeb, ‘caste’ might well be a better term than class.

soru

By: engels

engels — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:57:55 +0000

Soru – Being upper class is about at least two things.
(i) Never having to work
(ii) Inheriting your position from your parents. Neither apply to Cruise and Kidman.

By: soru

soru — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 21:58:19 +0000

Back in the day there were, of course, similar pamphlets discussing the vices of the Duchess of Devonshire and her set.

soru

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 17:32:07 +0000

if americans defer to anyone, they defer to celebrities

Indeed. All those supermarket tabloids featuring intensely ugly close-ups of so-&-so’s latest “tragic plastic surgery mishap” are actually signs of love and devotion.

By: soru

soru — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:13:55 +0000

Not upper-class in UK terms, certainly. But if americans defer to anyone, they defer to celebrities.

soru

By: engels

engels — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 15:08:53 +0000

If there is an american upper class distinct from the merely rich, I would imagine Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would be members.

Yep, unfortunately soru, even on a comparatively non contentious topic you do not lose sight of your traditional mission of being competely wrong.

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 14:33:26 +0000

Soru, so wrong in so many directions. Tom “Cruise” is an oik. A midget scientologist who changed his name. How upper-class is that?

By: soru

soru — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:32:08 +0000

If there is an american upper class distinct from the merely rich, I would imagine Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would be members.

soru

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:02:27 +0000

My tip would be that you can rely on that name not ever appearing! I’ll eat my hat—or at least excoriate the old man on CT —if I’m wrong.

By: Matt McGrattan

Matt McGrattan — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:34:41 +0000

[Obviously, gross generalisations but …]

One difference is that the upper classes often know they’re privileged and that their position/wealth/status isn’t due to any particular hard work or talent on their part.

An unfortunate number of the middle classes, and I would count some of my closest friends within this number, have come to believe that their wealth and position—if they’re even aware of their relative wealth and position—is due to their innate talents or to the innate talents and hard work of their parents and leads them to make silly claims like “the class sytem doesn’t really exist anymore”…

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:15:42 +0000

The chap obviously buys his own furniture.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:18:28 +0000

Harry: are you trying to give me a tip for our office sweepstakes on the New Year honours? Are you suggesting that a surprise elevation to the Lords for a dedicated public servant, Commissioner of London Schools etc etc might be on the cards? Rest assured that if it is I will bribe Kieran to change the template and you will be forever known as "Honners". Good God there are hardly any references to the Peter Pook books on the internet. I thought some enthusiast would have had a go.

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 09:35:28 +0000

Which Ernest Shackleton was that Jim? The only famous one died in 1922 (sez Wikipedia) and life peers began in about 1959 (ah , 1958, wikipedia again)

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 07:38:53 +0000

Ernest Shackleton famously said “A life peer is like a mule — no pride of ancestry, no hope of posterity.” For that matter, what American could claim to be upper class, since we constitutionally lack the apparatus of aristocracy?

I’m not personally accountably for any of my yard’s garden statuary, since half are gifts and the rest inheritances. The bench in the form of a cat seems to attract cats; some dogs freak out at the small figure of a bear, now green with moss.

Irony is an attitude unavailable with such abundance.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 06:44:37 +0000

When I was at uni, I used to collect various objects of this kind, including gnomes, with an ironic intent. The most ironic was the archetypal 1950s wall decoration in Australia: a flight of china ducks ascending the wall.

Over time, however, I got rid of nearly everything, keeping only the ducks, for which I now feel an entirely unironic affection. For a while I had a flying masked koala, which unfortunately got broken.