When I met Henry in March we conjectured that one possible unifying influence on many even perhaps most of the CT-ers is the work of the analytical Marxists. It’s hard to find other unifying themes. But in the early days I noticed a penchant for Moleworthian phrases and even brief discussions (that I now can’t find). For the Molesworth innocents, unwilling to risk the miniscule cost of the collected works (also purchasable in the US at staggering expense), Radio 4 just rebroadcast its pretty good tribute to the curse of st custards. Have a listen. And then buy the book.
{ 10 comments }
Chris Bertram 05.14.04 at 4:42 pm
CT is very like St Custards, wot with Henry who is head of skool, captane of everything, and winer of the mrs joyful prize for raffia, Belle, who is topp at Latin despite being both a new bug and a gurl, and Harry, who secretly work for Gabbitas & Thring (as any fule kno) but who otherwise keeps a strate bat. Keeron is almost certainly an oik. There are a host of goody-goodies (but I’m not naming names). OTOH, “Every skool hav a resident bully who is fat and roll about the place clouting everybode.” Nominations?
des 05.14.04 at 5:15 pm
And which boy (or gurl) have a face like a squashed tomato?
john b 05.14.04 at 7:21 pm
…and CT’s right-wing commenters think that everybode here are utterly wet and a weed.
Chris Lightfoot 05.14.04 at 7:22 pm
I hope everyone hav seen this splendid story featuring Nigel Molesworth esq. and his whole cast of reprobate friends: Ho for hoggwarts!
Patrick Nielsen Hayden 05.14.04 at 10:54 pm
The masters larf they are in stitches.
marylou 05.14.04 at 11:39 pm
Thanks thanks thanks from a fammished Molesworthian. And gess wot! You can order the Compleet Molesworth from the UK Amazon and have it sent rite to the US for a meer pittence and farster than you can bung up the skoool drane with a pare of old soks or sneek a sossage to the skool dog!
will 05.14.04 at 11:56 pm
I find the analytical Marxists easier to read than this thread.
Michael Brooke 05.15.04 at 8:01 am
I read a fascinating article a few years ago comparing Geoffrey Willans’ and William Burroughs’ 1950s literary experiments and concluding that Willans’ work was far more original and subversive. Sadly, I don’t recall where it appeared and a Google search has proved fruitless.
Matt Brubeck 05.15.04 at 5:05 pm
I think the adjective should be molesworthy, as in “a penchant for molseworthy phrases.”
non-Marxist 05.15.04 at 5:23 pm
“Analytical Marxists”? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
To be fair, though, Marxism is logically consistent if one starts with the assumption that life is a zero sum game (wealth is not created or destroyed, it is simply endowed and there’s a fixed supply). Unfortunately, none of the theory works without that illogical, unrealistic assumption.
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