tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post2039798296351658657..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: What a gulf there is between the spirit and the heart! - Machado's pessimismAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84840775857702255702011-12-09T11:45:24.827-06:002011-12-09T11:45:24.827-06:00Not at all wild - Machado is specifically targetin...Not at all wild - Machado is specifically targeting Social Darwinism. In the parable in the novel, the victors win the potatoes, and the losers are exterminated.<br /><br />That was some good reading between the lines you did there.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-54268775994082627142011-12-09T06:57:23.101-06:002011-12-09T06:57:23.101-06:00Just a wild idea which can be rejected out of hand...Just a wild idea which can be rejected out of hand without offence. In that post Darwin Victorian age the Spencerian thesis applied the survival of the fittest to the laissez faire economic system. 'Dog eat dog' was the popular characterisation of this. As in our day where the evolutionary is fashionably applied to ethics, to politics, the ratings wars and the market,the function of life is to survive by ensuring a food supply. This banal idea is symbolised by the most ordinary and abundant food, the humble tuber. So, to the victor the potatoes.ombhurbhuvahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789523088428270027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-49305540704034134302011-12-08T19:20:25.402-06:002011-12-08T19:20:25.402-06:00It says you're, let's see, an adventurous ...It says you're, let's see, an adventurous reader.<br /><br />I am not sure I was able to see this distinction just having read <i>The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas</i>. Without knowing the author better, it was too hard to separate the author and the narrator, and I'm still likely doing it wrong.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84812803337492103492011-12-08T18:48:03.766-06:002011-12-08T18:48:03.766-06:00Much of Machado’s pessimism or cynicism is little ...<i>Much of Machado’s pessimism or cynicism is little more than a clear-eyed view of human nature.</i><br /><br />Now that makes me want to read him. What's that say about me, I wonder?<br /><br />~scott gf baileyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com