tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post5567976596787516231..comments2024-03-25T11:29:25.356-04:00Comments on Existential Ennui: Kingsley Amis and The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage (HarperCollins, 1997)Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-39499834459648429472013-02-01T17:01:23.612-05:002013-02-01T17:01:23.612-05:00I think Martin Amis was missing his father's p...I think Martin Amis was missing his father's point, vis a vis 'curmudgeon'. Yes, that was its original meaning, but it now means something rather different. And no power on earth can make it mean what it used to. What happens in cases like this is that a word originally intended as a negative is embraced as a positive by those it is applied to--"On me, it looks good." <br /><br />A good example would be the mocking song "Yankee Doodle", written by an Englishman to poke fun at the colonial bumpkins, but those very bumpkins liked it so much it became part of the American mythos, and a positive term of expression among us (except in the south, of course). <br /><br />People of a certain gruff and sardonic bent LIKE being called curmudgeons today. It's taken as a compliment--there's a well-known blog called "The Comics Curmudgeon", whose author basically spends all his time making fun of bad comic strips. If you told him he wasn't a true curmudgeon, he'd be most upset. <br /><br />Thus the original meaning only holds true in dictionaries. And Kingsley Amis remains a curmudgeon. And probably damned glad of it, wherever he is. Probably having it out with Jehovah as we speak. <br /><br />Liking "The Anti-Death League"--bit slow going at first, but I'm warming to it. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.com