The
university remains a diffuse, shapeless, and permissive institution
that has absorbed the major currents of cultural modernism and reduced
them to a watery blend, a mind-emptying ideology of cultural revolution,
personal fulfillment, and creative alienation… Not only does higher education destroy the students' minds; it incapacitates them emotionally as well, rendering them incapable of confronting experience without benefit of textbooks, grades, and pre-digested points of view. Far from preparing students to live 'authentically,' the higher learning in America leaves them unable to perform the simplest task –– to prepare a meal or go to a party or get into bed with a member of the opposite sex –– without seeking academic instruction. The only thing it leaves to chance is higher learning.
The Culture of Narcissism (1979)
Use the link below to read a 1991 interview with North American sociologist, historian and cultural critic CHRISTOPHER LASCH:
For a writer those things [emotions] are what you start with. You wouldn’t have started a story without that awareness — that’s what made you begin. That’s what makes a character, projects the plot. Because you write from the inside. You can’t start with how people look and speak and behave and come to know how they feel. You must know exactly what’s in their hearts and minds before they ever set visible foot on the stage. You must know all, then not tell it all, or not tell too much at once: simply the right thing at the right moment. And the same character would be written about entirely differently in a novel as opposed to a short story. In a story you don’t go into a character in order to develop him. He was born full grown, and he’s present there to perform his part in the story. He’s subservient to his function, and he doesn’t exist outside it. But in a novel, he may. So you may have to allow for his growth and maybe hold him down and not tell everything you know, or else let him have his full sway — make room for a hero, even, in more spacious premises.
The Art of Fiction #47 [The Paris Review #55, Fall 1972]
Use the link below to read more about the life and work of North American writer EUDORA WELTY:
LET'S DO IT (THE BALLAD OF FREDA AND BARRY) VICTORIA WOOD
Victoria Wood's Mid-Life Christmas BBC TV – 1988 version
LET'S DO IT
(THE BALLAD OF FREDA AND BARRY)
2009 Version
This is NOT the version featured in the YouTube clip.
Sadly, that was removed by the
BBC for copyright reasons
Freda and Barry sat one night The sky was clear, the stars were bright The wind was soft, the moon was up Freda drained her cocoa cup She licked her lips, she felt sublime She switched off Gardener's Question Time Barry cringed in fear and dread As Freda grabbed his tie and said:
'Let's do it, let's do it, do it while the mood is right I'm feeling appealing, I've really got an appetite I'm on fire with desire I could handle half the tenors in a male voice choir Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
But he said: 'I can't do it, I can't do it, I'm not exactly Russell Brand You're thwarted, I'm sorted, got me evening's telly planned It's a pity, the nitty gritty, I've taped eleven episodes of Holby City Can't do it, can't do it tonight!'
So she said: 'Let's do it, let's do it, do it till our hearts go boom Go native, creative, living in the living room This folly is jolly Bend me over backwards on me Hostess trolley Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
'Can't do it, can't do it, me heavy breathing days are gone Niagara, Viagara, nothing really turns me on Stop stewing, boo-hooing I've had a good look down there and there's nothing doing Can't do it, can't do it tonight!'
'Let's do it, let's do it, while I'm really in the mood Three cheers, it's years since I caught you even semi-nude Get drastic, gymnastic Wear your baggy Y-fronts with the loose elastic Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
'Can't do it, can't do it, it's really not my cup of tea I'm harassed, embarrassed, wish you hadn't picked on me Don't choose me, don't use me My mother sent a note to say you must excuse me Can't do it, can't do it tonight!'
'Let's do it, let's do it, I really absolutely must I won't exempt you, want to tempt you Want to drive you mad with lust No cautions, just contortions Smear an avocado on me lower portions Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
'Can't do it, I can't do it, I must refuse to get unzipped I'm tearful, I'm fearful, worried that I'm ill-equipped Don't bully, I can't fully Guarantee to cope without a rope and pulley Can't do it, can't do it tonight!'
'Let's do it, let's do it, I really want to run amok Let's wiggle, let's jiggle, let's really make the rafters rock Be mighty, be flighty Come and bite the buttons off me flame-proof nightie Let's handle some scandal Come and sip Ribena from my peep-toe sandal Surprise me, chastise me Let's be Fern and Phil and you can patronize me Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
Get festive, get restive Dunk me in a duvet like a big digestive Just humour a late bloomer Stuff my Christmas stocking with your big satsuma Not meekly, not bleakly Beat me on the bottom with the Women's Weekly Let's do it, let's do it tonight!'
The death of writer, director, composer, actor and comedian Victoria Wood on 20 April 2016 robbed Britain (and the world) of aunique and special talent.Wood was adept at taking themundaneand sometimes painful aspects of life and turning them into a kind of hilarious verbal ballet that never loses sight of the fact that our realities only very rarely match our expectations. As she once so humorouslyobserved: 'Life's not fair, is it? Some of us drink champagne in the fast lane, and some of us eat our sandwiches by the loose chippings on the A597.'
Wood's most enviablegiftwasher finely tuned ear for spoken language and her ability to discover humourin even the dullest and most commonplace of human activities. Her 1998-2000 BBC sitcom Dinnerladies remains, to my mind, the perfect showcase for her genius and one of the greatest comedy programs ever produced in Britain or, for that matter, anywhere else. Set in the staff canteen of a struggling components factory in her native Manchester, Dinnerladies focuses on the friendship of five female canteen workers (the 'ladies' of the title), their two male colleagues and various eccentric (but never overplayed) characters who flit in and out of their lives during the course of one eventful year. The show –– which was twice nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Series but mysteriously never won –– manages the rare feat ofbeingconsistently hilarious, sharply satirical and, at times, poignantin a way that few sitcomsever have the courage to be. It also features a stellar performance by Wood's close friend and long time associate Julie Walters as Petula ––the flatulent, alcoholic, food-and-money scrounging mother of her character Brenda whose days are spent chasing younger men and tellingoutlandishtales about celebrities she's never actually met. As great as Walters is, the show remains a textbook example of ensemble acting at its finest and will be a treat for anyone who has never had the pleasure of watching it.
Let's Do It (or The Ballad of Freda and Barry as the tune is also known)stems from the same sharp observation that guided Wood's best television work, taking something –– the declining libidos of long-married couples –– that, at first glance, may appear to be unpromising material for a jaunty comic song lasting more than five minutes. Yet Woodmakes a triumph of it, juxtaposing the ordinary and the surreal, the tedious and the bizarre,as Freda's enthusiasm encroaches ever more dauntingly on the personal space of the disinterested and increasinglypanickedBarry. It's less a song than a slice of life wittily set to music, served up with a very British kind of cheekiness and an infectious tune which recalls thegolden days of variety and music hallwhile remaining completely contemporary, relevant and, best of all, laugh out loud funny.
Use the link below to read a 2011 interview with British entertainer VICTORIA WOOD:
This version of Let's Do Itcomes from the 2009 Christmas Special Victoria Wood's Mid-Life Christmas. It is not the version featured in the YouTube clip above. Sadly, that version was removed by the BBC for copyright reasons.
Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube. Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.
While I write, everything vanishes but what I contemplate. The whole of what is called 'the past' is with me, seen anew, vividly… It moves, growing with one’s growth. Contemplation is adventure into discovery; reality. What is called 'creation,' imaginative transformation, fantasy, invention, is only based on reality. Poetic description a half-truth? Can anything produced by man be called 'creation?'
Source unspecified
Use the link below to read more about British novelist DOROTHY M RICHARDSON:
Freud, Rank, and others have suggested that all anxiety may be, at bottom, separation anxiety. And thus loneliness –– the awareness of separation –– may well turn out to be the most painful conscious and immediate form of anxiety. The cultural values of conformity, the adjustment of the 'radar type' who reflects his signals from the crowd around him, are related to the prevalence of loneliness in our day… Loneliness is a common experience of those who conform, for while on one hand they are driven to conform because of loneliness, on the other, the validating of the self by means of becoming like everybody else reduces their sense of self and their experience of personal identity. The process makes for inner emptiness, thus causing greater loneliness.
Psychology and the Human Dilemma (1967)
Use the links below to read a short introduction to the theory and practice of Existential Psychotherapy and watch a 10 minute video that explains the work of North American Existential Psychotherapist ROLLO MAY:
