Guardian writer Patrick Butler, referring to an article by a fellow Guardian writer Philip Inman, compares current United Kingdom "inequality" to the sort of extremes described by Charles Dickens. Anyone who is familiar with the Patrick Butler Twitter microblog will find that he is fond of the adjective "Dickensian" (he has used it a number of times in the past few days). Perhaps his hyperbole is just due to an ultra-keen macho-lefty desire to attack the Conservatives no matter how silly the metaphors used - conveniently forgetting that present-day inequality didn't happen overnight, it is a direct consequence of Labour's incredibly relaxed attitude to economic filthiness.
Kaya Genç in a review of the Owen Jones demography Chavs (published in the Los Angeles Review of Books) refers to Owen Jones as "the new Dickens in town". Does Mr Genc feel that when writing for an American audience everything must be exaggerated to extremes so incredible that they cause the average reader to gasp with incredulity? Or perhaps Mr Genc genuinely believes Owen Jones is "the new Dickens"? (which doesn't say much for his literary judgement).
In an excellent article in the Observer (which I have re-read several times) DJ Taylor quotes Orwell's caustic reaction to JB Priestley's comparison with Charles Dickens, calling the analogy absurd.
Charles Dickens was one of the greatest writers of all times and all cultures. He cannot be compared to any other writer and no other writer can be compared to him. The social conditions he examined were unique to 19th century England and comparisons cannot be made, even obliquely, to present-day circumstances - to do so rightly deserves to be called absurd.
So perhaps we can all stop using the lazy adjective "Dickensian".
No comments:
Post a Comment