My goodness, after Independent writer Owen Jones told us about the sociological insights to be gained from Downton Abbey, now the New Statesman is referring to the ropey soap opera as a seminal text relevant to gender studies: http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/09/what-downton-abbey-can-teach-us-about-dying-without-will
This is a work of FICTION they are talking about!
A work of modern fiction written to entertain undemanding Sunday evening audiences.
It is written by Julian Fellowes who is a jobbing script-writer married to a former lady-in-waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent.
If by any chance Downton Abbey has anything serious to say about the Edwardian period it is entirely by accident. The only historical information in the script will have come about because of Julian Fellowes' research. Why do Owen Jones and the unnamed person who wrote the New Statesman piece choose to do their research second-hand through Julian Fellowes?
Are they too lazy to do research themselves?
Are they going to look at Barbara Cartland bodice-rippers to tell us about feminism in the Napoleonic age? Or refer to 1970s episodes of Citizen Smith (available on YouTube) to explain pre-Blair socialism? Or perhaps 'Allo 'Allo to explain the role of the Resistance in occupied France?
Owen Jones studied History at Oxford for heaven's sake.
As taxpayers we helped pay for his "glittering prizes" education.
And this is how he repays us.
This is a work of FICTION they are talking about!
A work of modern fiction written to entertain undemanding Sunday evening audiences.
It is written by Julian Fellowes who is a jobbing script-writer married to a former lady-in-waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent.
If by any chance Downton Abbey has anything serious to say about the Edwardian period it is entirely by accident. The only historical information in the script will have come about because of Julian Fellowes' research. Why do Owen Jones and the unnamed person who wrote the New Statesman piece choose to do their research second-hand through Julian Fellowes?
Are they too lazy to do research themselves?
Are they going to look at Barbara Cartland bodice-rippers to tell us about feminism in the Napoleonic age? Or refer to 1970s episodes of Citizen Smith (available on YouTube) to explain pre-Blair socialism? Or perhaps 'Allo 'Allo to explain the role of the Resistance in occupied France?
Owen Jones studied History at Oxford for heaven's sake.
As taxpayers we helped pay for his "glittering prizes" education.
And this is how he repays us.
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