For those of you who have not seen the series, I realize that my posts on Brideshead will interest you little or not at all. The thing is that I'm feeling a bit stale about blogging, and if I feel stale, then my writing is likely to be stale. Watching the entire series is something of a retreat from blogging until I no longer feel stale. At least, that is my hope. In a way, my immersion in the series is a retreat from the world, too, which I suppose is what a retreat is all about. And it's hardly as though there isn't enough to write about and enough to do in the world.
I'm particularly sad that the staff of St Paul's Cathedral in London at first welcomed the Occupy London protestors but are now asking them to move along. As Doug at Counterlight's Peculiars says:
The canons of St. Paul's Cathedral in London decided to close the cathedral indefinitely for the first time since World War II. During the height of the Blitz, the cathedral closed for only 4 days. They cite all kinds of safety concerns for visitors as well as for the protesters. I cannot help but think that this is a melodramatic over-reaction. Camped out protesters are hardly German incendiary bombs raining down out of the sky.Anyway, I digress. I watched the next-to-last episode of Brideshead, in which Bridey, the elder son of the family, is finally engaged to be married to a devout Roman Catholic widow with three children. Bridey cannot bring his fiancée to visit the castle, which is now occupied by his sister Julia and her husband Rex. Julia is 'living in sin' not only because she is married to a divorced man, but she is also having an affair with Charles Ryder, Sebastian's old friend, who is also married. Yes, it's a bit of a tangled situation, but what a pompous stuffed shirt Bridey is.
Poor Julia. She's wretched when Bridey tells her. The video above shows just how wretched. For all their straying from the fold, Julia and Sebastian are haunted by their religion in a way that, to me, does not at all square with the Gospel. Past sins drag them down to the point that neither sees the way to redemption and a new beginning.
As much as I love the series and think it a masterpiece, Waugh's skewed view of what it means to be a Christian permeates both the series and his novel on which the series is based. Waugh's beliefs seems very familiar to me, because I was taught the same way as I grew up attending Roman Catholic schools for 16 years of my life. Not until my 30s, did I began to throw off the strictures and the guilt, which resulted from not following the rules. Even today, guilt is somewhat of a habit, although I don't suffer from it nearly as much as I once did. Thanks be to God.
Now on to the final episode, in which Lord Marchmain returns to England and Brideshead with his mistress Cara because World War II is fast approaching. (I started to say, 'The storm clouds of WW II were gathering,' but thought better of using the words, as they would surely be evidence of cliché and staleness.) Marchmain returns in poor health, and the final episode includes the scenes surrounding his last illness and death. The video below shows the heathen Charles and the family discussing the necessity of having a priest give the last sacrament to the dying Lord Marchmain.
Not that I am a Catholic but I like Graham Greene's take on it more than Waugh's really. Greene became increasingly left-wing and radical as he got older where Waugh went the other way, and Greene thought it was all about identifying with and loving the flawed and powerless - he sees God in weakness and human frailty, and in plainness rather than beauty, as it were.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I haven't seen or read Brideshead in such ages, I must do both again shortly.
Greene focused on the social justice teachings of the RCC, and rightly so. That's where the Gospel points.
ReplyDeleteWaugh was, in many ways, a horrible man. He was not easy to live with as his children attest - his children to whom he paid little attention. He was anti-Semitic...I could go on. Still, he was a good writer.
You might find this interesting, Mimi. I will not make it clickable, but you know how to copy and past.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NFmVfmqYv8&feature=related
There are five sections to this. I also found some youtubes about waugh apart from brideshead. He apparently was obsessed with being upper class.
susan s., thanks. The video was interesting. I have the 25th anniversary edition of the DVD with all sorts of extras which I haven't explored yet, including a segment on the filming of the series, and I may actually have the content of video you linked.
ReplyDeleteThe original director had to move on to another project when filming of Brideshead was delayed, and the new director, Charles Sturridge, was only 25 years old. Much of the script was written on the run, with huge chunks of dialogue taken from the book along with narrative spoken in voiceovers by Charles.
Part of the time Jeremy Irons was filming BR and 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' at the same time.
I nearly bought the DVD the other day after your first post but decided I am too much involved with series 2 of Downton Abbey at the moment. I loved the original BR, the movie a few years ago was not nearly as good. When originally watching BR I had not long begun working in Catholic schools. I remember a friend ringing me one night after BR and asking was that really the church I wanted to work for. I told him things were very different, at least with the De La Salle brothers for whom I worked and who accepted my sexuality and my being an Anglican.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately my Brother-in-law was taught by the same order but in the late 40's and still carries the same views he was taught about homosexuality and suffers extreme guilt because he married in an Anglican church.
Brian, once Downton 2 finishes, you really should buy the series. I've enjoyed watching it time and again over the years
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Julian Fellowes, the writer and creator of Downton Abbey, is also obsessed with being upper crust, even though he isn't, except by marriage (and neither was Waugh, I believe).
ReplyDeleteCathy, Waugh's family was solid middle class, I believe.
ReplyDeletePlease, Waugh was born into the Upper Middle Class, and aspired to be Upper Class. According to his grandson, he never made it.
ReplyDeletesusan s. and Evelyn, pardon me! Upper Middle Class it is. How sad that he never achieved his aspiration.
ReplyDeleteThe upper middle class is still middle class, so you weren't wrong, Mimi.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's so silly to care, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHe never made it, but he married into it twice. Both of his wives were offsprings of the Herbert family (earls of Carnarvon - think Tutankhamun, & Highclere, where Downton Abbey is filmed) so the kids & grandkids made it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Fellowes married into it.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid Private Eye did a very amusing cartoon strip sendup of Downton Abbey called Downturn Abbey which featured the Tory party as the lords and ladies and the Lib Dems as the servants. Now I can't hear the name Downton Abbey without thinking of that.
I watched and enjoyed the first series of 'Downton Abbey', but it was no 'Brideshead'. It reminded me of 'Upstairs Downstairs', more of an intelligent soap opera.
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