Freedom from Niceness
This article was a God-send.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2019/august/virtue-vice-why-niceness-weakens-our-witness.html
I agree with it 100%. I'm working really hard not to be "nice" any more.
Living in the South one learns a lot about being "nice." I can do the act. And I hate it when I do. I make myself sick being so nice.
I am going through a Brideshead Revisited phase. I read the book this year and just watched the whole 1981 series. Now I'm reading literary criticism of it. The odd character Anthony Blanche talks of how Charles has been trapped or ruined by "charm." It has ruined him and his art. I think there is a connection there between what he means by "charm" and "nice."
Nobody likes "nice" art. One of Charles Ryder's problems is his aloofness and lack of emotional connection, as Julia berates him when he compares their evening to a play. I have to admit I was touched by her reaction to Lord Marchmain's death (Olivier as a corpse) and her choice to end their affair. He had succumbed to charm and it killed his art.
I had trouble liking Charles, and through some of it I got annoyed with the lifestyles of the rich and famous angle; it got a little soap opera-y, but I think it's supposed to. Yet in the end I saw past the superficialities, all the drinking and self-indulgence and smoking and beautiful clothes and not working for a living, to how religion can wound and heal. It's hard for an inveterate Calvinist like me to really enter into the lives of Catholics, but through the great writing and the acting I was able to. I see why the 1981 version is considered perfection; it's almost line for line from the book. (Much better than the 2008 version, which leaves out so much).
https://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2019/august/virtue-vice-why-niceness-weakens-our-witness.html
I agree with it 100%. I'm working really hard not to be "nice" any more.
Living in the South one learns a lot about being "nice." I can do the act. And I hate it when I do. I make myself sick being so nice.
I am going through a Brideshead Revisited phase. I read the book this year and just watched the whole 1981 series. Now I'm reading literary criticism of it. The odd character Anthony Blanche talks of how Charles has been trapped or ruined by "charm." It has ruined him and his art. I think there is a connection there between what he means by "charm" and "nice."
Nobody likes "nice" art. One of Charles Ryder's problems is his aloofness and lack of emotional connection, as Julia berates him when he compares their evening to a play. I have to admit I was touched by her reaction to Lord Marchmain's death (Olivier as a corpse) and her choice to end their affair. He had succumbed to charm and it killed his art.
I had trouble liking Charles, and through some of it I got annoyed with the lifestyles of the rich and famous angle; it got a little soap opera-y, but I think it's supposed to. Yet in the end I saw past the superficialities, all the drinking and self-indulgence and smoking and beautiful clothes and not working for a living, to how religion can wound and heal. It's hard for an inveterate Calvinist like me to really enter into the lives of Catholics, but through the great writing and the acting I was able to. I see why the 1981 version is considered perfection; it's almost line for line from the book. (Much better than the 2008 version, which leaves out so much).
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