October 28, 2004
Today's Writer's Almanac had a piece about Evelyn Waugh, whose birthday it is today. Toward the end, they tell us of Waugh, "In his later life, he grew to hate everything about the modern world--modern music, modern art, modern inventions. He never drove. He used an antique pen that had to be constantly re-dipped into ink, and when his hearing went bad, he refused to buy one of the new hearing aids. Instead, he started carrying around a giant horn that he held up to his ear...Waugh lived in a huge house out in the English countryside, as far away from the modern world as he could get, and he kept a pet pig named Glory."

So he was anti-trend, you see.

Perhaps I should get a pig?

Anyway, they ended with this: "People called him a snob and a reactionary, but he said, 'An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.'"

Perhaps I, too, am a bit of a snob when it comes to current trends and the tenor of this age. But really, like Waugh, I don't want to go flopping along. I don't know that I'm any great artist, but I want to think rather than live by default. If I were living by default, I'd flip through JCrew catalogs and pick up Lucky magazine from time to time to discern trends; I'd own at least one piece of furniture from Pottery Barn and pay for cable television or satellite TV--and I'd watch it, too.

Instead, I toss the catalogs in the recycling bin, shop second-hand stores for both clothes and furniture and occasionally tune into the sparse offerings of network television. I'm not exactly standing against the tenor of the age, and I don't think I'm going so far as to be dubbed reactionary, but I seem determined not to go flopping along.

I'm not consistent, however. I do use a computer, even using the Internet, as you can plainly see. I don't have high-speed access, however, or a laptop. Though I confess I want one. So I'm not so strong in my choices. I would probably buy a hearing aid instead of using the giant horn.