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417 views3 pagesA Romantic Manifesto
Aristasian article from Spectator.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
417 views3 pagesA Romantic Manifesto
Aristasian article from Spectator.
Uploaded by
Marianne MartindaleCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
/ 3
Of the modern world, Put these outof-
place garments together with the
aforementioned workman's boots and the
Romantic feels as if she is witnessing @
chaotic dream. So, come to that, does the
modernist, but the modernist, having been
through sirrealism and psychedelia, finds
chaotic dieams exciting and clever, while
the Romantic looks on them with an
tunashamedly pre-Freudian mind and finds
them sinister. When the Romantic cals the
modern worid ‘mad’ she is not using a
figure of speech,
To understand the Romantic, one must
realise thet she is never ceventrie — no, at
any rate, in the sense of breaking with any
fundamental convention. She appears to
the outside world tobe eccentric, and if she
had any respect for the outside world that
might trouble her, but the outside world
(Cthe natives!) does not consist of People
Who Count. She appears to flout all sorts
‘of conventions, but in fact she never flouts
the conventions that matter. When she
‘wears a crinoline balliress with @ high
collar and bobbed hair, she is not being
odd. She is following an accepted style
Which has been in vogue for several years
(fashions change at a more 19th-century
in the Romantic world).
Pin dres, the. Sloane. Ranger or the
‘Young Fogey tries to express conventional
and traditional values from within the
constraints of the compulsory individualism
and pseudo-eccentricity of modern culture.
‘The Romantic, conversely, expresses her
Individualty, and even het eccentric it
she is genuinely eccentric, from within the
formal constraints of Romantic conven-
tion.
This brings us on to the Romantic
attitude toward social cass. Romantics do
not necesarily share the same views on
everything, but their attitude to this sub=
ject is pretty consistent. To begin with,
they are much less coy about cass
than almost any other group of English
people. They makeno bones about the fact
that the Classless Sosiety — whether
socialist or Thatcherite — is a bad thing.
Indeed, this is probably the root cause of
their distaste for both socialism and
‘Thatcherism and, indeed, post-war polities
5a whole.
‘The distinctions between social classes
are one ofthe foundations of civilisation.
The decline of domestic service, social
deference and what the Romantic satirist
Sparrowhawk has called ‘natural, organic
hierarchies’ has been a de-civilising influ-
ence upon every class of society.
‘The ideal Romantic ménage includes a
‘number of voluntary boaded servants who
‘re looked after and protected in return for
their service in a quite feudal manner, thus,
‘making the household a microcosm of the
ideal Romantic-Feudal state.
Few Romantics are actually of lower-
‘lass origins and those who are are either
servants of some sort or have improved
themselves beyond all recognition and
probably rewritten their history. Curious:
ly, Romantics do not object to either of
these things. Ifsome one is clever, amusing
and unmmodem, dresses correctly and
speaks correctly they have usually no
desire to enquire into humble social origins.
Conversely, the Romantic is not neces
sarily impressed with high birth. This does
‘not mean that she does not respect breed-
‘ing and ancient lineage. She does —
perhaps with a more genuine, medieval
sort of respect than most people today —
but she also has an almost oriental con-
sciousness of the possibility of loss of east.
mn Scion of the ancient family asa Gt and
true representative of the Tradition. Kind
hearts may not be more than coronets; but
corone's without sound traditional values
and atitudes do not make People Who
Count.
Romantics have great confidence. Some,
of course, are shy, and to be brash oF
strident iS considered modern and_un-
pleasant. Nonetheless, the Romantic is
usually possessed of & quiet confience
Most Romantics have been Romantic with-
out using that word since early teens at
least, and to be able 1 pose the question:
‘Is the world around me wrong and am I
right? and to answer calmly “Yes' takes a
certain degree of confidence. Membership
of Romantic society increases this natural
confidence considerably.
Romantic society encourages the lower-
ing of the individual. Romantics enjoy
other Romantics being flamboyant, they
watch with appreciation as one develops
new afiectations. They expect one t
prove one’s performance’. All the world's
stage’, said one Romantie, but it helps to
kes a very poor house,
Romantics are renowned for the curious
lights of whimsy in which they indulge
(whimsy is a Romantic word for fantasy.
‘The latter term is seldom employed, being
somewhat soiled by modern usage.) Some
‘writestories, usually for private circulation
among themselves only (though some are
now seeing the light of publication in the
Romantic and the English Magazine) and
the barrier between these stories and real
fe isoften alarmingly thin. They put each
other into their stories under their real
‘names and their pseudonyms (Romantics
often have several pseudonyms). ‘They
become each other. They tell extraordinary
tall stories about themselves. and. their
friends and sometimes the tallest turn out
{o be true, People often think tales of
Romantics wearing crinoline day-