A Lost World
by John
No work of film or litterature has ever shaped my intellect
the way Brideshead has over the years. I was only ten or
eleven when I was first introduced to the flamboyant and
decadent ways of Sebastian and Charles. Today that has
turned me into a stranger to most things of our world.
There are indeed few things that interests me in our time
and, though being the editor in chief of a business
magazine, I focus my attention mainly on things of ages
past. Brideshead, I know, never ever was meant to resemble,
not even remotely, reality. But the authors sense of dreaming
up interesting characters in profoundly strange situations
(sunny, decadent Oxford, fall of aristocracy and real
wealth, homophobics, corrupted businessmen, etc) makes
the story real enough to use as an escape-route when the
beauty of the real world has faded since long.
But such dreams can be destructive
also. I myself went to
study at Oxford for a shorter period, but was forced to return
after a while, seeing hundreds of beggars lining the streets at
night, rude students with great flaws both in vocabulary and
education, and deteriorating structures everywhere I looked.
In Sweden, my home country, the translated title of Brideshead
Revisited reads: A Lost World. To me that is true to the world
I live in, but to find, to regain, a more pleasant world I only
have to recall a few paragraphs, perhaps read a chapter of
The Book to get my mind into a cheerier mood. And when in
that mood I and the editor of this homepage might go out for
a few Brandy Alexanders. It happens not too infrequently.
I would also like to forward an open invitation to any of
us who share the ideals of The Book to try to meet sometime
in the future. What a splendid rendez-vous that would be.
