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capri0mniBlame Charles Dickens.
As he, himself, wrote in his preface:
I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book,
to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my
readers out of humour with themselves, with each other,
with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses
pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.
He just about comes out and admits it: the Christmas portrayed in his "Christmas Carol in Prose" is more or less his own idea. By the time he wrote the book, most of the people in England would have agreed with Ebenezer Scrooge that Christmas was a humbug, and the people who did celebrate it were "nuts".
All of the powerful people in government and business had a vested interest in maintaining the prisons and the workhouses, for they had built them after all. Most would have seen nothing at all monsterous or unduly inhumane in Scrooge's retort to the charity collectors:
"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.
"Both very busy, sir."
"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."
. . . . . . .
I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned--they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."
Dickens was a social activist. There's very little, except in brief remarks in passing, to the religous origins of the holiday. No one tells Scrooge that he must keep Christmas in his heart by going to church, or praying. And nowhere, in his travels with the three ghosts, does Scrooge see anyone else going to church (though he does see Bob and Tiny Tim come back from the Christmas sermon). Dickens wrote the story as a social and political protest, in the hopes that it would change his society.
And here's the miracle of miracles that gladdens my wee heart: it did.
He crafted the story so well, and with just the right balance of humor and pathos, that it took hold and spread through the culture almost immediately. Nearly everything we associate with "The true spirit of the Season" -- the genrosity, the over-eating, the singing. the "Everybody knows some turkey and the mistletoe help to make the season bright..." all can be traced back to Dickens' small book -- to one man's imagination, and his "ghost of an idea."
That power to change the world lies in the imaginations of us all. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
With love, and thanks, I raise my imaginary glass in a toast to the founder of our feasts: Master Dickens!
As he, himself, wrote in his preface:
I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book,
to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my
readers out of humour with themselves, with each other,
with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses
pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.
He just about comes out and admits it: the Christmas portrayed in his "Christmas Carol in Prose" is more or less his own idea. By the time he wrote the book, most of the people in England would have agreed with Ebenezer Scrooge that Christmas was a humbug, and the people who did celebrate it were "nuts".
All of the powerful people in government and business had a vested interest in maintaining the prisons and the workhouses, for they had built them after all. Most would have seen nothing at all monsterous or unduly inhumane in Scrooge's retort to the charity collectors:
"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.
"Both very busy, sir."
"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."
I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned--they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."
Dickens was a social activist. There's very little, except in brief remarks in passing, to the religous origins of the holiday. No one tells Scrooge that he must keep Christmas in his heart by going to church, or praying. And nowhere, in his travels with the three ghosts, does Scrooge see anyone else going to church (though he does see Bob and Tiny Tim come back from the Christmas sermon). Dickens wrote the story as a social and political protest, in the hopes that it would change his society.
And here's the miracle of miracles that gladdens my wee heart: it did.
He crafted the story so well, and with just the right balance of humor and pathos, that it took hold and spread through the culture almost immediately. Nearly everything we associate with "The true spirit of the Season" -- the genrosity, the over-eating, the singing. the "Everybody knows some turkey and the mistletoe help to make the season bright..." all can be traced back to Dickens' small book -- to one man's imagination, and his "ghost of an idea."
That power to change the world lies in the imaginations of us all. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
With love, and thanks, I raise my imaginary glass in a toast to the founder of our feasts: Master Dickens!
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 02:53 am (UTC)I just recently read A Christmas Carol for the first time. Very enjoyable! I enjoyed it so much, I am reading Oliver Twist. As long as Dickens sticks to characters and foregoes describing scenery, it's very good reading.
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Date: 2004-12-26 03:22 am (UTC)I couldn't remember if I was comparing it to the original story that Dickens wrote, or to the other movie adaptations I had seen. So I Googled for the Guetenburg Project's etext version this afternoon. I'm up to the scene just after Fezziwig's ball, now...
Now, I really want to see a movie version with special effects that are faithful to Dickens' own discriptions: The Ghost of Christmas Past is wonderfully creepy, with a body made of light and whose body parts flicker randomly in and out of existance, and always seems, no matter how you look at him, to be somewhere off in the distance.
There's no way that could be portrayed with a living actor... but now that we have computer generated graphics.... could be very effective. Very effective, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 04:57 am (UTC)The surprise that I had was that Scrooge wasn't introduced to Belle at Fezziwig's party. The versions of the story I've always seen have that. (OK, so I've only seen the Muppet version and the one with George C Scott & Mark Strickson.)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 06:38 pm (UTC)Neither was Chuck Jones' "Grinch" (as opposed to the live-action with Jim Carrey).
Oh, well. Not every Christmas can be the same...
Another one that I was looking forward to -- in vain, as it turns out -- was an NPR broadcast of "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol," written, and performed as a one man audio drama by the author, Tom Mula. The same story, but told from Marley's ghostly p.o.v. ... I can buy a script of it, though, and read it for myself... or I could postpone my boycot of Amazon, and get an audio cassette of it ;-)