tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post2021569210269861863..comments2024-03-28T20:30:48.788+00:00Comments on Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment: CensorshipFr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-56550572998770650942021-10-31T00:10:26.479+01:002021-10-31T00:10:26.479+01:00With adult hindsight I wonder how much of Crompton...With adult hindsight I wonder how much of Crompton's humour kids would understand.<br /><br />I was in my forties (and a mature Ph.D. student) when the penny dropped about the thirty-year-old mystery in "William and the Bolshevik". The Bolshevik referred to Tories as "rackshunaries". The scales at last fell from my eyes as I realised that Crompton hadn't intended my Alanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16365402242052425654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-52449851161368249402021-10-30T09:35:08.633+01:002021-10-30T09:35:08.633+01:00Miss Crompton's classical education shows itse...Miss Crompton's classical education shows itself in one of her last stories, William and the Pop Singers. The latter call themselves The Argonauts, and we are told that is the brainchild of Chris, the leading member of the band who 'has had a classy education and taken classy exams'. <br />I wonder if the character of Chris was inspired by Mick Jagger who also had a 'classy',dunstanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14627891322038238469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-43484491733879066202021-10-29T00:05:48.793+01:002021-10-29T00:05:48.793+01:00From the Guardian:
"One story that has been ...From the Guardian:<br /><br />"One story that has been omitted is William and the Nasties, a racist 1935 yarn in which the Outlaws emulate Hitler by persecuting Mr Isaacs, a stingy, hook-nosed Jewish sweet shop owner."<br /><br />https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/1999/may/04/rorycarroll<br /><br />Maybe the story could be reissued with the following content warning:<brGrant Milburnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11381331872077276383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-75310249281463430972021-10-28T21:04:19.967+01:002021-10-28T21:04:19.967+01:00I reply as much to IaninEngland as you Your Revere...I reply as much to IaninEngland as you Your Reverence, on the topic of the lack of sense of humour among those who feel themselves to be marginalised.<br /><br />Years ago, when I was an undergraduate, there was a cartoon in Private Eye showing a pair of middle-aged gents in raincoats at a drinks party. The caption read "Oh no, we're not gay, we're homosexuals, a far more serious Josephus Muris Saliensishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10888638147153175697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-63371091037462225242021-10-28T14:55:51.149+01:002021-10-28T14:55:51.149+01:00I read the William books at the age of nine or ten...I read the William books at the age of nine or ten and 'William and the Nasties' sticks in the memory. William gets the idea after eavesdropping on the conversation of his grown-up brother Robert who has joined Mosley's fascists.<br /><br />At that age I had no problem in putting William in an historical context from the 1920s to the 1950s. I also found Jerome K Jerome's 'John Nolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09027156691859606002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8940364093450837549.post-44157386529849112352021-10-28T11:26:07.513+01:002021-10-28T11:26:07.513+01:00It should also be remembered that the Left lacks a...It should also be remembered that the Left lacks a sense of humour (witness the *earnestness* of Soviet posters and statues).<br />I have somewhere a copy of a cartoon in which a weedy gentlemen is standing at the counter of a bookseller's where a rather large woman is telling him "This is a feminist bookshop; there *is* no Humour section."<br />So, if Just William or Lewis's IaninEnglandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04459518210472276718noreply@blogger.com