The Leisure Hours, July 17
Mitford Madness, Gilded Age Housewives, & Hot Arthur Summer
Watching
There is nothing more cozy to a cinephile than an Uncommonly-Satisfying Streamer. One that nobody else seems to know about.
Remember the Criterion Collection debut? Like that.
So! I have a new one.
I had to, had to, see the Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny biopic. Yes, this is the philosopher who coined the term, the “banality of evil.”
We need Hannah at our side right now— she lived through the worst, the quasi-redemption, and the worst again.
Sometimes I think she’s the only one who would get it. If there was a t-shirt that read: WWHAD, I would wear it.
Arendt is now showing on the PBS documentary channel, which is filled with other obsessive delights. It’s dead cheap, they run everything from A&E style biographies (remember those?), to animal docs, high-end cooking shows (Mind of the Chef), and great, great history.
Sure, it’s the home of the Ken Burns brand, but I can’t scoff. Have you ever seen his Prohibition series co-directed with Lynn Novick? What an eyeopener. The episode titles won me over: “A Nation of Drunkards,” “A Nation of Scofflaws,” and “A Nation of Hypocrites.”
Another perfect jewel: Sarah Colt’s PBS doc on “The Gilded Age” in New York City. Yes, it’s an ideal companion to Julian Fellowes’ soap opera, but much deeper on the establishment of industrial-age capitalism, as well as its devoted opponents. Courage, indeed.
Reading & Watching Tie-In
The Mitford Affair: A Novel, by Marie Benedict, audiobook narrated by Emma Griffiths.
Wigs on the Green, a satire by Nancy Mitford
The Mitford family are the greatest of the certifiably-insane 20th century British aristocrats. 5 daughters formed the nucleus, forbidden from attending school. Devilishly smart. All but one of the family went full-Nazi-apologist, led by the tragically-named “Unity Valkyrie Mitford,” who would become Hitler’s blonde-Brittania sap.
Unity’s older sister Diana was considered one of the “greatest beauties in Europe,” and was the mistress of Lord Oswald Mosley, through several abortions and humiliations. Yes, Oz was the aristo head of the British Union of Fascists and was just as unpleasant and duplicitous as the name implies.
One of the Mitford youngest sisters, Jessica, was the red sheep, a converted communist, who joined the anti-Franco fight in Spain, and ultimately moved to Oakland, CA, where yes, I knew her slightly.
Many Americans know Decca as the woman who eviscerated the American funeral industry, in her bestseller, The American Way of Death. But that was just one tiny fascinating thing about her. I mean, just randomly, her son Bob Treuhaft, who’s alive today, is the barefoot “piano tuner to the stars,” who founded the “Send Pianos to Cuba” initiative.
Decca had, and lost, other children. She never spoke to her fascist sisters again, even though they were her only companions, when they all grew up alone in that big crumbling manse at Batsford Park.
Nancy Mitford, the eldest daughter of the family, is the omniscient narrator who tells the story in the Outrageous TV series. That makes sense; she’s the only one who’s a political skeptic. Don’t get me wrong; she had her blind spots. Nancy married a bisexual sop of a cad, (nicknamed “Prodd”) and lived in genteel poverty, often sans furniture, writing “light” comedies of English manners, if PG Wodehouse could be imagined any lighter.
Nancy’s work has grown incisive in hindsight. She chronicled the Evelyn Waugh’s “Bright Young Things” of the British upper class, who had nothing to show for themselves between the Wars, besides pitiless alcoholism and a certain way with jewels. It will remind you of the Kardashians, with better accents.
Just as Nancy’s sisters were getting mesmerized by Nazi patriarchs, she wrote a satirical novella, “Wigs on the Green,” making fun of the wealthy know-nothings who thought British fascism and Jew-hating was “chic.”
Nancy’s two sisters Unity and Diana were so outraged at her farce, they shunned her, in perpetuity.
(This was while little Jessica was still a teenager at home, only dreaming of disowning her family to join the fight against Franco).
Nancy always kept trying to get the family back together. She felt so bad about losing his siblings’ intimacy, she never allowed her small book to be reprinted during her lifetime.
Well, it’s back.
In fact, the new edition of “Wigs” has a calm, touching forward by Charlotte Mosley, Diana Mitford’s daughter. Cooler heads prevailed!
If you read/listen to the book in tandem with watching the “Outrageous” miniseries, it’s a delicious entertainment.
Put yourself in the role of historical detective. “Wigs on the Green” is a trifle, the Gilded Age version of Chick Lit. Except in one respect: it shows how privileged idiots, incompetent for anything besides putting on airs, can soon become the fascist jackboots running our lives.
This is what Stephen Miller was, a few years ago. JD Vance. Kristi Noem. Unpopular dilettantes, embarrassing themselves in public, high as kites on available drugs and their own insatiable sadism and insecurity.
Note: The official biography which was licensed for the “Outrageous” series, is another page-turner to consider. “Sisters,” it’s called, by Mary Lovell.
Here’s the thing; I liked Marie Benedict’s gossipy treatment, The Mitford Affair, better. The audio edition is superior.
Sorry, Mary, but that’s the way the rhinestone swastika bounces!
Hot Arthur Summer
My local book maven, Kat Bailey decrees:
Hot Girl Summer: 🙄.
Hot Arthur Summer: 😍.
Oh yes!! I think you will really enjoy Mimi Pond’s forthcoming illustrated bio of the Mitford’s “Do Admit” coming in September from Drawn and Quarterly mimipond.com
Here you go—I guess it’s been printed because I see Mimi Pond is on the Convention path, from San Diego to Columbus—
https://drawnandquarterly.com/books/do-admit-the-mitford-sisters-and-me/