{"id":10549,"date":"2016-08-19T09:38:53","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T13:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=10549"},"modified":"2016-08-19T09:38:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T13:38:53","slug":"from-muriel-spark-the-girls-of-slender-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2016\/08\/from-muriel-spark-the-girls-of-slender-means.html","title":{"rendered":"From Muriel Spark, “The Girls of Slender Means”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a terrific opening:<\/p>\n

Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble<\/a>, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up and up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind\u2019s eye. All the nice people were poor; at least, that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit.<\/p>\n

There was absolutely no point in feeling depressed about the scene, it would have been like feeling depressed about the Grand Canyon or some event of the earth outside everybody\u2019s scope. People continued to exchange assurances of depressed feelings about the weather or the news, or the Albert Memorial which had not been hit, not even shaken, by any bomb from first to last.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(I\u2019m reading this because of Amy Welborn)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a terrific opening: Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[25,1292],"class_list":["post-10549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-england-your-england","tag-muriel-spark"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Muriel Spark, "The Girls of Slender Means"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is a terrific opening: Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. 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