ah another post from
Ginny since I started writing - yes, yes, not changing this post but much in agreement...
So glad
Bellamarie you pulled us all together as you had earlier pulled the issues we discussed all together.
Pat your boil is always the refinement of the issues - great skill - how you get there would be fascinating to read.
Ginny terrific - great choice - I wonder though if we would have plumbed its depths so quickly if this was a first time read - I'm curious - remember you said you saw something different this time when you read and contemplated the story compared to the way you saw the story years ago - Ginny what was the difference you noted.
Glad
Sue you popped in - great question.
As to regret - hmm - seems to me we would be injecting our own view of choices - Did Lord Darlington feel regret I wonder - he acted with good intent and a good heart with what he knew and yet because of learning Hitler had no intention of creating peace and in fact shocked the western world to its knees with behavior beyond anyone's imagination it is too easy to point a finger and say - see what you wanted to allow with your secret negotiations. Sounds like intent has no place in our acceptable lexicon of individual efforts towards a peaceful solution when people and nations are at odds. The only room we make is as the book says to label these intents no matter how good or pure as a wasted life.
How often do we engage another being naive ourselves, with good intentions, but we blow it because we do not have all the information or, because we trust and can only imagine someone's behavior based on our vision that people are basically good. Having been betrayed by people who you trust is a painful, numbing, soul altering experience and that is Lord Darlington's experience. Then for others to throw salt in that huge cavity of a wound by saying his life was wasted - sorry I see people dressed as red and black devils throwing pitchforks in what is left of an emotionally destroyed man.
As to Stevens feeling regret - I doubt it - he was always on a razors edge - to be a great butler or give into his feelings and be denied the opportunity to be in the same room with the great leaders he could say he met. We sure have seen many a movie about success that required so much that the wife and family became comma's - often when success is achieved the growth is so great the wife did not have the opportunity to similarly grow and he takes on a different partner or we have the Stepford wife who is also about being the perfect wife at the expense of parking her feelings -
This either/or plagued the royals till this generation reached maturity - we started with Margaret, who to be correct as a minor royal player had to let go of her love because he would be divorced and then later she rebelled, never to be the same - Then we had Charles saying his childhood was lonely and unhappy, he marries out of duty but did not go for greatness as Stevens but instead, took on the ire of the land by divorcing and marrying for his feelings. And Andrew is a strange one. Not only divorced but his ex, Sarah still lives downstairs in the house where he lives upstairs - so far, William is pulling it off combining duty, dignity and his feelings - Harry we will see, he has already moved out of the royal compound and he does wear his feelings on his sleeve.
I think the 60s brought a major shift on many fronts or actually the late 50s - relations, the acceptance of Divorce, the concept of getting in touch with your feelings, the idea that all war is wrong, women are equal and need to go for their dreams, less classics taught in high school or required for a degree in collage, men can and should take an active role in caring for children - on and on - I see this story as being "Of The Day" Days that accomplished all they could so that since the 60's their required choices we find difficult to admire.
I do not remember the exact quote - I did not underline it when I was reading Petrarch - writing to his brother he said it takes time to be a Christian - also this Renaissance poet, author, collector of ancient texts, known as the “Father of Humanism” wrote to Boccaccio, "if he stopped working, “I should cease to live. . . . I desire that death find me reading and writing.” He died near Padua on July 18, 1374, leaning over a book of Virgil’s poetry."
The idea that to be a Christian takes time was a new concept when I read it however, I see it takes time to be more than craftsmanship like excellent in a career as well as an engaged father/mother - we see how many of the homemaking skills from past generations are no longer learned by young women or part of a career women's daily tasks from sewing to cooking - something had to go in order to have the significant jobs women expect today -
If being a Christian takes time then it stands to reason it takes time to give attention to your inner and emotional life. Giving attention to your feelings and still be successful on the job also takes time - in the 30s and during the war, 10 or (11 counting an hour for non paid lunch) six days a week was usual.
I still remember in the early 50s it was unusual to have a job that did not expect you to work at least a half day on Saturday - The US Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which limited the workweek to 44 hours. June 26, 1940 and only later amended it to a 40 hour work week. HOWEVER, get this...
"Working hours in the UK are currently not limited by day, but by week, as first set by the Working Time Regulations of
1998, which
introduced a limit of
40 hours per week for workers
under 18, and
48 hours per week for over 18s. This was in line with the European Commission Working Time Directive of 1993. UK regulations now follow the EC Working Time Directive of 2003, but workers can voluntarily opt out of the 48 hour limit.
A general 8 hour limit to the working day has never been achieved in the UK. Stevens was handling a great house when long days of work were normal, during a time of decreasing resources but increasing significant meetings with world leaders as compared to his father. Preparing for a shooting party is one thing, preparing for a party to prevent nations shooting is another. Stevens appreciated that opportunity while Miss Keaton was pursuing an alignment of the heart that ended up more like the war, without bullets, trying to be avoided upstairs.
We can all question our choices but given the story in that time, any regrets meant taking the other road that, as we saw Stevens dismissing as a problem staff that chose to leave service for marriage. As for Miss Keaton feeling regret, would be over her imagined love that was never really there. And so regret for Mrs. Binn would have been her lost wish that was no different then the thousands of young women who lost their love to the battlefield and got on with it.
Plus
for the story to be
The Remains of The Day - for that time in history with all its work ethics and British world influence to be the
remains, it had to stop with the symbol of those remains - a childless, dignified English Butler.
OK I had great fun - thanks for the opportunity - not sure about the mini but onward - sounds like a change to the remains of our days discussing books here on Senior Learn in order to keep up to date. ah so... and such is life...
