Iris Murdoch cf Evelyn Waugh

In preparation for putting some kind of roof in place, I installed some supporting wooden struts using a combination of superglue and, where the walls were uneven, Plastic Padding.

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Currently listening to:

Composer of the Week on Radio 3 with host, Donald Macleod. This week's subject is the turn of the century Parisian, Gabriel Faure. Donald Macleod recorded much of the programme in Paris, visiting historic buildings wherein Faure performed and speaking to French experts on the music of Faure.

Actually, Faure looks a little bit like one of  our neighbours.

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Last night's dinner:

Hake, artichokes and anchovies and black pudding.

 

Cost per head: £4.25

Lies, damned  lies and statistics:

The following graph shows the weekly average cost per head of my evening meals over the last 13 weeks ie since I started recording the figures.

The end date of 25/5/13 has been omitted from the x-axis for some reason. But the trend is clear: each week I am spending MORE, not LESS on food - a disgrace!

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Iris Murdoch cf Evelyn Waugh

Still reading and being mesmerised by:

But, brilliant and thought-provoking and, I'm sure, accurate in its depictions of human beings and their behaviours and motives, that it is, I can't stand any of Murdoch's characters. She seems to take it for granted that within any cohort of people - families/friends/workplaces/clubs - everybody is basically mean-spirited.

Maybe she's right; perhaps, that's what people are like.

BUT, if I consider the collection of characters in a typical Evelyn Waugh novel, even his baddies seem attractive to me. One is still confronted in Waugh's books with a wide spectrum of people, from different backgrounds and with different interests, attitudes and motivations. His books are full of characters who fail in some way or who act questionably, yet I feel comfortable with them. I do not feel comfortable with Murdoch's characters: they're all horrible people.

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