I had read the last part of this quote before, but here's more context to what C.S. Lewis was saying:
"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
Why did I think of this quote? Well, the primary thing was Pearce talking about catching 'the "comics are for kids" disease' on his blog; but there was also elements of Sok's blog, where she talked about the old = bad/young = good thing in advertising and the like. I guess there's an age that's meant to be an ideal, and any deviation from that is substandard. (At a guess, the age is probably mid-twenties.)
As of this point, I choose to declare my own age and interests as my ideal. It makes perfection a lot easier to achieve. ;)
***
I went home during lunchtime - never a very good idea, since that cuts about half an hour out of my break by itself. However, I'm glad I did so, since that means dinner just needs to start cooking, and since it's a casserole, it will take a little longer than usual. (Chicken pieces, onion, garlic, potatoes and carrots, plus various herbs, paprika, tumeric, a pinch or two of chilli powder, a shake of ginger, some green herb stock, and the Monteith's Golden Ale I'm trying to use up - I might add mushrooms and zucchini once it's been cooking for a while, and maybe some flour or cornflower to thicken the gravy (though the onions should help). I hope it turns out well.)
My brother Phillip and his wife gave me a cookbook stand yesterday when I drove up to Foxton with Erik and dad. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to deploy it in our current kitchen environment - we've only just started to get a grip on the current sprawl. I guess this gives me that little bit more motivation to find a place after this - a place with a nice, big, well laid-out kitchen.
I feel I should point out that, despite what reading this blog might lead you to believe, the others do actually cook. :)
***
I'm waiting around for other people to leave, since there are a few things that I want to do that involve taking things down and bringing them back up. I guess this makes up for taking off early yesterday. :)
Posted by svend at October 1, 2004 5:21 PM