Dear Sumal and Holmesians,

"Stiff upper lips" is exactly how one may have described the Britishers of the
last Century. I confess I do not know if it still holds true though.

Those familiar with the works of PG Wodehouse, perhaps the world's most
well-known humorist, would be familiar with the character of Bertie Wooster who
always aims at keeping a Stiff Upper Lip, even if it costs him the services of
his personal gentleman's personal gentleman, Reginald Jeeves (over the matter of
the Alpine hat), or even threatens to spoil his wonderful bachelor life by
dragging him to the marriage altar on various occasions.

It is possible, though, that in some cases the stiff upper lip was probably
due to an inherent belief in the saying that the Sun never sets on the British
Empire and that whatever happens, however bad, must invariably lead to a happy
ending for the concerned Englishman. All he needed to do was sit back and relax
and wait for happier times, which surely were just around the corner.

What do you think?


Sridhar
sumalsn <no_reply@...> wrote:
Dear Holmesians,

"Sherlock Holmes would be useless in real life, because he relies
absolutely on people conforming to type". That is, he is a reflection
of the Victoran idea of a stratified society, which itself was a
reaction to the industrial revolution. Once you are aware of this,
you see it all the time in the books. Any cockney with a Pink'un
showing out of his pocket nessesarily cannot resist a wager

Another fascinating things about the Canon is their horror of
displays of emotion. Persons in distress who visit Baker st are
either stiff-upper lipped or raving madmen who faint on the doorstep
and such like. The message is that if you give in to emotion, then
it's stepping off the edge of an abyss. And, of course, stiff-upper-
lipp`edness is connected to social class.

How true is this passage? Can we discuss this?
Sumalsn







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