> On Oct 27, 2009, at 3:37 AM, wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
>
>> There's a great moment in one of Raymond Williams books, I think that
>> it's the Country and the City, where he looks at the English
>> preoccupation with the fantasy of a golden age. He shows how this
>> fantasy is invariably connected to the England of the author's
>> childhood, and that the construction invites an infinite regression
And of course this trope is much older than England. The very phrase "golden age" goes back to when people believed in myths.
My favorite quote on this theme is this one from St. Cyprian from 250 AD:
<quote>
The world has now grown old, and does not abide in that strength in which it formerly stood. This we would know, even if the sacred Scriptures had not told us of it, because the world itself announces its approaching end by its failing powers. In the winter there is not so much rain for nourishing the seeds, and in the summer the sun gives not so much heat for ripening the harvest. In springtime the young corn is not so joyful, and the autumn fruit is sparser. Less and less marble is quarried out of the mountains, which are exhausted by their disembowelments, and the veins of gold and silver are dwindling day by day. The husbandman is failing in the fields, the sailor at sea, the soldier in the camp. Honesty is no longer to be found in the market-place, nor justice in the law-courts, nor good craftsmanship in art, nor discipline in morals. Think you that anything which is old can preserve the same powers that it possessed in the prime vigour of its youth? Whatever is tending towards its decay and going to meet its end must needs weaken. Hence the setting sun sends out rays that hardly warm or cheer, the waning moon is a pale crescent, the old tree that once was green and hung with fruit grows gnarled and barren, and every spring in time runs dry. This is the sentence that has been passed on the earth, this is God's decree: that everything which has had a beginning shall have an end, that everything which has flourished shall fall, that strong things shall become weak, and great things shall become small, and that when they have weakened and dwindled they shall be no more. So no one should wonder nowadays that everything begins to fail, since the whole world is failing, and is about to die.
<end quote>
Michael