Saturday, December 12, 2015

Cultural echoes

I have not ever noticed the similarity before, I wonder if there is a connection.

One of my favorite songs is Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd in which there is a striking line (emphasis added).
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.
I always thought that was original to Pink Floyd and always struck me as a jaded but apt description of many British. I would describe the British trait as stoicism, which I think is admirable, but I can see where that might be shaded into quiet desperation.

But was Thoreau perhaps an inspiration? In Walden Pond from 1854,
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
I don't know. Perhaps it is simply a cultural echo.

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