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parodies |
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Milton once declared that the purpose of literature was to "justify the ways of God to man". Of course, all he did was to parody the Bible in order to justify his own, rather particular, beliefs about how society and government ought to be ordered. In this spirit, we have decided to justify our own peculiar obsessions - alcoholism, vice, Catholicism, gentleman's tailoring and golf - by reference to great works of literature. And since, like Milton, we lack the originality to conceive of a grand new story to encompass them, we have decided to appropriate other peoples' ideas. As we always tell our lawyers, writing a parody does not involve stealing someone else's ideas. It involve stealing their ideas, improving on their prose and then mocking them. The art is one which developed around the time of the expansion of the British Empire. I cannot think why this might be so. |
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