New Slang

A firmly held conviction was decidedly shattered this week, after I spent some time with a lovely little volume titled The Affection Provincial’s Companion: A Bounteous Selection of Essays, Philosophical Diagrams, Poetry, and other Arcadian Follies Concerning the Art of Curious Living and the Reintroduction of Ancient Charm into this Vale of Mud and Tears Known Heretofore as the Modern Life.  Before encountering this delicious tome, I had consciously avoided books that presented themselves as handbooks or guides to a particular kind of lifestyle—especially when it’s supposed to be funny. These are the kind of books that you will find on table displays as you wait in a long holiday line at the bookstore, or advertised on a page of “stocking stuffers” in the Sunday Times.  Snotty literary hack that I am, I have made a habit of unceremoniously dismissing these books without giving them a chance, assuming that they are fluff, inconsequential and completely devoid of any useful information.

However, upon taking a chance with The Affected Provincial’s Companion, I now stand corrected. Although this book fits into all of my above categories, I found that I immensely enjoyed it, and I learned a lot as well. Meant to both illuminate the general public and serve as a reference on the life and activities of self-described “dandies,” the book was written by one Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy. The first surprise I had with this text was how genuinely delightful and funny it is. Anyone who revels in the English language will take special pleasure in the deliciously verbose prose style employed by Lord Whimsy. Take the following passage, in which he describes the difference between bohemians and dandies:

Dandyism seems to flourish when cultures arrive at a baroque, overdeveloped stage, when other more obvious, robust creative avenues have exhausted themselves; when one might say that dandyism draws its delicate calligraphy between the margins of bohemianism’s broad cultural strokes

Bohemianism tends to avoid or reject the normal, but dandyism moves beyond normality by traversing through it: Dandyism either exaggerates normality or elevates it from within. The dandy enjoys the gamesmanship of pushing against convention without breaking it; in fact the dandy is quickly bored by the bohemian’s transgressive bombast. (5)

See what I mean? It’s funny and smart and interesting all at once. Can you honestly say that you knew what was meant by “dandyism” before reading the above passage? I can’t, and, honestly, I can’t say that I cared very much either. But, after reading the first few pages, I suddenly wanted to know more: Lord Whimsy, do keep talking. And he does, for 158 pages of hilarious subjects including: “The Joys of Lepidoptery,” “How to Become a Bon Vivant,” “The Rake’s Grommet,” “Silk on the Nipple,” and “The Moment of Truth; or Assessing one’s Man-Antler.” In case, you’re wondering, yes, a “Man-Antler” is just what you think it is.

The Affected Provincial’s Companion is a genuinely funny book that will surprise you with its interesting minutia and wacky diagrams (such as The Whimsy Bohemian-Dandy Continuum). Finding a consistently funny book is actually harder than you think it is, and having one to fall back on is not such a bad idea. With the dark and stormy winter approaching, it might behoove you to keep such a light and laughing text at arm’s reach.