Interlude: A Moment or Two in Lost Arcadia

Nocturne in Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (1872-1875). James McNeill Whistler. Tate Britain.

After a slew of big posts, I want to change tack and look at things that are more contemplative, restful, and get at currents under the surface.  From about 1995 to 2005, I noticed that the European fin-de-siècle was back in fashion.  Fascination with the era from 1870 to 1920 persists: the Steampunk movement, Proust, H. G. Wells or Lovecraft fans come to mind. This period is our lost Arcadia.  (Arcadia, a region of modern and ancient Greece, became synonymous in the late nineteenth century with idealized nationalist utopias.)  People greeted the new century with confidence, certain that the twentieth century would bring great changes - equality and reforms.  They used the term 'Arcadia' to describe a late Romantic reverie that laid the groundwork for things to come, whether fantastic or terrifying.  For a beautiful tribute site to the styles of this period see the blog, The Pictorial Arts, especially this recent post and this post.  There is a great site devoted to the era of picturesque postage stamps here.

Music for the Last Sunday Afternoon of the Summer

On your way to a café?  Or sleeping in, having brunch, settling in to watch football?  Sunday afternoons, especially as summer draws to a close, are filled with frozen moments of happy times mixed with frustration at all we still have to do in the year.  There's also a lingering low-key depression the seasons begin to turn, a Proust-like nostalgia.  Over at Andrew Scott's blog, there's a post entitled "Another Summer": "Summer 2010, will not be back, ever."  I know summer doesn't technically end for a few more weeks, but for most people, this weekend is the turning point.