Saturday, June 27, 2026

Which Reminds Me

Yes, I do think that ChatGPT does a good job of concisely summarizing what there is to say about the use of the term "bourgoisie" in the 19th century. Our high school readings of Dickens, Ibsen and Balzac were other titles, but generally speaking the term obviously has a negative connotation. Nowadays, this term is almost never used, except maybe in some historical context as a phenomenon that existed before the world wars of the 20th century. I do not think that I would recommend its use, maybe not quite in a legal sense as bad as calling someone a crook, but there it is in the dictionary nonetheless. 

And what was that Edith Wharton title that you were trying to throw at me, something about a single woman who descends into drug addiction after exhausting her marriage and societal options? What a depressing thought. And later I went and tried to read a Wharton book, and I never did get past the first chapter. Absurd. Not everything in literature is worth reading. Needless to say.