Thursday, 16 October 2008

Brownismus

A lovely word, I think. It doesn't apply - yet - to Gordon's magical system, whereby he throws our money at the banks and they carry on sulking and refusing to play ball. The word Brownismus apparently relates to the theories of a Dr Brown of Edinburgh, which - if Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower (an excellent novel) is to be believed - were popular in German intellectual circles in the 1790s. Dr Brown, according to Fitzgerald, 'held that to be alive was not a natural state, and to prevent immediate collapse the constitution must be held in perpetual balance by a series of stimuli, either jacking it up with alcohol or damping it down with opium'. He was wont to prove his point by delivering lectures with a glass of whisky in one hand and of laudanum in the other, sipping alternately from each. This strikes me as an excellent solution to the problem of existence. But who was this Dr Brown? Did he really exist? Or is he an inspired invention of Fitzgerald's? Any ideas?
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5 comments:

  1. Sophie King16 October 2008 at 11:43

    Judging by Bryan's first post of the day he is in need of both whisky and laudanum. Go forth and minister, Nige.

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  2. Nige16 October 2008 at 11:51

    I know - he will take these personal comments personally... Actually it is surprisingly - and quite disproportionately - discouraging to get negative comments on a blog - I'm not quite sure why. Happily I'm just too goddamn lovable to get many...

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  3. Sophie King16 October 2008 at 12:05

    Ooh, you're fishing, Nige. And in any case, some of us don't know who you really are which makes slinging insults much more difficult...

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  4. Mark16 October 2008 at 12:31

    Google is surely your friend. Apparently he did exist. See here and search for his bio in the list. A pretty difficult life by the sound of it, with debtors' prison, eight hungry children, hopes of preferment from the Kaiser dashed by an impostor and then a sudden end (or maybe overdose). One can see just from these brief details why such a roller-coaster of a life might make for a good novel.

    Laudanum and whisky are a bit messy, imho. If you want something that sets you up just right, try porridge.

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  5. Nige16 October 2008 at 13:19

    Thanks, Mark - that's brilliant. I've printed it out for later perusal - looks fascinating...

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