RE: “The Siren’s Song”

Hi Chris – I enjoyed reading the connections you made between Humphry Clinker and Homer, and the obsession with luxury they had then and we still have in contemporary society. In my post, I wrote about Mr. Bramble’s dislike of the people who had a want of taste, and I think he saw this in the country laborers who went to the city for service jobs. Additionally, this shows he valued physical labor over hospitality services, which is ironic because although he lived in the country, he had servants to perform the physical labor for him.

I especially like your example about bread because I think it demonstrates the ways times change. Maybe this isn’t the case for everyone, but in the 90s I remember white bread was more desirable, especially the Wonder Bread brand because of the commercials on TV. However, more recently, there’s been a resurgence of all-natural, whole wheat, organic, etc. foods, and now it’s a luxury to be able to afford these types of food. Your comment about people buying something because it’s marked as fancy or European makes me think of food or businesses with “quality” in their name because it makes me automatically assume it’s crummy, haha.