Absolutely hop in, I was soliciting opinions after all!
Personally, I still am leaning toward thinking that it's not self-deprecating humor, that Bertie is actually supposed to be that naive and has literally no idea what poor/middle class people's lives are like and never thinks about it at all. I don't see a ton of evidence that he's aware of his own melodramaticness and isn't just unironically stating how he feels and what he's realized. Maybe if I re-read the series (it has been a while) I would see that he comes across as smarter than I remember and I would be giving him the benefit of the doubt. I read cuddyclothes's Orwell excerpt and that all makes sense to me and pretty much fits with how I've read the series - gentle, affectionate satire done very sympathetically. I just think in this case Bertie's revealing his ignorance/being a tad stupider than usual. But I can see it the other way too. Who knows! If only we could ask PGW.
Weirdly enough it's actually in the NSFW thread rather than the Lounge thread. I think it was supposed to be sexual but then we got philosophical instead. Check out the most recent bunch of comments at the end of this thread.
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Personally, I still am leaning toward thinking that it's not self-deprecating humor, that Bertie is actually supposed to be that naive and has literally no idea what poor/middle class people's lives are like and never thinks about it at all. I don't see a ton of evidence that he's aware of his own melodramaticness and isn't just unironically stating how he feels and what he's realized. Maybe if I re-read the series (it has been a while) I would see that he comes across as smarter than I remember and I would be giving him the benefit of the doubt. I read cuddyclothes's Orwell excerpt and that all makes sense to me and pretty much fits with how I've read the series - gentle, affectionate satire done very sympathetically. I just think in this case Bertie's revealing his ignorance/being a tad stupider than usual. But I can see it the other way too. Who knows! If only we could ask PGW.
Weirdly enough it's actually in the NSFW thread rather than the Lounge thread. I think it was supposed to be sexual but then we got philosophical instead. Check out the most recent bunch of comments at the end of this thread.