Word: mannerses
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Not all Pritchett's characters are articulate about their- predicaments. Zuilmah Bittell in Tea with Mrs. Bittell is an affluent widow whose wits have been slowed by gentility. With a head "clouded by kindness and manners and a pride in her relics," she befriends a shop clerk whose companion...
Trilling believes in the old rules: the manner and social graces that went out with parietals and dress codes. When Harvard men moved to the Quad, students forgot the rules. The word manners became a buzzword for "elitist" and style was for snobs. The result? Loneliness.
Currier House became Trilling's symbol for what she disliked at the Quad. She and her husband turned down the Currier apartment offered for their visit. The house which opened that fall reflected "a combination of luxury and mess." She was "appalled at the surplus...the entertainment rooms stocked down...
The advice is weighty. Trilling chooses her words so well she might be reading from her new manuscript. The emphasis on style seems picky, but Trilling is no Emily Post. Social elitism, based on knowing which knife to use for pate, she said, is silly. When used properly style can...
In Radcliffe's case, manners might have made combined housing easier on students. Radcliffe and its students should have known better. You don't suspend rules and expect people to enjoy playing the game.