>one of the characters eulogizes George IV’s reign as “holiday time for people intent upon promoting the greatest happiness of the smallest number,” notes scholar Winifred Hughes.
This seems rather applicable to now as well.
Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
71–80 of 93 posts
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would look like the 25th Amendment being exercised.
It’s generally agreed upon by constitutional scholars that the 25th amendment wasn’t designed for that, and that trying to use it in that way creates some nightmare scenarios. Specifically it gives the president the ability to challenge their removal and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. If Trump had been intubated with Covid or suffered a stroke, then the 25th amendment would have been…
>... and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great.
Why not? Sounds like it's roughly tantamount to giving the cabinet the power to impeach the President. Given the natural restraint on that power in that the cabinet is appointed by the President, I'm not sure I see any problem there.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#73I wonder about the premise: we need a plot of of number of romance stories by setting year.. my guess is that modern pulp romance outweighs all others.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not talking about myths under a precise definition (as in stories to make sense of the world), rather mythology in the rougher sense of the way we think about our ancestors and people from the past (in the vein of "the good ol' days" or in contrast "the dark ages") also, "who is trying to influence" seems to imply some sort of distinct actor (with agency) doing it based on some definite agenda. but I don't think…
But how does this relate to the article?
my original post answers the question posed by its title (but in an unrelated way)
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s generally agreed upon by constitutional scholars that the 25th amendment wasn’t designed for that, and that trying to use it in that way creates some nightmare scenarios. Specifically it gives the president the ability to challenge their removal and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. If Trump had been intubated with Covid or suffered a stroke, then the 25th amendment would have been…
>... and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. Why not? Sounds like it's roughly tantamount to giving the cabinet the power to impeach the President. Given the natural restraint on that power in that the cabinet is appointed by the President, I'm not sure I see any problem there.
>Sounds like it's roughly tantamount to giving the cabinet the power to impeach the President
Congress also the ability to impeach the President. Congress couldn't get the votes to do remove the President from office ... so your partisan solution is for the cabinet to find a reason to remove the President? Why? Because you don't like how your fellow citizens voted?
How about this: Vote him out in the next election? Oh that actually happened! And Democracy survived!
For all the talk about Trump, the opposition is perfectly willing to destroy every single norm and democratic institution just to get him.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would look like the 25th Amendment being exercised.
It’s generally agreed upon by constitutional scholars that the 25th amendment wasn’t designed for that, and that trying to use it in that way creates some nightmare scenarios. Specifically it gives the president the ability to challenge their removal and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. If Trump had been intubated with Covid or suffered a stroke, then the 25th amendment would have been…
> It’s generally agreed upon by constitutional scholars that the 25th amendment wasn’t designed for that...
Well, we sure had a bunch of "constitutional scholars" saying that the 25th should be invoked for exactly that. If you want to claim that those people were random people pushing their viewpoint rather than actual scholars, I could accept that. But if you're saying there's a general consensus among the experts, I wouldn't mind seeing a credible source to that effect.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I demured on the fact that British society could put a psycho executive in restraint while my country, a supposed enlightened democracy (the US), can not. To be clear, this is a partisan political opinion that borders on authoritarianism. You may not like Trump, but he was democratically elected. So prey tell, what would "restraining" a democratically elected 'executive' look like? Remember, any rule you define has…
It would look like the 25th Amendment being exercised.
What are you talking about? Remove Trump for what reason? Because you don't like him and so you're willing to discard the votes of half the country just get him out?
Insanity.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#78Coincidentally, started "Bridgerton" on Netflix just yesterday. Mills and Boon brought to the screen basically so bound to be a ratings winner, a lot of fun but with clever contemporary twists like a completely multi-ethnic aristocracy at which no character turns a hair.
I think it's mostly just a way of making the show more visually interesting. Take a look at those dance scenes, and then compare it to a shot from any other regency romance movie. The faces in the latter all just blend in to one another; everything looks like a big blur.
The ethnicity is largely ignored. There's one interesting passing reference to it -- the idea that it's a recent phenomenon that could easily be reversed -- but they spend little time on it.
It's not authentic, but of course nothing about Bridgerton is authentic. Queen Charlotte's skin color is no wronger than her clothing, which is more 1770s France than 1810s England (and not really authentic at that, either). The Duke of Hastings' skin exactly matched that of the real Duke of Hastings -- since Hastings was a Barony.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s generally agreed upon by constitutional scholars that the 25th amendment wasn’t designed for that, and that trying to use it in that way creates some nightmare scenarios. Specifically it gives the president the ability to challenge their removal and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. If Trump had been intubated with Covid or suffered a stroke, then the 25th amendment would have been…
>... and have the senate adjudicate, which would be decidedly not great. Why not? Sounds like it's roughly tantamount to giving the cabinet the power to impeach the President. Given the natural restraint on that power in that the cabinet is appointed by the President, I'm not sure I see any problem there.
My wording was unclear. Having the Senate check on the 25th amendment is a good thing; the cabinet should not have the power to depose the president just because. That’s clearly a very dangerous power to just leave laying around like that.
What’s bad is having a very much awake and ambulatory Trump arguing in front of the Senate that he should be back in power. That’s a political nightmare, and far worse than Congress using its powers to expel the president on their own initiative. It’s much better for our body politic for Congress to impeach and save the 25th amendment for less politically ambiguous situations.
Re: Why Are So Many Romances Set in the Regency Period?
#80Today I learned there was a short period of history called Regency and I demured on the fact that British society could put a psycho executive in restraint while my country, a supposed enlightened democracy (the US), can not. I actually found the article wanting. I could not turn to a colleague after reading it and explain why this period was an ideal setting for romances. I learned who some of sources of romance in…
That literally just happened, and democracy was the process by which it occurred.
Barely. Even now there are a great many people -- tens of millions -- who believe that democracy failed.