Session Nine: Parody 'the Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh wrote this book which is not only an easy read, but is filled with vividly humorous characters; the writer has a gift of telling great pranks. Evelyn Waugh through the eyes of the main character Paul Pennyfeather managed to describe and make fun of the social differences of the 1930's in the UK —that still exists today, this is a last hurrah for this unchangeable society, still attention-grabbing for cherished live on old and traditional pattern.

He also really critical of the public school system throughout the book - gets his knowledge from personal experience - as it is the supporter of the privileged. As a young man, he obtained many elite and upper-class friends, and developed a test for country house society.

He can relate to the poorer characters and the social elite in many regards as a journalist he used his experiences meeting wide range of people in his works of fiction.

There is one character to emphasis in the book an architect Professor Silenus, who surely is a direct parody of Le Corbusier who commissioned by Margot to redesign her home, King's Landing. She asked him to "design something clean and square" - that is Faustian. Silenus creates something new ‘surprising of ferro-concrete and aluminium where people like machines and buildings are factories. Silenus’ use of materials and the building’s over the top nature (at that time) seems to identify itself as an example of form over function.