(no subject)

Thunder and rain last night, so I sat up and finished Rosemary and Rue. Which is reasonable enough, and have ordered vol 3 from the library, but I must note one oddity. Possibly I was scarred by learning Japanese, but my mind insists that breezy familiarity is not the way one goes about addressing one's liege lord. 'Oh, but he's her friend!. And so is his wife! Formality is saved for nasty snow queen figures! *Good* kings are greeted with 'Hey, So-and-so.' That's how we know they're good.' American convenient fictions: 'we are all equal', 'we are all friends,' and 'close is good, distance is bad.' Hence one can never be on friendly terms with a person whom one addresses politely, and vice versa.

But then there's Gladstone's Tara addressing her boss and mentor. No 'Hey, Elanyes' there. Because formal manners and distance are just fine in (pseudo)corporate culture and (quasi)law firms. Ironically, it's courts alone that don't require courtesy.
( The one poem where Wallace Stevens makes some kind of sense )