h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At one point today, I felt a bit like Philip Larkin.

If you're ever considering doing so, I would advise against it. It's rather enervating, and it can only be described as one of the less joyous half-hours of my life.

I had to deliberately channel Marvin The Paranoid Android just to improve my mood slightly afterwards.

(I also used to be a werewolf, but I'm all right noOWWW! )
(But that's a story for another day.)

I have an aversion to Philip Larkin, which I developed in the Sixth Form. Due to this I've never bothered much with his work since, so I don't know if it's justified.

Our A level English class was recommended to attend an evening class on Eng Lit being offered at the local community centre. One of the poems by Larkin we read there was "Wedding Albums" (at least, I think that's what it's called) It was about young mothers at a playground and what vapid people they are.

I have never been an out-and-out feminist but I was very affronted by the thought that Larkin considered everyone who had a baby to not have a brain. Even at 17, I could imagine that most of us girls in the group would be just like those young mothers in the foreseeable future, and tried to point out to the teacher (who was, I think, a lecturer from Cambridge) that (a) not all mothers at playgrounds are idiots and (b) what's wrong with having babies and taking them out into the fresh air?

He had no idea what I was talking about - perhaps in my ire I didn't explain properly.

From what you say, being Philip Larkin is obviously a very sad place, and I'm glad I have managed to avoid him.

In fairness to Larkin, I think he considered everyone apart from himself to not have a brain, not just young mothers. I do value his verse, but it always seems a bit shallow. It is the art of taking unoriginal ideas and expressing them in words that rhyme and stick to metre.