Britney and the City.

“But soon the road grew white, and the walls likewise; and at wall’s foot grew long grass and gay flowers, all drenched with dew; and instead of the groaning of the pit-engine they heard the skylark saying his matins high up in the air, and the pit-bird warbling in the sedges, as he had warbled all night long.” – Water Babies

As Tom and Mr. Grimes leave the Charles Kingsley makes it apparent they are leaving behind them the dirt and degeneration of the city. As they leave the city things begin to turn white, an indication of purity and cleanliness. Nature begins to take precedent over the industrialised, machinated city. The sounds of the pit-engines fade away and they are left with the regenerative sounds of nature, in the form of the skylark, to listen to.

Kingsley uses the song of the skylark to show the divine aspect of nature. In the quotation the skylark sings his matins. While meaning “the morning song of birds,” it also means “[o]ne of the daily offices appointed in the breviary of the Western Christian Church, usually taken as forming (with the following office, lauds) the first of the canonical hours” (“matins” def. 1b OED). It was designed to prepare the people for the first mass of the day. Here it indicates that as Tom and Grimes are leaving the city they are about to enter something holy and the songbird is preparing them to commune with the divine.

It seems to me that as Kingsley Romanticised the country, we seem to prize the values associated with the city. With our insatiable consumerism and fast-paced lifestyles, we rarely leave our comforts to enjoy the restorative aspects of nature. It is apparent, from the above passage, that the ultimate goal of Kingsley was communion with the restorative aspects of nature and this could not happen without leaving the city.

Starlet Britney Spears was born in a rural Louisiana town called Kentwood. Population: 2656. As her career took flight it drew her to the destructive city like a moth to a flame. It seemed the more her career became successful, the more power the city had over her. We watched as her moral character degenerated from the lovable girl in the Mickey Mouse club to the vampish young lady we saw in the Slave 4 You video. We watched also as she married a young no-so-gentleman named Kevin Federline.

With today’s 24/7 “news” networks, every step of Britney’s degeneration was documented. From her alleged child abuse to the nervous breakdown she suffered when she shaved her head. Not a detail was left out. One wonders if Britney has ever read, let alone ever read Kingley’s Water Babies. If she had, she would have realised that city living ain’t easy and perhaps it would have been better for her moral character, and ours, had she never left the quaint, upstanding, rural town of Kentwood. But then again, there’s no million dollar record deals in Kentwood.