The grace of non-intervention is the disgrace of intervention. The disgrace of intervention is the disgrace of help.The disgrace of help is the disgrace of no injury. The disgrace of no injury is the grace of injury. The grace of injury is the grace of violence.Violence is intolerable. Grace is inspiring. Inspiring intolerance is uninspiring tolerance. Uninspiring tolerance is the illusion of non-inspiration and the illusion of tolerance. The illusion of non-inspiration is the reality of inspiration and the illusion of tolerance is the reality of intolerance.A reality of inspiration is a history of inspiration, which is a non-history of non-inspiration. A non-history of non-inspiration is a non-experience of non-inspiration. A reality of intolerance is a history of intolerance. A history of intolerance is a non-history of tolerance. A non-history of tolerance is a non-experience of tolerance.The experience of inspiration is the experience of intolerance - the literal experience of being inspired is the literal occurrence of violence.Authority is inspiring - censorship is inspiring.Censorship is the lack of style - the lack of style is inspiring

The message of "Brideshead Revisited" is that people who don't believe in God are superficial. Charles Ryder, the narrator of this novel, exemplifies this principle. He is all about art and the pleasures of the palate. That is to say, his interests are in the realm of the appearances. He leads a sensuous existence. He becomes fascinated with the Flyte family. They are a bunch of Catholics, though of various sorts, from the devout to the lapsed. But in any event, believing in God as they do, their lives have depth and significance. Almost unconsciously, Ryder is drawn to the Flytes for that reason.If Ryder were just a man who enjoyed the arts and liked to dine on good food and drink, it would not be so bad. But he lays it on so thick, with language so flowery and ornate, that one cannot help but think that he takes himself way too seriously. For example, in the novel, when he encounters Lady Julia Flyte after not having seen her for some time, he says:"She was not yet thirty, but was approaching the zenith of her loveliness, all her rich promise abundantly fulfilled. She had lost that fashionable, spidery look; the head that I used to think quattrocento, which had sat a little oddly on her, was now part of herself and not at all Florentine; not connected in any way with painting or the arts or with anything except herself, so that it would be idle to itemize and dissect her beauty, which was her own essence, and could only be known in her and by her authority and in the love I was soon to have for her. Time had wrought another change, too; not for her the sly, complacent smile of la Gioconda; the years had been more than 'the sound of lyres and flutes', and had saddened her."I don't know about you, but if I found myself sitting at a table with someone who talked that way, I would plead a headache and bolt for the exit. Her head was no longer quattrocento indeed! And did you catch the bit about la Gioconda? He's not satisfied with comparing her to the Mona Lisa, which would be absurd enough for anyone but Nat King Cole. He has to refer to that painting by its Italian name, just to put us ignorant philistines in our place, who had to Google the name to find that out.Of course, Ryder talks this way because the author, Evelyn Waugh, put those words into his mouth. Perhaps this was Waugh's way of ridiculing people like Ryder who don't believe in God, showing them to be affected as a way of compensating for a life that is hollow and without significance. But then, since Ryder's narration takes place after his conversion to Catholicism, it appears that if someone is insufferably pretentious to begin with, his believing in God isn't going to make much difference.As far as the adaptations go, there is a change that I found interesting. When Ryder is dining with the Flyte family in the novel, Sebastian refers to Ryder as an atheist, but Ryder corrects him, saying he is an agnostic. The 1981 mini-series follows the novel in this. But the movie version produced in 2008 reverses the dialogue, so that when Sebastian says that Ryder is an atheist, "Bridey" (Lord Brideshead) says, "An agnostic, surely," to which Ryder emphatically denies being an agnostic and asserts that he is indeed an atheist.I suspect that the reason for this reversal of terms is due to the change in connotation of the word "agnostic" between 1945 and 2008. At the time the novel was written, the word "agnostic" was sufficiently scandalous and shocking for a character like Ryder. By the late 1960s, it had lost its edge. It suggested someone who was wishy-washy, someone who didn't want to appear naively religious, but was still hoping for some kind of afterlife all the same. By the turn of the twenty-first century, this shift in meaning had become even more pronounced. Only by changing Ryder into an atheist could his conversion to Catholicism actually seem to amount to something.

What I get as the main theme from this remake of "Brideshead Revisited" (2008) is not the issue of the relationship between the two young college men. I believe the theme is the universal struggle between the material and the spiritual, the practical and the impractical, and the rich and the poor, all elements which were and are part of the situation created by the British class system. Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) has risen from the merchant class of England to attend Oxford, where his roommate is the son of an English lord. Inevitably, Charles is invited to spend a holiday at the roommate's ancestral home, where Charles falls in love with the roommate's twin sister (Hayley Atwell). When Charles makes known his feelings for the young lady, he is more or less led to believe the family considers himself unsuitable because he lacks the wealth and family background the Fylte family wants.I agree with another poster who noticed the Fylte family members seem cheap and decadent rather than wholesome and polished as they were in a previous film version that starred Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. I too was disappointed in the Fylte family of the 2008 film being overly casual, flippant, and somewhat cheap and shallow in their remarks and behavior, but perhaps the director planned all this to show that the family was going downhill. It is Charles Ryder who minds his manners, shows respect and politeness, and conducts himself as a young gentleman should. Since the 1880s, many titled British and European families wanted their young people to marry American millionaires for their money, obviously, to maintain their estates. The American millionaires wanted to buy European titles to impress people. Acquiring more wealth does seem to be the aim of Lady Marchmain, the mistress of the Brideshead estate. As British society is coming near to the beginning of World War II, the class system is breaking down, and middle-class young people like Charles Ryder are improving themselves through education and work and are surviving because they know how to adapt and how to be resourceful.As the plot progresses, it is obvious the Marchmain family members do not suffer so much from a lack of money as from a lack of sound judgment, the right values, and common sense. It is painful to see how blind they are to the consequences of their choices, the changing society all around them, and the inevitable effect World War II will have on them.

The cast is first rate with Emma Thompson (who should be made a Dame by now) and Sir Michael Gambon as the Lady and Lord of Brideshead. Their children include Bridie (Ed Stoppard plays him); Sebastian (Ben Wilshaw plays him beautifully, a tormented soul); Hayley Atwell (plays Julia); and there is Cordelia (forgotten the name of the actress who plays her). Anyway, Brideshead is a beautiful but haunting place where this family who is also devoutly Roman Catholic with a strict mother played by Thompson. She is disappointed that her children Sebastian (a homosexual and alcoholic) and Julia (promised to marry a Catholic) are disappointments to her and her faith. As we see in the Venice, Italy scenes, not all Catholics are faithful and staunch as the Lady Marchmain. In fact, Lord Marchmain lives in sin in Venice with his Italian mistress Carla (played by Greta Scacchi). All of this involves a newcomer Charles Ryder, an artist at Oxford University, who befriends Sebastian. He becomes his friend and companion. I don't know about their relationship apart from the kiss. But Charles becomes enamored with Brideshead and Julia, Sebastian's beautiful sister. They have an unusual love triangle. Of all the characters in the film, I felt the worst for Sebastian. Emma Thompson did deserve an Oscar nomination for her performance in this role. It's worth seeing if you're a big Thompson fan.