[lit-ideas] "Slumming"

  • From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 19:29:57 EDT

 
 
Thanks to A. Amago and E. Yost for their comments on (areas of) NYC.
 
In a message dated 9/6/2004 8:57:01 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
His  prediction was based on what he believed was an integral similarity 
between  Americans and the French. "They both love going someplace dirty," he 
said.  "Sleazy locations make them feel fabulous." 

-----
 
I think this is related to 'slumming', as per some of the quotes in the  OED, 
below.
 
I believe Noel Coward (and Cole Porter) would talk of 'slumming', referring  
to both areas of London and NYC.
 
One of the quotes interestingly mentions London's "Isle of Dogs" as good  for 
slumming. Note that in the use of 'slumming' there is an implicature  ("+>") 
that she that goes slumming is _not_ part of the slums (but cf.  "Vanity 
Fair"). I also wonder if there is an antonym for 'slumming'?
 
Cheers,
 
JL
 
---
 
'slum' -- street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a  
town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor; a  
number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighbourhood or  
district where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and  
wretched character. Chiefly pl., and freq. in the phrase back  slum

(s). Also  rarely, a house materially unfit for human habitation.  
'to slum'. To go into, or frequent, slums for discreditable purposes; â??to  
saunter about, with a suspicion, perhaps, of immoral  pursuitsâ??. 

1860 in Oxford use. 
 
1865 Slang  Dict. (as Cambridge Univ.  slang).

â??To keep to back streets to avoid observationâ?? (Barrère and Leland, 1897).
 
To visit slums for charitable or philanthropic purposes, or out of  
curiosity, esp. as a fashionable pursuit. Also with it. Freq. in phr. to go 
slumming 
(see  SLUMMING). 

1884 Referee 22 June (Cassell), 
 
A wealthy lady went  slumming through the Dials the other day. 
 
1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 
 
A party of young  fashionable people of New York thought they would go a 
slumming. 
 
1887 Good  Words 238 
 
He had taken tea  hundreds of times in workmen's houses; he had â??slummedâ?? 
so 
far back as 1846. 
 
1899 W. JAMES Let. 8 Feb. (1920) II. 88 
 
Kipling knows  perfectly well that our camps in the tropics are not college 
settlements or our  armies bands of philanthropists, slumming  it.

The visitation  of slums, esp. for charitable or philanthropic  purposes. 

1884 Chr.  World 22 May 391/3, 
 
I am not one of  those who have taken to â??slummingâ?? as an amusement. 
 
1894 D. C. MURRAY Making of  Novelist 87 
 
Slumming had not  become the fashion at that time of  day.

b.  attrib., as slumming expedition, party. 

1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 
 
The slumming party  engaged in conversation audibly. 
 
1888 Cath.  Press 18 Aug. 272/3 
 
The Isle of Dogs has  recently been the scene of some new slumming 
expeditions for the ladies.



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