His cousin is a miner and the nationalised industry supplies each collier with concessionary coal. ‘The prison house of language’? Arthur sees little threat from the underclass that has emerged to replace it, bred by welfare dependency, believing even at his age he is capable of defending himself against such feeble individuals. Wiggins rides a 56 . The older generation aspire to a television set. People like Arthur didn’t do Aldermaston marches. Follow on Twitter. Ay, by God, it's a hard life if you don't weaken, if you don't stop that bastard government from grinding your face in the muck, though there ain't much you can do about it unless you start making dynamite to blow their four-eyed clocks to bits.” ― Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Hence his work rate is subtly adjusted so the time and motion people don’t dock his wages. Posted by Paul C at 4/24/2015. It was the era of You’ve Never Had It So Good played out against the ever present clatter of the Raleigh cycle factory where Arthur could earn as much as fourteen pounds a week as a lathe operator. 0. bigdaveskinnytyre Posts: 218. The Angry Young Man of Alan Sillitoe’s 1958 novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning did have what we might describe these days as an unhealthy lifestyle. It's a hard life if you don't weaken. Care to share? It is interesting to have someone in the 1950s fantasising about destroying every television set in his street. He is vaguely anti government on the basis that government gets us into wars and then requires the likes of him to fight them. Quotes.net. Web. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Thanks for your vote! It's a hard life if you don't weaken. 0. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award. BILL HARTLEY is a freelance writer from Yorkshire. Emily Carr . A Place to Reflect. Bill Hartley contemplates the decline of a once fractious class. LIAM GUILAR, Private Colleges to Revive the Humanities. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Newer Post Older Post Home. Other spare time activities of the non public house kind were restricted to football and chasing after women. Arthur Seaton is a survivor of the old working class still wanting to smash the television, seeing it as the portal of a movement to keep the masses quiet whilst maintaining them as consumers of things they don’t really need. Your email address will not be published. Cheers to Good Quotes. Rodrego Hernandez Posts: 1,436. It's a hard life if you don't weaken. Share: Stephen King life life lessons. Arthur’s rebelliousness has a clarity and simplicity forged by recent memories of unemployment hunger and war. Growing up, I remember my Dad saying, “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” I looked up the origins of this saying, and found that it was featured in a cartoon a long time ago, that has been attributed to John Buchan, a Scottish novelist, unionist and Canadian politician, and that it has been used as song lyrics, first by Maurice Chevalier and later by the Tragically Hip. It's a hard life if you don't weaken. Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest. Learn how your comment data is processed. Required fields are marked *. 475 Quotes and Questions for the … He may have been right. September 2011. wjcrombie wrote: Most recreational riders ride bikes that are to big for them. The Raleigh cycle factory was not so lucky (they make them 20% cheaper now in Vietnam). Email This BlogThis! Food was generally fried whether cooked at home or brought in from the Fish and Chip shop; the only form of takeaway available in 1950s Nottingham. There are some social observations voiced by Arthur which were well ahead of their time. Being told ‘you’re entitled to it’ is an expression Arthur would have interpreted as another form of submission to authority. Seen through Arthur’s eyes the crime and decline of the city are simply elements of change. They need never again worry about an unheated house. STANDS4 LLC, 2020. Most of the factories are gone and whilst he hardly seems to regret this he notes the decline of working class solidarity forged in adversity. Father has adapted and survived. Despite Birthday giving the reader a tour of 21st century Nottingham this is no exercise in nostalgia. He would have been contemptuous of a life on benefits. When we first meet him he is about to collapse down a flight of stairs having consumed thirteen pints and seven gins. Sillitoe revisited Arthur in his penultimate novel Birthday. Thanks for the responses, have tried it without the cable and it's definately the caliper. Also tried the front brake which springs back quickly with an audible ping when the cble is undone, so it must be the spring Is this just a case of taking the brake apart and fiddling with the spring a bit? We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Arthur has though survived into the new century, doing so on his own initiative. . September 2011. Arthur was astute enough to broaden his skills, learning how to operate every machine in the factory so he could take his know-how elsewhere. 8 likes . Then there was the smoking that could be done anywhere during Arthur’s waking moments: home, factory or pub. Arthur’s ironic motto is: ‘it’s a hard life if you don’t weaken’. 25 Oct. 2020. September 2011. I'll be hard at it, sweating me guts out at that lathe. The book features a brief appearance by Arthur’s feckless son. it's a hard life if you don't weaken. Perhaps but television has made us more familiar with a new working class figure. He knows government doesn’t listen and his is a daily battle with an authority that he believes is out to grind him down. Stephen King attitude quotes , deep quotes about life , inspirational quotes , inspirational quotes about hard times , inspirational quotes for difficult times , life quotes , quotes about attitude , quotes about positive attitude , short deep quotes about life Arthur’s ironic motto is: ‘it’s a hard life if you don’t weaken’. ~ Stephen King - Where could you show some vulnerability? 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He reserves special contempt for those striving to ascend the greasy pole and join the boss class, particularly since Arthur is astute enough to notice that taking on even a modest level of responsibility at the cycle factory, adds an additional layer of stress to the physical effects he feels from grinding out hundreds of pieces each week: the back aches and occasional bouts of sickness he believes are caused by the lubricants he has to handle. Health and safety was in its infancy back then. It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was adapted by…, More Saturday Night and Sunday Morning quotes », Saturday Night and Sunday Morning's quote, Keep only enough possessions to survive, give any surplus of possessi….