book 2 | a day called pieces of all

From a CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD STORY ''PRATER VIOLET'' written in 1945

''You have never been inside a film studio before? '' 

'' Only once, years ago''.

'' It will interest you as a phenomenon. You see, the film studio of today is really the palace of the sixteenth century.

There one sees what Shakespeare saw; the absolute power of the tyrant, the courtiers, the flatterers, the jesters, the cunningly ambitious intrigues.

There are fantastically beautiful women. There are incompetent favorites. 

There are great man who are suddenly

disgraced. There is an insane extravagance and unexpected parsimony over a few pence. There is enormous splendor, which is a sham; and horrible squalor hidden behind the scenery. 

There are vast schemes, abandoned because of some caprice.

There are secrets which everybody knows and no one speaks of. There are even one or two honest advisers. These are the court fools, who speak the deepest wisdom in puns, lest they should be taken seriously. 

They grimace, tear their hear privately and weep.''

greatness (ADJECTIVE):
(Definition from Wikipedia)


is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person, object or place. The concept carries the implication that the particular person or object, when compared to others of a similar type, has clear and perceivable advantage. As a descriptive term it is most often applied to a person or their work, and may be qualified or unqualified. 

sham

 (NOUN):

(Definition from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

1 [singular] a situation, feeling, system, etc. that is not as good or true as it seems to be2 [countable, usually singular] a person who pretends to be something that they are not3 [uncountable] behaviour, feelings, words, etc. that are intended to make somebody/something seem to be better than they really areTheir promises turned out to be full of sham and hypocrisy.His intellectual pretensions are all sham.

pun

 (NOUN):

(Definition from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

pun (on something) the clever or humorous use of a word that has more than one meaning, or of words that have different meanings but sound the sameWe're banking on them lending us the money—no pun intended

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