In the wake of the world wars, and amid the hazy portent of the Cold War, we were too cool, too cynical for the earnestness it requires to believe enough in a monument to construct one.
When Barrington auditioned before W. S. Gilbert, the young actor questioned his own suitability for comic opera, but Gilbert, who required that his actors play their sometimes-absurd lines in all earnestness, explained the casting choice: "He's a staid, solid swine, and that's what I want".
His Facebook page is a font of unflinching earnestness, a mix of the sincere sentimental detritus, tributes to Paul Walker, workout photos, a semimonthly wishing of "Happy Creative" to his followers, and the occasional hint of the full-bore egomania required of all Great Actors from time to time, even when those Great Actors are best known for frowning while pretending to drive.
And earnestness, in its extreme form, requires that language itself be purified, scrubbed of all its puns and double entendres and hackneyed associations -- until, for example, you could use the phrase "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius" with a straight face.
Writing a book about a decade requires the same nice balance of earnestness and pretense.
That requires not only an ever-replenishing source of writers and correspondents, but also an endless supply of earnestness that allowed Stewart to get upset or perform the act of getting upset at each new indignity, every single disingenuous talking point and salvo in the never-ending media wars.
The sentiments are earnest, but earnestness has its price.
"Usually by Take 17 the earnestness is gone".
"Anything else you need, Marvin?" he asked in mock earnestness.
