I like
I like this post over at CentreRight. I like it because it’s a classic of its kind. I like the way, like articles on anti-Americanism, is invokes a polymorphous, all-purpose sneering ‘intelligentsia’.
I like the way, like articles on anti-Americanism, it makes the howling error of mistaking anti-Englishism for anti-the terrible-things-some-English-people-do.
I like the way if leaps from the disapproval of the whingeing of a prince fed up of being photographed in nightclubs, to an assault on ‘multiculturalism’. I like the way it feeds the stereotype of the poor, put-upon, white, and middle class little Englander.
But most of all, I like the way the author, when decrying the decrying of England and English values by the ‘intelligentsia’, uses the French phrase soi-disant when he could have just used self-styled or so-called. (And this in an article invoking Orwell who was scathing of what he called ‘pretentious diction’.)
How very multicultural and unEnglish.
Posted on March 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
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But most of all, I like the way the author, when decrying the decrying of England and English values by the ‘intelligentsia’, uses the French phrase soi-disant when he could have just used self-styled or so-called.
Touché!
Or as I believe they say up here in Hibernia - Stitch That!
I particularly appreciate the way that the writer him or herself never belongs to this effete class of ivory tower pinheads, but is in some way the authentic voice of the working class.
Invocations of effeminate foodstuffs - down two fingers.
Accusations of snobbery and disdain towards ordinary folks - three fingers.
Hang about commenting in the right places, and sooner or later someone who makes five times your annual salary will call you an elitist, at which point you have to finish your drink.
You’re rather kind, Justin, for not pointing out that the post you link to can’t even spell `soi-disant’ (Does anyone know if it should be plural or singular in the context of the original post?)
To be fair to the original poster he keeps it short. The odd thing is that his lead in is that quote from Harry, which to me reads as “I don’t like *being in* England”. So the whole thing is bust even before we get onto the Kureishi quote.
With the adjective ’soi disant’ the ‘disant’ remains the same in the plural so the usage in the piece was correct, but arch.
[...] by cabalamat on 2008-Mar-03 Justin at Chicken Yoghurt is rather scathing about a post on Conservative Home: I like this post over at CentreRight. I like it because it’s [...]