Really enjoyed this piece. I do like your Englishman observations about America. And I’m not going to rise to the defence of English libraries. I wish we did have twice yearly book sales! You’re so right about American busyness. “No Strollers” was the signage I was shocked to read in a very busy art exhibition in New York but I believed it. I took the instruction seriously because I knew the pace in America was pretty fast and it was a very popular new exhibition. I marched briskly round that gallery, feeling quite cross at American insistence on speed, even in art appreciation. And the end I dared to do that most unBritish thing: I complained. And my polite complaint absolutely made an American gallery supervisor’s day because he was able to tell me that ‘strollers’ in this context were not people who walk too slowly through an art exhibition. They are prams and pushchairs, baby buggies. Strollers lost in translation. He suggested I go round again. You take that stroll, ma’am!
As an easily offended fellow-European, I loved this image: "It is not like in England where people dawdle, as if they were all loitering in their own homes, astonished and offended to find someone else wanting to use the doorway they have taken as their resting place."
And as someone who works with Americans, I am very grateful for their active approach to work, even though I am confused by their enthusiasm on a daily basis.
GK Chesterton, writing about his travels in America in 1921: "The approximate difference is that the American talks about his work and the Englishman about his holidays. His ideal is not labour but leisure." And later: "Now that is where the American is fundamentally different. To him the enthusiasm itself is meritorious. To him the excitement itself is dignified. He counts it a part of his manhood to fast or fight or rise from a bed of sickness for something, or possibly for anything ... American energy is not a soulless machine; for it is the whole point that he puts his soul into it. It is a very small box for so big a thing; but it is not an empty box. But the point is that he is not only proud of his energy, he is proud of his excitement. He is not ashamed of his emotion, of the fire or even the tear in his manly eye, when he tells you that the great wheel of his machine breaks four billion butterflies an hour."
To be fair, I believe the US was also the first country to designate a national park. And the park system was greatly expanded by TR, who might actually be the most quintessentially "American" person of all time, in both good and bad ways. But yes, a bias for action can be a problem, for example in our current reckless approach to AI development.
I’m surprised to hear that. My local library (Salisbury) sells books regularly, at very low prices, too. I’ve bought quite a few library “rejects” over the years.
Perhaps it takes a visitor to find charm in so many of the United States' worst qualities: the pointless busyness, the rampant gluttony (and its consequent obesity epidemic), the dangerous and environmentally destructive oversized pickup trucks and SUVs, the necessity of working multiple jobs just to survive, and the self-sabotaging support for Donald Trump. One wonders whether the author's glasses will still be as rose-tinted by the time his stay here winds down.
The devil is in the detail but we are persuaded by leadership of one form or another towards national conformity. In America the drift seems to be ‘go out and get’, in the UK it is along the lines of ‘await instructions’. Fortunately, in both countries, there is enough individual freedom and necessity to get some good things done, and damaging things stopped, (and in both, the results are mixed, the populations overall adjust over time and the trajectory leads ever-so-gently upward… I think).
Love this! It is a treat to have the mirror held up by someone who is careful about what he sees, and who actually likes a lot of what he is seeing. I will say, as a quintessentially busy American, that there are limits to the value of constant busyness. I have had to learn, in midlife, how to slow down. The best thing about this -- and now I speak again as a quintessential American – is that slowing down actually makes me faster. Learning to rest, not to mention pause and breathe, allows me to get more done and also makes me much happier.
The library book sale sufficiently captures the American imagination of community to have found a callout in President Reagan's 1985 CPAC speech as emblematic of "normal" American values: "Perhaps the greatest triumph of modern conservatism has been to stop allowing the left to put the average American on the moral defensive. By average American I mean the good, decent, rambunctious, and creative people who raise the families, go to church, and help out when the local library holds a fundraiser; people who have a stake in the community because they are the community."
Funnily enough I was just reading Bertrand Russell's "In Praise of Idleness" and thought that here, by your lights, was a perfect example of an essay an American would never write.
Except that there is a subculture of Americans who absolutely would write it (overrepresented in, for example, college towns) and they are the exceptions that prove the rule: they busily define themselves by their rejection of what they take to be the ugliest of American values (which is fair enough in principle, given how much ugliness our culture really does include!) and they do so in a self-assertive yet conformist way which is itself quintessentially American, and which de Tocqueville would have readily recognized.
Your perspective on the American Road system is amazing. I never thought of them as winding rivers. I've also found in my travels along with showing friends from other countries that my sense of "time" when driving is skewed. For me, to say "it's only an hour away" or even "it's just 30 minutes" shocks my friends. They look at me like I have 3 heads.
The American pace of "go, go, go" is exhausting and I wouldn't honestly prefer to loiter around.
Really enjoyed this piece. I do like your Englishman observations about America. And I’m not going to rise to the defence of English libraries. I wish we did have twice yearly book sales! You’re so right about American busyness. “No Strollers” was the signage I was shocked to read in a very busy art exhibition in New York but I believed it. I took the instruction seriously because I knew the pace in America was pretty fast and it was a very popular new exhibition. I marched briskly round that gallery, feeling quite cross at American insistence on speed, even in art appreciation. And the end I dared to do that most unBritish thing: I complained. And my polite complaint absolutely made an American gallery supervisor’s day because he was able to tell me that ‘strollers’ in this context were not people who walk too slowly through an art exhibition. They are prams and pushchairs, baby buggies. Strollers lost in translation. He suggested I go round again. You take that stroll, ma’am!
Haha that’s fantastic!
What a lovely anecdote
Thats hilarious! 😂
I had lots of fun reading this comment. And I am neither British nor American. I am an Indian, and have no idea where we fall on the spectrum. 😆
As an easily offended fellow-European, I loved this image: "It is not like in England where people dawdle, as if they were all loitering in their own homes, astonished and offended to find someone else wanting to use the doorway they have taken as their resting place."
And as someone who works with Americans, I am very grateful for their active approach to work, even though I am confused by their enthusiasm on a daily basis.
GK Chesterton, writing about his travels in America in 1921: "The approximate difference is that the American talks about his work and the Englishman about his holidays. His ideal is not labour but leisure." And later: "Now that is where the American is fundamentally different. To him the enthusiasm itself is meritorious. To him the excitement itself is dignified. He counts it a part of his manhood to fast or fight or rise from a bed of sickness for something, or possibly for anything ... American energy is not a soulless machine; for it is the whole point that he puts his soul into it. It is a very small box for so big a thing; but it is not an empty box. But the point is that he is not only proud of his energy, he is proud of his excitement. He is not ashamed of his emotion, of the fire or even the tear in his manly eye, when he tells you that the great wheel of his machine breaks four billion butterflies an hour."
Indeed. I wrote about that. https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2023-01-18-g-k-chesterton-and-work-in-20th-century-america
>breaks four billion butterflies an hour
To be fair, I believe the US was also the first country to designate a national park. And the park system was greatly expanded by TR, who might actually be the most quintessentially "American" person of all time, in both good and bad ways. But yes, a bias for action can be a problem, for example in our current reckless approach to AI development.
I want to know why England doesn't have library sales too! I mean, what happens to all the books they no longer "need?"
As an American living in the UK, I appreciate your observations of American life.
They go to charity shops a lot more who have a tax break which is not available to other shops so I guess it’s all drawn into that
Well, at our local library there is always a shelf of 'unneeded' books for sale. (very cheap) It's very hard if you find one of your own there.
I’m surprised to hear that. My local library (Salisbury) sells books regularly, at very low prices, too. I’ve bought quite a few library “rejects” over the years.
Perhaps it takes a visitor to find charm in so many of the United States' worst qualities: the pointless busyness, the rampant gluttony (and its consequent obesity epidemic), the dangerous and environmentally destructive oversized pickup trucks and SUVs, the necessity of working multiple jobs just to survive, and the self-sabotaging support for Donald Trump. One wonders whether the author's glasses will still be as rose-tinted by the time his stay here winds down.
The devil is in the detail but we are persuaded by leadership of one form or another towards national conformity. In America the drift seems to be ‘go out and get’, in the UK it is along the lines of ‘await instructions’. Fortunately, in both countries, there is enough individual freedom and necessity to get some good things done, and damaging things stopped, (and in both, the results are mixed, the populations overall adjust over time and the trajectory leads ever-so-gently upward… I think).
Love this! It is a treat to have the mirror held up by someone who is careful about what he sees, and who actually likes a lot of what he is seeing. I will say, as a quintessentially busy American, that there are limits to the value of constant busyness. I have had to learn, in midlife, how to slow down. The best thing about this -- and now I speak again as a quintessential American – is that slowing down actually makes me faster. Learning to rest, not to mention pause and breathe, allows me to get more done and also makes me much happier.
Thanks!
This series would make a very fine book. Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent is still fantastic, but now out of date.
High praise!
The library book sale sufficiently captures the American imagination of community to have found a callout in President Reagan's 1985 CPAC speech as emblematic of "normal" American values: "Perhaps the greatest triumph of modern conservatism has been to stop allowing the left to put the average American on the moral defensive. By average American I mean the good, decent, rambunctious, and creative people who raise the families, go to church, and help out when the local library holds a fundraiser; people who have a stake in the community because they are the community."
Love that quote!
Walt Whitman embodies this spirit so well in his verse.
Yes!
Hey I was just at Cox Farms on Sunday... Yes, we write home about the donuts.
Your America posts are wonderful; it's like we get to people watch ourselves!
“Being busy puts them at ease”. Great line. And true
There's no question we Americans love to be put on a Busyness pedestal by the cousins.
Funnily enough I was just reading Bertrand Russell's "In Praise of Idleness" and thought that here, by your lights, was a perfect example of an essay an American would never write.
Except that there is a subculture of Americans who absolutely would write it (overrepresented in, for example, college towns) and they are the exceptions that prove the rule: they busily define themselves by their rejection of what they take to be the ugliest of American values (which is fair enough in principle, given how much ugliness our culture really does include!) and they do so in a self-assertive yet conformist way which is itself quintessentially American, and which de Tocqueville would have readily recognized.
Pig racing??
Indeed
Your perspective on the American Road system is amazing. I never thought of them as winding rivers. I've also found in my travels along with showing friends from other countries that my sense of "time" when driving is skewed. For me, to say "it's only an hour away" or even "it's just 30 minutes" shocks my friends. They look at me like I have 3 heads.
The American pace of "go, go, go" is exhausting and I wouldn't honestly prefer to loiter around.
I really appreciate your writings.
I would imagine no tax on tips is going to be popular, but cause all sorts of problems over time for the IRS