Questions from miss_newham

[cosmolinguist]

1. I think of you as an Anglophile - would you agree? If so, when would you say these tendencies started?
Being me, I made this question incredibly complicated. I wondered if finding and meeting and liking and being engaged to an English boy is enough to turn one into an Anglophile. In my case, I think it'd have to be; I cannot think of any other reason I'd have claim to that title. But then, what do I know about the reasons for thinking of me this way if I'm not sure I think it in the first place?

I asked several of my friends if they think I am an Anglophile and whether an English fiancé would be sufficient cause to make me one.

Someone said I was because the last year's worth of journal entries has been all "the UK is better than the US", which is sort of disappointing actually because I hope not to be so adamant about such sweeping generalizations. Plus, it'd get quite monotonous after a year! You poor helpless readers.

I asked Andrew and he said that if I was an Anglophile it was only because England was the best place ever and thus another word for Anglophile would be sane.

I asked someone else and he said that it depended on what was meant by Anglophile. That delighted me, because it was the response I wanted, because it was the first thing I'd thought of myself upon reading the question. I don't like labels. Maybe because I don't understand them. But to have difficulty with them seems so snobbish, so ... post-modern! And post-modern is certainly not a label I want.

I do like some things about England and the English,* but that's only because I've had the good fortune to be exposed to them. I didn't have any pre-existing infatuation. If I met a Swedish or Indonesian boy and visited him, I'd probably find things I like there, too. But I don't know the words for liking those countries; Anglophile is a recognizable word either because Andrew's right and it's best, so a few people have managed to catch onto this, or because it's a place people (largely, I suspect, people from the US) idolize. I choose the latter, of course. Fairly or not, I associate Anglophilia with a certain kind of probably-young person who's seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail and thinks they understand all of British comedy and history, who has a Union Jack on their bedroom wall, who thinks Hugh Grant's or Colin Firth's accent is just dreamy.

And I'm not those things.

Though I guess I am pretentious and snobby after all. Sorry about that.

No, really, I am!

2. Do you write fiction or poetry as well as your journal?
I've tried to write poetry, but I don't think I really get it. Everything ends up sounding like prose cut into shorter lines, which I know is wrong even if I don't know quite what to do about it.

I take the occasional stab at fiction, but it always comes to naught. Either I quickly run out of ideas, having no clue what happens next by the time I get to page four, or I let myself get all perfectionist and editorial right away, or I just realize it's crap and give up.

All this NaNonsense on my friends page makes me wish I was so ambitious, but I'm sure I'll settle back into inert contentedness soon, without having written a thing.

3. Tell me a band or a song I should check out right now.
If I remember correctly, my last attempt to introduce you to a good local artist went over well, and you even repaid the favor with several excellent suggestions from your little island. This time I fear I cannot give you a CD (not yet, anyway) and I don't know how easy it'll be to find the guy otherwise—though I have managed on certain ahem Internet downloady things, and actually I just heard tonight he signed a major-record-label deal, so who knows?!—but I think you might like Mason Jennings. I certainly do. He's not as wide-rangingly clever and weird as Stuart Davis, but he's appealing to some of the same people; he has a nice voice and writes good songs. And he's from Minnesota!

4. Where is comradexavier these days?
He lives in a nice apartment in one of the nice suburbs, working a cushy job. He still plays video games where he nukes the world and drinks a lot of cherry Coke. I still get to see him occasionally; a couple of weeks ago he met a friend and I for Italian food and then we went to his place to watch some of his newly-acquired Firefly DVDs.

5. Why do YOU have one of these here journals, then?
Because when I was moaning about how I hadn't written anything in the last couple of years, a friend said, "I'll give you a code for a LiveJournal." (Because you used to need those!) I had no idea what she was talking about, but I soon did. It's still the only thing I write, as your prevous question already forced me to admit.

That's one of the major reasons I continue it, I suppose, but the major reason I enjoy keeping it is the social stuff: the comments, the IM conversations, the CDs in the mail, the offers of loans when we really need them, the offers of a place to stay for a night or two when we really need that ... the impending marriage! It blows my mind, the things LiveJournal has done for me.

Long before any of that, I was worried I was too obsessed with it ("Oh my goodness, a post every single day?! For this whole month?!") but, as my journal's subtitle says, I really did learn to stop worrying and I really do love the LiveJournal now. Hopelessly, unconditionally, perhaps unhealthily. But at least I can admit it.

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* The questioner did not ask, but since I feel like elaborating, here are some things off teh top of my head: Deep cynicism. The way you can tell from which newspaper someone reads what kind of person they are, and conversely, you can tell which newspaper someone would probably like if you know what kind of person they are. Radio 4. Tolerance for, even expectation of, eccentricity. That "irony" thing we never got around to in the Midwest. Really difficult quiz shows on TV, and the fact that lots of people actually watch them. Sporting events that routinely take several days. £2 coins. The decreasing-but-still-huge variety in accents.

Comments

[quuf.livejournal.com]

What a great picture. I call it, She who cannot be fooled.