I exaggerate, the kinder of you may say. But I repeat, without rancour if not entirely without rue, that I know this to be the case, because I know my country. I know the tribes of Britain. I have seen fifty summers, and during the course of my life I have long been fascinated this side obsession by the caste, class and clans of my people. We may not wear physical gourds on our intimate persons, but we certainly wear notional ones, and our war dances, face paints, initiation rituals, fetishes, tattoos, taboos and blood feuds are no less fascinating to the anthropologist than those of the tribespeople of Papua New Guinea.
But as Kipling wrote and Billy Bragg repeated, what do they of England know that only England know? My travels in the last year or so have taken me to Mexico, Brazil, Malaysia, Madagascar, Uganda, Kenya, New Zealand, Indonesia and, more importantly for this occasion, to every one of the 50 states of the USA. I was in America for the run up to the presidential election, but for the ballot itself I was in Kenya, the homeland of course of Barack Obama’s father. I asked a Kenyan with whom we were working whether he was pleased that America looked to be about to have its first black president, and one of Kenyan extraction at that? ‘Very pleased,’ he replied. ‘But you must remember Mr. Obama’s mother is of European extraction. If Barack Obama had stayed here and been elected as our leader, he could have become Kenya’s first white president.’
My love affair with America began – began where? Perhaps with the berolling bevalleys of betwattled absurdity that were the National Geographic films, perhaps with the lifestyle advertisements in those National Geographic magazines, perhaps with Wagon Train, Rawhide and The Lone Ranger or with Bewitched, Dick van Dyke and Lucille Ball on television. Not, with rock and roll I’m afraid. Elvis never did much for me, apostasy as I’m sure it is to confess. Nor did Blues or Jazz or R&B at that time. Certainly not Steve McQueen. I have always disliked cool. For me it is simply another word for cold. But Spenser Tracey, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn – they certainly helped me fall in love with America. Although to be honest gangsters, cowboys, dancers and movie stars weren’t, as they were for so many, the real pull. A major influence on me was P. G. Wodehouse. He adored America and ended his life a proud US citizen. He first went in Edwardian days when, as he later recalled, you could simply pop into a shipping line office in Cockspur Street, buy a ticket and be on the boat train to Southampton in an instant. No nonsense about passports and visas. Everything Wodehouse wrote about the energy, vivacity, warmth, welcome and excitement of America thrilled me and I vowed to go there myself as soon as I could. I little thought that one day I would have a Manhattan apartment of my own, a green card and even be made a Kentucky Colonel. It’s true. One doesn’t like to boast, but Steve Beshear, the Governor of the State – actually the Commonwealth of Kentucky – bestowed that rank upon me, uniquely in the gift of Kentucky, last year. Unlike Harland Sanders of Fried Chicken fame, who was accorded the same title, I don’t use it. But if you choose to call me Colonel Fry I shall certainly answer and with pride. But all this lay ahead of me in a future I could not possibly imagine.
I had American family too. Those from my mother’s side who survived the horrors of the holocaust went to Israel or America or both. All that is, except for my mother’s parents who chose to make their home here in England. American relations would descend into our drab early 60s British world of grey weather, grey trousers and grey attitudes dripping colourful slacks, pants and jackets, sparkling jewels, thrilling cameras, perfumed furs and expensive tchotchkes of all kinds. They brought these treasures to us in Pan-Am or TWA overnight bags or ‘grips’ that also contained thrilling trophies of their jet travel: miniature salt cellars and pepper pots, paper napkins bearing the airline’s crest and foil sachets that held moist lemon-scented cleansing squares, or ‘handy freshen-up wipettes’ of unimaginably exotic strangeness and wonder. Over these precious souvenirs my brother and I would fight like wild beasts. Back home in the states, as my Yankee cousins made clear by their astonishment at our conspicuous lack of them, they had ice machines, air conditioning, stereo sets and colour televisions. Damn it, in Britain even our TV was grey. In my eyes my American cousins were little short of gods: their basketball sneakers shamed my plimsolls, their t-shirts laughed at my short-sleeved air-tex and their Levi jeans made a blushing disgrace of my bagged corduroys. The details of suburban American living I think excited me more than the mythology of the West or of Chicago’s South Side or of the surfers of Santa Monica. I liked trying to understand what bake-offs, yard sales, drive-in movies and spelling bees were, what sophomores and semesters might be and what homecoming queens and commencement and proms and Spring Break and Elks and Shriners and pledge rings and trick or treat could possibly portend.
Actually, I came as close to being British as you did to being American. Sadly, my grandmother was only 17 years old and not allowed out of the country, to emigrate to the UK in 1938.
What an impressive lecture, so much to take in! I shall have to read it a third and fourth time to grasp it all. Thank you very much for sharing a transcript of this lecture with those who were unable to attend.
Very good but, er, it’s Tom Paine, not Tom Payne.
What an excellent lecture! As a half-American I fully appreciate and agree with Colonel Fry’s observations. Though I live in Europe, and have done so for more than half my life, I often feel the pull of the land of my birth, precisely because of its constant contradictions and delicious diversity. A fabulous read on Independence Day. Well done Colonel Fry! I do hope you’re wrong about the water issue, while indeed serious I can only hope that the US will do as Churchill once said: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.â€
If nothing else, the idea that for any stereotype of Americans there is an opposite stereotype… well, I would consider that quite true. Though I think that, upon close inspection, the same can be said of many places that possess a diverse population.
A very pleasant read. Thank you for helping me kill 40 minutes between patients.
This was something I really enjoyed reading. Thank you.
Excellent lecture, Colonel Fry! And some interesting theories. As an American on the more cynical end of the spectrum, much of it resonates quite deeply. I was in Kenya myself the summer before the election and had some intriguing conversations with people there about Obama as well.
Your delineation of the Western world is quite thought provoking; I never thought of it that way before. But one wonders where to place the Islamic Golden Age, the predecessor of the Enlightenment, in all this. Or the rest of the world, for that matter, if Plato’s imaginary creation myth is to apply to all of humanity; on top of which is the fact that most immigration to the US after the 1950s has indeed been from non-European countries.
A great read– thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the transcript. Now I need to stretch for the dictionary as always after reading Fry. It is such a pleasure though.
Excellent, and putting some thoughts into words that I can really agree to.
Also, I learnt at least ten new words. Love it.
A well-tailored discerning lecture. I enjoyed it very much. My bleary sunday-morning eyes found it to be very percipient, appercipient, apperceptive, wait I think there are a few more words in this thesaurus….yes, here we are, funny. How much more enjoyable it would have been to have heard your voice evoke each nuance out of the wonderful, dear I repeat, wonderful, syllabic variety found in this wonderful lecture.
Would love to hear your views on Canada.
Love your work, Cheers.
Interesting to hear your struggle/juggle(!) with identities, what am I, what could I have been in national terms? Currently reading the following book: The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation and Hope are Reshaping the World by Dominique Moisi. A man of a certain age, highlighting some of the dynamics of the world we currently face. Not all to be agreed with but a good frame of reference.
On behalf of the United States I wish to thank you for all the unsweetened learning, language and literature you’ve been sending across the Atlantic. Please accept our heartfelt gratitude for Pop Idol and [Your Country Here]’s Got Talent, for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Survivor and Big Brother all the other glories of reality television, for Maxim and the rest of the lad mags, for Rupert Murdoch and the chav Doctor Who. Mr. Fry, you are being far too modest. The truth is that for the last 20 years there has been no greater vector of pure crap than the United Kingdom. These days when it comes to taking the lowest common denominator and dragging it lower than anyone ever deemed possible, Hollywood comes to London to sit at the feet of the masters and become wise. Mr. Fry, you have got a lot of fucking nerve.
Oh, and here’s a bit of bad news: When the United States relinquishes its place at center of the world stage, as all civilizations must, it’s not Europe that’s going to take its place. It’s China.
Wonderful as always, Colonel Fry. Having lived in England for an (all too) brief period, I always love reading anything that takes on the cultural exchanges and contrasts between our two countries.
However, I do have one point of contention, humbly submitted for your consideration. Had African-Americans, in the early part of last century, not condensed the pain and degradation they had endured for centuries on our continent, combined it with the spirituals they sang as they toiled on plantations, added sugar, and sold it, the world would never have had the blues.
America had never been much for the arts– we have a few novels we’re proud of and that’s about it. But we do have the blues, and that’s got to be one point in favor of sugar.
Fantastic stuff. Some of it’s hard to see, but as somebody from the more bitter-ish end of the American spectrum, I’d say it’s pretty accurate.
Your analysis of battles over water is pretty accurate too. In fact, that’s happening in the Southwest part of the US right now. People who buy land in New Mexico are finding out the hard way that one must buy the water as well as the land rights – from whoever happens to own them. If they don’t, they will be very, very sad. In Colorado, our state government has just given us the right to put up a rain barrel and collect the rainwater – which previously belonged to the state and the local water district. Hard to believe, but it’s true.
Thank you. As a Canadian/’Murican mix now living in central Ohio I share your fascination with this great sugar-enriched society.
Sadly the printed word can only hint at the full glory of your address; oh to hear it spoken. To hear all the undercurrents, the emphasis and the occasional suggestive change in timber.
I close wishing you a great summer; only as hot as you might enjoy.
Stephen, I have recently become a US citizen and am now too lazy to read more than a paragraph. We need your lecture on YouTube!
Loved your description of the movies and the old Bell & Howell projector–what memories it brought back! I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face, remembering the silly, stilted language of those horrid, boring movies.
Personally, being a fully-fledged American somewhere in the middle of the cynical to gullible scale, I think it’s in the American character not to lead, but to tell everyone else where they should go and make sure they do it, damn it. Or to go off in a random direction and tell everyone it’s the only one, even though we have no clue where we’re going or what we’re trying to achieve. “Follow the shoe! Cast off the shoe; follow the gourd!”
Water battles are unknown in New England, where I live. Our most recent water-related battle was fighting the installation of an underground natural gas pipe that would stretch from the CT coast across Long Island Sound.
But I think if anything succeeds in dividing and conquering America, it will be not over natural resources or religion or politics. It will be over a fabricated issue devised by marketing strategists to polarize the country. We came very close to that during the Bush (43) administration, and it could easily be done again, and more effectively.
What a delightful lecture, thanks for sharing it with us.
Being British, and having lived in America for a bit, I came back with a sense that, yes, there is a general lack of lack of scepticism in America, but, as you rightly point out, everything requires a balance. We British can often take our scepticism too far and, at its worst, let it be taken as a replacement for wisdom.
America’s opposite trait, while sometimes maddeningly confusing to a British visitor, allows for an for openness towards, not only new ideas, but also their fellow man (both of which are terribly lacking in the UK).
I know it’s not a competition, but I can’t help myself wondering:
In the end, would it be better to be the wiser man who has little faith in humanity, or the more gullible one who treats those around him with a more open heart? Surely it is more important to be a better parent, son/daughter, friend, neighbour… *person*, than to be always “right” about everything.
It’s nice to think that both sides of the Atlantic could learn from each other (on reading this back: we British really do have an inflated sense of our nation’s importance, don’t we?), but then it does make you wonder if a sceptical American would still have all the traits we admire.
Couldn’t you fit this into a tweet?
You’ve hit an soooo many erudite observations that I’m bedeviled and bedazzled to know where to begin. Probably shouldn’t begin anywhere, but simply say that I never grow weary of your writing. You may not be a Rock Star, but you are a Word Star. You Jimi Hendrix language and ideas and intellect into a purple haze of humor, excitement, and (with the help of a weighty dictionary) understanding.
BTW, you’re quintessentially English. *braces for bludgeoning*
BTW2, it’s been a while since I saw “The Ninth Gate”, but I remember chuckling at that scene you described, not because he merely nuked his dinner, but because he casually tossed the ENTIRE box in the microwave without removing the frozen foodstuffs and properly perforating the package.
BTW3, you did use “comprised of” at one point which I know you know is a pedantic no-no.
BTW4, Um . . . that’s it, I think.
BMW5 Series Gran Turismo combines the stylish elegance of a luxury limousine with the flexibility of a station wagon and the versatility of an SAV.
How tedious grammar lectures are…
From one Atheist Southern American to an honorary Atheist Southern American: these are beautiful and highly respectable insights. It is the amalgamation of American belief, optimism and opinion that makes me love and loathe my country simultaneously. I couldn’t leave it for all the money in the world…and boy, am I broke.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
A very insightful lecture, Mr. Fry. I love your command of the language and your reinterpretation of the lemonade cliche. The final sentences especially made me chortle–is that the milkman’s cheery whistle I hear?
It’s always interesting to hear the U. S. described by an outsider (though I hardly dare call you “an outsider” as you have seen more of my country than I have). One of the themes you picked up was Americans’ anti-intellectual bent, on which so many scholars and analysts within the country have also expatiated. Maggie Jackson in _Distracted_, Mark Bauerlein in _The Dumbest Generation_, Susan Jacoby in _The Age of American Unreason_, John Taylor Gatto in nearly everything he has ever written, and The National Endowment for the Arts’ massive study on Americans’ reading non-habits, to name a few.
Yet the problem of American anti-intellectualism remains and worsens. And it’s not for a lack of proposed solutions–or even implemented solutions–or a failure to recognize the underlying causes. All of these have been noted.
So why does the problem remain? It sounds a cliche, but I think that to some extent, lack of awareness is one reason. Whenever I give my university students an article to read in which the author points out Americans’ anti-intellectual bent, and I do this frequently, I literally hear my students say things like “Shoot….I never realized this was a problem.” And then they want to change, and they almost instantly become more serious about the development of their own minds. So we proceed one person at a time, I guess.
By the way, if you’re ever curious to hear Christian intellectuals (no, really, they exist!) grappling with complex cultural, philosophical, scientific, legal, historical, artistic, and linguistic issues, check out the Mars Hill Audio Journal (http://www.marshillaudio.org). You might find them Quite Interesting, or you might laugh or recoil in disgust. I’m not sure how you’d react. But for myself, I appreciate their contributions to ongoing conversations, as I appreciate yours.
Thank you! I enjoyed reading your reflections!
One thing that must be said is that Barack and Michelle Obama share a European disdain for the American people. Like almost all liberal American elites, they loathe the country that they now govern.
Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine Europe sending 400,000 young men to die defending America. Imagine Europe then spending 40% of its defense budget defending America for 4o years. Bet you can’t do it.
At any rate, you won’t have America to kick around much longer after Obama finishes his term. Hope you like the emerging Chinese hegemony.
Robert Fiore – did you even read the lecture at all?
Incidentally I think Big Brother is Dutch (unless you’re having a pop at Orwell). Rupert Murdoch is Australian.
I discovered, aged about 24, that my parents had tried to emigrate to Australia when I was about 4, but were just short of the required points to be allowed to go. I became instantly convinced that I would somehow have been better off if this had happened and wondered what my accent would have sounded like. I still feel a bit of a pang about it, and still feel somehow cheated of this imaginary life I never had. I’m so glad to find out that I am not the only person to have had such an experience!
“I believe it is not in our character, American character, to follow — but to lead. ”
To me, Obama’s words hark back to that smarting remark by Kevin Conrad (the PNG delegate at the 2007 Bali summit). Speaking of the US administration’s reluctance to promote or even acknowledge the need to tackle climate change he told them “If you don’t want to lead, then get out of the way!”
…Which, in line with Stephen’s conclusion about following, they did!
# KTDP says:
July 5th, 2009 at 9:38 am
A very pleasant read. Thank you for helping me kill 40 minutes between patients.
Dear KTPD, As a patient waiting for an operation, I can only hope and pray you got that sentence the right way around.
They try so hard to be, ‘The land of the free’ and in most part I think they succeed…..
The world would be a much less colorful (sorry colourful) place without their rich tapestry of wide and varied contributions to music,visual media, sport, fashion et al
Nothing like a little honest straight forward personal truth to wake up to in the morning. English breakfest vs American breakfast. Good on you!
Really apt (as usual) observations. As an American living in London for the last four years I totally agree.
And you are spot on about the water. I grew up in Las Vegas and lived in LA before I moved here and the rate of water consumption is no where near sustainable.
“It is a land of opportunity and yet there are more seventeen year old black youths in prison than in college.”
Here’s a great entry for a General Ignorance sequel! Putting aside the fact that most 17-year-old American students of all races would be in high school, The Washington Post, among others, has debunked this myth. There are far more young African-American men in college than prison.
Excuse Mr. Fry for an off-beat topic. We decided to watch Jeeves & Wooster yesterday and I noticed something interesting… Did you ever thought of Wooster and Jeeves as of Oblomov and Schtolz? To me there’s a certain analogy but some particular differences. I’m under such impression from the latter book.
You revere Chekhov but what about Goncharov? In this romance he’s all over so much and effortlessly deep in all everything as well.
You have indeed sweetened your essay Mr. Fry. “They left their miserable. peasant hovel.….and blighted potato fields and sailed the Atlantic.…restless desire to move on and make something of their lives”. How very clean and tidy. You conveniently forgot to mention the forced Clearances in Scotland (to make room for sheep!), or the mass immigration of the Irish due to starvation, eviction, disease and failure of the government to feed it’s people while grain was exported. They boarded the ‘nasty’ coffin ships because the British rulers considered them disposable and wanted them gone, out of sight – out of mind. The choice was not “chose to move or chose to stay”, but rather “chose to live or chose to die”. Almost 35 million Americans are of Irish ancestry, and 20-25 are of Scottish. I am proud to claim both in my family tree. The croft “hovels” were Home in every sense of the word. Your excellent brain did an excellent job omitting the integral facts which led up to the immigration. Our “Ambition. Improbability. Belief” were born out of necessity and survival. The immigrant’s children carry the history and scars through time. In true American fashion we will always pick ourselves up from our boot straps but we will never, ever forget – nor let you forget either.
You did it again, Mr. Fry. You concentrated every bit of genious and delight that there is and shaped them in the form of words. And I must say I enjoyed the result to the very last letter.
Although I am Spanish I more or less share your point of view about the States. You can’t define a whole country with a few words anyway, as perfecly gathered together as they are, so your compilation of ideas is far more than acceptable. I loved every bit of it.
Thank you very much for sharing this piece of joy with us.
P.S: I laughed so much with the San Sebastián story. So Spanish to laugh to everyone else’s alimentary habits!! If only the rest of the world learnt how to eat, we could rest at last and let them alone. But that’s only a dream, I supose.
Just as it is ridiculous to define USA by generalisations the same applies to Britain, specifically England. Reading some of these comments and the lecture, I do not have a self important attitude, I know we are a little island in a big sea, I don’t and never have drank warm beer. I can quite proudly say I have never seen, smelt or hunted with dogs a cucumber sandwich.
If you tell someone they are stupid for long enough they will believe it. If you recite banal generalisations people will believe them. This will undoubtedly keep hacks happy.
As a miserable british person, I found this absolutely fascinating. I have gained a new perspective on Britain/America… Genius! To both ridicule and praise at once, it seems what makes us all so bloody useless is also our saving grace. Personally I hate coffee and adore 2.5 sugars in my tea, but I still cling to the belief that I am as adult and sophisticated as anyone!
(The smiley face rather negates this sentiment I’m afraid)
Stephen must have missed seeing or hearing about North Dakota’s beautiful Badlands in the western part of the State near Medora. The Turtle Mountains near the Manitoba border are a beautiful part of the state, and so are the many river valleys: those of the Missouri River, the Sheyenne River, and the Des Lacs River are three examples.
Hi Steven,
Just joined. Dont know where to say a general hello. I didn’t know you were gay till I saw you on Ferguson. Welcome to the club.
I love you in Wooster and Jeeves. I bought the DVD boxed set and saw every episode. Yes you were excellent in Gosford Park too. I must admit thats the extent of your work that I am familiar with. Hope to learn more about you and this site.
Thanks,
Poloman