tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post3576799363963469312..comments2023-10-12T08:22:23.927+01:00Comments on Island Hopping: The old school tieUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-67768607040710756302011-02-25T20:37:56.833+00:002011-02-25T20:37:56.833+00:00Mr Young, thank you for your most unexpected comme...Mr Young, thank you for your most unexpected comment.<br /><br />I am sure that you, sir, understand very well that life is a terribly bad novelist. One must weed out the irrelevant and click together the interesting to make a story. That was my way, at that time, of spinning facts and feelings into a coherent whole with a backbone and a conclusion. (And a bit of moral superiority for good measure)<br /><br />So, yes, my experience at Eton had by then made me a tad "chippy" as you say, and on the other hand you are of course very well entitled to your standoffishness and under no obligation to find me likeable. Whatever your reasons for that, they are your own and none of my business.<br /><br />Yet natural human curiosity keeps us asking ourselves "why", and when trying to understand people's actions and reactions one has to try and empathize with them, and I know that in order for me to be standoffish towards someone (as I have way too often encountered around here), he must have done me great wrong. Doing this to someone I don't know at all would make me feel vile and subhuman. So I need to find some reasons, and those just fit in wonderfully with the story.<br /><br />Funny though that you should only choose to comment on that bit.Scholarlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04972614858510093075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-74595091674691196712011-02-24T01:07:06.754+00:002011-02-24T01:07:06.754+00:00Didn't meant to be stand-off-ish and it certai...Didn't meant to be stand-off-ish and it certainly wasn't because you're a "darkie". I was simply worried about missing my train back to London and didn't want to be drawn into a lengthy conversation. You must learn to be a little less chippy. 99% of snobbery is in the imagination of the so-called victim and this is a case in point.Toby Youngnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-13328993296790982872010-12-18T10:57:27.658+00:002010-12-18T10:57:27.658+00:00Bravo!Bravo!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03375211390687039302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-58159566716982906852010-12-01T00:49:41.256+00:002010-12-01T00:49:41.256+00:00Bravo! Keep your Tesco Value and the alpidistrae f...Bravo! Keep your Tesco Value and the alpidistrae flying. <br />Big greetings (if possible to say it like that)!Yiyihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09229720672702151464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-23289430304521029102010-11-22T23:26:35.586+00:002010-11-22T23:26:35.586+00:00India indeed, amen to that! If there is such a pla...India indeed, amen to that! If there is such a place as you say, this is definitely not it :)Scholarlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04972614858510093075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8131686114112381522.post-75218709240533898652010-11-22T21:58:12.177+00:002010-11-22T21:58:12.177+00:00An article by David Crystal in a recently issued p...An article by David Crystal in a recently issued prize-winning pre-intermediate (!) Macmillan coursebook spoke of...exactly that: social background. I told my half-benumbed students how dramatically social background and class issues make England resemble its long-lost gem - India. It cost me a downright request to tell them where I was from!<br /><br />Is there a place under the Sun where humans spend less energy on finding what - if any - there is to make them superior to others?eugenoreply@blogger.com