The Outgoing Spirit - Across the Pond: An Englishman's View of America - page 35

Americans are unflaggingly active, curious and loquacious. British academics who are
asked what they are working on will tend to reply dismissively: “Oh, Gothic, vampires,
that sort of thing.” They seem no more eager to discuss their research than they are to dis-
cuss their haemorrhoids. This is because it is thought bad form to jaw on about oneself and
one's work. I spent twenty years in an Oxford college without once hearing my colleagues
discuss their work with each other in more than the most cursory way. It is also because the
British are modest, and have much to be modest about. If you ask an American academic
what he or she is working on, however, you should be sure to equip yourself with a fold-
ing chair, a flask of coffee and a thick wedge of sandwiches, since you are still likely to be
there three hours later. It is not that Americans are immodest, simply enthusiastic. If you
are trying to pick your way through the traffic on Fifth Avenue with an American graduate
student at your side, he is bound to ask you what you think about hermeneutical phenomen-
ology just as a taxi is about to toss both of you over its roof.
Behind this British reticence lurks the cult of amateurism, so deeply alien to the United
States. One of Henry James's American characters is unclear what the word “amateur”
means, but suspects that it may be a European term for a broker or grain exporter. People
who hold forth about their work are professionals, and professionals are not really gentle-
men. Gentlemen leave earnestness to pastors and specialist knowledge to their chefs. The
phrase “to talk shop” suggests that technical discussions are the province of tailors and
barbers. Gentlemen are formidably cultivated, but they acquire their cultivation in a care-
less, off-hand, unlaborious way, as you might acquire a small lump on the back of the neck.
To parade your knowledge would be as vulgar as to parade your genitals.
Besides, boring other people is a more grievous offence in Britain than it is in the States.
Americans are concerned about sin, and the British about bad manners. It is alright in Bri-
tain to talk about serious matters as long as you also find a way to make them entertaining.
“Amusing” is one of the most affirmative words in the gentleman's vocabulary, and those
who display this virtue can generally be forgiven for also being fraudsters or bigamists. As
befits a puritan race, Americans tend to make a sharper distinction between what is serious
and what is not. There is sometimes more need for a shift of tone to signal that what you
are saying is meant to be frivolous, light-hearted or just plain silly.