Tuesday, 12 June 2012

A drink with a Brit

“So what are you doing here?” His tan complexion and curly black hair remind me of my Jewish 8th grade English teacher, but the accent is nowhere close.
“I have an internship in Berkeley at the high school.”
“Oh yeah? Teaching what?”
“English.”
He leans against the bar. “You know, they say you always remember your most influential teachers. And for me, even though I’m a scientist, it was my English teacher back in England. He was really about having you’re own interpretation, it was amazing how differently two people would read the same passage. That really impressed me. Of course, I don’t know what they teach here, but In England we read all British authors until the twentieth century. They said that starting in about the twentieth century, American literature really is the most influential, there are hardly any influential British authors in the twentieth century at all.”
“There’s got to be some influential writers in the twentieth century…George Orwell.”
“Yes, but he wrote Nineteen Eighty Four in 1939. It was really astounding how spot on he was.”
“How so?”
“With one centralized government imposing hegemonic control.”
“Who would you say is doing that?”
“It used to be America. Right now I’d say China and Russia. I think it’s going to be Europe again soon.”
“But wait, I read Europe’s in the worst economic crisis since post World War Two.”
“That’s because you read American news. It’s damn annoying, but it’s not like anybody’s going to go bankrupt.”
“What about Greece?”
“No one really cares about Greece.”
“Oh, I thought of an influential British author--J. K. Rowling.”
“Oh, I don’t like her.”
“Why not?”
“When I was younger we used to discover books. We read to go into this magical world. One big author in England we were into, I mean everyone was into Roald Dahl.”
“I love Roald Dahl!”
And it’s like we really just discovered him, all of us. And for a while that was all we were into, like literally I used to look forward to coming home from school so I could read Roald Dahl, I used to fantasize about being in a Roal Dahl book. I get the impression that J. K. Rowling is trying to do that, but I already have that with Roald Dahl and nothing can replace that.”
“But you can enjoy more than one thing. J. K. Rowling doesn’t have to marginalize what you have with Roal Dahl.”
“No I can’t do it. It’s like, I’m a stones guy, the Rolling Stones I mean, and I can’t stand the Beatles. It’s either one or the other. Like Democrat or Republican. People try to pretend there’s a middle ground but there isn’t. You never see a Republican vote for a Democrat. Even if they don’t admit it, everyone picks a side.”
“Now hold on, maybe when it comes to politics, but in general I’d say everything is more of a gray area than black and white. Like we all have both sides to varying degrees.”
“Oh no, I’m a black and white guy. No gray area. At this point I think living in extremes makes life a bit more exciting. Who’d you vote for in the last election?”
“To be quite honest, I’ve never voted for a Republican. And I like the Beatles, not the Rolling Stones.”
“See, you’ve just proved my point. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go spend a penny.”
“What?”
“Relieve urinary pressure.”
And he’s gone.

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