tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post6459780911111981248..comments2024-03-27T20:34:09.464+01:00Comments on zmkc: Battered Penguins XVIIzmkchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-71991580774606112822012-02-17T21:46:47.360+01:002012-02-17T21:46:47.360+01:00I realised, as I read your comment, that, coming f...I realised, as I read your comment, that, coming from a farming family on one side and a naval one on the other, I have at some point absorbed the notion that the man of action (which can include someone who follows intellectual pursuits, provided, when push comes to shove that they can do practical things) is superior and never questioned it. I suppose the sergeant's comment could be seen as just another version of Metternich's "Der Balkan fängt am Rennweg an"zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-75965895066310810562012-02-17T13:32:51.269+01:002012-02-17T13:32:51.269+01:00Naturally I started at home and with a neighbor. T...Naturally I started at home and with a neighbor. Then the prospect of enumerating all the countries between here and there that have or have had excellent writers in English reduced me to "etc. etc." (Should one count Karen Blixen under Denmark or Kenya?) I did miss New Zealand's representative, I see.<br /><br />Certainly there are other things going on in WtC. But in Kipling the man of action (the engineer) is always superior to the man of the classroom or office (William's former suitors, her brother), and the man of more action, the soldier, is usually superior to him. As to the Englishman as against the lesser nations, well, that hardly need be discussed. The sergeant of the 1914 BEF who told his men that "Wogs begin at Calais" probably had read little of Kipling, but he shared an attitude, and even at a lesser level a gift for expressing it.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-60631223511323339882012-02-17T05:03:43.143+01:002012-02-17T05:03:43.143+01:00Look, you were the ones who wanted independence, (...Look, you were the ones who wanted independence, (your concerns about inclusion don't seem to spread as far as my fair land, I notice - and, of course, I'm even going to get into whether or not English is the language we both use.)Your impression of the Kipling story makes me laugh - it's partly about that, I suppose, but surely not entirely. It would be very unentertaining if that were all there was to it, I'd have thought.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-33934405820884861232012-02-17T01:40:22.324+01:002012-02-17T01:40:22.324+01:00If "English" refers to a country, how di...If "English" refers to a country, how did the Joyces get in there? If to a language, how did Penguin decide that no Americans, Canadians etc., etc. made the cut?<br /><br />I should have said that "William the Conqueror" was all about the efficiency of the Indian government staff under difficult conditions. (As are a large number of his stories.) His stories are definitely worth following up, and I can think of a number that are much better than that one.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.com