Andrew Marr (Scot) is presenting a series on Radio 4 at the moment about what it means to be English. The first episode which aired on Monday focussed on one of the most quintessentially English fictional characters: Miss Jane Marple, late of St Mary Mead, knitter and amateur detective. Presenting all the appearance of a batty old lady barely able to remember where she left her crochet hook, she possesses the keen eye and quick mind that will make every unsuspecting police officer look a fool.
The particular quality she embodies is self-deprecating brilliance.
It’s not that the English don’t value brilliance (intellectual, sporting, musical et al) just that we don’t admire people who draw attention to their own brilliance. If you’re truly brilliant, that should speak for itself. And, of course, if you’re truly brilliant, you shouldn’t need to work at it either. Sportsmen from other nations who train seriously for competition aren’t really playing the game. When I was at Oxford, the most admired students were those who partied hard or played sports to a semi-professional level for three years, then swept into their finals and dashed off the most brilliant essays to earn them the top first.
Which brings us to Boris Johnson. The bumbling buffoon hiding the razor sharp mind. The amateur politician, magazine editor, TV presenter and so on. He’s not quite like Miss Marple in my view, though. While her self-deprecation strikes me as quite genuine, his is entirely studied. The buffoonery is an act for the public. An endearing act, and certainly preferable to the Blair/Brown taking-themselves-way-too-seriously-for-their-own-and-the-world’s-good act. But still an act. Boris knows he’s good and I think he wants us to know that too.
Stumble It!
4 Comments
A tenuous link, perhaps: Am I right in thinking the Sydney evangelicals have spilled some ink on the whole subject of English evangelicalism’s anti-intellectual public school (camp) amteurism as detremental to the UK church?
I don’t know of anything they’ve written suggesting that but they may well have done. I think amateurism is an excellent quality in a church. But then, I’m English, so I would, wouldn’t I?
Was it John Piper who wrote ‘Brothers, we are not professionals?’ And he’s American, so he should know.
If anyone knows where the Sydney evangelicals have made the points Marc describes, do please tell me, as I’d be interested.
When reading Ros’ post I immediately thought of the scene in Chariots of Fire, when Abrams is ticked off for having a professional coach and when later in the film the English coach says the US athletes have trained “perhaps too hard”. I also thought of the Flanders and Swann line about non-English sports players:
“They argue with umpires,
they cheer when they’ve won,
and they practise before hand,
which ruins the fun”
Good to hear from you, Ros,
Michael
Maybe they havn’t written it down. Perhaps its just a crit I associate with people I associate with…. So I’m probably talking rubbish.
Piper kinda means we are not hirelings who are in it for the money and the career prospects, though, doesn’t he? He could equally have said, “Brothers, we are not ameteurs”, though if he did it didn’t jump out at me.
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