Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Through the looking-glass

In Standpoint, Jonathan Foreman, son of the exiled American film-maker Carl Foreman, discusses deep-seated and long-lasting Anglo-American misunderstandings, but concludes that even if the new U.S. President may not show much in the way of Anglophile inclinations, there is none the less hope for a relationship that is mainly based in the paradoxes of a creative kind of wishful thinking:

In general, both Britons and Americans expect the other to be more like them. This can deepen the shock when they encounter some cultural differences they might not even be aware of if they were visiting a European country whose language they didn't speak fluently. This doesn't in any way diminish all the many profound things our two nations have in common. It's like the differences people encounter within their own family. On the other hand nobody appreciates America like a Briton who loves it, and no one loves Britain more than Anglophile Americans. Thank goodness, there are plenty of both.

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