It's a bit of a received opinion really, but in Britain being "clever" is not a respected characteristic. Other languages have words for clever with connotations of "cunning" "devious" or "sly". "Clever" doesn't have those connotations in British English... "that's clever" is a phrase usually used with admiration about something practical. However, the actual state of cleverness is suspect. "S/he's very clever" is usually a phrase qualified by "but..." It is connected to the famous British desire not to be seen to "show off", which is why educated British people often find it so difficult to take Americans seriously. The phrase "if you've got, it flaunt it" is gaining popularity with the broad mass of the people, but the older, more educated minority don't believe in that sort of thing at all!
Yesterday I was struggling to remember a word when I was talking to Finn - I had to Google to find it! The word was "anthropomorphism". It's a word I've known since I was about 18-19, it's used in literary criticism obviously and also called "the pathetic fallacy". When I was studying Greek religion it got used a fair old bit - and since it's a Greek word it would be expected that anyone with knowledge of Greek would understand it. It isn't a word one uses to show off - it has a very precise meaning and function and there isn't (as far as I'm aware) an Anglo-Saxon word that can be used instead.
When I woke up this morning I was thinking about this struggle to remember the word (sign of old age???) and remembered this incident. I was about 20 and staying with a friend at Oxford; she was studying Classics there, and had invited me to a party. It was quite a boring party, everyone asked me what college I went to, when I said I was at London they had nothing more to say. Mostly they talked about bicycle mishaps. Conversational skills are not part of the Oxford entry requirements. The following morning at breakfast in her house a slightly more interesting conversation took place - the 3 or 4 other people there were also studying Classics (i.e. Latin & Greek). I used (in context) the word "anthropomorphic" and they all went "ooh -clever! that's a big word!". I felt at the time what a ludicrous response it was and tried to continue my point.
I had forgotten this incident - but it was curious. Maybe it was a personal response to me - I was being too clever by half (a very disapproving phrase) and it was necessary to take me down a peg. But I felt that it was a more general problem, these people were clever themselves, but perhaps they didn't want it known. However, they had decided collectively (or rather developed a social habit) of deriding any manifestation of culture. I don't know, when I first thought about it, I thought it was simply a general British upper middle class philistinism - we don't like art, we don't like culture and we don't like signs of depth of thought so shut up! But now I think there are lots of other more subtle reasons, perhaps personal/psychological. I know that Charlotte, easily one of the cleverest people I know, gets incredibly embarrassed about cleverness... she did Classics at Oxford too. I must ask her one day what she thought was going on.
Yesterday I was struggling to remember a word when I was talking to Finn - I had to Google to find it! The word was "anthropomorphism". It's a word I've known since I was about 18-19, it's used in literary criticism obviously and also called "the pathetic fallacy". When I was studying Greek religion it got used a fair old bit - and since it's a Greek word it would be expected that anyone with knowledge of Greek would understand it. It isn't a word one uses to show off - it has a very precise meaning and function and there isn't (as far as I'm aware) an Anglo-Saxon word that can be used instead.
When I woke up this morning I was thinking about this struggle to remember the word (sign of old age???) and remembered this incident. I was about 20 and staying with a friend at Oxford; she was studying Classics there, and had invited me to a party. It was quite a boring party, everyone asked me what college I went to, when I said I was at London they had nothing more to say. Mostly they talked about bicycle mishaps. Conversational skills are not part of the Oxford entry requirements. The following morning at breakfast in her house a slightly more interesting conversation took place - the 3 or 4 other people there were also studying Classics (i.e. Latin & Greek). I used (in context) the word "anthropomorphic" and they all went "ooh -clever! that's a big word!". I felt at the time what a ludicrous response it was and tried to continue my point.
I had forgotten this incident - but it was curious. Maybe it was a personal response to me - I was being too clever by half (a very disapproving phrase) and it was necessary to take me down a peg. But I felt that it was a more general problem, these people were clever themselves, but perhaps they didn't want it known. However, they had decided collectively (or rather developed a social habit) of deriding any manifestation of culture. I don't know, when I first thought about it, I thought it was simply a general British upper middle class philistinism - we don't like art, we don't like culture and we don't like signs of depth of thought so shut up! But now I think there are lots of other more subtle reasons, perhaps personal/psychological. I know that Charlotte, easily one of the cleverest people I know, gets incredibly embarrassed about cleverness... she did Classics at Oxford too. I must ask her one day what she thought was going on.
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