Right. It's an obsession. It's a quirk. A glitch in the old wiring. Something between crossdressing, a penchant for Dungeons and Dragons, and scholarly curiosity. Anglophilia.
For some it's so acute that they move there. For others (to stretch the transvestite metaphor to its limits), we don't want to be British, we just want to act British sometimes.
There are lots of entry points: music, literature, britcoms. For some of us it's an obsession that started with the Beatles and Monty Python reruns. From there it can run into all kinds of estoterica (if can call it that -- I mean everybody should listen to Jonathan Ross's radio show now that you can get it on iTunes).
For me, the moment when I decided to explore this impulse was when I got a special thrill while reading Nick Hornby's book How to be Good (which, of course I was reading because it's so British) and I caught a reference to Melvyn Bragg (he's a presenter on Radio 4) and knew who he is.
Is Doctor Who better than an American scifi show just because of the accents? Or My Hero? Or As Time Goes By? What make you pick up a Hornby or Mark Haddon novel before a Yank equivalent? Do you have a wave of righteous indignation when someone asks you who Paul Weller is? Can you name the current mayor of London? Maybe you sign off emails with "Cheers."
You might have the same disease.
So let the gates open. I'm going to try to explore my crazy interest in all things British, trying to understand the impulse a little better. And you add to the conversation.
Let's see what we see.
2 comments:
My name is Agent 00Soul and I'm and Anglophile.
Hi Agent!
My symptoms first appeared as a 9 year old with the Beatles and Wings...maybe Wings and then the Beatles actually. It was only a year or so later that Tom Baker as Doctor Number Four and Monty Python both infected my simultaniously with chronic Anglophila. That was over 30 years ago. I don't think there's a cure.
Good to find Anglophiles the world over. We must unite indeed!
Post a Comment