Someone Asked Me...
Sep. 24th, 2008 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3"What is your general impression of Americans?"
Which is a hard one. I don't have a general impression of Americans anymore. Probably I haven't had since I graduated from Cowboy movies to Marvel Comics in the early 70's. When I was very young, I had the impression that all Americans were rich. Rich in wealth, rich in goodies - as Nail Gaiman points out somewhere in Good Omens (for some reason I'm sure it was Neil, not Terry), Americans had 20 flavours of ice-cream: maybe even more.
And then I started reading Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four, and The Silver Surfer, and Americans were these liberal, JFK democrats, who wanted a fair shake for everyone. Then there was Richard Condon, with his satirical take on Watergate, and Steve Gerber, who had Howard the Duck run for President, and again, it was the liberal conscience, the belief in freedom, that came across most strongly.
I could run it up through Dave Sim, and Steve Earle, and Warren Zevon till 1992, the first time I travelled in America. Where everyone, from SF to Chicago, was friendly, open, interested and good company.
Through the 90's I worked for American companies, with lots of Americans, and visited and vacationed there. I still haven't found a generalised feel for the place, never mind the people.
If I take a step back, I guess I see Americans as the right sort of people - they believe in equality, democracy, and free speech. The thing is, as I get older and learn more, I still believe in that impression, and feel that it's shared by most people in the world.
Which is a hard one. I don't have a general impression of Americans anymore. Probably I haven't had since I graduated from Cowboy movies to Marvel Comics in the early 70's. When I was very young, I had the impression that all Americans were rich. Rich in wealth, rich in goodies - as Nail Gaiman points out somewhere in Good Omens (for some reason I'm sure it was Neil, not Terry), Americans had 20 flavours of ice-cream: maybe even more.
And then I started reading Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four, and The Silver Surfer, and Americans were these liberal, JFK democrats, who wanted a fair shake for everyone. Then there was Richard Condon, with his satirical take on Watergate, and Steve Gerber, who had Howard the Duck run for President, and again, it was the liberal conscience, the belief in freedom, that came across most strongly.
I could run it up through Dave Sim, and Steve Earle, and Warren Zevon till 1992, the first time I travelled in America. Where everyone, from SF to Chicago, was friendly, open, interested and good company.
Through the 90's I worked for American companies, with lots of Americans, and visited and vacationed there. I still haven't found a generalised feel for the place, never mind the people.
If I take a step back, I guess I see Americans as the right sort of people - they believe in equality, democracy, and free speech. The thing is, as I get older and learn more, I still believe in that impression, and feel that it's shared by most people in the world.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-30 08:48 pm (UTC)You raised a practice that was abolished before the time we were discussing. Once abolished, it stayed abolished, and never happened again. While rape, murder etc did indeed continue. And for the avoidance of doubt, capital punishment in any form is reprehensible and should be abolished everywhere.In my opinion.
I'm less informed than you are as to the extent of Princely states. I raised them as an example of areas where the practice was not forbidden after the English banned it.
I did not intend to sneer. I apologise if that was the impression I gave. I have no intention of studying Sati beyond what I thought necessary to answer your point.
"I am not too sure what you mean when you say I didn't explain why it was necessary for the British to ban a custom already banned under the law of individual states."
I was wondering why there was a need to ban something that had already been banned. You answered that when you said it was as perpetual as murder and rape.