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April 19, 2011

At Cross-Culture: Caste, Class and Lower England.

I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

--Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Englishman, poet, satirist.

At Cross-Culture, do see "The English--In a Class of Their Own" by Michael Gates. Excerpt:

The richest person I know-–a multi-millionaire by his mid-thirties--told me that his working-class background means that there are still people who ‘cut him dead’ socially.

And I will never forget my first seminar at Oxford University, when a class-mate (in more ways than one) from Lancashire was asked to read out his brilliant essay on the Victorian poets Tennyson and Browning. One of the girls suddenly walked out and never came back. Afterwards she told us she ‘had to go and vomit, as she couldn’t stand listening to that Northern, working-class accent.’

oxford.jpg

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at April 19, 2011 08:32 PM

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