Eagleton vs Amis

Terry Eagleton’s influential Ideology: An Introduction was re-released this September— and its new introduction pulls no punches in assaulting the “folly and ignorance”of the literary world in the wake of 9/11. In pride of hate is Martin Amis, to whom the first two pages are entirely devoted. “Amis’s father Kingsley,”Eagleton notes, “was a racist, antisemitic boor, a drink-sodden, self-hating reviler of women, gays and liberals, and Amis fils has clearly learnt more from him than how to turn a shapely phrase.”Eagleton is professor of cultural theory at Manchester University and, by what we can only assume is an amazing coincidence, September is also the month that Martin Amis commences his career as professor of creative writing at Manchester University. Professors Eagleton and Amis will no doubt be enjoying a frank exchange of views over a glass of port at this very moment.

©2006UNIVERSALSTUDIOS

King and Haskins

Who is coming and who is going in the court of King Brown? As we went to press, the knives were definitely being sharpened for Bank of England chief, Mervyn King, who was thought to have reacted “like an academic”to the Northern Rock crisis. But King has many powerful admirers and Brown may not want to upset them all. Meanwhile an old friend has been welcomed back to the fold. Chris Haskins, the former Labour peer and adviser on countryside matters, who was thrown out of the party for funding a friend who was standing as a Liberal Democrat, has been asked by Gordon to rejoin Labour’s big tent. Haskins has said he is happy to do so.

And then to c**t again

What rude words might a 13year-old girl living in the England of1935 know? This is a crucial question raised by Ian McEwan’s Atonement, which relies on its young heroine understanding what “cunt” means—and many column inches have been spent arguing that such a thing is not only improbable but rather tasteless. There have been waves in the Prospect teacup, too, over last month’s inclusion ofthe same word in Kate Saunders’s “Confessions”—the 19th time it has appeared in the magazine—with a number of letters questioning it on grounds ofboth taste and linguistic pedigree. The c-word certainly has a chequered history in English, from its early uses as a colloquial and

Atonement : interwar rudeness

medical term to Donne and Rochester’s lewder poems in the 17th century and its reemergence as a taboo-busting provocation in 1920s literature. But the human fascination with taboos suggests there will never be a shortage ofboth those wanting to shock and those able to be shocked. As Doctor Johnson answered a lady’s approving observation that his dictionary had no foul words in it, “So you’ve been looking for them, madam?”

WILL’SWORDS COOL

As David Robins reminds us on page 50, the “cult ofcool”has become the dominant ethic among young people in developed countries. If so (and Robins may be right, even if he overestimates the connection between the “cool”mentality and knife crime), it is an interesting example of the power of language: ofhow a mere word, and one with an incredibly vague meaning, can give rise to an ethos to which millions subscribe.

Linguists are uncertain when the word “cool,”in its modern sense, originated. Clearly, the basic idea is metaphorical. Behaving in a “cool”way is the opposite of behaving in a “hot” way:it signifies calmness and detachment as against emotionalism and impulsiveness. This idea of coolness remains part ofthe word’s meaning—Clint Eastwood is “cool”because of his impassivity. But at a certain point cool acquired a secondary, overlapping sense:it came to signify something exciting, stylish or fun. The attribute of coolness was transformed from something ambiguous (a “cool” reaction, after all, may lack warmth or interest) into something emphatically positive.

The commercialisation of modern youth culture has created a new uncertainty surrounding cool. To adults unschooled in the byways of yoof, being “cool” can appear to be simply about wearing the right trainers or having the latest iPod. But as any wise teenager will tell you, the truly cool people are those who don’t try too hard—who are just innately cool. Coolness, in other words, defies definition; it is in some sense beyond language. And that is why the word itself is oddly appropriate:when people describe something as “cool,”they are in effect acknowledging the limits of language—or at any rate of their own inability to say something more imaginative. William Skidelsky

NEWS & CURIOSITIES

in fact...

The only major religion not to endorse abstinence from food on special occasions is Sikhism.

NEW YORKER,3RD SEPTEMBER 2007

The 7th July London bombings accounted for 7 per cent of all homicides in England and Wales in 2005/6. HOME OFFICE

Transport for London employs 232 people on more than £100,000 a year.The home office employs 43; the treasury seven. BORIS JOHNSON

There are more tigers in the US than in any other country. QI:THE BOOK OF

GENERAL IGNORANCE,BY JOHN

MITCHINSON AND JOHN LLOYD

The Finns spend more on ice cream than any other European nation, averaging $110 a head in 2005— just beating the Italians.Britons spend less than half that figure.

EUROMONITOR

In the three months to 22nd July, America and its allies dropped at least 407 bombs on Afghanistan—over four times the amount dropped in Iraq.

ECONOMIST.COM,4TH AUGUST 2007

53 per cent of births in London are to immigrant mothers.In Kensington and Chelsea the figure is 68 per cent.

NEWSWEEK,6TH AUGUST 2007

Despite its oil reserves,99 per cent of Norway’s electricity is produced by hydroelectric sources. ENCARTA

The 2006 World Cup final had a higher US television audience than the 2006 baseball World Series.

NEW REPUBLIC,17TH JULY 2007

In the US,the top 25 hedge fund managers earn more than the CEOs of the S&P 500 companies combined. MARGINAL REVOLUTION,

22ND JULY 2007

British families spend as much time eating together today as they did in the 1970s. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL

RESEARCH COUNCIL

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