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Nancy: And here all along I thought we English were such wonderful types, living in an ideal wonderland of peace and honey. Our visitors from the Northern lands were always so polite and friendly and of course our guests from the Mediterranean were of impeccable breeding and manners and oh so helpful in the development of our silver and tin industries and our legal systems. >From the East we were offered the opportunity for education in both language and the newest developments in land management. When of course we set out on our own we were able to demonstrate well the depth of our learning of those lessons in international relations from those kindly teachers of old. Imagine our surprise to find out in the last quarter of the twentieth century that we had done altogether too well and that we and our most successful direct descendents are now viewed by a world, much more wealthy and healthy for our efforts, with resentment and anger and that any celebration of our accomplishments is denigrated and pointed to with anger and resentment. Why even this innocent note of protest will probably be cursed as argumentative and insensitive to others. Curiously it seems that some of the most privileged of ourselves lead these campaigns of accusation. Perhaps reparations to the world could be arranged to absolve us of our manifold guilt. Instructive is what Montezuma is said to have told Cortes: that if he, Montezuma, had had a canoe as big as the one of Cortes he, Montezuma, would have already had the King of Castile as a sacrifice. Cortes by the way wasn't English and Montezuma wasn't Scot. Montezuma has, however, been getting even on visitors, especially English, to Mexico ever since. French Canadian and very mongrel English Rick Seddon McIntosh, NM, USA Rick Seddon McIntosh, NM, USA -----Original Message----- From: Nancy Gish <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 7:30 AM Subject: Re: Dans le Restaurant and the Commedia Dear Rick, "The Story of English" was extremely well done, and I assume the facts were pretty accurate, but the thesis it promoted was, in my view, very problematic. The only section I could really evaluate was on Scots (and to some extent Gaelic), and I found it infuriating in its assumptions about the wonderful way English supplanted them. It simply did not happen that way nor was its priviliging welcomed. I saw it too long ago to be specific, but I do think it was an exercise in presumption and self congratulation that dismissed other cultures. I am remembering my distressed reaction rather than specific examples. Nancy