Comments on: Welcome to England: Working process and work in progress.

By: Julia

Julia — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:01:56 +0000

Nice post and blog! Greets.

By: Anika

Anika — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:45:34 +0000

Very interesting read, I think their would be a lot of mixed opinions on this. Love the theme that you are using, what is it?

By: Byron Vincent

Byron Vincent — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:02:13 +0000

Cheers Simon, glad you liked it. You’re right about the misanthropy too, I should probably write a more positive piece to counteract the incessant hectoring. There’s loads of stuff I love about blighty, and although a big old rant may be cathartic ephemerally, I reckon its always more productive to focus on the positive. I’ll step to it soon. Cheers for taking the time out to have a gander.

Byron

By: Simon Mole

Simon Mole — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:13:49 +0000

Hello,
quality stuff start to finish I reckon, and with some real stand out punchliney bits too. favourites of the top of my head were – “brunel was french, yours truly ‘outraged of tunbridge wells” and that bit about jason’s doner-van…
I also like the switches every now and then to lines with less obvious rhythmical and rhymed connections to the words around them- makes certain bits which I took more seriously stand out well. That bit about there’s no need to be swell when you’ve got your own way (I think that;s the line) and the bit about racism and if you dont get it then you’re probably next. covert deepness.

Was also pleased to find that you raised the idea of classism too – that some people who (probably quite rightly) view a lot of these negative english stereotypes with a degree of snobbery actually make little or no attempt to understand why (usually) working class people might have certain prejudices. This then in fact turns to prejudice itself in exactly the same dismissive way that those they are judging often judge people from different cultures or races. Haven’t quite articulated that but hopefully you know what i mean.

Really interested by what you said about your process too – I often use listing like that when writing and you always have to leave some good shit out for the sake of the overall feel I guess.
Finally, I did get the sense of some warm feelings towards Britain at various points but would feel pretty confident saying overall it’s not particularly positive about our homeland and some of its inhabitants. Now, I share a lot of those views and thoroughly enjoyed hearing them voiced in such raucous style but I’d also be interested to hear what things you personally like about england/britain and traditions/history that you value. Maybe there’s not many, maybe it’s something for a different piece but either way just throwing it out there as it’s something I’ve been thinking and writing about with a piece in the offing I hope…
anyway, great piece – hope you enjoy developing it.
Simon

By: Mel Scaffold

Mel Scaffold — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:58:44 +0000

You have a ‘get out of grammar free’ card. I once sent out an email to my whole mailing list titled ‘Appels & Snakes’. It still makes me feel a bit sick thinking about it.

I’m very jealous of Morecambe Morrisons: Mecca of multicultural munchies. In Plymouth they give seekers of exotic food (e.g. avocado) strange and quizzical looks.

By: Byron Vincent

Byron Vincent — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:16:50 +0000

If you’re a stickler for grammar and punctuation my posts must be making you want tear out your hair (or possibly mine).

Also, in the Morrisons supermarket in Morecambe they have an International World of Pies counter where you can sample such culinary offerings as the chicken tikka pie and the balti pie. Its where I go for all my first dates, then on to the Alhambra coin arcades for a ten pence cup of tea and a go on the sloties. I’m a class act see, oh yes.

By: Mel Scaffold

Mel Scaffold — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:41:48 +0000

I’ve been struggling with the concept of English cultural heritage for a while. A few months ago I took part in an ‘Undoing Racism’ workshop where we had a ‘cultural sharing’ in the evening, for which we were asked to bring along an item that represented our culture or heritage. Being what I think funding bodies refer to as a ‘diverse’ group, many people shared beautiful and moving stories relating to food, dance, journeys and their relationship with home.

I could think of nothing specifically ‘English’ that I was proud of, and the only thing I’ve inherited is an almost debilitating obsession with grammar and punctuation.

In the end I took along a picture of my mates from when we used to live in a big, messy post-student house together, with the explanation that we were rejecting the notion of heritage and creating our own dysfunctional urban family with a distinct culture of moral haziness and Sunday laziness.

Now I think of it a gnome would have been easier to explain.

I’m really enjoying ‘Welcome to England’, particularly ‘we want Marks & Sparks not Charlie Dark…we love an underdog as long as it don’t bark’. It’s hypnotic, disturbing and darkly comic and I’m looking forward to hearing how it develops.

PS I think curry pasties are improvement upon their constituent elements and represent some sort of pinnacle of multicultural gastronomic endeavour.

By: Charlie Jordan

Charlie Jordan — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Glorious piece, makes you proud to be british eh?! Some astute observations as always… Love the lines about topgear xenophobes/ God playing bingo at Mecca/ dogging on the village green/ posh sufis and rastas/ licking the lollipop man and ofcourse the triumphant last lines about the culinary highpoint of British food:)
Interesting the way this piece has differed in process and the tight rhyme scheme that came first. In a week or so, when it’s had time to settle, you’ll have to come back to it and see how you feel about it then, knowing the construction order.
Shame cone hotlines didn’t find room:)