Back and Forth Across the Atlantic

          You know how when a friend sends you a link to an article that they think might be of interest to you, the moment you open it the publishers seize the opportunity to persuade you to become a subscriber? That happened to me recently with the New York Times (NYT). Now, arguably, I don’t have the headspace for yet another online publication, but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (£20 for the year!), which got me thinking that I’m too comfortable anyway with my daily fare and might benefit from a change of journalistic perspective. However, though it may be too early to call, I’m beginning to think that there is not that much of a cultural gulf – let alone an ocean – between the American and British beneficiaries of my subscriptions.
          The NYT logo is in the same old-fashioned typeface as that of our own Daily Telegraph, conveying the superficial impression (to the uninitiated) that both papers adhere to conservative views. But, in the case of the NYT, the typeface is more likely intended to signal long-established journalistic bona fides than stuck-in-the-mud opinions. Indeed, the paper does contain some quaintly Old World usages of our language. For example, in an obituary for the recently deceased Randy Meisner, founding member of The Eagles, the author subsequently refers to him as “Mr. Meisner” and his associates as Messrs Frey and Henley, titles which, surely, the old rockers only ever saw printed in legal documents.
          Apart from reading the NYT, I am also consuming other forms of American culture and becoming obsessed by unravelling its origins in European traditions. The novelist Barbara Kingsolver, having sat at Charles Dickens’ desk, was inspired to write Demon Copperhead – a reimagining of David Copperfield. It is evident that she picked up on the element of social commentary in Dickens’ work and made it a linchpin of her own. The film, Oppenheimer, is an American story, set in New Mexico, yet the science itself and the scientists involved in the project originated in Europe. Moreover, the objective was to bring an end to a war started in Europe. On TV, I’ve just watched a series called The Bear, which is set in Chicago and written in vibrant, coarse, everyday dialogue that is unmistakeably vernacular. Yet the characters constantly reference their Italian heritage and the main protagonist is a chef, trained in Europe and intent on recreating the same tradition of fine dining back in downtown Chicago. Back at the cinema for Barbie, the European connection is less obvious, though I have read that the American creator of the adult doll was inspired by an earlier model that that she had seen on a visit to Germany. The German doll went by the name of Bild Lilli and, in my opinion, looked a little bit sexy, which is not something I could say about her American descendant, surely a victim of the superficial sanitisation of sexuality for which America acquired a reputation in the post-war years. But in the film version, Barbie acquires an understanding of the politics of patriarchy. The next time I come across her I’ll be seeing more than just a plastic doll.
          But perhaps the most unexpected example of this cultural cross-fertilisation is the NYT’s coverage of cricket, that most un-American of games. Yes, there are reports of the test matches in England but, more surprising – to me at least – is the news that cricket is becoming big in America (as it was before the civil war.) This rebirth is being driven by immigrants from Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia, all of whom got it from the English. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to see it re-packaged and sent back across the Atlantic to us sometime soon.