We all – well, the author and I, anyway – love generalisations .. the Swedes do this, the Danes do that, the French are doing the other… Unfortunately they are seldom accurate. Not even down to the individual level, as there are for example violently differing opinions about Thomas More. You would never recognise a man for all seasons, in Hilary Mantel’s output .. If you really want a generalisation, here’s one: Swedes have more commonsense than we do, and will generally observe the spirit of a law or instruction. Whereas in England we look more to the letter, and even then happily ignore it as often as not, to everyone’s detriment. In a land where regularly breaking the speed limit and flytipping and dropping litter are regarded as entirely normal, what else would you expect?
Keith Payne
3 years ago
I have not read the book but perhaps they are just reflecting on the human tendency to regard abstractions like theories, units of classification and predictions as reality. It happens all the time in biology.
We all – well, the author and I, anyway – love generalisations .. the Swedes do this, the Danes do that, the French are doing the other… Unfortunately they are seldom accurate. Not even down to the individual level, as there are for example violently differing opinions about Thomas More. You would never recognise a man for all seasons, in Hilary Mantel’s output ..
If you really want a generalisation, here’s one: Swedes have more commonsense than we do, and will generally observe the spirit of a law or instruction. Whereas in England we look more to the letter, and even then happily ignore it as often as not, to everyone’s detriment. In a land where regularly breaking the speed limit and flytipping and dropping litter are regarded as entirely normal, what else would you expect?
I have not read the book but perhaps they are just reflecting on the human tendency to regard abstractions like theories, units of classification and predictions as reality. It happens all the time in biology.