AN OPEN LETTER TO LYNNE TRUSS
One of the things that you think about when you work in the service industry is politeness; How to be polite, what to say and how to make people feel welcome and comfortable without debasing yourself or becoming a sycophantic doormat. Lynne Truss has thought about these issues as well. I haven’t read her book “Talk to the Hand” (with it’s obnoxious subtitle ‘the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life’) because I could see before opening the cover that it would not only be a complete waste of time, but would also fill me with a rage so profound I would want to push my face up my own bum.
I was right.
Only two things have therefore filtered through to me from Talk to the Hand. Both of them were made more annoying, being relayed by unthinking friends-of-parents who hadn’t subjected them to any critique at all and wholeheartedly agreed. The first pertained to how you should react upon being introduced to someone. Saying “I’m pleased to meet you” is rude, because it is just untrue. You should say “How do you do”. However this argument falls flat as soon as you see that the meaning of each is secondary to nonsensical convention. “How do you do” is just as rude if you don’t care how they do; it's a lie. What is more noone (except stupid Lynn Truss with her Gestapo hair cut and smug books that must take a weekend to write) actually thinks about what is meant here.
The second is the one that really got my blood boiling. This ‘rule’ stipulates how waiters and service people should respond to a customer who thanks them. By Truss’s analysis it is rude to say “No problem” and you should say “It’s a pleasure” instead. The logic, according to Truss, is that it should never be a problem because it is the job you are paid to do. Well I have news for you Truss, my job is not really a pleasure and it won’t be for as long as I, and other people who work in shit jobs for pittance, have to serve self-interested grumps who think that there is a special class of person born to wipe the sputum from your mouth. If lying is rude (see above) then your advice is ill thought out and inconsistent and if you are offended by the chirpy friendliness behind the waitress or barman who says “no problem” then it is you who is rude and not them. Your poisonous etiquette is pompus and derisory and you are a sad old cow.
Oh Yeah, Eats Shoots and Leaves is shit-How’s that for rude?
One of the things that you think about when you work in the service industry is politeness; How to be polite, what to say and how to make people feel welcome and comfortable without debasing yourself or becoming a sycophantic doormat. Lynne Truss has thought about these issues as well. I haven’t read her book “Talk to the Hand” (with it’s obnoxious subtitle ‘the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life’) because I could see before opening the cover that it would not only be a complete waste of time, but would also fill me with a rage so profound I would want to push my face up my own bum.
I was right.
Only two things have therefore filtered through to me from Talk to the Hand. Both of them were made more annoying, being relayed by unthinking friends-of-parents who hadn’t subjected them to any critique at all and wholeheartedly agreed. The first pertained to how you should react upon being introduced to someone. Saying “I’m pleased to meet you” is rude, because it is just untrue. You should say “How do you do”. However this argument falls flat as soon as you see that the meaning of each is secondary to nonsensical convention. “How do you do” is just as rude if you don’t care how they do; it's a lie. What is more noone (except stupid Lynn Truss with her Gestapo hair cut and smug books that must take a weekend to write) actually thinks about what is meant here.
The second is the one that really got my blood boiling. This ‘rule’ stipulates how waiters and service people should respond to a customer who thanks them. By Truss’s analysis it is rude to say “No problem” and you should say “It’s a pleasure” instead. The logic, according to Truss, is that it should never be a problem because it is the job you are paid to do. Well I have news for you Truss, my job is not really a pleasure and it won’t be for as long as I, and other people who work in shit jobs for pittance, have to serve self-interested grumps who think that there is a special class of person born to wipe the sputum from your mouth. If lying is rude (see above) then your advice is ill thought out and inconsistent and if you are offended by the chirpy friendliness behind the waitress or barman who says “no problem” then it is you who is rude and not them. Your poisonous etiquette is pompus and derisory and you are a sad old cow.
Oh Yeah, Eats Shoots and Leaves is shit-How’s that for rude?
posted by huwtube at 7:12 pm
1 Comments:
Gosh what a strange lady that Lynne Truss is. Not that I've read her book either, but when was that ever necessary for having an opinion on a work of literature? If what your sources say is true, it seems such a strange idea that honesty and politness automotically go hand in hand. Not that being polite should necessarily involve deceit, but it does seem reasonable that politness might require not saying exactly what is on your mind, nor that first thing that occurrs to you. And then what about polite gestures, like holding a door open for someone or giving up your seat? Part of their politness comes from the fact they're a little bit of an effort, doesn't it? Just like the marginal effort of saying something's a pleasure when it might not really be...
There's something so infuriating about people who just rant at stuff, particularly the State of Society Today. As rubbish film critics are to films they are only capable of ripping the piss out of, so Lynne Truss is to society. You can't help feeling that what she does is just a bit facile, and fairly unconstructive. While her scorn might lift her from the rude un-punctuated soup of everyday life the hoi polloi inhabit, I'm not sure it does a lot for those who are left behind. But at least she gives us something to rant about in turn... oops.
xx JPM
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