Seriously...
Ghita and I went to see Jonathon Safran Foer speak at the Wheeler Centre yesterday. Before I left, I told Jason that it wasn't too late for me to ask JSF to marry me instead. However Jason needn't have worried (and I'm sure he didn't), because it was not as great as I had hoped.
Mr Safran Foer seemed terribly serious, expounding seriously about Parenting, and Meat-Eating. He seemed to be hiding his incredible imagination quite well. He also reproduced verbatim lengthy answers and anecdotes that I'd read before in print. Though perhaps the interviewer should be blamed for this one.
At the end, as usual, one lady in the audience asked quite a lengthy question about trans-generational trauma. There was a titter in the audience as she entered the third part of her question. I'm sure we all thought, "Who does she think she is?" Surprisingly, Jonathon replied with, "Well that was an *excellent* question."
Ghita felt that this was an example of Australia's tall poppy syndrome in action: the Australian audience cringing at an overt display of intelligence whilst Jonathon, the American, took the question seriously and answered it.
Whenever I hear a young American speak eloquently and intelligently, I envy them for the way they have been expected to take themselves seriously since a young age. In Australia I don't think we take ourselves seriously enough. Although we also don't dissect our trivial problems on day time talk shows. Hmmm....
Mr Safran Foer seemed terribly serious, expounding seriously about Parenting, and Meat-Eating. He seemed to be hiding his incredible imagination quite well. He also reproduced verbatim lengthy answers and anecdotes that I'd read before in print. Though perhaps the interviewer should be blamed for this one.
At the end, as usual, one lady in the audience asked quite a lengthy question about trans-generational trauma. There was a titter in the audience as she entered the third part of her question. I'm sure we all thought, "Who does she think she is?" Surprisingly, Jonathon replied with, "Well that was an *excellent* question."
Ghita felt that this was an example of Australia's tall poppy syndrome in action: the Australian audience cringing at an overt display of intelligence whilst Jonathon, the American, took the question seriously and answered it.
Whenever I hear a young American speak eloquently and intelligently, I envy them for the way they have been expected to take themselves seriously since a young age. In Australia I don't think we take ourselves seriously enough. Although we also don't dissect our trivial problems on day time talk shows. Hmmm....
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