Thursday, June 05, 2008

"Remember the stiff upper lip!" "I'm not hanging around here waiting for mine to stiffen!"

I rather enjoyed this article by Andrew O'Hagan this morning.

Particularly for this:

Science and I don't often agree - which is good news for science and bad news for me - but I've been arguing for the return of the stiff upper lip for some time. I hate all those TV programmes where people line up on stage to ask their daddy why he didn't love them enough.
For a start, one can usually understand quite quickly why the daddy didn't, and second (perhaps more scientifically) the people on those shows don't seem to benefit from the spectacle of unburdening.
In the old days, when people's daddies didn't love them enough, they felt a bit sad about it and tried to do better with their own children. Or they sought ways to bear it.


I'm not much of a fan of the touchy-feely how are you feeling let's discuss things at length as to why you... Wait, I'm starting to sound a bit Mr Gormsby there. For some things, I think discussing them and getting them off your chest can make it much easier to handle - especially when it's combined with not trying to clutch the matter back to your bosom again like a boa constrictor once you've supposedly gotten it off.

In Years 9 and 10, some of my friends and I were involved with an extra-curricular program that was run in school time. A reward for being smart, I guess. But it involved not being involved in classes now and then, so we were more than happy to participate. One thing they ran was a week's worth of workshops. Part of one of the workshops involved those running it wanting us to share our feelings, which was about as comfortable as sitting on a pointed stick. On the pointy end. Most of us made stuff up.

For those who wish to express their feelings and emotions about everything, more power to them. Hopefully it's something that's perfectly healthy for them and it's good that they feel better for having conversed with others about what's bothering them. But it's nice to see that you'll be just as fine even if you don't want to emote about everything.

Anyway. I just want to emote that I want the dress Lily Allen wore to the Glamour Woman of the Year Awards thing in the UK. And maybe to do the pink hair thing. But mostly I want the dress.


It's so adorably morbid.

7 comments:

clare said...

I would be even finer if other people would stop emoting about things i don't need to know. Really need to work in a more male environment.
I used to make up that whole how you feel about things stuff too. other people are way to self involved to give a stuff about it anyway.

Della said...

Oh God, the overshare emote! People sometimes don't seem to realise how traumatic they can be with some information.

Making stuff up is so much easier. And it's true with people being too self-absorbed to care. The only problem is when you encounter the people who get all serious about it and want to talk more. And who never seem to believe you when you say, "Really, I don't have much of an opinion on this."

kris said...

i don't understand what your talking about. i feel that the world is super dooper better when i totally tell you every last detail of my horribly tragic life. Possibly it would be more appropriate if you cried when i told you my life story though. work on that.

Della said...

Does crying with the aid of onion work at all..?

kris said...

as long as i don't realise there is an onion, i will accept those tears.

Della said...

Hurrah!

kris said...

i want lilly's dress...and possibly her hair...although not so much the hang over she had the day after this photo was taken.