May 31, 2005
Background to Danger
Eric Ambler describes in vivid color, in his suspense novel, "Background to Danger," the cross-cultural "copying" of which I wrote last week: that unfortunate species of simple replication that goes no further, creates nothing new:
“Mr. Hodgkin… was typical of that strange species of Englishman – the export travelers. You came across them in the most unexpected places; in remote Far Eastern towns, on local Continental trains, in the smaller hotels in cities all over Europe.
They spoke foreign languages fluently, grammatically, but with appalling accents, and were on excellent terms with whom they came in contact. They drank foreign drinks, ate foreign foods, listened to foreign points of view and remained completely incurious and indomitably English.
For them, the journey from Paris to Istanbul was different only from the journey from London to Manchester in that it was longer and punctuated at irregular intervals by baggage examinations. The cities of the earth were so many railway stations, distinguishable only by the language displayed on the advertisements and the kind of coinage expected by the porters."
[Paragraph breaks inserted for web readability.]
For all his international experience, the Mr. Hodgkin of the novel thinks viciously ill of his foreigner-acquaintances. “They’re like animals," he says, "and…I hate the sight and sound of them.”
While one is tempted to believe that such cruel sentiment was more typical of pre-World War II consciousness, there are those today who insert themselves culturally into the world of the other only to preserve a mere functionality. I speak not only of Americans or Englishmen, but Chinese and Japanese, as well.
Lacking the balanced consideration and deserved respect for that other world in which they circumnambulate, they may find some success at their work, and yet fail utterly at a larger purpose they may not see. The act of "copying" becomes to them no more than a gesture of utter cynicism.
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