Kirsty Greenwood's new book Romantic Hero is adorable and emotional and gave me a lot to think about in terms of cultural differences between the UK and the US. Have you noticed the Poppy/Squeaky Dichotomy? Find our episode where you get your shows, or listen here: https://bit.ly/725RomanticHero
"I also think there's a really interesting cultural dynamic that I think about constantly that was definitely present in the book and what you're saying it's the poppy squeaky dichotomy. So in the UK, the tall poppy gets the car, right? In the United States, our culture is very extroverted and here it's the squeaky wheel gets the grease. You have to make noise to get attention. You have to make noise and stand out. That's part of our culture. Like normal to stand out and be theater kid main character energy in the US. Like that's our culture. We're very extroverted and like, you know, be standing out is like a normal thing for people to want to do. Whereas culturally in the UK and especially in like, I know in Australia as well, the tall poppy gets the cut. It's not okay to stand out. You're not supposed to get above yourself. I think is the right. That's the phrase. Yeah. It's vulgar to be ambitious, openly ambitious. This is what I like about Americans is that you know where you stand and it's like, of course, there are so many of us who are ambitious and want to be successful and want to stand up for ourselves. But we, it's almost like seen as like, I don't know if it's a class thing as well. It's just not polite. It's just not polite and it's just oh God, you know. Yeah. You don't get above yourself. You don't break out of your, you know, this is where your station is. This is where you should stay. And I think of it as the poppy squeaky dichotomy, which is a dumb name. No, I love that. And it's exactly right. And it's in the book too, because River is like, and why should you not celebrate your success?"
💬 Discussion
Kirsty Greenwood's new book Romantic Hero is adorable and emotional and gave me a lot to think about in terms of cultural differences between the UK and the US. Have you noticed the Poppy/Squeaky Dichotomy? Find our episode where you get your shows, or listen here: https://bit.ly/725RomanticHero