Geoff Dyer on Americans

SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2011, 11.30 – 12.45

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1

 

Ask a Brit to describe an American and chances are ‘loud’ and ‘brash’ will come up.

 

Of course, cultural typecasts aren’t generally known for their exactitude. But, Geoff Dyer wants to take to our pulpit to proclaim that in this case we really have got it wrong; American’s are conspicuously polite.

 

On this side of the pond we happily sneer at their ‘have-a-nice-day’ attitude in the service industries. But then haughtiness is a particularly British trait. In a sermon which unravels stereotypes and embraces our special relationship, Geoff will argue that we over here could gain a lot from being more American-like.

 

Geoff Dyer is the author of four novels: Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory, and, most recently, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; two collections of essays, Anglo-English Attitudes and Working the Room; and five genre-defying titles: But Beautiful, The Missing of the Somme, Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It and The Ongoing Moment.

 

His most recent book, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition – a selection of essays from Anglo-English Attitudes and Working the Room – was published in the US in April 2011. A new book, Zona, about Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, will be published in the UK and the US in Spring 2012.