For Miss Manners fans

[firecat]

via jenk, a really interesting interview with Judith Martin (aka Miss Manners), in which she discusses the historical origins of American manners:

http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2005-01/civility.html

Amusing excerpt:

My column has been running in the Japan Times forever, but I don't get mail from them. I asked once, in Japan, why. They said, well, it would be rude to ask me questions.

Comments

[firecat]

Thanks for reassuring me :)

I've talked about Miss Manners on alt.poly but not recently AFAICR.

Miss Manners does use a cleverly snarky tone in her column (for example: "With your lack of success in diagnosing the lady's emotional state, Miss Manners is surprised that you are now making medical pronouncements." Perhaps that's what the folks on alt.poly are imitating. I don't know what that means for whether MM considers it appropriate for other occasions.

Setting aside the snarky tone of her replies, I think her views on manners make a lot of sense. She's very good at using the concept of manners to discourage behavior that I consider boundary-violating.