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I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

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Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#241

Post by tonyedgecombe »

globular-toast wrote: post #113
firefoxd wrote: post #33

One thing that has been accentuated over the past few decades is the idea that you are responsible for your success. When you were poor, lacked means, or didn't have a good job, it was because the god of fortune didn't smile on you. Only the fortunate experienced success. Now only losers are broke and live in crap towns, and winners drive expensive cars. With this idea in mind, calling it crap towns becomes an attack…

People in crap towns drive expensive cars too. The inequality between a crap place and a nice place is now enough that people can afford a ghastly Lamborghini SUV thing before they can afford to move out of a crap town.

Only the drug dealers and landlords.

I remember a few years ago a politician was vilified for suggesting there wasn't much you could do about the derelict seaside towns. I have a feeling that what he said was probably quite close to the truth.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#242

Post by pessimizer »

graemep wrote: post #133
rikroots wrote: post #109

> "I mean: incredibly, governments and local councils didn’t read my work and decide to mend their ways. The UK did not get better. Instead we got more than a decade of Tory austerity, Brexit, and all the accompanying neglect and bad feeling." This bit made me laugh. I read the original book when it came out and it was funny and - in some ways - true. I was born and bought up in the town ranked #4 in the original lis…

That sounds to me as a product of something I see a lot of in society in general. Governments think hoi polloi are stupid, and they are clever, and therefore solutions imposed from above are superior to local solutions.

I think that's a misdiagnosis. The suggestions of the "hoi polloi" are obvious, and would solve the problem. Government prefers instead a solution that is both cheaper, so they can instead direct funds to things that they prefer, and more indirect, so they can route funds through friends and family.

The government's main effort is to complicate or denounce the "obvious" solutions. It's why they put so little effort into devising the programs that actually get rolled out; instead they just copy them directly from some non-profit that the government has been indirectly and almost entirely financing, and is directed by The Honorable Lord or Lady Somebody's Cousin.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#243

Post by pessimizer »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #217
urbandw311er wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is, unfortunately, the world that we live in right now. There are stand-up comedians who privately admit it’s almost impossible to do their jobs any more because of the faux outrage.

But there are other stand-up comedians who don't have that problem and are wildly successful. I wonder what the difference is?

This reads like Iranian government twitter.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#244

Post by amanaplanacanal »

pessimizer wrote: post #243
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are other stand-up comedians who don't have that problem and are wildly successful. I wonder what the difference is?

This reads like Iranian government twitter.

I didn't think most Western governments censor comedians.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#245

Post by Lio »

robocat wrote: post #191
physicsguy wrote: post #88

I remember laughing at this, my hometown was included it’s worth saying. I suspect the purchasers were largely people who lived in one of the ‘crap towns’ I’m not sure how anyone could have read it and not understood it was a joke. At the same time, I do think that he’s right that it wouldn’t get published today, not because the content wasn’t true, but people are much more quick to take offense over things like this…

I have always admired the British[1] ability to take the piss out of themselves with humour. Underlying the self-deprecation, there's always a sense of pride (misplaced?). Perhaps things on the isles have turned to shite over time, and the pride has dwindled? [1] maybe British is the wrong word since the Scots and Irish do similar. I'm from the ex-colonies so the correct words for UK country and peoples are confusing…

The Scots are 100% Brits and at least some portion of the people in Northern Ireland strongly identify as Brits too.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#246

Post by Lio »

urbandw311er wrote: post #176
magic_hamster wrote: post #129

The sense of self importance and overanalysis in this writeup on a silly book called "Crap Towns" is almost as hilarious as the book itself. I still think the idea of the book is funny. There's a certain art to taking something bad and hilariously describing its terribleness. For some reason this has always made me laugh, but honestly not everyone gets it, and this has always been the case. This kind of book can only…

It’s probably very important to the author, though, in the sense that it shaped their life and clearly became briefly very famous. So I don’t think it’s particularly fair to snipe at them for writing a reflective blog post about that. It’s not like you have to read it.

Why is it unfair to snipe at a bloke that’s made a career at snipping at others?

The towns he calls crap are important to the people that live there. If they can take it so can he.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#247

Post by everfrustrated »

jll29 wrote: post #178
JimDabell wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I was going to say. Back then, a book like this would have been perceived as the UK making fun of itself. Now it’s perceived as being cruel to those less fortunate. I think it’s worth putting into context that the economy was doing great in the era this book was first published and huge progress was being made with things like homelessness, inequality, and poverty. It felt like the country had turned a c…

Good point re: facts versus story. One problem may be that the UK is very London-centric in a way that is markably different from France being Paris-centric. Just my perception (and I know London much better than Paris) is that in France, if you are not in Paris you are seen as "living in the 'province'", but politicians still fight for farmers there etc. In contrast, in the UK, on the surface there is the appearance…

Fun UK fact. only

>One in five civil servants are based in London (20.1%), down from 20.7% in 2022.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-service-stati...

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#249

Post by scotty79 »

jl6 wrote: post #87
JimDabell wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I was going to say. Back then, a book like this would have been perceived as the UK making fun of itself. Now it’s perceived as being cruel to those less fortunate. I think it’s worth putting into context that the economy was doing great in the era this book was first published and huge progress was being made with things like homelessness, inequality, and poverty. It felt like the country had turned a c…

The Gini coefficient of the UK is about the same now as it was then: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/how-has-inequality-changed/ What has actually changed? A whole bunch of other economic malaise, but also perceptions, amplified to your personal taste by social media.

Gini coefficient of what? Income or wealth?

Is borrowing money with appreciating assets as collateral treated as income for purposes of thsese calculations?

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#250

Post by dave333 »

drawfloat wrote: post #200
dave333 wrote: post #116

The Connections series by James Burke from around the same time posited that politics is irrelevant and progress is mostly due to science. The consumer society of today is much better than when Crap Towns was written although improvement is not uniform. But even the least improved towns are better now than they were due to all the regional, national, and international improvements in services.

Unfortunately I’m not sure this is true. My home town is one of the Crap Towns and in the last 25 years more or less the entire high street economy has collapsed and nothing has replaced it. It increasingly exists as a cheap undesirable housing spot with a 30 min commute to the next city.

Uh, the internet, smartphones, flat panel TVS, craft beer, Moore's Law.
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