I’ve fallen in love with the writing of Max Porter recently, so I—of course—scoured the internet for anything and everything Max-Porter-related that I could find. The first result that wasn’t simply a link to a Max Porter book? This write-up about Shy in the New Yorker.
Great piece, go read it (yada yada yada) but there was one bit in particular that stood out. In the third paragraph, the author comments on Max’s (or really, the protagonist Shy’s) use of a certain 4-letter word, and attempts a (brave) translation into US-English.
When a politician visits Last Chance for a photo op, wiping his fingers after every handshake with the students, Shy asks the M.P. when he became “such a c*nt.” “C*nt” is the new “phony,” I noted, grateful to update my files.
I—a British human—can promise you that no one has ever (really, never) meant phony when they use that word, and it made me wonder: is there actually a direct translation of the British meaning into other languages and cultures? I have decided, for now, that there is not.
The funny thing is, I’ve heard the word used in a positive way significantly more than I’ve seen it used in a negative way. I think that’s unique? It’s certainly never (to my knowledge) used in a positive way in the U.S., where I live now. It’s almost unspeakable here.
That, of course, is totally fine. It means something different here. It carries meaning and weight that it simply doesn’t in the U.K.—even writing about it feels weird. Publishing this will be weird. Language is strange, as is the way it morphs as it travels around.
It’s Olivia Colman’s favorite word. It features proudly in The Roses. It was maybe half of the first 200-or-so words in the opening of Romesh Ranganathan’s U.S. comedy tour. It’s roughly 75% of the words that leave Danny Dyer’s mouth, who calls it “a term of endearment.”
Language and culture can be so subtle, and sometimes it’s simply impossible to communicate what something means, and what it’s meant (or hasn’t meant) your whole life. This is, admittedly, a weird one to index on, but I’ll thank (blame?) Max Porter for bringing it up.