Stephen Fry has an inimitable (though sometimes rambling) writing style that is immensely pleasurable to read.
In effect, this piece describes the social phenomenon that is "Twitter" from the perspective of someone who "dipped his toe" into it a year before this writing and emerged with around 1M followers. Full of interesting insights about how Twitter as a new development affects and alters politics, society, etc. much the same way as the emergence of the popular press first did a couple of centuries ago. Well worth reading for these observations alone.
The piece also includes a funny depiction of a major faux pas by the author (in an interview, about Poland and Auschwitz) and contains a classy apology over the issue - in effect, serving as a model for how a celebrity should properly apologize in such a case and standing in stark contrast to the non-genuine apology one gets routinely these days from politicians, celebrities, and other public figures.
A long and fascinating piece for those who love Mr. Fry's writing style and insights (and I do, even though I often disagree with him on substance).
I'm a huge Stephen Fry fan but I can't bring myself to read his twitterings. I much prefer to think of him as Jeeves, not somebody who expresses oneself 140 characters.
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were amazing as Jeeves and Bertie, which is no small accomplishment since the historic attempts of others (e.g., David Niven) to capture the Woodhouse flair consistently failed.
Poland was in no way responsible for the holocaust and it was a monumentally stupid thing to say but there was, and is, a very nasty streak of anti-semitism in Polish culture. I've spoken to Poles who suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis but didn't think getting rid of the Jews was such a bad idea. Some years ago, the New Yorker magazine carried an appalling article that documented how the people of a certain Polish village, with little more than a nod from the Nazis, rounded up their neighbours, locked them in a barn and burned them alive.
In effect, this piece describes the social phenomenon that is "Twitter" from the perspective of someone who "dipped his toe" into it a year before this writing and emerged with around 1M followers. Full of interesting insights about how Twitter as a new development affects and alters politics, society, etc. much the same way as the emergence of the popular press first did a couple of centuries ago. Well worth reading for these observations alone.
The piece also includes a funny depiction of a major faux pas by the author (in an interview, about Poland and Auschwitz) and contains a classy apology over the issue - in effect, serving as a model for how a celebrity should properly apologize in such a case and standing in stark contrast to the non-genuine apology one gets routinely these days from politicians, celebrities, and other public figures.
A long and fascinating piece for those who love Mr. Fry's writing style and insights (and I do, even though I often disagree with him on substance).