Why London is better than New York (part1)

I try to divide my time between London and New York and am a subscriber to both the London Review of Books (LRB) and the New York Review of Books (NYRB). With both journals some issues are better than others but in general terms, high-quality, insightful, challenging and thoughtful writing is assured. While both the LRB and the NYRB have a similar perspective - I guess an anglo-saxon world view that is, however, outward looking, internationalist, left-leaning and analytical - they also have their national particularities grounded very much in the contemporary politics of their respective states: Ross McKibbin on New Labour in the LRB or Ronald Dworkin on the Supreme Court in the NYRB, for example.

Basically I feel familiar and at home in the pages of both of them. However when I move away from the reviews, articles and opinion pieces towards the classifieds the difference between the cultures of my two homes becomes clear. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the personal ads.

Here's one from a recent edition of the LRB:

"This is an advert full of cheap innuendo lazy come-ons and needy sexual impropriety. Just like the LRB letters page. Woman, 49"

It's self-deprecating, knowing and understated.

Now here's a woman of a similar age in the NYRB:

"Smart and beautiful, intellectually curious and athletic. Consultant/educator - tall, slim with natural radiance. Adventurous with calm, warm demeanor; genuineness of character, expressive, affectionate, divorced, 5'8". Laughs a lot, thinks deeply politically liberal and interested in social change, literature, politics, nature, beauty...."
And on it goes for another almost 50, five dollar a throw words, with not an understated and ironic syllable to be found.

In the deepest recess of my English soul I cannot think of any circumstance in which anyone can in all sanity describe themselves as possessing "natural radiance". And I think the majority of my compatriots would feel much the same - and certainly those subscribing to a high-end, literary journal like the LRB or NYRB.

The difference between the two approaches sums up for me one of the essential, ideological problems I have with living in the United States. Everything in the US is a pitch - an attempt to sell or a plea to buy. Of course the LRB personals have the same ultimate aim but it's done with a kind of awkwardness at the prospect acknowledging the slightly tawdry nature of the exchange (they also create as a byproduct some entertainment for the reader). The adverts in the NYRB possess no such coyness - everyone is beautiful, alluring, successful and functional. This incessant self-promotion makes relationships absolutely impossible - unless on some level you see yourself - and your partner - as a commodity. And what kind of purgatory that must be.