Housekeeping: Ignorance, Madam, Pure Ignorance

Last year I had the singular pleasure of visiting the house in London where Samuel Johnson composed his Dictionary. Having studied the man's work for nearly thirty years, I found it almost overwhelming to finally be at the spot where Johnson ascended to literary immortality. It was more than a little humbling; I cannot in any way imagine that people will come to Powell two hundred and fifty years from now to see the Natuzzi recliner where I wrote my Malaysia article.

Yet I share more than a few qualities with Britain's premier lexicographer: general size and bulk, myopia, irritability, a hopeless love of classical antiquity, and a preference for long, deliberately paced sentences composed in labyrinthine fashion. Oh, and ignorance. Did I mention ignorance? From Boswell's Life Of Johnson:

A few of his definitions must be admitted to be erroneous. Thus, Windward and Leeward, though directly of opposite meaning, are defined identically the same way; as to which inconsiderable specks it is enough to observe, that his Preface announces that he was aware there might be many such in so immense a work; nor was he at all disconcerted when an instance was pointed out to him. A lady once asked him how he came to define Pastern the KNEE of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as she expected, he at once answered, 'Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.' His definition of Network* has been often quoted with sportive malignity, as obscuring a thing in itself very plain. But to these frivolous censures no other answer is necessary than that with which we are furnished by his own Preface.

I was alerted to my own ignorance this morning by a reader email concerning yesterday's Jordan Peterson article.

Justin writes,

Channel 4 News isn’t from the BBC, it’s made by ITN and airs on Channel 4. Important for two reasons: . First, Newman makes comments about the BBC pay issue; and . Second, Channel 4 News is seen by many in the UK in the same vein that Theodore Dalrymple sees The Guardian for print news, viz. once you allow / correct for an inherent left bias, the last serious news in the UK. . Nothing that “Auntie” puts out as mainstream TV news broadcasting (its Today Programme and PM are considered quality radio news) comes close to Channel 4 News for its breadth, depth and nuance of coverage.

He's obviously right and I should have been aware of this. I will readily confess that my Anglophilia has limits. I know the differences between every tailor on the Row but I have no idea about traditional English food like "bangers and mash". I could tell you about every major racetrack in the UK but I don't know anything about the television stations. I was in London three times last year and each time I had dinner at the same Pizza Hut.

Ignorance can be a powerful thing; it can let you focus on what's genuinely important at a particular time. It can be deadly at time. It can also be merely embarrassing, as is the case here. Thanks to Justin for the heads-up --- and I hope that my readers will never tire of correcting my ignorance, stubborn though it may occasionally be.