Mr Simpson told the Guardian: "If I'm brutally frank about it, I really don't give a toss what people think about what they think I went through. Nobody has the first idea, really.
"The book and the film were as accurate as they could be and they don't come anywhere near describing what it was like.
“A bunch of spotty schoolkids who can't read and can't pass their exams, and who start calling me a 'crevasse w-----', I find really quite amusing actually."Not by demanding new legislation or whinging that you get attacked because you're a woman, but by telling them to sod off and using the 'block' option!
But then, this is a man who climbed a mountain, not some charity media whore or would-be control freak..
I'm still trying to work out what a 'crevasse w****' is.
ReplyDeleteWally? Wazzock? Winkle? Wuss? It can't be 'wanker' because that makes no sense at all. Not one iota.
I'm guessing they have adopted it from the Inbetweeners where one of the characters was abused by being called "briefcase wanker"
ReplyDeleteI don't think a few snivelling little shits would bother Joey Simpson after what he went through.
Shame we couldnt dump a few of them up a mountain with a broken leg,they might learn what hard work and determination really means.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to work out what a 'crevasse w****'
ReplyDeleteYes, that one has me stumped too.
I passed GCSE English Lit in 1999 despite not understanding half of what I was writing and disagreeing with the other half. Since I sincerely doubt the exam has become significantly harder since then, I don't expect any of them will actually fail.
ReplyDeleteThat said, at least I know now why I didn't get an A* - it was all the fault of those authors! Curse them!
I'm gratified by the author's disdain for his young critics, but ... what the hell is it doing on the reading list for English? It's hardly literature.
ReplyDeleteI understand the preferred reading for 2013 GCE A Level (and even, possibly, a degree) is "How I spent the weekend with an Xbox during a power cut." The local youth could possibly identify with the trauma, horror, and despair of the situation.
ReplyDeleteSomethings really should be commented on, this is one of those issues. Thank you so much
ReplyDelete" It can't be 'wanker' because that makes no sense at all. Not one iota."
ReplyDeleteThese days, it doesn't have to! They aren't very imaginative.
"Shame we couldnt dump a few of them up a mountain with a broken leg,they might learn what hard work and determination really means."
:D
"...but ... what the hell is it doing on the reading list for English? It's hardly literature."
And standards aren't slipping, oh no!
Is it actually possible to fail English lit. these days?
ReplyDeleteHurrah for Mr. Simpson! I demand that a law is introduced making it an offence to complain about abusive w*****s!
ReplyDeletestandards aren't slipping, oh no!
ReplyDeleteBack when I took O-Levels, our set text was 'Pride and Prejudice', studied - along with 'The Merchamt of Venice' and the poems of Keats - for a final exam.
Meanwhile, pupils taking the CSE (for readers under 40, an easier exam for those not up to O-Level) studied 'Of Mice and Men' - which is, by coincidence. a set text for GCSE this year, along with that other CSE staple, 'Lord of the Flies'.
Shaakespeare, meanwhile, has reappeared in the guise of coursework - plenty of preparation time for the question and answers written with an open book.
mister_choos: Thank you for your explanation. I do need to catch up on contemporary stuff, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteTrooper Thompson: it's on the reading list because it's *exciting* and *relevant*, unlike that stuffy Jane Keats and Gerard Manley Dickens garbage. The theory is that it will get 'the kids' interested in reading and they will then progress to worthier stuff later. That's the theory.
For the record, and as someone who taught Eng Lit at this level for many years, I despair. And I was despairing in 1980, too.