It’s that time of the year again and my thoughts, like those of Rex back a few weeks ago, turn to pedagogical issues. One things that has been haunting me for […]

Also on the topic of smiles, I think Paul Theroux’s exposition on the various smiles he encountered in China is also a good guide for certain expressions. Was it in The Iron Rooster?

“This is the smile one uses when he feels that he ought to smile or that the occasion deserves a smile, or when he is slightly amused, but is in no case quite ready to let go completely for fear of starting a riot. It shows some real feeling, or a fairly convincing feeling that one has the feeling, plus the hope that everything will ‘go off smoothly,’ that is that a disturbance will not immediately break out, and some fear that things will not go off smoothly. This is the smile that the high-school principle puts on on alumni day. The principal has written some quite cordial letters inviting the alumni to return for the occasion as guests of the school. (Is it characteristic of teachers to have a greater facility on paper otherwise?) The alumni secretary has written enthusiastic letters inviting them to ‘come back and revew their student days, come back and have a whooping good time.’ The principal has read these letters with misgivings. The alumni have returned. The principal is afraid that they are going to follow the suggestion of the alumni secretary. He is mindful of other occasions when certain events took place which gave him no pleasure. Yet the occasion calls for a smile. He does the best he can. The result is the wan smile.”

I love the way it starts too: “Those who live by controlling others…”