The idea that the biscuit anecdote is an alpha male flex and not about simmering English frustration is....bizarre
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Replying to @greywacke911 @ExcelPope
Arthur literally compares himself and the other man in this story to Roman gladiators dueling in the Coliseum
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The point of his simmering frustration is he thinks the other man is brazenly fucking with him for no reason he can see, and he views himself as rising to the challenge and not letting himself get intimidated That's what the "simmering frustration" is about
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That's the joke, that he's describing sharing a packet of biscuits with another guy in total silence as a great battle Biting into it deliberately and slowly so the other guy can see him doing it "When I eat a biscuit, it stays eaten"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @ExcelPope
It’s irony. It’s English irony. And you’re reading it in American That’s the whole point of the story. That it isn’t a gladiatorial combat. That it isn’t alpha male posturing because no one involved is an alpha male and everyone knows it It’s essentially a comedy of manners.
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Replying to @greywacke911 @ExcelPope
The JOKE is that he's DESCRIBING it as such but obviously it isn't, yes ("Gladiators had to do it in the sun, more exhausting")
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The reason I brought up the "alpha male flex" is that this is what Arthur assumes the other man is doing He can't conceive of any reason someone would just take something that belongs to him right in front of him, with no indication of any hostility beforehand
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He specifies that the man looks like an ordinary respectable businessman and "not the kind of fellow who would just take one's biscuits" The reason he has so much pent-up moral indignation is he assumes the other man is fucking with him just to be an asshole
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That's the point of the example Arthur thinks he's standing up to an asshole who is fucking with him for no reason, because he, inadvertently, *actually is* an asshole fucking with someone for no reason
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Replying to @arthur_affect @ExcelPope
It’s drawing in a whole history of small man comedy from Pooter to Thinks-I-to-myself which ... Has nothing to do with alpha maleness at all and everything to do with constriction by society. It’s not about masculinity. It’s about doilies
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No, the joke is absolutely about masculinity, that's why he's telling it in the context he is (he's ironically pretending this is a "war story" he's telling to a girl to impress her and she's playing along)
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It was always an option to just let the other guy take the biscuits and just get up and walk away and he says he specifically refuses to do this, even though that would immediately remove any social awkwardness from the situation
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Again, the applicability to Twitter fights is left to the reader to demonstrate
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