Wednesday 11 January 2012

Currently Reading: Chavs & The Book of Dreams

I've never been comfortable with the term "chav". It wasn't in use when I was growing up and it was struck me as an incredibly snobby term. This perception is not helped by the fact that most of the people I've heard use it personally are fully paid up members of the privately educated top 1%.

The Book of Dreams is the last volume in Jack Vance's Demon Princes sequence. Fortunately when I've finished this there are plenty more Jack Vance novels left to read - some, amazingly, that I haven't read already.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

When I was growing up (in rural Hampshire) "chav" was a piece of slang used mostly as a verb by the local gypsy community, referring to petty theft. A "chav" or "chavvie" was someone suspecting of "chavving" stuff.

When I moved to London and was told by some Sloan ranger reject in mid-2004 that my new haircut made me look like a "chav" I was incredibly offended. The wider definition of the word was explained to me and I was even more offended.

To be fair I had just called her entire family "scum" for being hunt supporters.

LauraJ said...

I am not sure what chav wd be in American. Lord knows we have them, but we usually say 'Those HILLSBORO boys' in a freezing tone of voice. I don't know what we'd do without another town to look down on.