BMJ  2007;334:641 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39157.666806.47

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Between the lines

Comfort for failures

Theodore Dalrymple, writer and retired doctor

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Triumphant success—in others, I hasten to add; I've never experienced it myself—intimidates me and makes me feel stupid. Why am I not similarly successful, though quite intelligent enough to be so? I suppose it boils down to character, or what these days is called personality.

I know a banker who has made hundreds of millions who, while outwardly polite to us starvelings, must think us fools. I don't dare admit to him that I haven't a clue what bankers actually do: I now have less idea than when I was a student, when they wrote to me, "Dear Mr Dalrymple, Your account is now £3 17s 4d overdrawn, and I trust you will rectify the situation as soon as possible."

It is because success is so intimidating, I imagine, that I find the poetry of Philip Larkin so appealing. It exudes a reassuring hopelessness, and brings solace to us failures, . . . [Full text of this article]


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