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   ENGLAND in the shadow of AMERICA 
  
   
    
        
   
  
   
    Tuesday 29 September 1998   


   
   
    
	 
   

   
	
 
  

   
       
     
     
    

    

    
     
  Custom byline text: 
  
    
       Andrew O'Hagan   
   
 
 	 
I've now decided. Daft questions are good. One day in 1888 a little American magazine called the Critic asked a really good daft question. It printed it on a card and sent it to a handful of American novelists.     
   
    
   
    
  			 
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