BBC NEWS | England | Lancashire | Jail for eBay phishing fraudster A long time ago, in another lifetime, I taught this man. The last thing I recall him saying to me was that he was going to be famous one day. Well, he made it.
Weekly book reviews and literary criticism from the Times Literary Supplement
The last time I mentioned Theodore Dalrymple in this blog, I received an angry comment from a reader in which Dalrymple was labelled a fascist. I replied, mildly, that although I could see that Dalrymple was certainly conservative (and maybe Conservative) that didn’t mean he was to be equated with Hitler and Mussolini. The writer apologised for the intemperate language, and withdrew the comment. I suspect that what was behind his words was the uneasy feeling that Dalrymple often speaks some harsh home truths, many of which are uncomfortable to paid up wishy washy liberals such as me. I think the strength of Dalrymple’s commentary resides in his experience. I can’t think of any commentator, of the right or the left, who has such a fund of first hand experience of the British underclass as Dalrymple, and it is that which lends his comments authority.
This collection of his writing ranges across all of his consistent themes. In particular, the relentless vulgarisation of British (or more particularly English) culture is a recurrent motif. Much of what TD says rings true, though, like the reviewer here, I wonder why he doesn’t lay the blame more squarely at the feet of American globalisation. It’s easy to observe the complete lack of deference, of manners, of respect today. And I think popular culture plays its part. Where I work, the campus shop has a big display of its best selling magazines. They are, without exception, crudely sexist men’s magazines which, paradoxically one might think, show a distinct misogynist streak, as this article amply demonstrates. Here’s a sample of what the young male students find so irresistible about these magazines:
Zoo is currently searching for Britain’s dumbest girlfriend. Tony Miller from Manchester proposes his lady love, Fi: “I’m going to get her a stale turd for Christmas,” he says, “because it goes with her shit brain.” Zoo had more than 200 entries to its competition to “win a boob job for your girlfriend”, a prize to “transform her into a happier, more generous, intelligent, spiritual, interesting … version of the slightly second-rate person she is today”. Pictures of Jordan before and after her own journey from B to DD are featured, along with a selection of breasts to solve the reader’s dilemma: “Which type of tits do you want for YOUR girlfriend?”
These, and semi-pornographic “newspapers” such as the Sun and the Star regularly outsell serious newspapers (all of which, thanks to the student discount, are cheaper). And this is in an educational establishment.
The editors (and the readers) take the view that it’s all ” a bit of fun” and that anyone who objects is a fussy prude. But I think that misses the point – the relentless objectification of women, to the point where they are reduced to the sum of their sexual parts, can’t not contribute to a climate where proper respectful relations between the sexes are debased, leading to the kind of situation described in Dalrymple’s book, where “No grace, no reticence, no measure, no dignity, no secrecy, no depth, no limitation of desire is accepted”.
The government’s introduction of all-day licensing, cynically presented as a way of making our binge-drinking youth suddenly sophisticated Europeans sipping a dry Chablis whilst discussing Proust, is in fact a green light for the drinks industry to promote even further the kind of reckless excess that we see more and more frequently on our streets, as this article demonstrates.
Meanwhile, the government appoint a “Respect Tsarina” whose main claim to fame is her drunken speech to chief constables in which she suggested “you can’t binge drink anymore because lots of people have said you can’t do it. I don’t know who bloody made that up, it’s nonsense.” She suggested that some ministers might perform better if they “turn up in the morning pissed” as “Doing things sober is no way to get things done.”
It goes without saying that in Topsyturvydom, she retains the full confidence of the Prime Minister.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Famous portrait ‘not Shakespeare’
This is hardly a shock. Actually, if you google for the Grafton portrait, the first hit is the Norton site claiming it’s Marlowe. This is another example of the way that Shakespeare gets romanticised. We seem to want to possess him, and an authentic portrait (and a diary, letters, laundry lists etc) would help. But it isn’t going to happen. Why anyone would think this had to be Shakespeare is beyond me. The attribution is based on the flimsiest evidence – the sitter is the same age Shakespeare would have been, and…er, that’s it.
Having said that, the reasons advanced as to why it can’t be WS are just as pathetic. The expert says “it is very unlikely that in 1588, Shakespeare would have been able to afford a costume of this type.” OK, I’m sure that’s true – but wouldn’t people have dressed up for a portrait? Or couldn’t the painter have imagined some clothes? And if WS was so poor, how come anyone thought he’d be able to afford his portrait in the first place?
I wish we could accept that we will never know that much about Shakespeare. We seem to be able to accept this lack of knowledge with other great literary figures (Homer, Chaucer for instance) so why not WS?
…because it’s changing the world aparently, according to this article on the new Flock browser. I just liked the picture.
I’ve reluctantly turned this on, as I keep getting comment spam from brainless morons in Coleslaw Arizona…
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Stephen Fry’s Malayan pantoums
I agree with McMillan about Fry – he does seem, damn him, the complete renaissance man. McMillan is a lively and interesting poet, who has written much whimsical and humorous stuff, but who has a serious side too. I like “The Er Barnsley Seascapes” for their surreal quality. He has an excellent show on Radio 3, too, which I imagine no-one listens to as it’s broadcast, because it goes out on a Saturday night. Another reason to thank the BBC Listen Again thingy. Anyway, now you know what a pantoum is, don’t you?
Leeds, Live it, Love it > Visitors > Home
Here’s the website displaying that logo. Now, call me a cynic if you like Duncan, but that copyright sign is next to the word Leeds, so it does look like you’ve attempted to copyright the word. Amazon have trade marked “And you’re done” I notice, and lots of other familiar phrases now have the TM symbol after them, and yet Dunc (as I like to think of him) says that no everyday word can be copyrighted. I’m sure he’s right, so why do the powers that be allow the trademarking of common phrases?
So here’s the logo that doesn’t copyright the word Leeds. It sure looks like it does though, doesn’t it?
Just saw this whizzing by on the flickr Zeitgeist stream…
Here’s a turn up for the books – after days of no doubt frenzied discussions, Marketing Leeds have responded. My correspondent is Duncan (we are apparently already on first name terms) who tells me that “as you will no doubt be aware, it is impossible to copyright a placename, or indeed any standard English word. The copyright symbol included in our brand design therefore refers to the image, form and colourways of the logo as a whole, which, as you will understand, do require legal protection from copyright infringement.”
Don’t you love the use of “colourways”? Can someone tell me the difference between “colourway” and “colour”? No, thought not. So it seems that we can go on referring to Leeds, but not in that particular, er, colourway. That’s a relief.
