Hanging on in quiet desperation …

Here’s another great moment from The Man Without Qualities. An early take on Roger Water’s lyrics, perhaps? and a timeless message.

Perhaps one could say on his behalf that at a certain age life begins to run away with incredible speed. But the day when one must begin to live out one’s final will, before leaving the rest behind, lies far ahead and cannot be postponed. This had become menacingly clear to him now that almost six months had gone by and nothing had changed. He was waiting: all the time, he was letting himself be pushed this way and that in the insignificant silly activity he had taken on, talking, gladly talking too much, living with the desperate tenacity of a fisherman casting his nets into an empty river, while he was doing nothing that had anything to do with the person he after all signified; deliberately doing nothing; he was waiting. He waited … and his quiet desperation … rose higher every day. He felt himself to be in the worst crisis of his life and despised himself for what he had left undone.

War crimes … how we laughed!

Last week we were treated to The Trial of Tony Blair a biting satire set in 2010 just after Blair finally cedes office and sets out to preserve and even cash-in on his ‘legacy’. Meanwhile, moves are afoot to set up a war-crimes tribunal at the Hague, and he’s to be a defendant. How we laughed!

But the joke is on us. We have put up with years of moralising from this man about the conduct of Saddam Hussein, about the shadowy weapons of mass destruction, and the need to liberate the Iraqi people from a murdering tyrant. Undoubtedly, that is exactly what he was. It seems it takes one to know one.

Dave Brown’s cartoon says it all. This week, the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, published a damning indictment of British governance in Northern Ireland. Her inquiry into police collusion with terrorists concluded that senior special branch officers had protected loyalist paramilitaries and concealed their murderous activities from prosecutors. Concentrating on a small area of Belfast during the 90’s she links the police to 15 murders.

I grew up in an Ireland that was trying to shake off its rebellious history and take its seat among the ‘civilised’ nations. When the Troubles erupted in Ulster in 1969, we entered 30 years of kowtowing to the British world view that the IRA were terrorists. Perhaps they were! They killed to deliver their message. People like me went meekly along with the official line for years, but b the end of the 80’s, many of us began to wonder had we been hoodwinked and we began to seek a more balanced view by listening also to the politically-voiced messages coming from the IRA’s friends in Sinn Féin. Of course SF were classified as terrorists and we were warned to pay them no heed.

It’s probably fair to say that a huge number of the 3000+ victims of the Ulster Troubles are victims of a British Government that refused to engage with Irish Catholics, that stood by while they were marginalised and that demonised them when they fought back. Still, who would have thought they would go so far as to hire and protect serial killers to achieve their filthy aims. They are no better than Saddam and deserve no less than his fate.

Channel 4’s drama was probably intended as just a bit of entertainment, but wouldn’t it be nice if we had the last laugh and Blair, Major, Thatcher and their cronies had to defend their callousness in open court.

And finally, three cheers for courageous people like Nuala O’Loan.

Quelle déception!

Book Series: Cycle des Seuils by Stephen Donaldson
Original Title: The Gap Cycle
Genre: Science Fiction – Saga inspired by Wagner’s Ring Cycle
Rating: 8/10, brutal but extraordinary

French publisher Mnémos, disappointed with sales of their French edition of Stephen Donaldson’s Gap Cycle, will publish volume III in January and then abandon plans for volumes IV and V. I never read it in English and reading it in French was an exercise I set myself. Their decision is a huge disappointment, if only for the cover art, since I can always finish the series in English. Apparently a previous attempt to publish this cycle in France in the early ’90’s suffered exactly the same fate with only three volumes appearing.

If you like the image, shown here avec l’aimable autorisation de l’auteur, visit the artist’s site and link to ‘parutions:divers’.

Beware Chanel No.13 !!

Film: Perfume by Tom Tykwer
Venue: IFI, Dublin, 20th Jan. 2007
Evaluation: 7/10, original.

How can a director produce such diverse and equally splendid films as Run Lola, Run and Perfume.
With the exception of Alan Rickman who always seems to get up my nose (no pun intended!) with his toffee-nosed British accent, everything about this film was excellent.

What’s more, I see the director shares my birthday!

Blogging: widespread and a great comfort, but …

Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
Translated from: German (Austria)
Genre: Classic Novel
Rating: 9/10 utterly delicious … the cynic’s bible

This delicious book has a quotable passage on every page and I’ll be back with some favourites. However, this one must take pride of place as it speaks to us across time. It’s a long one, but worth it.

In almost no time after he had sent out his statement to the press, His Grace had intimations that all those who have no money harbour inside them an unpleasant crank. This opinionated man-within-the-man goes with him to the office every morning and has absolutely no way to air his protest against the way things are done in the world; so instead he keeps his eyes glued to a lifetime secret point of his own that everyone else refuses to see, although it is obviously the source of all the misery in a world that will not recognise its saviour.

… snip snip …

In the right circumstances, a man can help himself by writing a book about his point, or a pamphlet, or at least a letter to the editor, [or a blog]^*, thereby putting his protest on the historical record, which is marvellously comforting even if nobody ever reads it. Usually, however, it can be counted on to attract the attention of a few readers who assure the author that he is a new Copernicus, whereupon they introduce themselves as unrecognised Newtons. The custom of picking the points out of each other’s fur is widespread and a great comfort, but it is without lasting effect because the participants soon fall to quarrelling and find themselves isolated again.

^*My addition is, I think, not unfair. Many blogs are more in the spirit of letters to the editor trying to sell a world-view than on-line diaries. Musil reminds us there is nothing new under the sun.