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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
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| Posts: | 1083 |
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Posted: 3 Oct 2009 09:13 pm |
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I am about to offer for sale on trademe a book by Noam Chomsky. It is entitled NECESSARY ILLUSIONS: THOUGHT CONTROL IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES.
It occurred to me that sitting down to an intimate dinner involving this frightful man would be one of the most awful experiences imaginable.Attached Image (viewed 32 times):
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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
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| Posts: | 1083 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2009 08:44 pm |
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But then there is John A Lee. I was listing one his books on trademe this morning, and I thought much the same thing. "Who in his right mind," I asked myself, "would voluntarily place himself in close proximity to this crashing old bore?"
In Lee's case, I have more evidence to support my view that he would have made an insufferable dinner companion. Here is an excerpt from his bio on Wikipedia:
"...In the 1922 general elections he stood again and was elected. He soon became one of the better known members of Parliament, noted for his powerful oratory and strong views. He also played a considerable role in the Labour Party's internal policy formulation, where he had a strong interest in foreign affairs, defence and economics. Lee gradually emerged as the leader of Labour's left-wing faction, opposed primarily by the more orthodox Minister of Finance, Walter Nash. Lee and his allies, as well as being strongly socialist, were influenced by social credit theory, and believed that the government should take immediate control of the country's financial system. Nash opposed this, and was able to block proposals put forward by Lee to nationalise the Bank of New Zealand. Gradually, Lee's criticism of the Labour Party's leadership became increasingly public..."
Can we imagine that time spent in the company of Mr John A Lee would have involved discussion of anything other than the part, present, future and thoughts for the ages of Mr John A Lee? I don't think we can.Attached Image (viewed 23 times):
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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
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| Posts: | 1083 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2009 08:44 pm |
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And while I was listing these books there was a programme on National Radio involving an interview with, of all people (was there really no-one else to talk to? were their options so limited?), a talkback radio host named Mike King.
Mr King was talking, interminably, about - guess what - Mike King. If the interview had gone on any longer I suspect that Mr King would have begun to talk about himself in the third person.
It was in fact fascinating listening. Here were two distinct worlds:
* inside Mike King looking out, the world might reasonably be described as MikeKingland - a place populated by, and made for the benefit of, Mike King
* outside Mike King looking (albeit, it must be said, with extreme reluctance) in, there is this intensely boring, self-preoccupied person; someone one would cross not one but several roads to avoid, were one to be alerted in time to the fact of his approach.
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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
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| Posts: | 1083 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2009 08:45 pm |
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Is the world full of these ghastly people? I heard a programme on National Radio (I'll be specific: it was the The Arts on Sunday with Lynn Freeman) in which everyone was referrin to prominent artists, alive and dead, by their first name - so it was "Colin" [McCahon] this and so-and-so that - as if they'd just come away from a long lunch with them. Listeners to this programme were presented with a stark choice:
* either they were hopeless oiks, doomed forever to be ignorant of what really makes life worth living in the Third Millenium (which, as I understand it, is a mix of knowing the right people, wearing the right clothes, speaking the current argot, and similar worthy achievements);
* or they were members of the cognoscenti, perfectly comfortable with the practise of Colining people they didn't know, hadn't met, and could never meet.
Lynn Freeman: Colin McCahon calls her "Lynn" (using, one imagines, a ouija board):
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David Harcourt
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| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
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| Posts: | 1083 |
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Posted: 4 Oct 2009 11:00 pm |
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Once I would have said that, of all the people on the planet (given that Adolf Hitler is dead), Helen Clark is the person I'd least like to be in the same room with.
Now I'm not so sure.
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