ERM WHAT
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:09 (twelve years ago) link
obviously not but WHAT HAS HAPPENED
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:10 (twelve years ago) link
haven't read garton ash for years, but have always been fond of a story he told about being a journalist in an iron curtain country in the 70s or 80s, re phone-surveillance
he and some dissident -- a literary type -- were chatting on the phone, not about politics (which would have been nuts) but about novels... at a certain point, some way into the chat, a third voice unexpectedly broke into the conversation, to tell them they were BOTH RONG abt such-and-such a classic author/text, and what all right-thinking intelligent readers knew to be the case was [insert opinion here]
anyway, i have always liked the notion of this impatient secret policeman, unable to bear the pretentious nonsense his targets were blabbering, being unable not to bust cover and put them straight literature-wise
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:11 (twelve years ago) link
xp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/sep/08/film-and-music-playlist?INTCMP=SRCH
― A little bit like Peter Crouch but with more mobility (ShariVari), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:14 (twelve years ago) link
"This rousing 14-minute art-rock epic remains the standout of what was one of the noughties' finest debuts" -- the lex
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
:D
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:(
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
lex otm
― Upt0eleven, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
xp print edition F & M playlist:
British Sea Power, Lately... This rousing 14-minute art-rock epic remains the standout of what was one of the noughties' finest debuts.Alex Macpherson
... This rousing 14-minute art-rock epic remains the standout of what was one of the noughties' finest debuts.
Alex Macpherson
Didn't think you would be writing that!
― Neil S, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
and oh dear
― Neil S, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:16 (twelve years ago) link
Man I really hope this isn't a hilarious attribution cockup and that there's actually a new Alex Macpherson who will be consistently repping for Belle & Sebastian and Embrace records from now on.
― Matt DC, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:23 (twelve years ago) link
"Alex Macpherson on his all-time favourite album, Pulp's Different Class"
― Neil S, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:26 (twelve years ago) link
"nimble bass lines"
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:28 (twelve years ago) link
TGA seems to know a lot, about world politics
I would think that re Stalinist states his liberal view is the correct one
There are interesting arguments to make against him, eg re the easy assumption of endless Chinese power: China could change socially, democratize and hence cause problems for its growth -- etc, etc
but he is a lot better than most commentators, in the Guardian, actually.
was always amused by Perry Anderson way back, 1999 or so, reviewing TGA and saying he was a Cold Warrior, a man of the Right, and TGA indignantly writing in and contradicting this (LRB)
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:31 (twelve years ago) link
actually TGA wrote in to say he WAS a Cold Warrior and proud of it!
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:33 (twelve years ago) link
it's been rectified online :)
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:33 (twelve years ago) link
kmt i had no idea british sea power were even still going, i remember having to see them as a student. fucking dreadful nonsense that for all its "arty" pretensions sounded no less stodgy and unexciting as any other bog standard indie SHITE
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:35 (twelve years ago) link
also funny in that exchange with TGA (or perhaps a later one)*: perry a. using the word "amphibologies", basically as a super-fancy way of saying "ambiguities"
*they all merge into one very article no living human has reached the end of, or ever will
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 11:37 (twelve years ago) link
<3 lex forgetting to submitting using pseudonym chris salmon
― Gary Numan, or Gary Fletcher (ken c), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/sep/07/favourite-album-lost-souls-dovesGuardian and Observer writers are picking their favourite albums – with a view that you might do the same. Here, Alex Macpherson floats away with the music of Doves
― Gary Numan, or Gary Fletcher (ken c), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:54 (twelve years ago) link
kmt
this was mine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/12/tori-amos-from-choirgirl-hotel
― i asked for "HALF" a glass of wine, because i am TEMPERENT (lex pretend), Friday, 9 September 2011 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
I don't remember Perry A using that wordor do I?maybe I do!he does use recondite words !!
I share some of your experience of his workbut mainly re the Cyprus essaywhich just went on and on and on
and on and on
and it was only about bloody Cyprus !!!
against thishe is a master of prosevirtually the best non-fictional writer of English prosethat I can think ofor wish tothink of.
I mostly find him a pleasure to read
but not about Cyprus.
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 12:00 (twelve years ago) link
i am absolutely using "amphibologies" next chance i get
― a hurrrr hurrrr (history mayne), Friday, 9 September 2011 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
ha ha third google entry for same is... an article on perr.
― a hurrrr hurrrr (history mayne), Friday, 9 September 2011 12:38 (twelve years ago) link
4th entry should now be this thread?
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:13 (twelve years ago) link
pinefox, that is a strange claim about anderson re: prose. I mean my only exposure to him are those endless lrb articles, but there's nothing really there that makes me think 'yes, a master'. Just seems to chug along, telling me more stuff, then more stuff again, then some more stuff. And then I forget the stuff.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:35 (twelve years ago) link
wtf is this supposed to mean you tit
― henri grenouille (Frogman Henry), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:37 (twelve years ago) link
i have mixed feelings. he's a comic figure in lots of ways. but 'in the tracks of historical materialism' is a straight-up jam.
― a hurrrr hurrrr (history mayne), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:38 (twelve years ago) link
of course in the matter of the greatest living English prose writers there is always your other favourite - Michael Wood.
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:40 (twelve years ago) link
Just bought this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Old-World-Perry-Anderson/dp/184467312X
It has a WHOLE CHAPTER on boring old Cyprus, will soldier on regardless.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:41 (twelve years ago) link
xpah yes I think we may just have wildly different expectations of good non-fictional prose.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:43 (twelve years ago) link
another funny PA story: when he published a series of critical essays in the LRB in the early 70s on key conservative thinkers -- oakeshott, hayek i think, forget the others -- e.p.thompson sent him a note saying "these are rascals! please stiffen your tone"
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:43 (twelve years ago) link
The LRB was going in the early 70s?
― Stevie T, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:44 (twelve years ago) link
started late 70s/ early 80s IIRC?
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:45 (twelve years ago) link
Maybe New Left Review?
just looked it up -- it's from pel's obit for thompson, in 93:
"‘What’s Perry up to these days?’ he enquired. Tariq mentioned something I’d written on conservatism in this paper. ‘Yes, I know,’ Edward replied. ‘Oakeshott was a scoundrel. Tell him to stiffen his tone.’"
― a hurrrr hurrrr (history mayne), Friday, 9 September 2011 13:47 (twelve years ago) link
no sorry yes it's the early 80s -- never spill coffee on yr laptop, i have to use a difft keyb for k, 7, 8, and 9 :(
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:51 (twelve years ago) link
scoundrel! even better :D
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
i think the essays were collected into a handbook of villainy
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:53 (twelve years ago) link
I once searched the LRB archive for PA and found a lot of stuff on conservatives around the early *1990s*, actually!
maybe that was what memorious Mark S meant, or maybe not
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:54 (twelve years ago) link
perry anderson's book of the sand
― mark s, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
I think it is a general fact about PA - quite probably increased as time has passed - that he likes praising conservatives and right wing thinkers
the people he despises are people in Labour parties, social democrats, US Democrats, liberals etc
there may be a name for this phenomenon
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
PA's 1980 book on EPT himself is also magnificent
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 13:59 (twelve years ago) link
it's true that PA is comical
but then it strikes me that most great modern non-fictional writers are
because they have a schtick, they are so imitable, they become a cherishable caricature of themselves
― the pinefox, Friday, 9 September 2011 14:02 (twelve years ago) link
Can I just defend the Perry Anderson article on Cyprus, and note that his stuff on Turkey should be read w/a Diamanda Galas CD in the background.
I have read all of those -- think all of the ones on Italy, France, Cyprus, Turkey, Germany (England isn't valid) were all put together in a book about the European project.
A project which might fall apart in the next five years so get in while you can.
He wrote an iffy sorta article on the Historical novel last month which was the basis for a fairly classic ILB thread, btw.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 September 2011 10:55 (twelve years ago) link
That book is the one I linked to above. Looking forward to reading it.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Saturday, 10 September 2011 11:09 (twelve years ago) link
Oops sorry Neil was skimming through...
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 September 2011 11:14 (twelve years ago) link
given perry's snobby hostility to the idea that aggregate political value can emerge from the stunted perspective of masses considered individually (absent the guidance towards class action of the great radical minds of the day viz p.anderson), it's quite entertaining that he thinks aggregate political value can emerge from the stunted perspective of nations and banks considered as class actors (absent any attention paid whatever to the great radical minds of the day viz p.anderson)
he is both learned and readable however, as landed conservatives often can be
― mark s, Saturday, 10 September 2011 11:21 (twelve years ago) link
Like him more in terms of learning -- always interested in which cultural bits he'll talk about (always films or books, but seldom music (of course)).
But yeah otherwise its a bit too 1984 at times.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 10 September 2011 11:34 (twelve years ago) link
Sometime in the modish noughties, between the denouement of Britpop and the advent of skinny jeans, the concept of ironic clothing was born.
aaaaaand stopped
― a fake wannabe trying to be a pimp (history mayne), Thursday, 15 September 2011 13:29 (twelve years ago) link