manosd
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by manosd on Apr 15, 2014 2:04:25 GMT -5
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Post by MASSIVE ATTACK on May 19, 2014 2:37:00 GMT -5
Dear IAN, There is no doubt that Deborah Rogers was ‘ a fabulous spirit, generous, inventive, intelligent, caring, warm, funny and many others ….but HERO'? In what sense?
You, IAN MCEWAN, wrote that? The son of a working class Scotsman who worked his way up through the army to the rank of major? What was your father’s definition of a HERO?
‘It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle’
N. SCHWARZKOPF
What about people like,
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) who was wrongly convicted of murder and later freed via a petition of habeas corpus after spending almost 20 years in prison.?‘I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.’ BOB DYLAN writing the famous ‘Hurricaine’dedicated to him
...
And what about your wife, ANNALENA MCFEE, who had cancer twice in her 20s and 30s?
“ A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." C.REEVESo, I think that Deborah Rogers could be named as your " ALTER-EGO", your ‘ COMMAND MASTER LITERARY CHIEF’ and many other things, but HERO? NO. She was a very good , hard-working agent who enjoyed her job ,like any other good and hard working doctor, attorney, teacher, journalist, police officer, pilot and so on… And since she is also described as being modest,I don’t think she would have wanted such titles .... Expect of course your title ‘MY HERO’ has something to do with your fictional heroes, where their fame owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them by you........
Either way and since the Ransom Center recognized your importance and pays 2$ million for your Archive, you could try to make sure along with the Society of Authors to find a final solution to the prison book ban. How? Definitely not by sending ‘love letters’ to the Christian Spartan ‘piglet’ (for ref.see ' Flaubert’s Parrot') Yours with unfinished sympathy,  |
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Post by SATAN'S DAUGHTER on Jun 10, 2014 3:14:53 GMT -5
Damn YOU-WHO- MUST –NOT- BE-NAMED,
So what do we have here? A female protagonist. AGAIN? An open marriage. AGAIN? Dilemnas, emotional struggle and lots of psychological insight. AGAIN? ?It reminds me the TV Series “THE GOOD WIFE”,but even there her husband ,a former Cook County state’s attorney,has been jailed foolowing a sex and corruption scandal. I know a prosecutor who has jailed for covering up an inside information and manipulation of share prices scandal and another judge,whose husband commited suicide, because he lost all their savings in the casino.. WE ARE IN 2014!!!! And you are trying to impress us with her hesitation and worries about the concept of an OPEN MARRIAGE? ? What’s WRONG with you??? “ The end is already there in the beginning. There is no plot. It is a courtroom drama with a HAPPY ENDING…”
I call this Convenient Realism, Cliché Realism…Your tricks seem the last years tired and worn thin….In Solar the crime was very convenient, so convenient that it turned ridiculous, stupid. Both in Amsterdam and on Chesil Beach we dealt with 2 protagonists (Clive and Florence) who were dedicated only to the perfection of their art.. Hanging out with M.Berkeley, husband of your late agent, and Angela Hewitt has affected you DEEPLY. STOP IT!! We had ENOUGH!!!!!!
Now,in Family courts 99% of the outcomes are predictable. The judges decide in favour of the WEAK, the UNPROTECTED, which in most cases are children and they do that just by examining the evidence, medical reports, testimonies etc. So you don’t actually get injustice or any abuse of the legal system. However, in my case with the Jehovah’s witnesses, the twist that transformed the dull work of law into a revelatory thrill came with the decision of the court. You see in the backdrop of the trial there was the personal relationship of the parents. Do you remember major David’s and Rose’s STORY? The mother was crying feeling relieved with the decision of the court, but the father was from indifferent to angry. That made me realize that it was something more than just religious conscience .. There are many monsters hiding behind religious or political theories and I felt that he was one of them. And I was right! I managed to approach the mother, touched her maternal instinct which could be stronger than any religion, gained her trust and found out about the mental and physical abuse she suffered. There was a BEAST in that man EXERCISED on his wife and child. That BEAST had to be EXORCISED….You could imagine the rest! A case was build and she filled for a divorce. And there comes the bigger DRAMA, since Jehovah’s Witnesses get divorced only if there is ADULTERY! The Satan’s daughter believes that Heaven on Earth is a choice we must make, not a place we find and she was ready to help this mother with her child to claim this choice. Anyway, JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES and Christians generally, seem to know more about their HELL than I DO. We were successful and this woman is a happy ATHEIST and mother of 2 kids now. Do you remember Koestler’s description of the Satan?  “He reads Machiavelli, Ignatius of Loyola, Marx and Hegel; he is cold and unmerciful to mankind, out of a kind of mathematical mercifulness. He is damned always to do that which is most repugnant to him: to become a slaughterer, in order to abolish slaughtering, to sacrifice lambs so that no more lambs may be slaughtered, to whip people with knouts so that they may learn not to let themselves be whipped, to strip himself of every scruple in the name of a higher scrupulousness, and to challenge the hatred of mankind because of his love for it--an abstract and geometric love.”
I love my Father and you must remember that the Satan has his miracles,too. I hope I will be pleasantly surprised in September... www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/09/satanic-prayer-florida-town-council_n_5296409.html
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Post by LILITH on Jun 18, 2014 2:45:20 GMT -5
I think that Ian McEwan wants to look enigmatic and likes writing about mysteries while at the same time keeps manipulating his readers. ATONEMENT, for me his best book, is a perfect example of his narrative manipulation. But most of his novels are not about mysteries, they are about secrets, sometimes very conventional secrets,so conventional that undermine the books and turn them predictable and finally boring… For the last 9 years Ian McEwan is making attempts to produce something new, but ends up producing nothing more than repetitions, thinly or well disguised repetitions, of SOAP OPERAS with psychological complexities. ‘ Nothing springs free of its own idiom, its own authority, to offer the element of surprise that would be the guarantee of originality.’ With other words and in Berkeley’s language Ian McEwan produces nothing more than a drone, where every instrument is playing the same note but the maestro (McEwan) thinks that he is listening to the ‘GOLDBERG VARIATIONS’. Ian McEwan has been often wondering whether the human project was not just a failure,but a mistake in the first place. I belong to those,who are neither sentimental nor self-deceptive , and want to believe in the success of the human project. But this could not be done with any form of ELITISM: music elites, literary elites, political elites, business elites….. - I am referring to all those writers who feel that they are part of a privileged club where only superior minds hang out with other successful achievers. - I am referring to all those who remember to put down on their CVs all their prizes, post the good reviews but claim not to be interested for the bad ones. - I am referring to those superior authors who collaborate with phenomenal pianists,by either writing their souvenir BACH programme or a song about them, along with EXECUTIVE World wide Travel agencies for people who could afford from private transfers and tours to expensive accommodation with gala dinners(including champagne) and excursions. I am talking about Ian McEwan who supports Festivals designed for a small amount of VIP members but when appearing to Literary Festivals tries to sell his books not only to VIP but to EVERYBODY.
Have you ever consider the possibility that Ian McEwan does not only like manipulating his readers through his books, but continues doing so with his profile, the image he has created: that of a middle class leftish humanist ?? Maybe it’s nothing more than a mask: a mask of an ambitious mediocrity.
I believe that if we want the Art of Writing to be acknowledged and understood, we need the help and the involvement of the Art of Reading.The Art of Reading starts from the school years and continues all through our life. Have the writers realized (especially the superior ones!!!) that the majority of their readers are AVERAGE readers, who might need help and guidance to comprehend their art but who definitely do not need arrogance and superiority. When Julian Barnes won the David Cohen Prize, chose the READING AGENCY and the Six Book Challenge, a special project in 10 Young Offender Institutions( YOIs) for the Clarissa Luard Award. readingagency.org.uk/adults/news/julian-barnes-award-enables-work-in-prisons-and-young-offender-institutions.htmlNietzsche described himself as ‘ a teacher of slow reading’. A Writer and a Reader should walk hand in hand; while the writer’s words could inspire his reader with new ideas and insights, a critical reader could lead the writer to search for new forms of expression and new paths of thought. If people stop reading then some others would stop writing. That would mean the death of our CULTURE.
I salute J.K.Rowling’s decision not only to donate 1 million pounds to the campaign to keep Scotland in the UK but to take an open, honest and well-justified position. But since the announcement was made, J.K.Rowling has been subjected to some horribly misogynistic abuse on social media. You see people still have an issue with any woman having an opinion, but even more having the means (money in the particular case) to support her opinion. TOUGH!!!!!! I prefer women who post their opinions for a cause than women who post their dresses ( see your friend, the phenomenal pianist, Ian McEwan!!!!) Does your wife Annalena McAfee post her dresses, has she got Diane von Fürstenberg dresses??? Or may be the phenomenal pianist simply wants to help you fantasize about a woman’s body?!!!! It works for some old desperate men you know…..
Do you want to know why some people are easily attracted to others Ian McEwan??? Because some are OPPORTUNISTS and some others are modest ACHIEVERS looking for opportunities… But both of them long to see their name in print; to be in the public spotlight for the right reasons. They are looking for opportunities that would give them FAME, RESPECT, IMMORTALITY and MORE MONEY…. Why be a man, Ian McEwan, when you can be a success??!!!!!!! Tomorrow, 19th of June, there is a charity auction for the Books for the Prisoners campaign, hosted by Pavillion Books. Leading publishers, editors and booksellers will all bid to be among one of 6 people spending a night in the famous Old West London Magistrate Court cells. All money raised at the event will go to the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Book Trade Charity to support their work to highlight the Books for Prisoners campaign. Writers, Editors, Publishers, Journalists, Artists and Attorneys know well that when something does not exist, they could CREATE it, they could MAKE it HAPPEN.... So Ian McEwan, you could donate some of your SPARE MONEY and maybe your phenomenal guests could drink beer or some of Barnes’s expensive wine at your BIRTHDAY PARTY. Because Ian McEwan, you could BOTH be a Man and a Success??!!!!!
annesebba.com/2014/06/09/ive-got-prison-on-my-mind-right-now/
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Post by AESHOP on Jul 10, 2014 3:50:51 GMT -5
www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/07/09/prison-book-ban-protestors-hold-up-crime-and-punishment-as-gWhat could I say? We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office!!
I think that old Sexspeare could write a play about “the Sleeping Beauty in the Land of Vain”. What’s it like there? What do they do or misdo? Who is in charge?
Well,there is the Prince and the Poor;there are Cinderellas wearing Prada and holding only Escadas but it’s Blue Circe who runs the country. He with his loyal piglets,who finally turn out to be BLOOD thirsty pigs except from one who is BOOK hungry. This pig is so obsessed that proclaims forbidden all the trees that produce book-fruits and imposes the death penalty on anyone who dares to taste these ‘fruits’!!!!
Until Little RED Riding Hood appears with her pack of wolves in sheeps’ clothing….
“We will turn you into little sausages,smelly-fuckers”, she shouts and then….www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/cyclist-sprayed-in-the-face-with-urine-from-a-water-pistol-9585985.html
Old Sexspeare could take it from here,because I have to see Aristofanny trying a new Brazilian bikini….. 
Here is what my cousin AESOP ROCK wrote about the PIGS...www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/aesoprock/pigs.html
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Post by ADAM EVANS on Jul 31, 2014 3:41:12 GMT -5
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Post by ETNA JAMES on Nov 18, 2014 2:29:43 GMT -5
www.newstatesman.com/culture/culture/2013/04/julian-barnes-i-do-believe-grudge-bearingJ.B. has a grudge against society which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness and a sense of local and global distress. There follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall and the bourgeois mediocrity gives birth to another short story or novel…. What a bore!!!!
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manosd
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by manosd on Jan 6, 2015 9:08:02 GMT -5
"....A little bit of art criticism, some literary biography, a couple of pages of history, the odd self-revealing nugget or two - it's all there in Barnes. But he isn't at his best as a writer of fiction, at making things up: his intelligence is too controlling, his tone too often superior, he has little gift for character or narrative, no real vision of contemporary crisis. There's something anodyne about even his best work; it has the cerebral coldness of a crossword or mathematical puzzle.
You don't read Barnes to be transported into imaginary realms, or to encounter the struggle and pathos of humanity. You read him, rather, for that superior tone and for his voice; in many ways, his novels are all voice - amused, languorous, insouciant and arch. You read him for his hauteur, his gift of cultivated digression and for his riffs and anecdotes. Above all, you read him as an essayist, one of our best....."www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/jan/06/society.julianbarnesGOD BLESS YOUR BRAIN AND HAND FOR WRITING THIS REVIEW. IN OUR COUNTRY HIS PUBLISHER DESCRIBES HIM AS 'ESSAYIST' AND NOT AS 'FICTIONAL WRITER'!!! ONE OF YOUR BEST??? THEN HOW ARE THE WORST??? 
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“He reads Machiavelli, Ignatius of Loyola, Marx and Hegel; he is cold and unmerciful to mankind, out of a kind of mathematical mercifulness. He is damned always to do that which is most repugnant to him: to become a slaughterer, in order to abolish slaughtering, to sacrifice lambs so that no more lambs may be slaughtered, to whip people with knouts so that they may learn not to let themselves be whipped, to strip himself of every scruple in the name of a higher scrupulousness, and to challenge the hatred of mankind because of his love for it--an abstract and geometric love.” 
