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To my delight, the person inside the big coat was Paul Reynolds, the visionary who developed our first website, but also, and in this case more importantly, a keen reader, who in fact had earned his living as a book reviewer when he first arrived from the UK.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EJust the person to consult about the question which had me racking my brain: I could think of many books in which trains feature as elements of mystery, excitement, danger -- of romance, in short; but were there not any where airplanes play a similar role? Paul was on to it in a flash. \"What about \u003Ci\u003EBiggles?\",\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ehe said.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe story came to mind because I've been reading\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/search.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/supercity-iii|b1222597\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe Pleasure of Reading\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003C\/i\u003Ea collection of pieces by noted writers about their literary loves, in which John Carey, Merton Professor of English at Oxford University, also for many years the book reviewer for the Sunday Times, a literature lover who won my heart at an AWRF a few years back, when in a debate inspired by his book\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/search.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/supercity-iii|b2508670\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EWhat good are the arts?\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Ehe opined that it's not actually clear that reading books makes anyone a better person, and \u0026nbsp;more generally for his erudition and wit, has his own \u003Ci\u003EBiggles \u003C\/i\u003Estory to tell. Here it is:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2014\/3\/24\/1395673046137\/john-carey-oxford-life-011.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2014\/3\/24\/1395673046137\/john-carey-oxford-life-011.jpg\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EProf. John Carey. Photograph: David Levenson\/Getty Images\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-align: start;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\"Contemporary writing was not represented on the shelves [of the house he grew up in], so for that I had to depend on birthday and Christmas presents, and loans from friends. My favourite modern author was Captain W.E. Johns. I must have read nearly all his \u003Ci\u003EBiggles \u003C\/i\u003Ebooks (though not the cissy\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003EWorrals-of-the-WAAF series, of course). The \u003Ci\u003EBiggles \u003C\/i\u003Eadventures that most gripped me were the exotic ones. \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/search.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/supercity-iii|b1953702\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EBiggles in the Orient\u003C\/a\u003E \u003C\/i\u003Ewas a marvel of deft plotting about a series of inexplicable crashes among the fighter planes operating against the Japs from a certain Burmese airfield. Inspecting the wreckage of one plane, Biggles finds a scrap of peppermint-scented silver paper. Chewing gum! All at once it dawns on him. Someone must be drugging the pilots' confectionery, so that they pass out when flying over the jungle. Sure enough, back at base, a 'moonfaced' Eurasian mess steward is found injecting the squadron's chewing-gum with a hypodermic. Curtains for Moon-Face.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe scrap of pepperminty paper strikes me, even now, as a brilliant touch -- like the chocolate-paper William Golding's shipwrecked Pincher Martin finds in his pocket, with one agonizingly sweet crumb of chocolate still adhering to it. Perhaps Golding was a Biggles fan, too.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?isbn=9781741755848\/mc.gif\u0026amp;upc=\u0026amp;oclc=\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"syndetics-lc\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?isbn=9781741755848\/mc.gif\u0026amp;upc=\u0026amp;oclc=\u0026amp;client=elgar\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ci\u003EBiggles in the South Seas \u003C\/i\u003Eenthralled me even more. I forget the plot, but in one episode Biggles's friend Ginger becomes romantically attached to a young female South Sea Islander, and they have an adventure with a giant octopus, involving a lung-searing underwater swim. The girl is clad -- scantily, one gathers -- in something called a \u003Ci\u003Epareu. \u003C\/i\u003EI had no idea what this garment was, but it lingered pleasantly in my mind, eventually getting mixed up with the brief costume worn by Jean Simmons in \u003Ci\u003EThe Blue Lagoon. \u003C\/i\u003ELike many teenagers, I felt sure, as puberty approached, that my destiny was to be a poet, and Ginger's girl's \u003Ci\u003Epareu \u003C\/i\u003Efigured importantly among my early inspirations, combined with the world-weary tones of T.S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock, whose 'Love Song' completely captivated me after a single reading. I wrote some wistful, elderly recollections of my youth in the South Seas, in free verse, and tapped out my poems one-fingered on my father's huge old Underwood, which lurked under a sort of tarpaulin shroud in the front room. This took a long time, as I had no way of correcting typing errors, and as soon as I made one my authorial pride obliged me to start the whole page again. At last I produced perfect copies, however, and sent them off to \u003Ci\u003EThe Listener\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;for publication. Why I chose \u003Ci\u003EThe Listener\u003C\/i\u003E escapes me, but I realize now that the then literary editor was J.R. Ackerley, later famous for his love affair with his Alsatian bitch Queenie, which he wrote up in \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/search.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/supercity-iii|b2351304\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMy Dog Tulip\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003C\/i\u003EHowever, my tasteful blend of Biggles and T.S. Eliot must have seemed unusual, even to someone of his wide experience.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy poems were some time in coming back, as I had omitted to enclose a stamped, addressed envelope. This was pointed out (in the great Ackerley's hand?) on the rejection slip, which was decorated with the BBC's crest in pastel blue. I was not as pained as I had expected. Being a rejected poet seemed somehow even finer than being published.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?isbn=9781782950288\/mc.gif\u0026amp;upc=\u0026amp;oclc=\u0026amp;client=elgar\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"syndetics-lc\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?isbn=9781782950288\/mc.gif\u0026amp;upc=\u0026amp;oclc=\u0026amp;client=elgar\" height=\"200\" width=\"130\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cimg alt=\"syndetics-lc\" src=\"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?isbn=9780099283218\/mc.gif\u0026amp;upc=\u0026amp;oclc=\u0026amp;client=elgar\" \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E-- Karen"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/4964640541631346394\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2015\/02\/prof-john-careys-literary-loves.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/4964640541631346394"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/4964640541631346394"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2015\/02\/prof-john-careys-literary-loves.html","title":"Planes, trains and literary loves"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Karen Craig"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/18310967522076681423"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"23","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-WaLn2rFYxqE\/UNvHlimMvBI\/AAAAAAAAABY\/ceYnAw1lZEk\/s220\/The%2BLibrarian.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-3200195219138479867"},"published":{"$t":"2010-07-01T02:30:00.000+12:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-07-04T18:42:22.069+12:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Auckland Writers and Readers Festival"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"AWRF"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"AWRF10"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"John Carey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Karen"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"William Golding"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"AWRF 2010 - John Carey on William Golding"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cimg align=\"right\" alt=\"John Carey. \" src=\"http:\/\/www.aucklandcitylibraries.com\/getfile\/7c212513-8b10-4add-b4ef-1876e7ed9060\/john_carey.aspx?width=150\u0026amp;height=104\" height=\"104\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"5\" width=\"150\" \/\u003EJohn Carey made me want to be enrolled at University again, for the first time ever -- but only to be in one of his classes. I would happily go to hear him speak every week. Unfortunately, I think he doesn’t actually teach classes anymore, having become an Emeritus Professor in 2001 after fifty years at Oxford, where he started as a student and\u0026nbsp;ended up the\u0026nbsp;Merton Professor of English Literature, considered the top “English lit job\" in the country, which I suppose might be equivalent to saying\u0026nbsp;top \"English lit job\", period. Fifty years at Oxford makes me think of what someone once told Anais Nin: \"Be like the Spanish dancer, who can dance her entire dance upon a table”.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EI went to hear Prof. Carey deliver the Michael King Memorial Lecture at AWRF 2010, in which he spoke about William Golding, or, as the title of his new biography of William Golding has it,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EWilliam Golding, the Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003EHe did not choose this title to explain to you who William Golding is, as some in\u0026nbsp; the literary world fretted. He gave his biography this title as a way of winking at the fact that this is the phrase which always identifies William Golding for people who hadn’t thought about him since their school days, when they were given\u003Cem\u003EThe Lord of the Flies\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;to read (and why? I reread it after the Festival, and all I could think was, what was the point of reading it back then? Why do they think adolescents should appreciate this book?\u0026nbsp; Because the characters are adolescents? \"A book for grownups\" Golding called it firmly in a letter to a prospective publisher).\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cimg align=\"left\" alt=\"William Golding book cover\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aucklandcitylibraries.com\/getfile\/38b1b6f0-2381-420b-9de8-cd69a60898fd\/william-golding.aspx?width=150\u0026amp;height=238\" height=\"238\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"5\" width=\"150\" \/\u003EThe book bears a cover portrait of an old guy with a beard, piercing blue eyes, crow’s feet of the kind you get from squinting into the sun, cigarette and giant blue cable knit sweater – you know, a bluff old guy. “Affable old seadog” is the phrase John Carey uses, which you immediately realise is even better, and then while you’re still appreciating that, he lays down the rest of his hand:\u0026nbsp; the “affable old seadog disguise which hid the real William Golding.”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EIt was a brilliant talk, beautifully cadenced, informative and insightful, lifted here by irony, pinioned there by tragedy. Emphasis was given not by waving hands (Prof. Carey talks with one hand in his suit jacket pocket, like my favourite English teacher) but by a pause \u0026amp; sniff , like a character in a Thackeray novel or – another thought which hit me -\u0026nbsp; Bill Nighy in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EThe boat that rocked\u003C\/em\u003E, whom he resembles except in the way Bill Nighy always seems right on the edge of not being in command.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EBest of all is the slight eccentricity of speech by which he pronounces his \u0026nbsp;“r”s as “v”s. Not “w”s! I actually read something in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EThe Guardian\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eor similar which said he says his \"r\"s like “w”s. This may seem like a small difference but it is quite definitely not.\u0026nbsp; One makes you sound like\u0026nbsp; Elmer Fudd talking about the wabbit; the other lends your speech an air of bemused detachment.\u0026nbsp; It is an idiosyncracy Carey shares with Kerry Baillie, noted Antipodean computer and technology businessman and yachtsman, and the famous Italian playboy, fashionplate, yachtsman and Fiat chairman, Gianni Agnelli (yes, he’s dead, but when he was alive).\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003ESo that’s Prof. Carey (oh yes, one last thing, he keeps bees). And the real William Golding, who was that? The son of an intellectual, atheist, theory-of-evolution-worshipping school teacher, the only grammar school boy among his year’s entrants at Oxford, who named as his chosen reading Voltaire’s\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EDictionnaire Philosophique\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E– he said it made him feel “cheerful”. \u0026nbsp;An enemy of the class system, who was happy to become a \"Sir\". An appreciator of myth,\u0026nbsp;who provided\u0026nbsp;the name \"Gaia\" for the new hypothesis of his friend James Lovelock.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EAlso, a man who drank too much, a man who saw and disliked a sadistic streak in himself, and who so was afraid of the night all his life, even with a light on, that when entering a room at night he would throw the door open loudly to alert any unseen presences.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EJohn Carey: “Another thing his parents gave him would have been questioning and being unafraid of being different. All his novels disagree with something. What I connect with this disagreement is Golding’s freedom from conventional ideas about art and literature.”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EAnd “He read\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EUlysses\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Ethree times and finally got through it (sniff) in March 1977. He almost didn’t. He wrote in his journal ‘I can’t. I must go on.’”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EIn the ‘30s as Golding was going down from Oxford he appeared before the University’s Appointments Committee which advised undergraduates about careers. The index card on which his interviewers jotted down their impressions survives in the archives. “Not quite\" it says, standing for \"Not quite\u0026nbsp;a gentleman” in their classist parlance.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EDuring World War II Golding captained a “Rocket ship”. These incredible vessels were landing craft modified to do nothing but fire rockets onto a beach -\u0026nbsp; a fire power equivalent to 200 destroyers. The crew had to stay below not to be incinerated. He took part in D-day and then in the terrible Walcheren operation aimed at opening up the port of Antwerp. Ships blowing up, ships burning, sinking. The sea full of broken and drowning men. “These are memories that dim the sunlight” he wrote.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EAfter the war it was back to being a school master, a new interest in the spiritual, the supernatural, vying with the old morbid atheism of his father. He scribbled away during school hours at\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ELord of the Flies\u003C\/em\u003E.\u0026nbsp; Prof. Carey: “He sent the manuscript\u0026nbsp; to eight publishers, all of whom (pause, lifts his eyes to ours) vejected it.”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EI was so carried away, as John Carey talked about\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003ELord of the Flies,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eby the stream of suggestive words going by to the sound of his wonderful “r”, betvayal, visionary expevience,\u0026nbsp; ignovance , tevvified, that I’m not sure I caught the last phrase exactly right. But I think it was this:\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; “\u003Cem\u003ELord of the Flies\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;speaks to all of us, of any faith… or love.”\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/3200195219138479867\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/awrf-2010-sunday-may-16-john-carey-on.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3200195219138479867"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/3200195219138479867"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/awrf-2010-sunday-may-16-john-carey-on.html","title":"AWRF 2010 - John Carey on William Golding"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"tosca"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"28","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-DKeaBNqmKUo\/VBStvJvL4cI\/AAAAAAAAR4M\/ZsfOjoSDymI\/s1600\/*"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501884760724421053.post-5748970397168797063"},"published":{"$t":"2010-05-17T02:30:00.002+12:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-04-26T23:21:51.345+12:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Auckland Writers and Readers Festival"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"AWRF"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"AWRF10"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Denis Dutton"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"John Carey"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Karen"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Sarah Thornton"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"What Good Are the Arts?"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"AWRF10 - Friday May 14: What good are the arts?"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EYes, this was clearly an\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EEvent\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eevent, not a Talk event nor even a Debate event. Up on stage they were all having fun and so were we. The Gus Fisher Gallery’s Linda Tyler set the tone right from the start with her warm, clever and stylish introductions. Her eyeglass frames were super stylish as well, definitely the Festival’s tops.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThen it was \"On with the show!\" To one side, we had Denis Dutton’s oversize silvery blow-dry (pointing to North American origins I hadn’t suspected in the founder of Arts \u0026amp; Letters Daily, but confirmed the minute he opened his mouth) bobbing about in energetic appeciation of his own wit and wisdom. John Carey, who started it all with his book\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EWhat good are the arts?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eperched in the middle, with a glint in his eye,\u0026nbsp;a bit like a rapacious bird anticipating the pleasure of the hunt. And then we had Sarah Thornton, strongly giving the impression of being a top-of-the-class, yet for my money, being irredeemably outclassed by the afore-mentioned \"two old cats like us\" (cf Hank Williams jr).\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESome of the best lines:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EJohn Carey: “I was brought up to believe art made you a better person, but looking at artists’ lives – as a specimen of humanity they’re abysmal!”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EDenis Dutton: “Value judgments about art are always subjective. There are three types: “Art is what God loves”, “Art is what lights up your brain on an MRI scan” or “Art is what\u0026nbsp;\u003Cu\u003Eyou\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/u\u003Eknow how to judge”.”\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EWhen Sarah T curls her lip and says that John’s book “mentions” the superiority of literature over the visual arts (nb, it’s the thesis of an entire section of the book), he sings out “Just my view!” with a self-deprecating wave and a cheerful tone which is positively demonic.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EJohn Carey:\u0026nbsp; “You can’t know what’s inside another person. That’s why God was created. I’m opposed to the claim that there are eternal values. When Marghanita Laski was studying ectastic states she discovered that people named all kinds of different things as causing them to have transcendental experiences: childbirth, sex, football… Art and literature were quite far down the list.”\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003ESarah Thornton on Duchamp’s urinal (after reminding\u0026nbsp;us in an Art 101 kind of way that it is called “Fountain” and is signed “R.Mutt”). “Most people still don’t think it’s art (\u003Cem\u003EOmigod, really?\u003C\/em\u003E). \u0026nbsp;I realised this while\u0026nbsp;writing an article on rogue urinals.”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EJohn Carey: “You cannot develop an idea except by language.”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003ESarah Thornton, in reply to a question from Denys Trussell, poet and musician, about the position of music in all this: “My PhD was in popular music. I can’t speak properly to Shostavokich.” (yes, \u003Ci\u003Esic)\u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EDenis Dutton: “Why do University Art Schools own art and the rest of the world can go to hell?”\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;\"\u003EJohn Carey, in response to a member of the public’s statement that an experiment in Toronto showed that people who read fiction were more empathetic:\u0026nbsp; “Empathy yes, but what about behaviour? On the contrary, I think that if you get your kicks out of weeping over people in fiction, you’re quite likely to ignore them in real life.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;audience:\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003Eloud gasp!\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/feeds\/5748970397168797063\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2010\/05\/awrf10-friday-may-14-what-good-are-arts.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/5748970397168797063"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/2501884760724421053\/posts\/default\/5748970397168797063"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/albooksinthecity.blogspot.com\/2010\/05\/awrf10-friday-may-14-what-good-are-arts.html","title":"AWRF10 - Friday May 14: What good are the arts?"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"tosca"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"28","height":"32","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-DKeaBNqmKUo\/VBStvJvL4cI\/AAAAAAAAR4M\/ZsfOjoSDymI\/s1600\/*"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});