TV review: Those bloody Vikings are invading again. Not with axes and spears but with the very best of their Scandinavian TV output. By now everyone knows about The Killing unless you have been living on Mars. Then there was Borgen which various TV critics praised up to the hilt but which I dropped after about four episodes. It's bad enough following the antics of real politicians without having to watch fictional ones. And anyway, the problem with modern political drama is that you are bound to upset someone. Thus, in Borgen, the female lead was a soppy leftie and my sympathies, natch, were with the rather ghastly Machiavellian Right-winger. Last night, on BBC4, we had the first two episodes of The Bridge, a combined Swedish/Danish production. This very definitely has the makings so if you haven't seen it, look out for a repeat sometime during the week or cancel the dinner party next Saturday and watch. Finally, leaving Scandinavia for America I have to report that I gave up on Homeland. It wasn't just that the wife never answered my letters but the unfortunate fact that the whole thing became more and more ludicrous. There was a distinct lack of attention to detail in the production which added to my disbelief in the whole thing.
Bookaholic woes: Well, I reploughed my way through part of David Bergami's excellent and comprehensive history, Japan's Imperial Conspiracy, to assist me in the subterfuge that I actually know what I'm talking about when I give my presentation on the subject! Actually, I feel rather sorry for the Japs. They were quietly minding their own business, enjoying their medievil life style when that impertinent American naval officer ordered them to open up to the world. Why couldn't he just mind his own business?! Well, of course, they came out of their frozen society not like greyhounds but like the dogs of war. It took WWII, zillions of dead and two atom bombs to knock some modern sense into them. I also finished Ian Mortimer's Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England - an absolute must buy! My admiration for my ancesters is now boundless. Never was the lottery of life more cruel and arbitrary than then. Be born right, preferably with a bit of land, and you were in with chances. Born wrong, and if you were lucky (or do I mean unlucky?) enough to dodge the childhood infections that killed so many, you faced a life of starvation, criminality and abuse by all and sundry but especially the authorities. And yet ... and yet ... it was the time of Shakespeare and Bacon and the renaissance. But now my problem is what next? Recently I saw the film of Lawrence of Arabia for the first time in decades and it made me realise that I knew absolutely nothing of Allenby's campaign in Arabia. Blow me down, I walked into the closing down sale of our local bookshop - a sign of the times - and the first book I saw was Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East by Roger Ford which now totters uneasily on my pile of waiting to be read books. But, there is a challenger which I will tell you about in the next item.
Allan Bloom, an anniversary: I hadn't realised it but it is now the 25th anniversary of the publication of Allan Bloom's gallant assault on the treachery of intellectuals, particularly university intellectuals, to the high-minded principles of true intellectualism. I describe it as a "gallant assault" because it has all the hallmarks of the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, courageous but futile! His book, The Closing of the American Mind, a slightly dog-eared copy of which sits on the book shelf to my left, caused a sensation. To begin with it attracted some rave reviews but when the (so-called) intelligentsia(!) recovered from their shock the counter-attacks began. Needless to say, nothing much has changed in the Humanities Departments of universities in the west (I include ours!) but Bloom's book lives on. Two excellent essays on the man and his book here and here. But now my problem remains - do I re-read Bloom or follow Allenby and Lawrence into the desert?
Prince Phil - a National Treasure: In all the forthcoming celebrations of Her Maj's 60 years of duty I do hope Prince Philip is given a mention. Courtsy of 'SoD' (Son of Duff), here are a just a few of his priceless utterences over the years as recorded by the Daily Mirror which have reproduced ninety of them to celebrate the Prince's 90th birthday:
5 To expats in Abu Dhabi last year: “Are you running away from something?”
7 At a project to protect turtle doves in Anguilla in 1965, he said: “Cats kill far more birds than men. Why don’t you have a slogan: ‘Kill a cat and save a bird?’”
10 His description of Beijing, during a visit there in 1986: “Ghastly.”
14To a British trekker in Papua New Guinea, 1998: “You managed not to get eaten then?”
21On the Duke of York’s house, 1986: “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.” (Which, in a manner of speaking, it was, I suppose. Ooops, there goes the Knighthood!)
28 On the new £18million British Embassy in Berlin in 2000: “It’s a vast waste of space.”
Allan Bloom. Harold is still going strong.
Posted by: Whyaxye | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 10:53
Thanks, 'W', yet again my commenters save my blushes. Send in your invoice it will receive the usual attention!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 11:01
I have an ancient chum who started off his academic career in the fifties. He said that even then there were lots of humanities dons who fretted "what are we here for?", "what should we be doing?". Many of them- or their successors - never found a satisfactory answer and ended up teaching stuff that was a vile blend of the vacuous and the noxious.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 11:14
What's a Sunday Rumble without
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-paul-jones-leads-american-raid-on-whitehaven-england
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 14:44
David
Thought you might enjoy.
Will Sarkozy Go From Power To Jail?
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/04/21/will-sarkozy-go-from-power-to-jail/
Posted by: Hank | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 14:53
Well, you know the university scene better than me, DM, but by and large I remain unimpressed.
JK, I might have known it, the damned traitor was a Jock. Mind you, like most Jocks he was a damned good fighter, too! That's why we reallymust try and keep them part of GB.
Hank, I am doubly grateful to you. First, it was an interesting post - as always from Walter Mead. Secondly, with a tap of my totally useless finger I somehow managed to erase my entire list of 'Favourite Blogs' which included Mead's and with my elderly memory I just cannot remember them all. Now he is back where he belongs. Ta very much!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 22 April 2012 at 15:13
Missed Borgen but enjoyed The Killing and The Bridge. Homeland still a slack mess, but for my money, its the beardy guy.
Could never understand why Japan went to war when it did, should have waited till Germany overran Europe and UK and was ready to plant V3s on NYK in say 1951. As for Shakespeare's day, I thought the life expectation stats were a bit misrepresented, if you lived to say 10 years old you stood a fair chance of reaching 50+, unless you were stuck with heavy toil day after day. Message, avoid toil.
The Duke, a national treasure.....
Posted by: rogerh | Monday, 23 April 2012 at 06:34
Morning, Roger! I think the Japs were under pressure mainly from their lack of oil. The Americans helped the 'war faction' by inluding oil on the embargo list. Also, most Japanese strategic thinkers believed that they had a maximum of two years before the feeble, sleeping American giant got out of bed and began to exercise, as it were!
"Avoid toil" - I have developed it into an art form!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 23 April 2012 at 09:01