tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post111615241001396381..comments2024-03-28T13:18:28.238+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: Theodore DalrympleMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-37528689608521753772010-12-06T14:37:24.583+00:002010-12-06T14:37:24.583+00:00So do I dude, I have been making in my own blog th...So do I dude, I have been making in my own blog the same action as you mention above, turns out that there is much more of value in it than that, about the links in the first paragraph.Viagra Onlinehttp://www.iservepharmacy.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1147818696316607252006-05-16T23:31:00.000+01:002006-05-16T23:31:00.000+01:00on Theodore Dalrymple -- I'm near the end of 'Life...on Theodore Dalrymple -- I'm near the end of 'Life at the Bottom' -- and I'm stunned by the clarity of thought, and great writing. Your link to a 'short biography' leads to someone else with the same name ... check them out.<BR/><BR/>I first heard Dalrymple interviewed on CBC Radio [I live in BC, Canada] and wanted to read him -- through interlibrary loan I was able to get Life at the Bottom, which I cannot praise too highly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1116461947419424622005-05-19T01:19:00.000+01:002005-05-19T01:19:00.000+01:00Thank you, GOB, for pointing me in the direction o...Thank you, GOB, for pointing me in the direction of Theodore Dalrymple. It shames me that I had never come across him before. That he is not better known may tell us something about today's literary values.<BR/><BR/>It is heartening to know that George Orwell did not in fact die around the time I was born, but lives on in the pseudonymous person of Mr Dalrymple. ('Smelly little orthodoxies', incidentally, is an Orwellian coinage, but he would have been pleased to lend it to Mr Dalrymple.)<BR/><BR/>I was intrigued to read his account of the Rahila Khan scandal, because I remember it well from the time. I recall a radio discussion in which Toby Forward/Rahila Khan said that he chose to write under an assumed identity because he did not believe he would be published otherwise. Arguing against him was a woman who was clearly desperate to strangle him with his dog collar.<BR/><BR/>But I could do with more information on Virago's reaction to the revelation of Rahila Khan's true identity. I didn't know that they had actually pulped the unsold stock.<BR/><BR/>Dalrymple says that they made it clear that they still backed their literary judgment of the book. But this must be hypocrisy, mustn't it? Surely their actions could <EM>only</EM> be interpreted as meaning that they decided on reflection that it wasn't really any good after all.<BR/><BR/>For purposes of comparison, let's take a recent example of real literary fraud. A few years ago a Swiss man by the name of Grosjean published an account of the time he spent as a child in Auschwitz. It was all lies. Can't remember the details, but you could look it up on a search engine.<BR/><BR/>Now when the truth is revealed in such a case, you would fully expect the publisher to want to pulp all unsold copies, because this is fraud pure and simple.<BR/><BR/>But fiction is an entirely different matter. No publisher ever withdrew a novel on the grounds that it was all lies. If anyone can give any detail on Virago's stated reasons for pulping Forward/Khan's book, I'd be interested to hear them.<BR/><BR/>The truth, I fear, is all too clear. Orwell expressed it as 'four legs good, two legs bad.' Virago's version, I suspect, would be 'Asian woman good, Caucasian man bad.'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1116243819624869032005-05-16T12:43:00.000+01:002005-05-16T12:43:00.000+01:00It makes one question the accuracy of the stories ...It makes one question the accuracy of the stories behind the authors. One case here, which originated from the US as the book was edited there( not sure whether this book was released in the UK) pertained to Norma Khouri, a genuine (biological) female who wrote a memoir about her supposed best friend who was killed by her family in Jordan. The novel Forbidden Love was bought by Random House Australia, thousands of copies were sold and it reached the top five lists here only for the information to be fictitious. Khouri couldn't corrobate her information (which makes me wonder how this book was accepted in the first place in the pre-production phase) and subsequently all copies had to be recalled.<BR/><BR/>I suspect the same kind of 'mythology' exists behind the Jean Sassoon 'Princess' series that depicts the lives of Saudi Princesses but because this series came out a while back no one's really questioned them even though the author's only claim is that she has had a longstanding friendship with a Saudi Princess who remains anonymous.<BR/><BR/>We had a case here years ago with Helen Darville aka Demidenko who fabricated her heritage by claiming she was Ukrainian prior to being awarded The Vogel/Aust Literary Award for The Hand that Signed the Paper (1993) and the Miles Franklin Award in 1995.<BR/>She was judged, according to various opinions, based on the quality of the fiction but prior to that she was giving interviews and referring to her heritage, which was false. Thomas Keneally wrote Schindler's List and he didn't have to resort to creating a false identity so I don't think it's justified. I know it sounds naive, but if a story or novel is 'good' it doesn't matter whether the author has a specific heritage or not that relates to the actual story. One of my favourite biographical books about the Saudi Royal family is The Kingdom (Robert Lacey) that came out many years ago, he didn't have to pretend he was Saudi and the tome wasn't sugar coated either due to the fact of him being non Arab.Dee Jourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03292268023897537647noreply@blogger.com