The Temple Of Iconoclasts

Buy it. Steal it. Read It.
(“Roberto Bolano - The Last Interview”)

Saying “Nazi Literature In The Americas” is a series of fictional biographies of Latin American Literary figures & Football Hooligans is a bit like saying Don Quixote is a story about a man and a donkey. When I found out it was inspired by Juan Rodolfo Wilcock’s “The Temple Of Iconoclasts” ordering a copy was a no-brainer. (Shamefully, I’m too bourgeois to comply with the alternative injunction). Unlike Bolano’s NLITA “The Temple Of Iconoclasts” is a mix of real biographies with fictional ones. Whimsical, bizarre and satirical by turns the triumph is that the invention is almost impossible to spot.

They include -

Catalan Director Llorenz Riber ,who believed he was a rabbit, and his stage adaptation of Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations”

Belgian Academic Henry Bucher who at fifty-nine was only forty-two (I said almost impossible!)

Telepathic Hypnotist Jose Valdes y Prom’s sabotage of a 1878 Scientific & Theological Conference

Roger Babson’s foundation dedicated to isolation of the Gravity Atom

John Cleves Symmes’ advocacy of Hollow Earth theory

JesusPica Planas’ invention of the accident proof rubber automobile

And so on through something like 35 entries

The kicker is that it too is inspired by a similar collection – Martin Gardner’s “Fads And Fallacies In The Name Of Science”. I’ve not investigated further but maybe “it’s turtles all the way down….” and there’s a limit even to my book buying!

The Idea Of Communism

I suppose it’s hardly surprising given recent events that Amazon should be awash with radical print. Depending on how you viewed the financial crisis in the first place, this is either the seizing of a golden opportunity or cynical publishers making hay while the sun shines before the inevitable retrenchment.

Tariq Ali’s “The Idea Of Communism” is, I expect, an example of the former. It’s a timely potted history and whilst there’s nothing new to me it’s a useful primer for anyone puzzled with how seemingly intelligent people (I flatter myself) can defend it. If I have any reservations it would only be with his conclusion that capitalist democracy was a long time coming and had its own dictators (Cromwell, Robespierre, Napoleon etc…) so we should anticipate similar setbacks in a transition to socialism. Whilst perfectly true, it is never the less troublesome. It seems to suggest the Stalinist excesses and denial of workers liberty in Russia and the satellite states were in some sense inevitable and therefore legitimate. I suppose if you cleave to the idea of Stalinist Russia being a workers state (albeit one of the Heinz’s varieties of degenerated / degenerate / deformed / with bureaucratic deformation etc…) you paint yourself into this corner. However, for someone with Ali’s impeccable anti-imperialist credentials it’s ironic that his position reminds me of the US’s defence of My Lai – In order to save the village we had to destroy it.

That aside, as a famous German playwright said “It’s a good thing for you, find out more about it”. This is as good a place to start as any.

The Pregnant Widow

I’m a huge fan of Martin Amis. This devotion has become increasingly difficult of late. Whilst I was disappointed with the “Koba The Dread” reading “The Second Plane” put me in free-fall - It was like catching a favourite uncle jack-knifed over kiddie porn. Add to this his recent intemperate outbursts on the Muslim community (that Terry Eagleton rightly described as “like the ranting of a BNP thug”) and this worship begins to become almost untenable.


However I’m enough of a Trotskyist to put the politics of an author aside so I ordered “The Pregnant Widow” anyway. Although his take on the “Feminist Revolution” of the 70’s is different to mine it’s a perfect foil for his usual concerns. Lisa Allardyce, who chaired the launch event last night at the Martin Harris Centre counted (Judging from her contribution she should have spend less time counting and more time reading!) something like 80 instances of tits and arse, or variations thereof, which should give you a flavour? It's also peppered with literary references and reflections as Amis burlesques his way through 480 pages.

If you’re not fan already there’s probably little here to change your mind but if you liked “London Fields” you should be running to the nearest bookshop.

A life without porpoise

In a concerted effort to drag the blog even further down-market, I also felt like uploading one of my favourite film strap-lines that I came across while looking for the Yo La Tengo pic on my PC....

Yet another Yo La Tengo post

I know it can't compete with the erudite nature of recent posts, but I saw this on the ever popular 'the Onion' website and it made me smile...