David Baddiel - dumb article in Times at weekend

David Baddiel was droning on in The Times about how 'high literature' doesnt have laugh out loud funny moments. I thought this was utter nonsense. Evelyn Waugh's books contain many such moments and his work is certainly 'high literature'. I thought Zadie Smith's latest On Beauty also had such a moment. Mrs Elton in Jane Austen's Emma also used to make me laugh out loud.

It is just so fashionable to decry 'high literature' at the moment. Its all this sinister cultural relativism which I detest. Everything tawdry like the Spice Girls , Big Brother etc. must be made to seem significant and comparable with the finest that the human mind can produce. Of course its complete rubbish and such people and shows will be quickly forgotten while Tolstoy and Proust etc go sailing on always cherished and remembered

State of the Union

Here are the notes for what people thought of this book

Predictable yet strangley compelling,
like Neighbours
Considering the severity of events the characters did not act in a beliveable way
Margy has been in 100 films
Nice ending

I chatted to Lorraine about the book because she had heroically read the whole thing. The plot as it developed made me laugh out loud. I dont think I have ever heard anything more outrageous or ludicrous. To cap it all there wasnt a single beautiful paragraph or sentence in all the part I read. To be frank it was just plain ugly. It doesnt really matter - there are far more important things in life, however there are alot of fine writers out there who really know what they are doing and dont prostitute themselves for the maximum economic return. I salute them and shall devote myself to reading their work.

OUR NEXT BOOK

Nice to see our new people are still coming along. Karen did this month's shortlist
1. We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
2. The Big over Easy by Jasper Fforde
3. Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
4. Who Moved My Blackberry? by Martin Lukes with Lucy Kellaway

And the winner is Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

See you all next time - September 7th 2006

I have just finished Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran - very beautiful and spontaneous writing - high quality stuff. Am now reading a biography of Charles Darwin

all the best Julian