[lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago

  • From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:56:38 +0100

"Maybe Hitch and Amis will also become buddies again?"

Seems to me that this is the subtext. It's almost a reply to Hitch's 'Don't. Be. Silly.' http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/history/story/0,6000,785851,00.html

The reason I singled you and Lawrence out is simply because Amis places the emphasis firmly on the Islamists, rather than on what Islam (as a whole) perceives as the failings of the west.

Overall though, it is an attack on religion - on the belief in supernatural beings - and as such is condemning not just of Islamism but also of any other fundamentalist belief system. And this is where it becomes an answer to Hitchens, because however much that man might have abandoned the Left, he has not left behind his distrust of religion, a distrust (there's probably a stronger word) that is clearly a result of his Leftist underpinnings.

It also points towards a turning point that was signfiied by 9/11. Where once the left was anti-religion and anti-capitalist, it now finds itself right in one respect and doubtful in the other where that other is perceived (and marketed) as treasonous by its political enemies. Converesely, the right hasn't quite realised that the sins of fundamentalist Islam do not preclude the possibility that fundamentalist Christians are just as mistaken.

Simon


----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Yost" <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 7:21 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868732,00.html

Thanks, Simon, that is a good piece, although I don't know why you would single out Lawrence and me as its ideal readers. Anyone who likes dark old Larkin or supports women's rights should be encouraged by it. Maybe Hitch and Amis will also become buddies again?

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