[Wittrs] Re 'Jew of Linz'
- From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 15:04:03 -0700
Re 'The Jew of Linz' by Kimberly Cornish, 1998
I'll likely publish more than one memo on this one, which
I'm only just now getting around to, having determined
I don't have The Third Wittgenstein, so picking the next
one to jump off the queue, from Alex's collection
(recently added to TimeCapsule).
Cornish does a real public service in unearthing all this
gossip. As a smokeless pipe Hollywood type, in the
movie biz, I sit up with the proverbial light bulb going
on, with the idea "we can <i>use</i> this".
For those who don't know (even though it's written up
in Wikipedia), this work in nonfiction attempts to knit
together the Le Carre world of "a hidden recruiter" (not
unlike "hidden Imam" of some Jihadian texts), the
socio-political zeitgeist of Hitlerism, and the gender
bender soaps of the privileged classes in control of
Oxbridge in those days.
He largely succeeds with his quiltwork, but then many
have been here before, so it's not like a private language
or anything.
Still, if you've grown up reading lots of "Wittgenstein comix"
(manga) as I have, it's fun to have your entre into 'Spycatcher',
a dry and boring work full of people you'll never know, be
that of your superhero. What better way to get 'history in
a nutshell' than via the social luminaries and musically well
endowed (Brahms, Liszt, Joachim... Wagner).
Both Hitler and Ludwig could whistle up a storm. "And did"
says Cornish, from his perch in Austrialia (but he gets
around, reads intercepts in the Archives a lot (friends in
high places I guess)), knows all this lore about Special
Branch (sounds like something to counter eh?). Then
there's Art. It all fits, a neat mnemonic package, a big
yay for Aussie intel, such as it is. What's the Murdoch
angle? Vanity Fair?
I can't resist saying he tends to the corny when it comes to
evoking a great Backdrop of History, wherein Wittgenstein
becomes a magician in some Wagner meets Cecil B. DeMille
extravaganza. It's still way less spacey than say Kurt Vonnegut
in say 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
He somewhat takes the evolution of intelligence agencies for
granted, as if his UK had always had section D, minus any
Russian influence. Since when this "MI-5" and "MI-6"? They
just appear. He hasn't much time to trace their lineage to
responsible philosophers (Francis Bacon?), or irresponsible
as the case may be. We know the US history better, some
of us, tracing to Ben Franklin.
I did find it annoying when he took the "different air" remarks,
wherein Wittgenstein himself thinks Wittgenstein's thinking
was unlikely to enlighten many contemporaries, and put a
hard "he meant Jewish" spin on 'em. He later takes that
for granted (where I would not), saying LW sees himself as
Hebraic or whatever. This is coming awfully close to making
fun of the guy because those other guys worshiped him.
Cornish isn't above doing the same school yard stuff in his
writings that these other boys do (me either, I'll confess).
Yes, Wittgenstein's language was somewhat racial in that
sense but just look how fast and loose people played with
the idea of "race" back then. You had Austrians secretly
being of the German race, the Jewish race, hard to tell if the
Russians get to be a race but probably the Slavs are, and
the Christians of course, not to mention the Christians who
used to be Jews, if not Nuremberg Jews, with 3/4 grandparents,
depending on.... just crazy talk if you ask me, not a jot of
science in sight, pure mythos, off-the-wall nuttiness (no one
said sanity was a requirement for Planet Earth did they?
-- did some Napoleon issue that as an edict?). And this
led to lots of killing. Poor Wittgenstein, to have to live with
such bozos. The homophobia alone was nauseating, but add
to it the faux science... not a pretty picture at all.
I like the Martian spin better, as applied by the actor
Nabil Shaban in the movie 'Wittgenstein', and more where
I'm going with this Martian Math stuff I'm doing (part of the
Digital Mathematics curriculum sourced from Wikieducator).
http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2011/03/wittgenstein-movie-review.html
http://wikieducator.org/Digital_Math
Wonderful gossip though. When the population was so small,
and elites so meager, you could have all these 2 degrees of
separation more easily. Of course now, with the Internet and
cyberspace, there are practically no degrees of separation,
which makes it harder to talk like a spy from the early Cold War
era and make any sense any more, but that's not Cornish's
problem. More Le Carre's department, and Hollywood's.
What does Cornish think of the Spanish Civil War then? He
seems to think brave English leftists who went there and
died were maybe escaping justice given they'd been traitors
somehow. How again? When I grew up in Italy, the
Communist Party was just one more party, as free and
not free as any other, in alliances with others, your typical
messy politics.
The UK is far too uptight for such rough and tumble, we get
that, but don't project on "spies" all your feelings of secret
betrayal. Seems like all a spy is is someone it's fair game
to gossip about, like whats-her-face in Vanity Fair. Everyone
gets to speculate about your sexuality, your deepest secrets.
Is Britney Spears a spy? That's the language game.
No wonder Lindsay Moran turned tables and spied on herself
before "they" could ('Blowing My Cover' mostly re her CIA
adventures in Macedonia). In Cornish's book, some guy
(I forget which one) works in NATO in some dreary submarine
job, might know some vital secrets, like wow I'm impressed
(yawn).
I'm more inclined to see from the side of say Hemingway and
Picasso (too romantic?). Hitler and Mussolini, the Fascist
powers, were trying out fire bombing on Madrid and testing the
willingness of other imperial powers to go along with this
manslaughter. I'm with George Seldes ('Tell The Truth and Run')
in thinking this was a particularly hideous evil and if "leftists"
were the ones against the fascists, then yeah, I'm for the
leftists, who ain't? Who's for Darth Vader? Give us your
views.
George Seldes was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune who didn't
think Mussolini was such a wonderful guy back when the big
money industrialists were betting (as many are now) on fascism
and gaga for El Duce. His brother Gilbert, also Jewish (here we
go again), was a member of a small circle of literati reminiscent
of the Vienna Circle, if we want to shift focus and do a Part 2 that's
less Eurocentric (did I hear the Mormon's believe Wittgenstein
actually came to America and cured many philosophers of
their mental diseases -- some musical on Broadway was it?).
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2011/02/tell-truth-and-run-movie-review.html
If Wittgenstein really was the secret spymaster helping to
coordinate Hitler's downfall, then why is this Cornish character
so in the spectator booth snickering about his homo stuttering
in German ("there is no doubt that Wittgenstein and Philby
would have much to stutter about together in German") and
wondering how he escaped the noose (for betraying whom
again? Hitler?). Anyway, I'm sure I'll get the story straight as
I get more into it. I'm not claiming to have finished with this
reading. I notice he had a Quaker on his final list of suspects
of Apostles, as to who was the Secret Recruiter. I'm miffed he
gets passed over so easily, apparently <i>because</i> he's
a Quaker. I feel somewhat offended. See you at recess then.
Kirby
_______________________________________________
Wittrs mailing list
Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://undergroundwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/wittrs_undergroundwiki.org
Other related posts:
