[lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:09:36 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 6:28 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
Well, Simon, I read per your request this article by the young Indian
novelist Pankaj Mishra, but I suspect I wasn't as impressed as you were. The
thrust of his article is to blame the West for causing the Islamic militantism
that is plaguing it at present. He invokes that Leftist Holy of Holies, the
Vietnam war, in the way the Leftist love, i.e., that this is the ultimate
definition of Western war. So here the U.S. is doing it again. When will it
ever learn? He is scathing against Amis supposed ignorance about the true
nature of the Muslims who are engaged in Militantism, but perhaps because of
his journeying back and forth between London and India he hasn't had time to
delve into their ideological beliefs. They don't seem to be self-motivated.
They have no volition of their own. They are merely reacting, Vietnam-wise,
against the corrupt, greedy, imperial, evil USA and its poodle, Britain.
Pretty silly Simon -- in keeping with what James Bowman would call the
"Infantile Left." [IMHO]
Lawrence
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Simon Ward
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 2:57 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Amis Antithesis
Following Amis' essay (link provided in a previous post), this week Pankaj
Mishra provides a counterthrust. And I can confidently say that this won't
appeal much to Lawrence and Eric, but that doesn't mean to say they shouldn't
read it.
Extract:
"It is as if the rage, fear and contempt that have overwhelmed many people in
the non-Western world have also overwhelmed some of the brightest people in the
West, distorting their vision to the point where some extraordinarily crude
fantasies - insulting Islam into a Reformation, boosting an American Empire,
bombing entire societies into democracy - appear to them as practical solutions
to the problems of living in an overcrowded world with people who are not and,
perhaps, do not wish to be like them."
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,1874132,00.html#article_continue
Simon
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