tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post7393500085582460611..comments2023-10-21T11:46:32.529+01:00Comments on Madame Arcati: Ms Baroque on Arcati, Amis and his pomposityMadame Arcatihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04823823014493798116noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-2708683995604513062007-10-22T14:19:00.000+01:002007-10-22T14:19:00.000+01:00It's horrible to think of Martin on top of that gr...It's horrible to think of Martin on top of that great manatee Emma Soames - now shifting her carcass at Saga-by-sea. A more pompous woman you'ved never met, full of herself. The only good thing Nicholas Coleridge ever did was sack her from Tatler. She's a lazy cow, the sort who never made new friends after 25.Madame Arcatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04823823014493798116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-90059671794257243042007-10-22T13:40:00.000+01:002007-10-22T13:40:00.000+01:00No, surely that was caused by sleeping with Emma S...No, surely that was caused by sleeping with Emma Soames?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-83776623360954236982007-10-22T08:04:00.000+01:002007-10-22T08:04:00.000+01:00Mme A, it was a figure of speech. Now, as to remem...Mme A, it was a figure of speech. Now, as to remembering Anna Wintour and Tina Brown - do you suppose that might account for the grimace?Ms Baroquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01836227454899083962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-22656650102818077582007-10-22T07:50:00.000+01:002007-10-22T07:50:00.000+01:00Thank you Ms Baroque - I don't think I would want ...Thank you Ms Baroque - I don't think I would want to be Martin Amis to be honest - then I'd have to be friends with Hitchens and recall I went to bed with Tina Brown and Anna Wintour. There's only so much one can take.<BR/><BR/>I agree on the Hitchens book (Dawkins too). If you have faith in godlessness, then his book is quite sound. He certainly fulminates as well as a "Rev" Ian Paisley - the two are not so different.<BR/><BR/>Of course we are friends! We were never not. MA xMadame Arcatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04823823014493798116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-57203334710900934892007-10-21T20:50:00.000+01:002007-10-21T20:50:00.000+01:00Mme A, I tried to post a comment here this afterno...Mme A, I tried to post a comment here this afternoon but maybe it didn't get through; blogger went a bit funny...<BR/><BR/>What I was saying was that I think you and I are in more agreement than maybe you think; the person I thought had the wrong end of the stick was Yasmin. Your point about public/private utterances is spot on, and corresponds exactly to mine about tone - which is also about controlling how, and when, one releases each bit of what one is saying. <BR/><BR/>Hmm, as to point-by-point items. What you call hostile and I call wheedling, I think is the same thing. That was (one place) where I think he lost control of his tone. He never meant it to sound wheedling. (Never!)<BR/><BR/>Yes, Amis pointed out that Eagleton had, hmm, what was it? Mislead his readers as to the nature and timing of Amis' quoted remarks? Now, I thank you Mme A for the elucidation as to those public and private utterances, which I can see is the cause of Amis' feeling of having been almost misquoted. He has yet, clearly, to learn the lesson every blogger knows: try not to make private utterances on the page! It's a hard one.<BR/><BR/>However, I do concede that merely being brave enough to admit to one's nastier thoughts in public is not the same as giving a great call to action. <BR/><BR/>Fine point, though, sometimes, eh what?<BR/><BR/>You're right about the godawful pals - great term, btw - though I wonder if one agenda is pushing the other or if it's the other way round. I mean, they're pushing this atheism thing pretty hard and, from what I can see, it's all in the service of saying everyone's just as bad as the Islamists. I've read most of Hitchens' book and found it all to be built on sand. If you agree his original premise, the whole thing stands. If you don't have faith (sic) in it to begin with, nothing he says sounds convincing. I think he would more usefully replace the word "religion" with the phrase "human nature" and then we'd see how we got on.<BR/><BR/>Do you think this - admittedly otherwise wonderfully refreshing - fracas in a teacup has had the effect of making us all have to examine our own thoughts? I don't, so much. Maybe my thoughts were okay to begin with. It did make me examine my own views of Eagleton, Amis and Alibhai-Brown, though. (I liked what I saw.) <BR/><BR/>And as to my not liking the younger Amis, well, it's been a fun 25 years. <BR/><BR/>Are we friends? <BR/><BR/>Are you perhaps Martin Amis? (though I can't really see that, somehow, with the Molly Parkin & Kevin Spacey things...)<BR/><BR/>xxMs Baroquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01836227454899083962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-30900437608273532922007-10-21T15:21:00.000+01:002007-10-21T15:21:00.000+01:00Anonymous, you make me laugh.Mma A, I think actua...Anonymous, you make me laugh.<BR/><BR/>Mma A, I think actually I was sort of agreeing with you; the person I thought hadn't quite got the right end of the stick was Yasmin.<BR/><BR/>As to my dislike of Amis, well, oh you know. He's like a force of nature; he's always been there. He's that crucial just-enough--older-than-me to have probably loomed a little too large when I was still impressionable. Anyway, your post deserves a careeful response which I can't give till after I've finished my devoirs of the day, which will be later. <BR/><BR/>xxMs Baroquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01836227454899083962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-443424080929798232007-10-21T10:31:00.000+01:002007-10-21T10:31:00.000+01:00Anonymous is quite right, he really did have the p...Anonymous is quite right, he really did have the personal touch with his young female charges.<BR/><BR/>I get more worried by Eagleton's ignorant and slapdash slighting of Amis pere.Fitzroy Cyclonichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18396638186390482168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30643113.post-56135212178638857812007-10-21T07:53:00.000+01:002007-10-21T07:53:00.000+01:00Eagleton was famous at Wadham for the care and con...Eagleton was famous at Wadham for the care and consideration he extended to young women students, which went far beyond the lackadaiscal pastoral attitude of his peers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com