🚀 go-pugleaf

go away you weary bastard


<MI5Victim@mi5.gov.uk> wrote in message news:m06112622581309@4ax.com...
>
> The article of which part is reproduced below was penned by Bernard Levin
> for the Features section of the Times on 21 September 1991. To my mind, it
> described the situation at the time and in particular a recent meeting 
> with
> a friend, during which I for the first time admitted to someone other than
> my GP that I had been subjected to a conspiracy of harassment over the
> previous year and a half.
>
>>There is a madman running loose about London, called David Campbell; I 
>>have
>>no reason to believe that he is violent, but he should certainly be
>>approached with caution. You may know him by the curious glitter in his
>>eyes and a persistent trembling of his hands; if that does not suffice, 
>>you
>>will find him attempting to thrust no fewer than 48 books into your arms,
>>all hardbacks, with a promise that, if you should return to the same
>>meeting-place next year, he will heave another 80 at you.
>>
>>If, by now, the police have arrived and are keeping a close watch on him,
>>you may feel sufficiently emboldened to examine the books. The jackets are
>>a model of uncluttered typography, elegantly and simply laid out; there is
>>an unobtrusive colophon of a rising sun, probably not picked at random.
>>Gaining confidence - the lunatic is smiling by now, and the policemen, who
>>know about such things, have significantly removed their helmets - you
>>could do worse than take the jacket off the first book in the pile. The
>>only word possible to describe the binding is sumptuous; real cloth in a
>>glorious shade of dark green, with the title and author in black and gold
>>on the spine.
>>
>>Look at it more closely; your eyes do not deceive you - it truly does have
>>real top-bands and tail-bands, in yellow, and, for good measure, a silk
>>marker ribbon in a lighter green. The paper is cream-wove and acid-free,
>>and the book is sewn, not glued.
>>
>>Throughout the encounter, I should have mentioned, our loony has been
>>chattering away, although what he is trying to say is almost impossible to
>>understand; after a time, however, he becomes sufficiently coherent to 
>>make
>>clear that he is trying to sell the books to you. Well, now, such quality
>>in bookmaking today can only be for collectors' limited editions at a
>>fearsome price - #30, #40, #50?
>>
>>No, no, he says, the glitter more powerful than ever and the trembling of
>>his hands rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no, no - the books
>>are priced variously at #7, #8 or #9, with the top price #12.
>>
>>At this, the policemen understandably put their helmets back on; one of
>>them draws his truncheon and the other can be heard summoning
>>reinforcements on his walkie-talkie. The madman bursts into tears, and
>>swears it is all true.
>>
>>And it is.
>>
>>David Campbell has acquired the entire rights to the whole of the
>>Everyman's Library, which died a lingering and shameful death a decade or
>>so ago, and he proposes to start it all over again - 48 volumes this
>>September and 80 more next year, in editions I have described, at the
>>prices specified. He proposes to launch his amazing venture simultaneously
>>in Britain and the United States, with the massive firepower of Random
>>Century at his back in this country, and the dashing cavalry of Knopf
>>across the water, and no one who loves literature and courage will forbear
>>to cheer.
>
> At the time this article was written I had believed for some time that
> columnists in the Times and other journalists had been making references 
> to
> my situation. Nothing unusual about this you may think, plenty of people
> have the same sort of ideas and obviously the papers aren't writing about
> them, so why should my beliefs not be as false as those of others?
>
> What makes this article so extraordinary is that three or four days
> immediately preceding its publication, I had a meeting with a friend,
> during the course of which we discussed the media persecution, and in
> particular that by Times columnists. It seemed to me, reading the article
> by Levin in Saturday's paper, that he was describing in some detail his
> "artist's impression" of that meeting. Most telling are the final
> sentences, when he writes, "The madman bursts into tears, and swears it is
> all true. And it is." Although I did not "burst into tears" (he seems to 
> be
> using a bit of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did try hard to convince
> my friend that it was all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin,
> because, of course, it is.
>
> At the beginning of the piece Levin reveals a fear of being attacked by 
> the
> "irrational" subject of his story, saying "I have no reason to believe 
> that
> he is violent, but he should certainly be approached with caution". This
> goes back to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence" against a "threat"
> which was seen at the very beginning of the harassment. The impression of 
> a
> "madman running loose" who needs to be controlled through an agency which
> assigns to itself the mantle of the "police" is also one which had been
> expressed elsewhere.
>
> In the final paragraph of this extract, his reference to Everyman's 
> Library
> as having "died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago" shows
> clearly what sort of conclusion they wish to their campaign. They want a
> permanent solution, and as they are prevented from achieving that solution
> directly, they waste significant resources on methods which have been
> repeatedly shown to be ineffective for such a purpose.
>
> 716
>
>
> -- 
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>