The older I get, in other words, the more we advance along into the 21st century, the more I hate it; the more I realise in fact what a product of the 20th century I am. I mean, I was born in 67, so thirty three years ( age of Christ!) far outweights 25. Well, by eight anyway.
The novels have been all part of it. The Fetishist, normally coming out in the autumn of next year, was a deep dive into the nineties, which is a golden period in my mind. Compared to the world I see today, at least.
I look at my poor students, this is a generation that doesn't even read! Can you imagine? I can't, as books became more and more important to me, even replacing people, when I was in my mid teens. I'm a language teacher for Christ sake, I've learned French and a bit of Italian, and so the languages that I have aquired have mainly been hard won by a simultaneous engagement with reading and speaking actively in the target language.
Then there is the issue with the mainstream media, I mean, I have long since stopped reading mainstream publications for years. I used to buy The Guardian back in the early noughties when it was still a considerable newspaper, back around the time of the war in Iraq. That's over twenty years ago now! As for The Irish Times....it's been years since I bought a copy. In fact, a guy opened up the broadsheet yesterday morning on the train, with many a great flourish ( what an old power play) and I found the whole performance faintly amusing. I mean, does the guy not even realise that he is now paying almost 3 Euro for a progaganda rag for NATO and Co!
As for television... Jesus! I only watch RTE for election coverage or if there is storm. You know, basically emergency like situations. Like a lot of people, I stopped plugging into Donnybrook and Co after seeing their coverage of the Irish Water debacle; how many years ago!...
So yeah, now, I am just YouTubing. John Mearsheimer for the latest Geo-Political analysis. His stance on the war in Ukraine, NATO expansion as opposed to Russian Imperialism, is basically pretty solid in terms of simple historical fact. Emmanuel Todd in France backs him up, and these two guys alone are two of the most critically engaged intellectuals on the issues at hand. The former, the greatest exponent of the Realist School of History, and the latter, merely the guy who predicted the fall of the Soviet Union after studying the stats on births & deaths. His last book is on the Death of the West!...
Anyways... just filling intime before I get back on the old locomotive....!
Enfin!
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