(1559) The slow move towards evening after an easy afternoon.

 

16. An inaccessible novel for its time

What often happens with me late afternoons/early evenings is that I find myself, Steve’s last NOWP posted and with no plans by me to post any more that day, able to lie down, phone switched off, and rest after a day’s blogging … then either snooze or explore for upcoming posts.

Trouble is … sometimes I find something … but how to post? This “till close of play” format does not lend itself to long posts … they’re better standalone, the long ones, and I’m too weary anyway to go through all that again with dusk falling.

With that left unresolved, let’s plunge in regardless.

I was looking at Agatha Christie Best to Worst mystery novel lists and one billed as her 80th, to coincide with her age, with many strikes against it before it even started, was Passenger to Frankfurt. To fend off criticism, she just said it was a fantasy … and let it go at that. The intro was commented on this way:

“There is also an author’s introduction on the writing of the story, which concludes, “This story is in essence a fantasy. It pretends to be nothing more. But most of the things that happen in it are happening, or giving promise of happening in the world of today. It is not an impossible story – it is only a fantastic one.”” (Wiki)

Trouble is, again … it’s no fantasy in 2025, but it was bound not to find a ready audience/readership/reception in 1970. Under the Wiki heading “Literary significance and reception”, the typical critics used to her clever mysteries and bemoaning her loss of writing ability closer to the end … loss of vocabulary, repetition and so on … were generally quick to dismiss. Some saw it as a refreshing departure, unusual … it was certainly unusual for her, though it returned to one of her themes … the state of the world and of youth.

It’s no fantasy in the sense of Steve’s latest four links, IYE’s (hope he’s feeling better) deep dives, Redacted’s, Mark Matis’s, mine … many others who are uncovering all sorts, esp. what this deep state actually is. I have a feeling Christie stumbled on some of this at high level dinners, functions but how on earth to print it, let alone put it in a novel as a theme or plot?

Then we get to the stage today, where there are vastly more people more receptive to these crazy ideas of ours than, say, in 1970 when it was published.

No one reading it, except for a select few, would have had any idea what she was banging on about … that select few knew exactly whom she was accusing … and thus she had to disguise it as “semi-fiction” … weaving in some of her cloak and dagger, as in a novel, whilst inventing scenarios which were not directly referencing real events, but were redolent of them. How could she put in the Welfs for example?

So the story, along with her typical devices and hobbyhorses, plus no real tale of reality to dare use, remained in a sort of limbo, easily dismissed. Don’t forget her age in this.

15. Steve and war room

• Make Georgia Great Again: Rep. MTG Calls Out Woke Infiltration In Economic Hub Of South
• “We Want A Government That Will Put Its People First.” Malachy Steenson Live From Ireland
• “This Has CIA Written All Over It.” Tej Gill On [The] Ukraine Intel Becoming A Proxy
• JIm Fannell: In The Past 30 Years China Has More Than Doubled The Size Of Its Navy

14. How to prevent Prevent?

13. We may have had it already

… let’s have it again:

12. The criminals in charge

 

(1430) Afternoon all. (1430)

 

11. Moosh corner

10. As they are wont to do of course

9. Rolf Norfolk on PMQs

HERE

“The PM’s rough manners and disregard for relevance have worsened. 

Jesse Norman MP (Con) raised a point of order at the end of the session, asking the Speaker ‘Could you give us some guidance on whether you may be able to control answers when they are wildly inappropriate?’ 

The instance Norman cited was when Badenoch asked Starmer about the two-child benefit cap and instead was slapped with a reference to the Kremlin because they appreciated her admission that the Ukraine conflict was a ‘proxy war’ with Russia. (Make that ‘poxy’: not just despicable but contagious and deadly dangerous.)”

 

 

Two episodes of Jeeves and Wooster and of course, the ones on offer are two of the weakest, from near the end. This review continues below, after the YT.

There are issues with the four series. One reviewer said Berty hammed it up too much in series one but thereafter improved. Hmmmm. Another reviewer said:

Definitely watch the Season 1 of this brilliant series & then say goodby. The joie de vivre of this daffy, cheerful satire on the 1920s British upper crust sparkles throughout the first season which appears to have had a very great deal of effort put into it. Sadly the production then coasted on that effort, cookie-cutter creating following episodes & changing important secondary character actors willy-nilly, totally cutting the legs out from under the series as a whole. The two leads are always a joy to watch but the sparkle that illuminated the series as a whole is just not there after Season 1.

My attitude is a mix of both reviews … whilst there was still sufficient material to keep it relatively Wodehousy into series three, when Ferdinand Fairfax took over the direction, the taking of liberties had begun … anything the BBC touches eventually goes ga ga land … perfect example being Doctor Who, with sick sexuality intruding, plus Wokery … they can’t help themselves, these people … and in one episode, Jeeves goes transvestite … meant to be very funny, ha ha, but it wasn’t to me.

But not completely. One Woke luvvy was outraged by the blackface episodes, yet they were far more of the time than rainbow politics which the modern writers simply cannot leave off, even for a few moments. In the final episode of the last (fourth) series, it had just gone farce and slapstick … modern writers simply cannot write imho … at least can’t hold a candle to Wodehouse. For a start, being ideologues, they lack subtlety … they attempt it but it’s not unlike Starmer and Rayner attempting to write a comedy.

And overplayed, one dimensional in the acting. Stoker and Spode are blackguards through and through, Stiffy and the other women are incapable of anything but rapacity … except for Madeleine who occasionally shows some humanity. For a short while. Perhaps that’s expecting a bit too much.

As for the two leads … they did not initially wish to take the roles … but understood no others were better fitted. The music? Excellent. The settings? Excellent. So much was good along the way.

JH: Back to the first instalment … a few more pics of their dangerous idyll … tornadoes, tides, crocs … but everyday something new happening.

Ggl AI says:

The Latin word for “left” is sinister. While it originally meant “left” or “on the left side,” it also developed negative connotations over time, eventually leading to its current English meaning of “evil” or “unfavorable.”

And so it has turned out … in the States, the lawlessness nationwide is orchestrated by the Demonrats, supported in Congress by the RINOs … the young are largely corrupted, along with Antifa, BLM, universities, schools, fatherless families, baby murder … it goes on.

In Britain, the communist govt were not voted for by 80% of the electorate, even given the invasion numbers of fighting age men, paid for by Brit taxpayers … it’s all quite evil, sinister … pushed by the LibLabConGreen Uniparty … and Reform itself is corrupt at the top.

(0844)(0859)

 

7. More US news

6. Reform plus the state of Britain now

 

(0644) Greetings all … light(ish) out there but with foreboding clouds. (0722)

 

5. City of angels and other lawlessness

4. BLM at TDS

“What was the most demented moment of the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020, asks Dan Hannan in the Washington Examiner. For him, it was “when 1,200 public health officials declared that, although meeting other people was a health risk, especially if you were protesting the lockdowns, demonstrating in support of BLM was fine”. Here’s an excerpt.

[…]

McDonald’s changed its name on all social media platforms to “Amplifying Black Voices”’ Apple replaced its music app radio stations with a single stream playing N.W.A’s “Fuck Tha Police” on repeat. Lego cancelled advertising for its police-related toys. Woe betide you if you did not post a black square on June 2nd 2020, to mark #BlackOutTuesday. …”

And so on.

3. Steve at 1069

• Hungary’s Orbán Celebrates Conservative Nawrocki’s Victory in Poland and the Expanding Trump Influence in Europe
• Joe Rogan’s Face Says It All in Painful Reaction to Trump-Musk Feud
• Elon Musk’s Father Backs Trump in Public Feud
• Newsom Threatens to Withhold Tens of Billions in Federal Taxes
• Germany Merz obsessed with defeating Russia [JH: What’s new?]
• EVs turn ships into death traps: Lithium-ion fires ravage another vessel
• Much more.

2. DAD at 1069

a) The establishment doesn’t favor [the Barbarians] out of love and respect. It fears them.

b) The man who would be Louis XX of France : “The legalization of euthanasia represents the final nail in the coffin of European civilization.”

c) French Reality: Citizenship Training for PSG Rioters, Murder Charge for Policeman.

d) The perils of being visibly Jewish in France.