Post by Teddy Bear on Dec 4, 2012 20:10:48 GMT
I'm not familiar with the book, or even the author - though I've heard of her, but from the way James Delingpole describes it, I can understand why the BBC would want to air it.
Why is the BBC wasting our money on JK Rowling's socialist misery porn?
By James Delingpole
It's like Fifty Shades but with more bourgeois self-flagellation….
JK Rowling says it made her want to cry, the scene in her first adult book The Casual Vacancy, where council-flat Krystal tells her little brother Robbie to eat his crisps before his Rolos. I'll bet it did. I've no doubt in JK's imagination, its one of those literary heartbreak moments right up there with the death of Little Nell – or even the death of Dobbie the House Elf. Well obviously it would be because, as we know, the primary duty of any half way serious author is not to bother with decent plotlines or plausible characters or a reasonable prose style. Rather, it is to show how totally you empathise with the plight of the poor and downtrodden.
In The Casual Vacancy, Rowling has achieved this not just through brilliant imaginative exercises like the Rolo 'n' crisps scene but also by the daring move of making anyone who actually works for a living (you know, the vile pigs who provide the money that keeps Krystal and Robbie in crisps n Rolos) more hateful and despicable in every way than Snape and Voldemort combined. And for a certain kind of reader, this is more titillating than anything in Fifty Shades Of Grey – though actually it's very similar. What this is porn – self-flagellatory porn for the bien-pensant bourgeoisie.
It's no wonder the BBC has just forked out God knows how much licence-fee payers money for the rights to stage the TV version of The Casual Vacancy. Never mind that the book was universally panned by the critics for being schematic, depressing and unreadably dull. The reason we're going to get it on our screens, whether we like it or not, is because its vision of the world conforms so perfectly with the BBC's.
Here's a taste of Rowling's political insights from an exclusive interview in – where else? – The Guardian.
Here's a thought Joanne. What if the problem – the real problem – is the exact opposite of the one you claim it to be. What if that underclass whose pain you so clearly feel is the creation not of stereotypical, Casual-Vacancy-style Tories in bowler hats and pin stripe suits with big fat cigars in their mouths but of earnest bien-pensants like you and Polly Toynbee yearning for yet more "fairness", government spending and wealth distribution? What if single motherhood is a career choice for many, precisely because, thanks to the agitation of progressives like you and la Pol, it has become a more financially sensible move than actually settling down with a husband or working for a living?
If you want an idea of how the underclass really thinks, you're much better off reading this: voice of the people Kevin Marx arguing for taxpayer-funded scratchcards and high-end mobile phones….
By James Delingpole
It's like Fifty Shades but with more bourgeois self-flagellation….
JK Rowling says it made her want to cry, the scene in her first adult book The Casual Vacancy, where council-flat Krystal tells her little brother Robbie to eat his crisps before his Rolos. I'll bet it did. I've no doubt in JK's imagination, its one of those literary heartbreak moments right up there with the death of Little Nell – or even the death of Dobbie the House Elf. Well obviously it would be because, as we know, the primary duty of any half way serious author is not to bother with decent plotlines or plausible characters or a reasonable prose style. Rather, it is to show how totally you empathise with the plight of the poor and downtrodden.
In The Casual Vacancy, Rowling has achieved this not just through brilliant imaginative exercises like the Rolo 'n' crisps scene but also by the daring move of making anyone who actually works for a living (you know, the vile pigs who provide the money that keeps Krystal and Robbie in crisps n Rolos) more hateful and despicable in every way than Snape and Voldemort combined. And for a certain kind of reader, this is more titillating than anything in Fifty Shades Of Grey – though actually it's very similar. What this is porn – self-flagellatory porn for the bien-pensant bourgeoisie.
It's no wonder the BBC has just forked out God knows how much licence-fee payers money for the rights to stage the TV version of The Casual Vacancy. Never mind that the book was universally panned by the critics for being schematic, depressing and unreadably dull. The reason we're going to get it on our screens, whether we like it or not, is because its vision of the world conforms so perfectly with the BBC's.
Here's a taste of Rowling's political insights from an exclusive interview in – where else? – The Guardian.
The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge. The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.
"They talk about feckless teenage mothers looking for a council flat. Well, how tragic is it that that's what someone regards as the height of security or safety? What would your life be like if that's the only possible path you can see for yourself? But I don't know if that's a question some people ask themselves. There has been a horribly familiar change of atmosphere [since the 2010 election], it feels to me a lot like it did in the early 90s, where there's been a bit of redistribution of benefits and suddenly lone-parent families are that little bit worse off. But it's not a 'little bit' when you're in that situation. Even a tenner a week can make such a vast, vast difference. So, yeah, it does feel familiar. Though I started writing this five years ago when we didn't have a coalition government, so it's become maybe more relevant as I've written."
Here's a thought Joanne. What if the problem – the real problem – is the exact opposite of the one you claim it to be. What if that underclass whose pain you so clearly feel is the creation not of stereotypical, Casual-Vacancy-style Tories in bowler hats and pin stripe suits with big fat cigars in their mouths but of earnest bien-pensants like you and Polly Toynbee yearning for yet more "fairness", government spending and wealth distribution? What if single motherhood is a career choice for many, precisely because, thanks to the agitation of progressives like you and la Pol, it has become a more financially sensible move than actually settling down with a husband or working for a living?
If you want an idea of how the underclass really thinks, you're much better off reading this: voice of the people Kevin Marx arguing for taxpayer-funded scratchcards and high-end mobile phones….