"Bayle"  wrote in message   
   news:1126187497.195151.174950@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...   
   >   
   >   
   > "This is not the worst novel in the world but its contemptible   
   > sentimentality, its fatuous pretension, its numbing incoherence and its   
   > smug banality make it a plausible candidate."   
   >   
   > Jesus.   
      
   I enjoyed every word of it.   
      
      
   >   
   > Can this be the same old Tom D who left our pub due to some of us   
   > exceding his sense of propriety and good breeding?   
      
      
   I don't recall him leaving. Others flounced out - including myself. He   
   politely asked me once to not use the word nigger provocatively and he   
   wasn't being prissy but trying to keep the peace.   
      
   >   
   > The above also sounds like some of our former compatriots, no?   
      
   I wouldn;t put it like that myself. It was Ms Bridegam and Igor (you can   
   guess) who oscillated between Pollyanna and Jeremiah - with added dollops of   
   the old Flaubertian Revolutionary/Policeman.   
      
      
      
   >   
   > "contemptible sentimentality" and "fatuous pretension" .... hmmm? Not   
   > to mention "smug banality"?   
   >   
   > As to "numbing incoherence" I suppose all of us are numb at this point   
   > and incoherence is everywhere, regardless of how hard we try.   
   >   
   > I find it curious why it is all right to say these kind of things in   
   > the Times, where the ability of the author to respond is limited at   
   > best, while in a minor newsgroup like ABGO such talk is not to be   
   > tolerated.   
   >   
      
   I never saw Tom as being a contributor who wanted to control debate and   
   there's literary criticism and there's abuse. If you've read five pages of   
   any Parsons novel you will know that all those pejoratives are well-aimed   
   and richly deserved.   
      
      
      
   You're carping up the wrong tree, Bayley boy. Now, give me your opinion on   
   the New Orleans thing: lefties are saying it's a conspiracy against black   
   people (isn't the white man always, though?) and are using it as a stick to   
   hit small govt nuts. I hear Ms Bridegam is a volunteer: collectivism and   
   disaster being boat floaters for a certain type of lefty.   
      
   ROBBIE   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)