SLPAD - 29 the ineluctable consideration of apocalypse

[Michael Bailey]

[we have to deal with the horrendous possibilities created by the existence
of The Bomb] “in the few ways open to us, from not thinking about it to
going crazy from it. Somewhere on this spectrum of impotence is writing
fiction about it—occasionally, as here, offset to a more colorful time and
place.”

In the hopes of connecting with others in a meaningful way, one wants to
add - placing it in a “happy medium” along the spectrum?




          [in “Under the Rose”] “…I think the characters are a little
better, no longer just lying there on the slab but beginning at least to
twitch some and blink their eyes open.”

Aha - that’s how he does it!
(Like in “Young Frankenstein” where the grandfather’s notebook says to
reverse the electrodes - nobody ever thought of that before!)



“…although their dialogue still suffers from my perennial Bad Ear.”

Now he’s deprecating his English-English.

Looking ahead -
Porpentine’s* memory of Moldweorp* in Naples warning him:
“…we may be for it, all of us. Do be careful.”

- not so bad. Imho. And good advice at that.


* I’m looking forward to rereading “Under the Rose,” and, for the first
time, actually knowing which one of these guys is which.


Then at the very bottom of the page, a name-check for John LeCarré
(requiescat in pace)