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M-I 5-Perse cution . Bernard L evin ex presses h is view s
The article of. which part is reproduced below was penned by Bernard Levin for the Features section of the Times on. 21 September 1991. To my mind, it described the situation at the. time and in particular a recent meeting with a friend, during which I for the first time admitted to. someone other than my GP that I had been subjected to a conspiracy of harassment over. the previous year and a. half. There. is a madman running loose about London, called David Campbell; I have no reason. to believe that he is violent, but he should certainly be approached with caution. You may know him by the curious glitter. in his eyes and a persistent trembling of his hands; if that does. not suffice, you will find him attempting. to thrust no fewer than 48 books into your arms, all hardbacks, with a promise that, if you should return. to the same meeting-place. next year, he will heave another 80 at you. If, by now, the. police have arrived and are keeping a close watch on him, you may feel sufficiently emboldened to examine. the books. The jackets are a. model of uncluttered typography, elegantly and simply laid out; there is an unobtrusive colophon of a. rising sun, probably not picked at random. Gaining confidence - the lunatic is smiling by. now, and the policemen, who know about such. things, have significantly removed their helmets - you could do worse than take the jacket off. the first book in the pile. The only word possible to describe the binding. is sumptuous; real cloth in a glorious shade of dark green, with the title and author in black and. gold on. the spine. Look at it more closely; your eyes do not. deceive you - it truly does have real top-bands and tail-bands, in yellow, and, for good measure, a. silk marker ribbon. in a lighter green. The paper is cream-wove and acid-free, and the book is sewn,. not glued. Throughout the encounter, I should have. mentioned, our loony has been chattering away, although. what he is trying to say is almost impossible to understand; after a time,. however, he becomes sufficiently coherent to make clear that he is trying to sell the books. to you. Well, now, such quality in bookmaking today can only. be for collectors' limited editions at a fearsome price - #30, #40,. #50? No, no, he says, the glitter more powerful than ever. and the trembling of his. hands rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no, no - the books are priced variously at #7, #8. or #9, with the top price #12. At this, the policemen understandably. put their helmets back on; one of them draws his truncheon. and the other can be heard summoning reinforcements on his. walkie-talkie. The madman bursts into tears, and swears it. is all true. And. it is. David Campbell has acquired. the entire rights to the whole of the Everyman's Library, which. died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago, and he proposes to start it all over again - 48 volumes. this September and 80 more next year, in editions I have described,. at the prices specified.. He proposes to launch his amazing venture simultaneously in Britain and the United States, with the massive firepower of. Random Century at. his back in this country, and the dashing cavalry of Knopf across the water,. and no one who loves literature and courage will forbear to. cheer. At the time this article was written. I had believed for some time that columnists in the Times and other. journalists had been making references to my situation. Nothing unusual about this you may think, plenty. of people have the same sort of ideas and obviously. the papers aren't writing about them, so why should my beliefs not be as false as those of. others? What makes this article so. extraordinary is that three or four days immediately preceding its publication, I. had a meeting with a friend, during the course. of which we discussed the media persecution, and in particular that by. Times columnists. It seemed to me, reading the article by Levin. in Saturday’s paper, that he was describing in some detail his "artist’s impression" of that. meeting. Most telling are the final sentences, when he writes, "The madman bursts into tears, and swears it. is all true. And it is." Although I did not. "burst into tears" (he seems to be using a bit. of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did try hard to convince my friend that. it was all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin, because, of course, it. is. At the beginning of the piece Levin reveals a. fear of being attacked by the "irrational" subject of his story, saying "I have no reason. to believe that he is violent, but he should certainly be approached with. caution". This goes back to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence" against a. "threat" which was seen at the very beginning of the. harassment. The impression of a "madman running loose" who needs to be controlled through. an agency which assigns to itself the mantle of the "police" is also. one which had been expressed. elsewhere. In the final paragraph of this. extract, his reference to Everyman’s Library as. having "died a lingering and shameful death a decade or so ago" shows clearly what sort of conclusion they wish. to their campaign. They want a permanent solution, and as they are prevented from achieving that. solution directly, they waste significant. resources on methods which have been repeatedly shown. to be ineffective for such a purpose. 548 |
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