Sunday, September the 19th, 2004
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I read the other day that Clive James (writer, critic, and presenter of odious and patronising TV programmes) states that he is engaged on “a search for the magic sentence in a world all too real”. In his case, the “magic sentence” is probably twenty thousand years in Sing Sing, but let that pass. What makes me gnash my teeth in irritation is that this portentous comment doesn't actually mean anything, it just sounds as if it does. James wants to be thought of with high seriousness, so he spouts this rubbish, and it gets lapped up by the witless literati, who probably think it does mean something. (I seem to recall one of James' other “talents” has been fawning to the royal family, so that gives us some idea just how “all too real” his world is.) End of minor rant.