The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a natural pairing since Eco’s book is full of allusions to Borges. There’s a lovely set of illustrations of Borges’ beings here. Rereading these books for the first time in a decade or so, I wondered whether the idea of Borges’ Library of Babel as a metaphor for the Internet had occurred to anyone else. According to Google, the answer is “Only about 10,000 times”.

I’ve also been watching the new adaptation of Sons and Lovers. It will be interesting to see if this does anything for Lawrence’s reputation, which has declined precipitously in recent years under the combined impact of feminist criticism and the declining appeal of the Romantic ideal of the artist whose transcendent genius excuses his atrocious behavior and whose atrocious behavior is evidence of his transcendent genius. Picasso is the archetypal 20th century example, but in his case perhaps the genius is great enough to excuse the behavior.

After a long lag, this popular (??) feature returns.

Various bloggers have posted more-or-less absurd theories on the psychological bases of leftwing and rightwing political views. In the same spirit, I conjecture that optimism about war may be driven by experience of video games. As reported in the song below, I was very bad at video games, notably including Battlezone a shoot-em-up with tanks and missiles. Those interested in dating it can get a clue from the last line.

Battlezone

I’m an overgrown delinquent, as easily can be seen
I spend all of my money on a video machine
I’ve hung round pinball parlours and I’ve seen big tallies run
But as long as I’ve played at Battlezone, I’ve never cracked the ton

Chorus
Hurrah me boys me pockes are full and I feel like going berserk
I’ll be down at me local poolhall soon as I get off from work
With me two-bob bits all piled up and both me sleeves rolled back
Today’s the day I makes me play for a century or the sack

I’ve blasted away at the supertanks, I’ve run them forward and back
I’ve dodged the flying missiles and I’ve peppered them with flak
I’ve copied the manoeuvres of the famous players I’ve met
But I’ve never succeeded in plastering up my own three initials yet

If I succeed as I mean to do I’ll make the effort pay
One coin’ll last for hours and I’ll play both night and day
Get me picture in the papers for everyone to view
And instead of dingoes you will read of the feats of JCQ

Tune The Backblocks Shearer

There are a lot of anniversaries at present. We covered the 20-year anniversary of the Hawke-Keating government pretty thoroughly last week, but didn’t get to the 7-year anniversary of the Howard government. And it’s 3 years today since the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble. So, I’m inviting any thoughts on these anniversaries before I try to post my own later in the week.

As always, feel free to comment any issue, civilised discussion and no coarse language please.

Come on, guys! Monday evening and no comments at all. I’m disappointed!

As usual, I invite comments from all and sundry on any topic, asking only that you stick to civilised discussion and avoid coarse language. I hope to discuss the anniversaries of the Howard and Hawke-Keating governments during the week. Others may want to get in first.

Monday 2:30 The comments thread is already lively, with the various personalities of the Hawke-Keating era being critically assessed from a range of viewpoints. Mine will be coming soon.