I went through a brief phase of being outraged when A.A.Gill announced he'd killed an ape to see what it would feel like. Then I realised that I had fallen into his trap and reacted precisely in the way he hoped. So I went back to enjoying his writing, which has a kind of mad acerbic courage and also makes me laugh.
Now he is dead, I am running out of new things by him. I was therefore glad this morning to discover a volume of bracing advice columns he wrote in response to real or imagined letters from readers.
This one I think could or should have been addressed to the author of Spare, although at the time Gill died he could not have known what a psychobabbling nitwit that person was going to become - and of course university has not been part of his "life journey":
Spare. Noun: an item kept in case another item of the same type is lost, broken or worn out.
ReplyDeleteI saw a bit of a cartoon lampooning that book and its author and the title was changed to "Waaaah", which seems a much better name
DeleteWow – that was telling him. I've often come across people who might have read the odd book since their university days but basically believe their education was completed over those three years and they need no more. One of the many reasons not to go to university these days.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of deriving no pleasure from reading is alarming. ZMKC
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