Friday, July 07, 2006
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Song of the DayAss Called Shumble Thought His Beard False But It's Perfectly Alright
Given the various plot accounts, there's no reason to believe Woody Allen's Scoop is of any relation to Evelyn Waugh's book of the same title, besides I suppose, an obvious connection to journalism and the locale of London. As the book was written by a young Waugh, looking back it would have probably fit the proclivities of the younger Allen as well (given that it centers around a clueless journalist's venture into an African Absurdistan). Themes targeting journalism as a whole though are probably overworked these days.
"Can you tell me who is fighting who in Ishmaelia?"
"I think it's the Patriots and the Traitors."
"Yes, but which is which."
"Oh, I don't know that. That's Policy, you see. It's nothing to do with me...."
"I gather it's between the Reds and the Blacks."
"Yes, but it's not quite as easy as that. You see, they are all Negroes. And the Fascists won't be called black because of their racial pride, so they are called White after the White Russians. And the Bolshevists want to be called black because of their racial pride. So when you say black you mean red, and when you mean red you say white and when the party who call themselves blacks say traitors they mean what we call blacks, but what we mean when we say traitors I reallly couldn't tell you. But from your point of view it will be quite simple. Lord Copper only wants Patriot victories and both sides call themselves patriots, and of course both sides will claim all the victories...."
He had published eight books--beginning with a life of Rimbaud written when he was eighteen, and concluding, at the moment, with Waste of Time, a studiously modest description of some harrowing months among the Patagonian Indians...
