Comments on: A Near Encounter http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/05/28/jenny-diski/a-near-encounter/ The Blog of the London Review of Books Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:00:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Phil http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/05/28/jenny-diski/a-near-encounter/comment-page-1/#comment-63 Phil Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:53:24 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=431#comment-63 I blame the cameras as much as anything. To walk in a straight line <b>on TV</b> is to Walk In A Straight Line, other human beings be damned; the path ahead should be as unpopulated as the road ahead on a car advert, or else something's amiss. The situationists said years ago that the spectacle was a technology of isolation, and they weren't wrong. I blame the cameras as much as anything. To walk in a straight line on TV is to Walk In A Straight Line, other human beings be damned; the path ahead should be as unpopulated as the road ahead on a car advert, or else something’s amiss. The situationists said years ago that the spectacle was a technology of isolation, and they weren’t wrong.

]]> By: Doghouse http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/05/28/jenny-diski/a-near-encounter/comment-page-1/#comment-48 Doghouse Fri, 29 May 2009 15:01:25 +0000 http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/?p=431#comment-48 Is it tolerable to stretch the imagination beyond banality and suggest that David Cameron is (in limited ways) much like a day-old chick? No, not really. But heck, why not? Growing under a media spotlight, clucking enthusiastically at expectant attention, franticly lunging at small grains of feed, which if consumed regularly and with great ambition, will eventually lead to the desired, plump state of henhood or (if he were a wee cockerel) maybe cockhood. Just like Jenny, as we find ourselves face-to-face with a potentially fowl subject, oven-ready, well-packaged and garnished, we ask the fundamental moral question, is he organic? Or is he suspiciously cheap and convienient, keen to satisfy the hungry, good for no other reason than because he is prêt à manger? mmmmm... Chicken. Is it tolerable to stretch the imagination beyond banality and suggest that David Cameron is (in limited ways) much like a day-old chick? No, not really. But heck, why not?
Growing under a media spotlight, clucking enthusiastically at expectant attention, franticly lunging at small grains of feed, which if consumed regularly and with great ambition, will eventually lead to the desired, plump state of henhood or (if he were a wee cockerel) maybe cockhood.
Just like Jenny, as we find ourselves face-to-face with a potentially fowl subject, oven-ready, well-packaged and garnished, we ask the fundamental moral question, is he organic? Or is he suspiciously cheap and convienient, keen to satisfy the hungry, good for no other reason than because he is prêt à manger?

mmmmm… Chicken.

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