October 27, 2004
ROMANCE OF THE INTELLECTUALS
2004 Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty; Margaret Thatcher, of whom Francois Mitterand said "She has the lips of Marilyn Monroe & the eyes of Caligula"
In a 1994 essay that upset liberals, Norman Rush contemplated the end of the socialist dream & its implications for artists & writers whelped on utopianism. (Perhaps he spoke too soon, judging by the vacuous homogeneity of our effete literati.) British author Alan Hollinghurst just copped the Booker Prize for his 4th novel, The Line of Beauty, about the Thatcher era. Any guesses as to Hollinghurst's take?
Hollinghurst: "There was a sort of collective longing for punishment & chastisement, a sense that a really strong grip had to be exerted over the country. It was so extreme what she did ... terribly destructive."
Hollinghurst: "It was such a ghastly period to live through. We're very much living with the consequences of what happened in the Thatcher years now."
Money quote: "I was someone who felt very politically unhappy in the '80s, but nonetheless did rather well. I got a nice job [deputy editor at Times Literary Supplement]. I published my first book [The Swimming Pool Library] & earned more money than I expected, & having previously never had any money at all, began to feel rather comfortable."
Hollinghurst is a good writer whose first novel smoked, but like most novelists he's an economic illiterate & faux-populist. Thatcher was the only 20th Century PM elected to 3 consecutive terms. When she took office in 1979, England was the "sick man of Europe," hobbled by corrupt, tyrannical trade unions & stagnant government monopolies. Thatcher's crimes:
- • Brought down inflation from 18% to 3%
• Reduced public expenditures from 45% to 39% of the GDP
• Privatization: in 1979, 33 state enterprises absorbed £500 million in public funds & £1 billion in loans; by 1987, these same privatized companies contributed £8 billion to the economy, reducing the tax load
• Competition in energy sector reduced gas prices 31% by 1997, electricity by 20%
• From 1981 to 1987, British economy grew at 2.9% per annum, 2nd only to Japan, & productivity outpaced all other EC economies
- Better the greed crimes of capitalism than the mass crimes of ideology. - Andrei Codrescu
Dickens & Hugo wrote eloquently about the poor, but never suggested people had a right to a job, or a right to healthcare. Such notions imply a monolithic government to pay for such things (ie, make someone else pay for them), & stem from a misperception that wealth is finite, & therefore anyone with money must have gotten it at someone else's expense. Hence Hollinghurst's guilt, which has now earned him a fat Booker wad! Capitalism rocks.
Posted by Jeff at October 27, 2004 01:37 AM