1984 (1,6) The Prostitute

Winston is back in his flat and writing in his diary. Apparently the dark-haired girl has stimulated a lot of thoughts in him, and he needs to work out something that is eating away at him. A couple of years ago, Winston had a few dollars in his pocket and he needed to scratch an itch.

Consorting with prostitutes was forbidden, of course, but it was one of those rules that you could occasionally nerve yourself to break.... And it was easy enough, provided that you could avoid being caught in the act. The poorer quarters swarmed with women who were ready to sell themselves. Some could even be purchased for a bottle of gin, which the proles were not supposed to drink. Tacitly the Party was even inclined to encourage prostitution, as an outlet for instincts which could not be altogether suppressed. Mere debauchery did not matter very much, so long as it was furtive and joyless, and only involved the women of a submerged and despised class. The unforgivable crime was promiscuity between Party members.

His encounter was certainly furtive and joyless. Even better, from the Party’s perspective, it was absolutely traumatic. Down in the prole quarters, he hooked up with a broad wearing caked on make-up, and when it was too late to retreat, he realized that she is an old, old woman, even toothless. Nevertheless, he admits, “But I went ahead and did it just the same.” His skin still crawls in the memory of this desperate debauch, his whole being cringing.

Ah, man, we’ve all been there, dude!

1984 (1,6) The Prostitute

Winston is back in his flat and writing in his diary. Apparently the dark-haired girl has stimulated a lot of thoughts in him, and he needs to work out something that is eating away at him. A couple of years ago, Winston had a few dollars in his pocket and he needed to scratch an itch.

Consorting with prostitutes was forbidden, of course, but it was one of those rules that you could occasionally nerve yourself to break.... And it was easy enough, provided that you could avoid being caught in the act. The poorer quarters swarmed with women who were ready to sell themselves. Some could even be purchased for a bottle of gin, which the proles were not supposed to drink. Tacitly the Party was even inclined to encourage prostitution, as an outlet for instincts which could not be altogether suppressed. Mere debauchery did not matter very much, so long as it was furtive and joyless, and only involved the women of a submerged and despised class. The unforgivable crime was promiscuity between Party members.

His encounter was certainly furtive and joyless. Even better, from the Party’s perspective, it was absolutely traumatic. Down in the prole quarters, he hooked up with a broad wearing caked on make-up, and when it was too late to retreat, he realized that she is an old, old woman, even toothless. Nevertheless, he admits, “But I went ahead and did it just the same.” His skin still crawls in the memory of this desperate debauch, his whole being cringing.

Ah, man, we’ve all been there, dude!

Anders Behring Breivik: Mass Murder in Norway

LONDON — On one level Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian responsible for the biggest massacre by a single gunman in modern times, is just a particularly murderous psychotic loner: the 32-year-old mama’s boy with no contact with his father, obsessed by video games (Dragon Age II) as he preens himself (“There was a relatively hot girl on [sic] the restaurant today checking me out”) and dedicates his time in asexual isolation to the cultivation of hatred and the assembly of a bomb from crushed aspirin and fertilizer.

-- Roger Cohen for The New York Times


Mr. Cohen goes on to argue that such an assessment does not do justice to the case, taking the view that the heated culture of intolerance of right-wing parties, in Europe and and in America, help to lead wayward souls such as Breikvik to commit ghastly crimes and mass murder, with Breivik counting for upward of a hundred dead bodies.

Though, I think it is understood that violent rhetoric is generally not part of any mainstream poitical parties in Europe (while America is a little rougher), and Europe does have serious problems, as all the advanced Western nations seem to have, with assimilating Muslims into their culture. And it is hard to discount the lunacy factor of someone who likes to pose himself thus:



He apparently sees himself as a sort of super-hero. I marvel that he could refrain from donning a cape.

Breivik is a mass murderer and is someone for whom I can see the validity of the death penalty, especially since there can be no mistaking his guilt, but that doesn't change the issue hanging in the air: do Muslims want to be part of Western society, or do they want to convert Western society to Islamic ways?

I don't follow the news as closely as one might think, but it seems to me that we haven't seen a lot of jihadic violence in the West lately, and that Breivik has succeeded more fully in murder and mayhem. One can wonder if we have more to worry about from our right-wingers than from jihadists.

But the situation is fluid. For now, it seems that decent society is getting attacked from both Islamists and Christianists.

( The remainder of Cohen's column )

Anders Behring Breivik: Mass Murder in Norway

LONDON — On one level Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian responsible for the biggest massacre by a single gunman in modern times, is just a particularly murderous psychotic loner: the 32-year-old mama’s boy with no contact with his father, obsessed by video games (Dragon Age II) as he preens himself (“There was a relatively hot girl on [sic] the restaurant today checking me out”) and dedicates his time in asexual isolation to the cultivation of hatred and the assembly of a bomb from crushed aspirin and fertilizer.

-- Roger Cohen for The New York Times


Mr. Cohen goes on to argue that such an assessment does not do justice to the case, taking the view that the heated culture of intolerance of right-wing parties, in Europe and and in America, help to lead wayward souls such as Breikvik to commit ghastly crimes and mass murder, with Breivik counting for upward of a hundred dead bodies.

Though, I think it is understood that violent rhetoric is generally not part of any mainstream poitical parties in Europe (while America is a little rougher), and Europe does have serious problems, as all the advanced Western nations seem to have, with assimilating Muslims into their culture. And it is hard to discount the lunacy factor of someone who likes to pose himself thus:



He apparently sees himself as a sort of super-hero. I marvel that he could refrain from donning a cape.

Breivik is a mass murderer and is someone for whom I can see the validity of the death penalty, especially since there can be no mistaking his guilt, but that doesn't change the issue hanging in the air: do Muslims want to be part of Western society, or do they want to convert Western society to Islamic ways?

I don't follow the news as closely as one might think, but it seems to me that we haven't seen a lot of jihadic violence in the West lately, and that Breivik has succeeded more fully in murder and mayhem. One can wonder if we have more to worry about from our right-wingers than from jihadists.

But the situation is fluid. For now, it seems that decent society is getting attacked from both Islamists and Christianists.

( The remainder of Cohen's column )

Oh, oh, I feel sorry for that puppy!

"Mine!"

Oh, oh, I feel sorry for that puppy!

"Mine!"