Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Farah Fawcett, The C S Lewis Of Our Age
Lewis's death was hardly reported, since it coincided with that of John F Kennedy.
Fawcett's death is hardly being reported, since it has coincided with that of Michael Jackson.
Well CS Lewis, Belfast born, like Geraldine Smith and myself was for all his talent not as historical a figure as JFK. Michael Jackson was a cutural icon of greater proportion than Farrah Fawcett. The 24 news channels have given much too great a prominence to the Jackson death...that is the case for 24 hour news...they want news to happen to justify their existence. An entire edition of Newsnight was sheer bizarre The adoption of CS Lewis as an icon of East Belfast is of course welcome...eg the statue of the Man And the wardrobe outside the library at Holywood Arches in the heart of loyalist part of the city.....ironically for an Irish nationalist like Lewis.
I just think it says a lot that once the Big Death was Kennedy and the Little Death was Lewis. But now the Big Death is Jackson and the little death is Fawcett.
Well on a scale of 1 2 3 4 it would be 1 JFK 2 Lewis 3 Jackson 4 Fawcett
Jackson (and for me there was no real music after 1968) was an icon of sorts for a rotten generation. But undeserving of serious news reportage on this scale.
CS Lewis? Ugh. There was that AWFUL children's book he wrote. Plot: this kid skips school to eat a large amount of "Turkish Delight" and then I think he gets eaten by a lion. It was very moralistic. Whereas JFK gave the world the Peace Corps. Which is probably why the world paid more attention to President Kennedy, don't you guess?
Your point was that Farrah Fawcett was a CS Lewis for our time.
But she was way better than that! Her hair continues to inspire millions. Unlike CS Lewis and his lion stories, which have caused depression in children.
Well CS Lewis, Belfast born, like Geraldine Smith and myself was for all his talent not as historical a figure as JFK.
ReplyDeleteMichael Jackson was a cutural icon of greater proportion than Farrah Fawcett.
The 24 news channels have given much too great a prominence to the Jackson death...that is the case for 24 hour news...they want news to happen to justify their existence.
An entire edition of Newsnight was sheer bizarre
The adoption of CS Lewis as an icon of East Belfast is of course welcome...eg the statue of the Man And the wardrobe outside the library at Holywood Arches in the heart of loyalist part of the city.....ironically for an Irish nationalist like Lewis.
I just think it says a lot that once the Big Death was Kennedy and the Little Death was Lewis. But now the Big Death is Jackson and the little death is Fawcett.
ReplyDeleteWell on a scale of 1 2 3 4
ReplyDeleteit would be
1 JFK
2 Lewis
3 Jackson
4 Fawcett
Jackson (and for me there was no real music after 1968) was an icon of sorts for a rotten generation.
But undeserving of serious news reportage on this scale.
CS Lewis? Ugh. There was that AWFUL children's book he wrote. Plot: this kid skips school to eat a large amount of "Turkish Delight" and then I think he gets eaten by a lion. It was very moralistic. Whereas JFK gave the world the Peace Corps. Which is probably why the world paid more attention to President Kennedy, don't you guess?
ReplyDeleteThe world paid more attention because JFK was the President of the United States.
ReplyDeleteBut that wasn't my point.
Your point was that Farrah Fawcett was a CS Lewis for our time.
ReplyDeleteBut she was way better than that! Her hair continues to inspire millions. Unlike CS Lewis and his lion stories, which have caused depression in children.
Sooner him than Philip Pullman.
ReplyDelete