I wish I was in Mogadishu (in 1970) For the love of old things; don’t let (all) bygones be bygones. I just relish the feeling of Nostalgia in the morning. Sampling what we can from the past, but let’s not get existential and delve into history here, I’m simply talking about pockets, pockets of time. Are you a little lost? Allow me a moment to explicate. I like mystery. I’m a tad sentimental, a little traditional, and more than somewhat adventurous – but only as adventurous as an introvert allows himself to be. I tend to explore in pockets, in times of inspiration to feed my soul. But, what I’m nudging towards here is: treasures. We cannot take anything with us from this life (thought I wasn’t getting existential), but we can always treasure those notes that award life more depth. I was chatting to a friend and colleague about the internet and how people don’t want to read anymore –technology has made us lazy and a little idiotic and stupid, or perhaps just numb. Truth is, most people are okay with speedy temporary mediocrity, or they just allow it to be okay. I like to read. Sounds simple, because it is, but as has been bemoaned in the recent past, it also feels like its dying in this society. I’m currently reading an espionage thriller fantasy – sounds unreal (well it is a work of fiction), but its set somewhere in the 50’s/60’s, and it’s made up of gloriously vivid characters and stark locations. This of course was a period when there was much more mystery in the world. The world wasn’t as conscious of itself as it is now – so in a way it too is a character in the novel. This was a time of deadly aristocrats, master thieves, underworld assassins and smugglers with trench coats – each with their own individual quirks and signatures – and those would be the good guys. This feels like an era long gone, because it is. Like another story I read some time ago that began (if memory serves) with an already old-world English traveller in Mogadishu, in the days before an attempted coup d’état in the late 70’s, as he lamented the changing of times as the dark political shadows grew longer over the city – this as he sipped a cool beverage with (as per the delightful description) an Iman lookalike. I’m certain there are characters like these living today, but they’ve been absorbed by the corporate world, the technology, a blanket of commercialism, social media and globalization. This, here, now, around us, is a diluted society. It’s something you’ll find as a theme in some of the stories I’ve written; from a father telling his son a bedtime story encompassing his former dangerous and high-speed life, to a girl imploring her mother to take her down the path to find her estranged father a half a world away. I like holding history in my fingers. From books, to my father’s old broken watch… So what if they say I’m grasping at phantoms – whispers of the past that can never be again, trying to, in some small way relive a moment, or colour in a distant memory, I’ve always been like this, from trying to break into my Dad’s safe when I was seven, or trying to get into either of my grandfather’s backyard sheds – there was mystery there yes, but also objects that were decades older than me, and in a young mind, anything can be a treasure, the trick is to keep a hold of a morsel of that youth, to add whimsy to something that strikes a chord in the vein of the illusive things alluded to here.. They don’t make anything like they used to. The trick is in finding gems with no pretense. Moral here is; don’t stop reading. Books on a shelf are like latent worlds waiting to be discovered and explored – although some are more vivid than others… There is a bit of mystery left in the world yet, it’s just about being willing to look, to find something from a certain time, or maybe just something timeless, that isn’t in plain sight. Maybe you’ll find a secret garden, or just a secret that once was lost, but now is yours. It's about discovery, and that endless pursuit, of grandeur... even in the small things. Ahh, tis but a practiced talent indeed, to master the art, of savouring. "Any man's life, told truly, is a novel." [Image credits: pinterest, tumblr, imgur.com, darnour.com, grantstonerrawlings.blogspot.com, i3.minus.com, lonelygentlemangloves.com, mogadishuimages.com, eurocrime.blogspot.com] Related Posts: Why do we love the red convertible? Ugly Beautiful The Inside Watch Abandoned Ruins of Speed
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To the day – the 12th of September 1963 – John Le Carré’s "The Spy who came in from the cold" hit bookstore shelves. To celebrate, I decided to finally get round to reading it. It’s been labelled many things, including ‘the definitive spy story’ or ‘the best spy story ever written’, and in many ways forms as the signature John Le Carré novel. It took me a few years and two attempts to get around to reading it, but then again my first attempt was hampered by my own impatience. Older and wiser, I've finally taken the vaunted steps into this dark world. Plot Synopsis In the height of the Cold War,and the shadows of the iron curtain, the British Intelligence hatch a plan to entrap a high level German officer. The plan though, involves a Trojan-horse like operation that may result in them knowingly sending one of their own agents to his death. Target When I first attempted to read this I was still a teenager, and couldn’t get to grips with the initial pacing. So the target is a more mature reader. But you grow accustomed to the pace as well as the style of the narrative – as certain things occur in an atypical timeline, learning of conversations and events that have already happened, to punctuate and better explain events in the present. Once you’re in the groove though, the pages will turn quite swiftly. “... I chose le Carré. God alone knows why, or where I had it from.” Bottom Line Painted by the dull colours of his time in the service, David John Moore Cornwell – pen name John Le Carré – had to forcibly retire from British Intelligence (MI5/MI6) in the 60’s because of the success of “Spy”. British tabloids somehow got hold of his true identity and the rest is history. Most of the great authors of the era tend to have some inside knowledge of the game (Robert Ludlum had his sources and friends within the CIA, Frederick Forsyth used his journalistic research skills for ‘The Day of the Jackal’), so the gritty and cold realism of his third novel seemed too good to be true in many respects. True enough, the world had never seen a book like it. It was, and still is the antitheses of the Spy novel we’re used to; namely the glossy, quirky, action packed and romanticized 007 archetypes. There are no gadgets or posh locations here, its all stark and in shadows, or alternatively, cold blinding and all exposing light. What struck me was the way Cornwell describes characters and makes the ‘grey area’ of the spy world so apparent. Seldom do you find a villain so grating and sinister simply by the nature of the description of the character’s physical appearance. The antihero is a man you wouldn’t ordinarily like… and that is essential to the tormented beauty of this story – it’s simply about people, who happen to find themselves on opposing sides of a wall. They may of course have different values, opinions and beliefs, but when you disregard the dividing lines, it’s hard, or impossible to tell them apart and decipher the good from the bad. Of course the pace does quicken, but it's more of a tightening, and the tension in the climatic scenes is unparalleled. If you enjoy this genre, then of course it goes without saying that this is a must read, a ‘must own’ even. It is a cold hard hammer of a spy story. Sometimes we do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions not answers. Plainly put, there are two sides to every story, or genre… in the spy world, there’s the two polar opposites as mentioned above, and then there’s everything in between. It speaks volumes that in modern culture producers, filmmakers and storytellers have seemingly sought to find the balance or blend between the two worlds of espionage. Even Timothy Dalton aimed to dirty things up with a darker and grittier James Bond in his 1980’s incarnation, a dynamic that has been taken to heart in the latest Daniel Craig version, all to keep up with the times, with a wiser audience to cater for. David Cornwell set a trend, and continued it with his subsequent George Smiley novels, and that is a hallmark. It may not have been Cornwell’s first release, but this was the one that got him noticed in a big way, it was the one that made him… Film: The Spy who came in from the Cold was adapted for film starring Richard Burton as the fatigued and burnt out Alec Leamus and Rupert Davies as George Smiley. In 2011 we saw the release of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” with Gary Oldman playing Smiley. David Cornwell’s sons have been spearheading the new wave of film adaptations with "A Most Wanted Man" to be released later this year (based on the Le Carré novel of the same name) starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The timing of the latter release earmarks it for award season attention. The trailer – Coming Soon! There's also a sequel to Tinker Tailor in the pipeline. The films have also rekindled the interest as book sales have spiked, with new and younger audiences drawn in to rediscover a literary legend and his collection of genre defining works. The 23rd and latest John Le Carre novel: 'A Delicate Truth'; view the Book trailer below. This of course all this, stories, novels and films, tell of a very amoral world, where men and women hold themselves to higher or simply a standard removed from everyone else, a world constantly aware of the puppet strings, the walking wounded – it is cold and dark and unromantic, yet for the larger population it intrigues us to no end… suffice is to say, we’d rather read about, and watch it on the silver screen than actually live it. But, for those who do, us novelists (me in my infancy as it is - I do aim to emulate the greats - and this is timely inspiration) try to tell their stories, amplify their voice in whichever way we can, and to take a line form the book, (because sometimes that voice is hard to hear, the message either plainly simple or incoherently convoluted in the grey stage of world politics and economics, and war) “Once she had cried out, and there had been no echo, nothing. Just the memory of her own voice.” Visit Author John Le Carré's official site at www.johnlecarre.com For an in depth interview to get a deeper sense of Cornwell the man, his personal life and what he’s up now in all his 81 year old glory, follow the link to an interview conducted by Dwight Garner for the New York Times earlier this year. We get to hear his thoughts on the modern Spy world as well as his sentiments about modern media and politics, even his views on the film Zero Dark Thirty. Article: John le Carré Has Not Mellowed With Age "A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world" News surrounding Edward Snowden continues to dominate headlines, another "secret spilling" case tied directly to Wikileaks is coming to light in the form of a documentary film that looks, and reportedly feels, like an espionage thriller. As a film "We Steal Secrets' only received an average rating on IMDB, but interestingly was rated by Rotten Tomatoes at 94% - either way, it will be an interesting watch. Synopsis: This film basically tells the story of Wikileaks - quite possibly the biggest phenomena to hit the internet and modern media (It's amazing that Wikileaks was only started in 2006!). Put together by acclaimed Director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, 2007 - 100% on RT - watch trailer here) and featuring in depth behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with founder Julian Assange, with prominent focus on the Bradley Manning affair. It covers a variety of cases involving government secrets - particularly the US, and how the managers of the website (and their sources) are treated like "most wanted" criminals. It once again poses that question of transparency - what information should we be privy to, if not all... in light of at least one Pentagon official's belief that government cannot run without secrets. It's another look (for this director) at what goes on in the shadows, and what really happens when (US) governments get scared - or what the public may learn about their methods... My comment: I've always been a believer in that credo that 'a government should be afraid of those they govern' - not the other way around. Secrets are just another medium for government to instil fear and thence manipulate the people. Sex Scandal: It seems that the trend for most governments - when faced with an intelligence leak and possibly compromising and damaging information comes to light in the public - immediately rely on a smear campaign against the would-be whistle-blower which invariably involves a sex scandal of some kind. It seems like the easiest and dirtiest trick in the book, to try and "drag their name through the mud". Maybe its because so many politicians are caught with their pants down, so this is their way of getting their own back, sort of... although, how many scandals don't we know about. Everyone's guilty of something - but who do you believe? Certainly not the government... The Fifth Estate - the Hollywood biopic film on Julian Assange This film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC TV's Sherlock Holmes, for those in the dark or sleeping under a rock) as Assange, looks to be touted as an Oscar contender. It also stars Daniel Bruhl. Everyday seeds of espionage, or just self defense. by Steven Benjamin Think of this as a loose, tenuous, bare skeletal blueprint of the skills needed to be a spy. Needless to say extra âsignsâ are always welcome, like an undying penchant for extreme sports like skydiving and bungee jumping, as well as the ability to undertake great physical challenges which test your mental toughness⦠Oh, and maybe the natural gift of knowing how to dress well, wear a tailored suit, or in the case of a femme fatale, control a room with an elegantly subtle evening number. 1. Do you have an eye for detail? 2. Are you something of a loner? 3. Are you a good poker player? 4. Are you physically fit without advertising the fact? 5. * Do you happen to know the 5 strongest or best natural tools (read weapons) your body possess (even without martial arts training⦠and by association, are you then aware of the main weaknesses of the human body?) * 6. When entering a room, do you first suss out the exit points? 7. How good is your general knowledge and memory, and are you capable when it comes to applied knowledge and resourcefulness? 8. Are you good with your hands, beyond simply decent hand-eye coordination? 9. Do you like adventure and traveling long distances? 10. Are you a good driver? If you're interested in the know how of the Spy world then visit these handy sites for tips on how to be a spy and how to spot one. > Spot a spy > Be a spy [ * Our bodies 5 best weapons (handy for self defense)
Top 5 weaknesses (easier to spot)
Depending on where you are, Skyfall is either out or still coming (very soon), either way I hope it does the job of in some way rectifying the sad year weâve had in terms of film releases. Aside from a couple of big budget superhero sequels there hasnât been much to be excited about â and Iâm on the side of those who was disappointed by The Dark Knight Rises (it says something that The Avengers had better box office earnings than TDKR)⦠so sad, lets end the year on a high. << Coming soon! In the coming weeks I will be featuring the talents of some of my artistic friends, focusing on poetry, art, photography and film-making. Stay tuned! >> |
[Banner illustration by Joel Kanar]
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