M,I`5,Persecuti on , Be rnard Levin expresses his views
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The article of which part is reproduced below. was penned by Bernard Levin
for the Features section of the Times. on 21 September 1991. To my mind, it
described the situation at the time and in particular a. recent meeting with
a friend, during which I for the first time. admitted to someone other than
my GP that I had been subjected. to a conspiracy of harassment over the
previous. year and a half.
>There is. a madman running loose about London, called David Campbell; I have
>no reason to. believe that he is violent, but he should certainly be
>approached with caution. You may know him by the curious glitter in. his
>eyes and a persistent trembling of his hands; if that does. not suffice, you
>will find him attempting to thrust no. fewer than 48 books into your arms,
>all hardbacks, with a promise that, if you should return to. the same
>meeting-place next year, he will heave another 80. at you.
>
>If, by now, the police have arrived and are keeping a. close watch on him,
>you may feel sufficiently. emboldened to examine the books. The jackets are
>a model of. uncluttered typography, elegantly and simply laid out; there is
>an unobtrusive colophon. of a rising sun, probably not picked at random.
>Gaining. confidence - the lunatic is smiling by now, and the policemen, who
>know about such things, have significantly removed their. helmets - you
>could. do worse than take the jacket off the first book in the pile. The
>only word possible to describe the binding is. sumptuous; real cloth in a
>glorious shade. of dark green, with the title and author in black and gold
>on the. spine.
>
>Look at it more closely; your eyes. do not deceive you - it truly does have
>real top-bands and tail-bands, in yellow, and,. for good measure, a silk
>marker ribbon in a lighter. green. The paper is cream-wove and acid-free,
>and the book is. sewn, not glued.
>
>Throughout. the encounter, I should have mentioned, our loony has been
>chattering away, although what he is trying to. say is almost impossible to
>understand;. after a time, however, he becomes sufficiently coherent to make
>clear that he is trying to sell the. books to you. Well, now, such quality
>in bookmaking today can only be. for collectors' limited editions at a
>fearsome price - #30, #40,. #50?
>
>No,. no, he says, the glitter more powerful than ever and the trembling of
>his hands rapidly spreading throughout his. entire body; no, no - the books
>are priced variously. at #7, #8 or #9, with the top price #12.
>
>At this, the. policemen understandably put their helmets back on; one of
>them. draws his truncheon and the other can be heard summoning
>reinforcements on his. walkie-talkie. The madman bursts into tears, and
>swears it is. all true.
>
>And it. is.
>
>David Campbell has acquired the entire rights to the whole. of the
>Everyman's Library, which died a lingering and shameful. death a decade or
>so ago, and he proposes to start. it all over again - 48 volumes this
>September and 80 more next year, in editions I have described, at. the
>prices specified. He proposes to launch his amazing. venture simultaneously
>in Britain and the United States,. with the massive firepower of Random
>Century at his back in this country,. and the dashing cavalry of Knopf
>across the water, and no one who loves. literature and courage will forbear
>to. cheer.
At the time this article was written I. had believed for some time that
columnists in the. Times and other journalists had been making references to
my situation. Nothing unusual about. this you may think, plenty of people
have the same sort of ideas and obviously the. papers aren't writing about
them, so why should my beliefs not. be as false as those of others?
What makes this article so extraordinary is that three or four. days
immediately preceding its publication, I had a meeting. with a friend,
during. the course of which we discussed the media persecution, and in
particular that by Times columnists. It. seemed to me, reading the article
by Levin in Saturday’s paper, that he. was describing in some detail his
"artist’s. impression" of that meeting. Most telling are the final
sentences, when he writes, "The. madman bursts into tears, and swears it is
all. true. And it is." Although I did not "burst into tears" (he seems to be
using a bit of poetic licence and exaggerating) I did. try hard to convince
my. friend that it was all true; and I am able to concur with Mr Levin,
because,. of course, it is.
At the beginning of. the piece Levin reveals a fear of being attacked by the
"irrational" subject of his story, saying "I. have no reason to believe that
he is violent, but he should certainly. be approached with caution". This
goes back to the xenophobic propaganda of "defence" against. a "threat"
which was seen at the very beginning of. the harassment. The impression of a
"madman running loose" who needs to. be controlled through an agency which
assigns to itself the mantle of the "police" is. also one which had been
expressed. elsewhere.
In the final paragraph of this. extract, his reference to Everyman’s Library
as having "died a lingering and shameful death a. decade or so ago" shows
clearly what sort of. conclusion they wish to their campaign. They want a
permanent. solution, and as they are prevented from achieving that solution
directly, they waste significant resources on methods. which have been
repeatedly shown to. be ineffective for such a purpose.
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fashionable.
His foolish project of describing himself! And this not casually and against
his maxims, since every one makes mistakes, but by his maxims themselves,
and by first and chief design. For to say silly things by chance and
weakness is a common misfortune, but to say them intentionally is
intolerable, and to say such as that...
63. Montaigne.--Montaigne's faults are great. Lewd words; this is bad,
notwithstanding Mademoiselle de Gournay. Credulous; people without eyes.
Ignorant; squaring the circle, a greater world. His opinions on suicide, on
death. He suggests an indifference about salvation, without fear and without
repentance. As his book was not written with a religious purpose, he was not
bound to mention religion; but it is always our duty not to turn men from
it. One can excuse his rather free and licentious opinions on some relations
of life; but one cannot excuse his thoroughly pagan views on death, for a
man must renounce piety altogether, if he does not at least wish to die like
a Christian. Now, through the whole of his book his only conception of death
is a cowardly and effeminate one.
64. It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in
him.
65. What good there is in Montaigne can only have been acquired with
difficulty. The evil that is in him, I mean apart from his morality, could
have been corrected in a moment, if he had been informed that he made too
much of trifles and spoke too much of himself.
66. One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at
least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.
67. The vanity of the sciences.--Physical science will not console me for
the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the science of
ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences.
68. Men are never taught to be gentlemen and are taught everything else