Revealed: how Anthony Burgess maddened Graham Greene

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8 ай бұрын

An interview with Anthony Burgess published in the books magazine Lire in 1988 maddened the British establishment novelist Graham Greene, who looked upon Burgess as a parvenu. Greene believed that Burgess, whom he considered a lower-middle-class provincial upstart, was getting far too much attention in the Press and television. Greene appears to have regarded those media as vulgar unless - properly enough by his estimation - they featured himself, which before the advent of Burgess they had done lavishly enough.
The co-founder of Lire was Bernard Pivot, who presented the talk show Apostrophes. Burgess had appeared on Apostrophes, exhibiting among other things his considerable acuity and flair as a critic. This served further to anger Greene, who felt that the limelight was being stolen from him.
Greene, who may have spied for the Soviets himself, adored the traitor Kim Philby (they had worked as spies together) and travelled to Moscow to visit him, but resented it when Burgess drew attention to this undeniable fact, regarding it as impertinent.
Burgess had first met Greene in the late 1950s, when Greene had made it rather clear to Burgess that, as Burgess put it, he (Greene) 'had achieved much and had reached a plateau where he could afford to take leisurely breath. He had not written the definitive Malayan novel which should match the definitive Vietnamese one entitled The Quiet American, and he did not think that I would write it either'.

Пікірлер: 24

@MrUndersolo 7 ай бұрын

This. Is. Perfect!😂

@no.7593 5 ай бұрын

Hilarious!

@Omulosi 8 ай бұрын

Hysterical.

@mrdog4288 8 ай бұрын

Superb!

@jimnewcombe7584 8 ай бұрын

I speak fluent Iti (si?) and I cannot fault the translation. Even the Brylcreem is impugnable.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess 8 ай бұрын

They are indeed few who would dare impugn my translation. Thank you.

@thewolf888 8 ай бұрын

Absolutely brilliant, how long did that take you Mr Grigson. 😂😂😂

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess 8 ай бұрын

I rushed it a bit. Think I need to do a fuller verion.

@AriaSuperBass 8 ай бұрын

Very clever!

@secondhorizon 8 ай бұрын

El último hombre de pie.

@briangarrett2427 8 ай бұрын

Grigson, enough You need to go and lie down.

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess 8 ай бұрын

I won't, I won't. Anyway, the nurse says it's good for me, uploading these videos.

@briangarrett2427 8 ай бұрын

@@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess do they let you use the internet for a few hours a month at the institution?

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess 8 ай бұрын

Yes, but they put up all sorts of hurdles. Ever since my lobotomy, they have made me fill out a form and apply every time, ludicrously, the tyrants. The thing has to be signed off by the asylum director. It's red tape lunacy, I tell you. It's insane that I have to submit to this. They only let me use my laptop, which is normally kept locked up, as part of their positive reinforcement method. (I know their little game. They think that just because of my focal sepsis, they can push me around, but I won't be pushed around. I have made that blindingly clear to them.) It works like this: I agree to submit to the insulin coma therapy and to take the Croton oil (a powerful laxative), and after the session - mirabile dictu - they hand over my laptop and let me upload a Burgess video as a reward. What am I, a dog? But I know what they're trying to do to me. I have many enemies here. One or two of the nurses are Satanic, I know exactly which ones. I can see the Devil in their eyes. I saw them chuckling in the corner during my electroshock procedure last month. But I'll get them, just you wait. I know how to deal with these demons. There is this circumambient malevolence at this place; it can be very frightening. Sometimes I can't take it, it all comes out and I tell them the simple truth, I feel they might as well know the plain unvarnished truth, so I start screaming, 'Yes, I am Bonaparte. You will have reason to fear me. Release me from this Saint Helena of the body and mind and soul right now or I will make war on all your lands and lay waste to your settlements and your little semi-detached houses and burn them down and ravish all your daughters and destroy your civilisation, and how you'll rue the day you defied me!' And that's when the bastards come over with the syringes, but by God I put up a good fight I can tell you, I won't go easily! @@briangarrett2427

@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess 8 ай бұрын

Brian, they're forcing me into the straitjacket now! Help! Can you come over here and help stop them? Please, please help me! Brian, you're my only hope! Brian, Brian, do not forsake me. Help! Arrrrghhhh!

@briangarrett2427 8 ай бұрын

@@InSearchOfAnthonyBurgess it’s for the best, Geoff. The doctors know what they’re doing.

@frankandstern8803 8 ай бұрын

Burgess was always tossing in 3 ft long words anyway. And i dont know what this guys going on about with his ridiculous laugh? He doesnt have a clue that most native English speaking HUMANS would go into a stupor when Burgess would drop the word grenades. He did it on purpose. It created an illlusion that his vocabulary was soooo very deep and vast. Lol. He would throw in a tablespoon or two of these words on a new writing project after looking them up himself too, Im sure. Lol. Initially I would get so frustrated reading Burgess as I would suddenly get roadblocked by a word I thought he just had to be making it up. However, I have to admit, I find it surprising that G.G. would have fallen for it. Secondly I really doubt, and couldnt imagine him looking the words up in the dictionary while this was going on. Later, maybe. Lol. And if he was looking them up it was probably because he thought Burgess was making up some of them. Its pretty amusing. That guys laugh isnt. Nor is his one tooth.

@ivossmarttv468 8 ай бұрын

Now you're just formicating

@scriptsmith4081 8 ай бұрын

Greene's book about a whiskey priest being hounded in Mexico, The Power and the Glory was very moving, but Burgess was no slouch and no parvenu. I first discovered him reading Inside Mr. Enderby, not having heard of Clockwork Orange or his other works, and was left shaking my head at his mastery of the language- and wit. Just phenomenal writing. (That said, I found Greene's screenplay The Third Man an incomparable piece of work- better than his novels, I thought, besides.)

@frankandstern8803 7 ай бұрын

@@ivossmarttv468 LOL. Indeed. But heads will roll if the edit is made. It didn't go well then either.