Doris Lessing dies

[Tangled up in Blue]

So, what you're implying is it's ok to not have respect for the dead, but only if they're someone you don't like? Bloody hell, do you ever listen to yourself? As for Mandella/Benn, I seem to recall that people were respectful when Michael Foot died, so I see no reason why Benn shouldn't be the same. As for Mandella, I think for the majority he'll be seen as someone that is above party politics. Pity you can't be really

Please show some respect whilst he is alive and spell his name correctly. It is Mandela.

And shouldn't us Neanderthals have been given a capital N?

Her's a Doris Lessing quote for you to enjoy:-

"Small things amuse small minds".

 

[South Bank Hank]

Her's a Doris Lessing quote for you to enjoy:-

"Small things amuse small minds".

I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of people haven't heard of Doris Lessing. While winning the Novel prize (SIX years ago!) is a sign of the extraordinary, it doesn't place her in mainstream consciousness. That might be a shame, but it is also a reality. I for one hadn't heard of her but she's certainly an interesting one and I'm genuinely glad you brought her to my attention.

Seems Doris said some quite remarkable things. I did chuckle though when I looked at some of her points of view. For one so seemingly dependent on the Guardian for his opinions, I thought you might find the following Dorisims quite thought-provoking:

Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself...

...Difficult when you prefer to follow the sides in politics like two opposing football teams.

Things are not quite so simple as black and white...

...Challenging when you prefer Nye Bevan's narrow-minded idea that thinking so means getting run over.

For my part I'm going to learn from this one as I do struggle with it sometimes.

In University, they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to suffer fools

Anyway, RIP Doris.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of people haven't heard of Doris Lessing. While winning the Novel prize (SIX years ago!) is a sign of the extraordinary, it doesn't place her in mainstream consciousness. That might be a shame, but it is also a reality. I for one hadn't heard of her but she's certainly an interesting one and I'm genuinely glad you brought her to my attention.

Seems Doris said some quite remarkable things. I did chuckle though when I looked at some of her points of view. For one so seemingly dependent on the Guardian for his opinions, I thought you might find the following Dorisims quite thought-provoking:

...Difficult when you prefer to follow the sides in politics like two opposing football teams.

...Challenging when you prefer Nye Bevan's narrow-minded idea that thinking so means getting run over.

For my part I'm going to learn from this one as I do struggle with it sometimes.





Anyway, RIP Doris.

If the vast majority of people haven't heard of Doris Lessing,that's their loss.

She was certainly an original and independent writer.

I'm glad we're trading quotes by her rather than just insults or petty quibbles.

Here's another of my favourite comments of hers:-

"There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don't."






















Btw,I don't depend on the Guardian for my opinions.It just happens to be the newspaper which most reflects my world view (along with perhaps The Morning Star).

 

[steveo]

Her's a Doris Lessing quote for you to enjoy:-

"Small things amuse small minds".

Try and remember this one next time you are correcting peoples typos then Barna.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Just read that she abandoned two of her children in SA while she buggered off to England to do a "bit of writing". Hmmm - if they're still around I wonder how they feel about her death?

Edit: Apparently reconciled with them "eventually" and apparantly it's ok because men do it "without censure." Not in my world Doris, they're feckless scumbags too.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Just read that she abandoned two of her children in SA while she buggered off to England to do a "bit of writing". Hmmm - if they're still around I wonder how they feel about her death?

I think you'll find they pre-deceased her.

I imagine we all have a few skeletons in our closets.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Try and remember this one next time you are correcting peoples typos then Barna.

And shouldn't us Neanderthals have been given a capital N?

People who live in glass houses...:winking:

 

[Pubey]

Here's another of my favourite comments of hers:-

"There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don't."

What a way to be completely patronising and narrow-minded.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I think you'll find they pre-deceased her.

I imagine we all have a few skeletons in our closets.

Blimey, literal skeletons.

 

[Uncle Leo]

I think you'll find they pre-deceased her.

I imagine we all have a few skeletons in our closets.

Them's some skeletons right there. And people give the poor old mayor of Toronto stick!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

What a way to be completely patronising and narrow-minded.

Which is why I prefer this fuller version of the quote-from a Time Out interview-which gives it much more context:-


‘We are going to have to face the fact that books are not going to be as important as they have been. There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don’t. What is going to happen is a minority will remain passionate about literature and that will go on, but I think the time has gone".

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Blimey, literal skeletons.

As opposed to literary ones? :winking:

 

[South Bank Hank]

If the vast majority of people haven't heard of Doris Lessing,that's their loss.

She was certainly an original and independent writer.

I'm glad we're trading quotes by her rather than insults or petty quibbles.

Here's another of my favourite comments of hers:-

"There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don't."

You know I have a major issue with closed minds and the people that take pride in them but the problem, for me, isn't with the young people but the way their preceding generation looks to stimulate their young folks' minds.

Doris' point about people discovering things when they are supposed to discover them is right on the money.

There is only one way to read... picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag - and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.

We shouldn't be forcing learning and literature on young people or getting upset if/as/when they don't respect it - we should be selling it to them.

Btw,I don't depend on the Guardian for my opinions.It just happens to be the newspaper which most reflects my world view (along with perhaps The Morning Star).

With Doris' words above in mind, do you not accept that reading from a wider pool of content that challenges your world view could only add to your intellect and understanding just as an interest in learning and literature would help young people broaden their minds? Or is it just not "the right time for you" as it often isn't for them?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

You know I have a major issue with closed minds and the people that take pride in them but the problem, for me, isn't with the young people but the way their preceding generation looks to stimulate their young folks' minds.

Doris' point about people discovering things when they are supposed to discover them is right on the money.

There is only one way to read... picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag - and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.

We shouldn't be forcing learning and literature on young people - we should be selling it to them.



With Doris' words above in mind, do you not accept that reading from a wider pool of content that challenges your world view could only add to your intellect and understanding just as an interest in learning and literature would for young people? Or is it just not "the right time for you" as it isn't for them?

There is another version of the quote,which I found then lost the link for,which doesn't single out young people as such, which is obviously much more inclusive.The remark (in context)whether it refers to young people or not,still contains a general truth which can't be denied.

FWIW,I agree with DL's comments about reading and also her famous quotation on the importance of libraries.

Remember that DL (like me)was an ex-communist.

I don't think she had a closed mind at all.Nor do I think that widening my own choice of daily newspaper to read would necessarily make me more open-minded.Why should it?

 

[Benfleet A1]

Being a communist is so 1970/80's. Much more fashionable to be a socialist these days. Socialist red is the new Communist red don't you know.

 

[South Bank Hank]

...do you not accept that reading from a wider pool of content that challenges your world view could only add to your intellect and understanding just as an interest in learning and literature would help young people broaden their minds?

I don't think she had a closed mind at all.Nor do I think that widening my own choice of daily newspaper to read would necessarily make me more open-minded.Why should it?

I didn't say or imply that she did? Quite the opposite.

Nor did I say or imply a wider choice of reading would make you more open-minded - I asked if reading things that challenged your world view might add to your intellect and understanding.

 

[Bielzibubz]

Christ on bike Barna. Your heads so far up your own self important arse it beggars belief. You really are a condecending **** at times.

Explain this if you will. You hated Thatcher so you had no respect for her when she karked it but you have for some old bint who wrote a few good books you like. Do you not realize how utterly stupid you make yourself look sometimes?

When Tony Benn shuffles off this mortal coil I can tell you now I won't give a monkies uncle about it. The same way I feel about anyone that isn't family or known to me personally. When George Duke passed away recently. A man who's had a huge influence on my musical tastes throughout the years, I thought '****, sad news, he'll be missed' but you know what I didn't think and feel? I didn't think nor feel the need to go on any website and pronounce to the would how I thought, felt or post RIP anywhere.

You know what I fail to understand, and I think I've made this point before on here. Why does anyone feel the need to publicly announce their respect or otherwise for someone that's died, famous or not, by posting a RIP notice? I really don't get it. Is it to make you feel better about yourself by showing others your supposed caring side? Is it because of some underlying self importance issues that are some how negated by showing others you care, or supposedly do.

My own personal opinion as to why you posted it is because I think you have a genuine belief that your somehow intellectually above the likes of myself and others. That's certainly the way you come across on here.

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

Christ on bike Barna. Your heads so far up your own self important arse it beggars belief. You really are a condecending **** at times.

Explain this if you will. You hated Thatcher so you had no respect for her when she karked it but you have for some old bint who wrote a few good books you like. Do you not realize how utterly stupid you make yourself look sometimes?

When Tony Benn shuffles off this mortal coil I can tell you now I won't give a monkies uncle about it. The same way I feel about anyone that isn't family or known to me personally. When George Duke passed away recently. A man who's had a huge influence on my musical tastes throughout the years, I thought '****, sad news, he'll be missed' but you know what I didn't think and feel? I didn't think nor feel the need to go on any website and pronounce to the would how I thought, felt or post RIP anywhere.

You know what I fail to understand, and I think I've made this point before on here. Why does anyone feel the need to publicly announce their respect or otherwise for someone that's died, famous or not, by posting a RIP notice? I really don't get it. Is it to make you feel better about yourself by showing others your supposed caring side? Is it because of some underlying self importance issues that are some how negated by showing others you care, or supposedly do.

My own personal opinion as to why you posted it is because I think you have a genuine belief that your somehow intellectually above the likes of myself and others. That's certainly the way you come across on here.

I will green you from now til my untimely death for that post,you have hit a very arogant nail right on its ignorant head.

 

[Pubey]

Barna. There's a good quote from Bertrand Russell which I think sums you up.

"There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it."

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Christ on bike Barna. Your heads so far up your own self important arse it beggars belief. You really are a condecending **** at times.

Explain this if you will. You hated Thatcher so you had no respect for her when she karked it but you have for some old bint who wrote a few good books you like. Do you not realize how utterly stupid you make yourself look sometimes?

When Tony Benn shuffles off this mortal coil I can tell you now I won't give a monkies uncle about it. The same way I feel about anyone that isn't family or known to me personally. When George Duke passed away recently. A man who's had a huge influence on my musical tastes throughout the years, I thought '****, sad news, he'll be missed' but you know what I didn't think and feel? I didn't think nor feel the need to go on any website and pronounce to the would how I thought, felt or post RIP anywhere.

You know what I fail to understand, and I think I've made this point before on here. Why does anyone feel the need to publicly announce their respect or otherwise for someone that's died, famous or not, by posting a RIP notice? I really don't get it. Is it to make you feel better about yourself by showing others your supposed caring side? Is it because of some underlying self importance issues that are some how negated by showing others you care, or supposedly do.

My own personal opinion as to why you posted it is because I think you have a genuine belief that your somehow intellectually above the likes of myself and others. That's certainly the way you come across on here.

Plenty of people post up RIP threads on here when someone's died, not just me.


Sorry, I've never heard of George Duke but I was profoundly affected by the death of JFK (50th anniversary this Friday)and I can still remember exactly what I was doing when John Lennon died.I'd taken a day off work to help my brother -not Shrimpero, the other one-clear out his stuff from his flat in Lewisham.

Contrary to your assertion, I've been a big fan of Dorris Lessing's since the 70's and was genuinely upset to hear about her death.It's not just family and friends we grieve for,it's also people we believe in.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls."

It's a part of being human.