All the other books were out. So I had no choice, really.

That so depressing considering how much you're going to spoil for yourself.

It sounds a bit fucked up, I know, but when the other books in the series are eventually returned, I'll still read them and no doubt thoroughly enjoy them as much as I'm enjoying A Dance with Dragons. :)

It's good that you're enjoying it. Dance is one of the lesser ones really, though still a cut above. A Storm of Swords is easily the best one I think.

Just finished this badass piece of work. Started kinda slow going into the Rushdie affair on which i was already well versed. But the stuff on rich cunts paying for censorship and intimidating citizen journalists was indespensibly righteous.



We lost Hitchens, but we've still got Nick Cohen to stand up for the principle of a proper fucking arguement. Fuck the censors and the libel lawyers

Totally agree with you on Cohen. I'm a huge fan. More even than I ever was of Hitchens. Can't wait to read this one.

Hitchens changed my way of thinking, Cohen made me relate to how I was before, and why I was wrong. Reading Hitchens fills me with joy and self belief, reading Cohen's words is like being fitted with a suit of armour against the kind of fascist scumbags we all detest.

So yeah, you need to get this book :)

I don't know, he doesn't seem to make any points which I'd consider untouched before him. He perhaps serves as a reminder for people who haven't realised how censorship works in our time and age yet, but he doesn't put forward anything other than arguments that have been tried and tested before, whichever way I look at his writing. Not sure what is so special about this man's opinions. I appreciate the effort though.

you've read the new book then?

edit: To pre-empt you, In his columns from the last few years he has often gone on the same topics/themes yes - the left's ignorance of fascism from Islamic perspectives mainly, though he hasnt gone into libel law in essay form until this book as far as i recall, and ive read everything he's written since about 2009. He has mentioned it but he was justified in expanding on the matter in book form if you ask me

No, but I have read enough of his comments in the media to figure out what he may have come up with. I will definitely read the book, because I am curious of what he writes. To be honest, I am not expecting to be enlightened much. Call me arrogant 'cause I am.

I would definitely recommend Cohen but without reading his new one, I'd say start with What's Left? I've not been as into his more recent crusade on censorship but he raises some very interesting things in What's Left?

This is a basic summary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03tJMGKlCrs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWrgBAx79W4

as i said ive read enough of his comments too, probably more than you have to be honest. Im sure you have a perception of his perspective and thats fine, but he really doesnt rehash things in the book apart from the Rushdie business which comes at the start. He uses that as a basis from which to present his arguement.

Let me know what you think after you've finished it

Yeah, Whats Left? is the epoch-defining book. Addresses where we are more than a thousand Daily Mail columnists working at typewrters for a thousand years.

Definitely. So that you don't get this as harsh criticism, I think Cohen is a very intelligent man, but one who has limitations when it comes to dialectics related to both politics and life in general. Please excuse the fact that I feel the same about most ''serious'' commentators on 99% of British newspapers. Where do these people live? Where do they observe from?

Cohen is ok but should avoid talking about anything outside of British politics. When he does, his lack of knowledge of the world and its history becomes glaringly obvious.

not at all porky, disdain for authors and commentators is fine by me as long as theres an arguement about ideas presented alongside it. It is very true that in the future all the columnists will be trust-fund interns that mummy and daddy paid through college and uni.

Nick Cohen is very much not that kind of person, working class people are going to be pretty much barred from the media from now on. Its going to be a bunch of Hugos and Petronellas. Brace yourself.

You seem to think that I think working class commentators necessarily make the best comments on the condition of the working class.

Or is that my impression?

I brought that up as another point to made, not as an implied criticism of yourself and your position. It is true though, the working class have been fantastically excluded from politics, I suspect the media is going to have a glut of "working class" commentators who are an insult to the intelligence of the kind of 14/15 year old that i was. I reckon we're gonna have to deal with some serious working-class tokenism for the next few years

i never really read graphic novels, but i just started this and it is fantastic, and so far incredibly accurate, he definitely "gets" jerusalem.