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Jens 'n' Frens |
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I've heard bad things about the Reagan biography Dutch, but I've tended to think that, given unlimited time, it might be worth checking out. Then I read this Mark Steyn bit:Everything you need to know about the establishment's view of Ronald Reagan can be found on page 624 of Dutch, Edmund Morris' weird post-modern biography. The place is Berlin, the time June 12, 1987:Punchline:'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' declaims Dutch, trying hard to look infuriated, but succeeding only in an expression of mild petulance ... One braces for a flash of prompt lights to either side of him: APPLAUSE.Poor old Morris, the plodding, conventional, scholarly writer driven mad by 14 years spent trying to get a grip on Ronald Reagan. Most world leaders would have taken his advice: You're at the Berlin Wall, so you have to say something about it, something profound but oblique, maybe there's a poem on the subject ... Who cares if Frost's is over-quoted, and a tad hard to follow for a crowd of foreigners? Who cares that it is, in fact, pro-wall - a poem in praise of walls? |
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