Dublin Opinion

One of the most favourable comments that I’ve got back about Irish Left Review since it started is the quality of the essays that have been appearing once a month. However, in contrast, one of the most negative things said about the site in general is the fact that the front page appears static most of the time, with the same bloody essay and its picture for weeks on end.

So, we’re planning to redesign ILR to rectify this situation and clear the clutter from the front page. This should be completed by mid-October.

The changes will take into account all of the comments I’ve received so far and will hopefully lead to a cleaner, leaner and more dynamic looking site.

In the meantime though, I’ve changed things slightly. From today the ILR Essay of the Month has been changed to ‘Latest Article’ so that the most recent article will dominate the centre of the front page. The essay of the month now appears further down the front page and will remain there for the whole month.

This should help readers spot when new stuff appears. My problem with this is that when new material is published it will be bumped off into the ‘Recent articles’ slot after a day or so. This is only a problem because the stuff is so good and I hate to see it neglected.

Today for example there is a great review by Ed Walsh of Victor Pelevin’s The Sacred Book of the Werewolf.

Despite regular book reviews of his translated work, Pelevin is still relatively unknown in the West. In Russia, however, he tops the bestseller list, not because he provides the usual marketing driven sludge vis-a-vis our most successful contemporary Irish novelist, Cecilia Ahern, but because of his ‘caustically satirical view of post-Soviet reality’ to quote Ed’s piece. To Russian readers he tells it like it is, as seen through the eyes of mythical creatures, of course.

Here’s an example from the review in ILR:

At an early stage we are offered the reflections of Pavel Ivanovich, an elderly academic who has abandoned his faith in liberal capitalism and now pays A Hu-Li to thrash him: ‘He had assumed personal responsibility for all the woes of the motherland. In order to soothe his soul, he had to take a flogging once or twice a week from Young Russia, which he had condemned to poverty by forcing it to earn a living flogging old perverts instead of studying in university.’ A Hu-Li asks him to explain the difference between two terms she had considered synonyms - ‘intelligentsia’ and ‘intellectuals’. He is only too ready to oblige with an allegorical lesson:

“When you were still very little, there were a hundred thousand people living in this city who were paid for kissing the ass of a loathsome red dragon … those hundred thousand people hated the dragon, and they dreamed of being ruled by the green toad who fought against the dragon. So, anyway, they came to an arrangement with the toad, poisoned the dragon with lipstick that they got from the CIA and started living a new life … at first they thought that under the toad they would be doing exactly the same as before, only they’d get ten times as much money for it. But it turned out that instead of a hundred thousand ass-kissers there was only a demand for three professionals working in three eight-hour shifts to give the toad a never-ending royal blowjob.”

The hundred thousand people, he concludes, were called the intelligentsia; the three residual fellators are called intellectuals.

I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Victor Pelevin until I read Ed Walsh’s review. I’m going to have to read him now though.

It’s a bit high-handed to say that editorials in newspapers poison political debate, but sometimes, when it to the obituary of a soon to be defunct political party, it’s clear that the pens of Tara Street are happy to infect Ireland’s media bloodstream with their noxious PD love juice:

When the remaining members of the PDs gather for a final farewell next month they should celebrate what the party has achieved during those 23 years of existence, rather than dwell on the mistakes and slow decline of recent years. The party and its politicians have influenced the direction of Irish politics in a way that went far beyond their electoral strength. Ireland has become a better, more confident and prosperous place - in spite of the present international uncertainties - in the years they were around.

They do indeed have a legacy: with a consistent 4% share of the national vote, there were always just enough twats to vote for them in order to annoy the hell out of the majority who didn’t. Beyond being a pain in arse, there is little to show for 23 years.

Luckily we have the antidote to this toxic muck.