‘ We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.’
Tony Hall: the BBC is like James Bond
Of course Bond is world-renowned as a quintessential British cultural icon; an underappreciated force for good with his very special licence. Sound familiar?
Is the BBC like James Bond as Tony Hall suggests or more like Dorian Gray, the man who never changed because of a faustian pact with the devil, or maybe Dracula who sucked the lifeblood from people and shied away from the light of day in which he would wither and die?
A couple of paraphrased quotes for Tone:
‘We’ve been expecting you to pull this one, Mr. Hall”
‘Do you expect me to get it about right?’
‘No Mr. Hall, we expect you never have, or will’
Mrs Craig would doubtless be thrilled enough to sign another letter she is handed.
More than can be said of the Speccie commenters so for at what has been served up.
James Bond, and I am talking about the literary James Bond, was not cultured at all.
The literary James Bond, in those awful books, made into those worse films, was an upper class, privileged, elitist. Bond went to private schools, was a military officer, knew about champagne, Bentleys and other trappings of wealth.
Bond did not listen appreciatively and knowledgeably to Mozart, did not know the difference between a Turner and a Claude, did not read Proust in French, did not have an aquaintance with Aristotle or Plotinus. Any culture, real culture, intellectual culture, introduced into Bond books was incidental, like the colour of the wallpaper M had in his office.
To be fair Bond was too busy trying to pick up rich tarts in casinos to indulge in the finest things produced by Western civilisation.
The BBC is like Bond, self-indulgent, self-important, wealthy, over-valued, low-brow, cultured only in a lowest common denominator, anthropological sense.
Bond is as much like a real intelligence agent, as the BBC is like a neutral, balanced, impartial national broadcaster, both inferior imitations of the real thing.
Where Bond and the BBC differ is in intentions, Bond was trying to save his country, the BBC is trying to destroy the UK.
Unfortunately Bond was fictional and the BBC is real.
So we have to smash everything and everyone associated with this treasonous organisation PDQ, our descendants will thank us for it.
You are right about Bond, but is it really necessary to read Proust in French to be deemed ‘cultured’, or even to read Proust at all, at least if one is English?
Aerfen
You are correct.
Proust is not compulsory.
I chose an example from several branches of the fine arts and
philosophy to demonstrate that Bond, like the BBC, lacked culture.
I am sure you knew this.
I omitted something in my original post.
Bond has his special licence withdrawn because of non-conformity to the rules. Let us hope the BBC is similarly treated.
More like the 1954 film “Animal Farm”
“Remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the BBC have a common interest”
The old pig: Tony Hall: The BBC is like Manor Farm.
Hall is like Bond ? Yes Brooke Bond, well stewed .