Pride and defiance

Margaret Atwood has inspired me to do many things. I read this article in a book in August 2002 and it inspired me to move to England, to really go and not as tentatively as I'd done two months previous. If you've ever moved to England, or met me, or most notably met me in August 2002, this article will have a certain resonance.

An interview with Nick Hornby. The Guardian Books Bangkok Diary. A 1977 interview with my beloved Joan Didion in The Paris Review Archives.

In politics, kudos to Japan for being better and apologising to China. Pride and defiance are unproductive when it comes to International Relations, and now the Chinese government is banning anti-Japanese protests (which shouldn't be too difficult as they instigated them on in the first place). I do find it too bad that the Japanese can't find a way to honour their war-dead without honouring their war criminals however. China, on the other hand, needs to calm down. And annoying David Frum on the Liberal scandal. I'd take the Liberals over Conservative principles any day.