6.10.2006
Updike Interview
After you get over the fact that, at least as is evident in the photo, John Updike clearly has no soul, this is an intriguing interview regarding his new book, Terrorist. I've only read a bit of Updike's old stuff, and I quite liked it, but I can't get over the fact of how unquestioningly and unabashedly jingoistic he appears in this. The tone could be partially attributable to the interviewer, Mehammed Mack, who seems to have some fairly serious reservations about the novel. He calls it, among other things, "a novel whose title will either roll eyes or raise eyebrows." I would tend to agree.
UPDATE 06/10/06:Globeandmail.com is running an article (reg. req.) today proclaming the relevance of Updike's new novel to Canadians. Because I am a complete conspiracy theorist I will say this: it seems very odd that so much terror news has coincided with the Liberal Leadership race. Michael Ignatieff, Liberal leadership frontrunner and AMERICAN academic, is running almost solely on a "Tough on Terror" platform, and many Candian news outlets are thinly veiled Liberal propaganda sheets. Could Canadians really be duped by such coincidences? Why don't we elect a leader who asks why the terrorists are so pissed off in the first place? And don't give me that "they hate democracy" line. If we're really interested in diminishing terrorist activity, we'll have to do better than that. "Wars" on ideologies will only create martyrs for them.
On another (hopefully the last) note, I will say this: the Globe and Mail article presents a much more sympathetic version of Updike than the LAWeekly one -- it suggests that his novel is not simply one-sided nonsense. For instance, Updike says of his main character, Ahmad: "I saw him as an American much like my younger self, albeit with a different set of beliefs."
