John Steinbeck criticized Mr. Jonathan Head, for his reports on Thailand.
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Let Mr.John Steinbeck enjoy freedom of speech and liberty
of expression as follows…
“On the long journey doubts were often
my companions.”
But
doubts had not been companions of Mr.Jonathan Head’s reporting on Thailand.
“I’ve always admired those
reporters who can descend on an area, talk to key people, ask key
questions, take samplings of opinions,
and then set down an orderly report very like a road map.”
Explicitly
Mr.John Steinbeck described to us how Mr.Jonathan Head had worked all along.
But what Mr.John Steinbeck did not reveal was that the key this and key that
and key those in the practice of Mr.Jonathan Head were all sh_t keys.
“I envy this technique and
at the same time do not trust it as a mirror of reality.”
However,
Mr.John Steinbeck did not beat around the bush, he blamed Mr.Jonathan Head
right on…
“I feel that there are too
many realities. What I set down here is true until someone else passes that way
and rearranged the world in his own style. In literary criticism the critic has
no choice but to make over the victim of his attention into something the size
and shape of himself.”
Mr.John
Steinbeck comfirmed that the size and shape of Mr.Jonathan Head is small
indeed, despite himself being slightly overweighted.
“And in this report I do
not fool myself into thinking I am dealing with constants. A long time ago I
was in the ancient city of Prague and at the same time Joseph Alsop, the justly
famous critic of places and events, was there.”
Now,
Mr.John Steinbeck invoked a concrete example to hit Mr.Jonathan Head hard on
the head. He had named names…
“He talked to informed
people, officials, ambassadors; he read reports, even the fine print and
figures, while I in my slipshod manner roved about with actors, gypsies,
vagabonds. Joe and I flew home to America in the same plane, and on the way he
told me about Prague, and his Prague had no relation to the city I had seen and
heard.”
At
this point Mr.John Steinbeck cautioned me about the difference between Thailand
as reported by Mr.Jonathan Head and Thailand I have lived almost all my life.
“It just wasn’t the same
place, and yet each of us was honest, neither one a liar, both pretty good
observers by any standard, and we brought home two cities, two truths.”
Mr.John
Steinbeck was wrong here because Mr.Jonathan Head is a liar, but not me.
“For this reason I cannot
commend this account as an America that you will find. So much there is to see,
but our afternoon eyes and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a
weary evening world.”
I
am not a truculent commentator, only a critical listerner. I can commend
Mr.Jonathan Head’s reports as Thailand that you will not find outside the BBC
broadcasting studio in London. It is not Thailand with her bouddhist, hindu,
and syncretic cultural tradition.
“Sunday morning in a
Vermont town, my last day in New England, I shaved, dressed in a suit, polished
my shoes whited my sepulcher, and looked for a church to attend.”
Has
Mr.Jonathan Head ever attended a church in his poor life?
Dan
Baile
บ้านนาพญา
หลังสวน
ชุมพร
November 4, 2559
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