A few weeks ago I mentioned a letter published by the New York Review of Books in which Seamus Heaney and seven other Nobel laureates expressed their horror at the death sentence passed by the Nigerian government on fellow Nobel writer Wole Soyinka.
Now, in the latest issue of the same journal, two spokesmen for that government voice their "disappointment" at the stance of these "respected writers, whose expression of solidarity with Mr Wole Soyinka represents little more than the sacrifice of reason on the altar of contrived emotionalism. While the work of all these writers have (sic) earned them the Nobel Prize in literature, their blind defence of illegality by one of their own betrays a shortcoming of amazing magnitude.
The spokesmen, E. Agbegir and A. Abubakar from New York's Nigerian Consulate, refer to "bombings and other terrorist activities" in Nigeria between December 1996 and February 1997 and state that "Mr Soyinka is on record for saying that he had absolutely no regrets for those bombings... even if innocent people died in them.
Not so, says Mr Soyinka, in a reply that appears immediately below their letter. Writing from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, he wonders if they're thinking of a statement he made on BBC radio when he declared "I cannot condemn violence directed at Abacha's regime. I approve of action that is necessary to terminate the existence of the Abacha regime."
Well, they'd hardly like those sentiments, either, or, indeed, Mr Soyinka's closing remarks: "When justice is eventually restored in Nigeria, Abacha and his servitors will answer for their crimes against humanity - and those are not based on what they have said or have not said, but on acts that are being documented daily, crimes that will be proved before the world, and tried by judges who can no longer be manipulated, or intimidated."
THOSE of you concerned about the parlous state of contemporary written English might be interested in casting your eye over the winning entry in this year's Bad Writing Contest. It comes from an academic (what else?) called Professor Frank Jameson and is the opening sentence of his book Signatures of the Visible.
"The visual is essentially pornographic, which is to say that it has its end in rapt, mindless fascination; thinking about its attributes becomes an attribute to that, if it is unwilling to betray its object; while the most austere films necessarily draw their energy from the attempt to repress their own excess (rather than from the more thankless effort to discipline the viewer)."
Say again, Prof? Still, in the last few months I've come across equally impressive balderdash from Irish sources. Perhaps I'll submit them to the next Bad Writing Contest, which is organised by Dr Denis Dutton, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
MORE than a year ago, I mentioned The Secret Book and Record Store on Wicklow Street, and as a lover of such establishments (of which there are not too many in Dublin these days), I pop in on a regular basis and seldom leave empty handed - this week, for instance, I found a 1952 copy in mint condition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, edited by Percy Schales and selling at a mere fiver.
I also regularly drop in to Dandelion Books in Aungier Street, which has a huge range of secondhand books, and to The Exchange in Dalkey, whose proprietor, Michael Simonds, has just handsomely revamped the premises. As its name suggests, you can bring in books you have lying around (though Michael doesn't want any old rubbish) and either exchange them for books from the shop or else build up some credit until something you want, or have ordered, comes in.
The front section is devoted to new hardbacks and paperbacks, the back section to second hand and remaindered books. This week I found Christopher Fitz Simans's excellent biography of MacLiammair and Edwards, The Bays, reduced from £9.99 to £4.99, Anthony Powell's bitchily amusing Journals 1990-1992, reduced from £20 to £10, Richard Schickel's biography of Clint Eastwood, down from £17.99 to £5, Eamon Sweeney's Waiting far the Healer at £7.50 instead of its full £14.99, and the very useful Concise Oxford Science Dictionary at £4.99.
ERICA JONG, she who overcame her fear of flying (not to mention her fear of bank managers - the book has sold more than 12 million copies since its first publication in 1973), is in Waterstone's at 6.30 p.m. next Tuesday to talk about and promote her new novel, Of Blessed Memory. Described by the publisher as "a hundred year epic of a Jewish family in America and the women who unite it through the generations", it's far removed in tone and thrust from the book that made her famous.
Other upcoming literary events include the latest Poetry Ireland Introductions in The Winding Stair, Ormond Quay, next Thursday at 8 p.m., featuring Christine Broe, Ross Hattaway and Nora McGillen, and a Waterstone's reading by the American poet Samuel Menashe at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday week.