Status update on the war against evil

There were a number of postings of this song on YouTube. I chose the one that had the title spelt right.

Did you ever have the feeling that the battle against evil is almost lost?

The Office of Fair Trading have approved the Amazon takeover of The Book Depository.

People are ridiculed for resisting the e-book fad, while in Japan, Kindle offers publishers an ultimatum: "Give us 55% of your takings and rights to your entire back catalogue."

Hard to tell truth from rumour sometimes, but even official reports don't sound good.

I started reading Hangover Square, by Patrick Hamilton, recently. Not immediately (the first couple of pages were well written but slightly dull), but within the first chapter, I had the growing feeling that I was in the presence of greatness:

But now, according to them, according to Netta and Peter, there wasn't going to be a war at all. They knew all about it, or were supposed to. But he wasn't a fool here, either – he could see how their minds worked, with what facility they turned their ignominious desires into beliefs. He hadn't fallen for this 'I think it is peace in our time' stuff. But they had – hadn't they just! They went raving mad, they weren't sober for a whole week after Munich – it was just in their line. They liked Hitler, really. They didn't hate him, anyway. They liked Musso, too. And how they cheered old Umbrella! Oh yes, it was their cup of tea all right, was Munich.

But it wasn't his. He didn't know much about politics, he didn't know as much as them (not to talk about, anyway), but he knew that Munich was a phoney business. Fine for an Earl's Court binge, but a phoney business, however much you talked. Shame, that was all he had felt, shame which he couldn't analyse. He had felt it all the time they were getting drunk – in fact he had hardly been able to drink at all himself. He was so ashamed he could hardly look at the pictures… All grinning, shaking hands, frock-coats, top-hats, uniforms, car-rides, cheers – it was a sort of super-fascist weddding or christening… He was ashamed then, and he was still ashamed.

This and other passages have moved me strangely.

In his introduction to the novel, J.B. Priestley mentions in passing that the enemies of innocence in Hamilton's novels are "wickedness and stupidity". Yes, I believe it is true – stupidity, too, is an enemy of innocence, and is not, of itself, innocent.

One incidental thing that made me think as I read the novel was the mention of train station porters. Whatever happened, I wondered, to train station porters? They must have been done away with at some point. But when? When, I suppose, the convenience and profit of the railway company was considered decisively more important than the comfort of passengers. For although passengers are surely travellers, these days it is almost illegitimate that they should be carrying luggage at all. People look aghast at travellers on a train with any significant luggage, because there is no provision for them. Space is economised. For what? Hard to tell, really. All one can say for certain is that modern trains are not really designed to carry travellers, and one almost has to apologise for needing to board them.