Le Carre' on Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty"


Reshared post from +Jim Fawcette

Le Carre' on Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty"
fascism is when you can't put a cigarette paper between corporate- and government-power

Quote deep in a lengthy article "John le Carré Has Not Mellowed With Age" on the now 81-year-old author:  

NYT Mag: "When I asked about a more recent object of liberal opprobrium, “Zero Dark Thirty,” Kathryn Bigelow’s 2012 film about the capture of Osama bin Laden, le Carré paused for a moment, then smiled at me, then paused again. “Let me,” he said, “try and organize my anger.” … he faults Bigelow for not depicting nearly enough of the multiple types of behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering that were crucial to bin Laden’s capture. “If the film is accurate,” he said, “it is a portrait of such incompetence that it takes your breath away.”

Great turn of phrase in paragraph on his newest novel: "In “A Delicate Truth,” he directs his attention toward the perils of farming out military duties to mercenaries. “This will sound as if I am speaking large,” le Carré told me, “but Mussolini said that the definition of fascism was when you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between corporate power and government power. I have watched veteran members of our intelligence establishment go seamlessly into these private defense contracting companies.” Maintaining a military, done correctly, he said, is difficult physical, mental and moral work. “It’s so much easier if I come to you and say, ‘Here’s the contract, I want you to liberate Sierra Leone, I don’t give a toss who you take with you and try to keep the killing down.’ ”

Book comes out May 7th, pre-order link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Delicate-Truth-Novel-ebook/dp/B00BC24NT4/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366327563&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=le+carre+“A+Delicate+Truth” 
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John le Carré Has Not Mellowed With Age
The 81-year-old spy writer is in the midst of a hardy late-career bloom.

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