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	December 2002
		Even As We Speak - New Essays 1993-2001 by Clive James, Picador, London ISBN 0 330 48176 2 Published 2001 RRP$26.00 reviewed by Jenny Matthews
			These essays on a broad range of subjects appeared in many news papers, magazines and on special occasion speeches. Some are very challenging, such as his dissertation 'Bertrand Russell Struggles After Heaven' and the review of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners (pub. Alfred A. Knopf). Towards the end of the book there is a collection of lighter essays on the Sydney Olympics, the Republican Debate and others. In talking about the British monarchy, he gives sharp criticism to the media for some inexcusable excesses. Any one with aspirations for public office would do well to learn from James. While he encourages transparency from those in public office, he also argues that people become 'trapped by what was written about them, and they were never more trapped than when they thought they were guiding the process of publicity by cooperating with it.' Rarity The standard of discussion surrounding the Republican debate also comes in for some much needed critique. Nationalism (which now seems, erroneously, to mean patriotism) is exposed as a force which devastated vast tracts of the 20th century, and employing it in the Republican debate was unhelpful. The media is blamed for treating any one who disagreed as 'being fried to a crisp'. Clive James is a generalist, a rarity these days in this era of the specialist. I find if I need a quick accessible introduction to some difficult-to-read author, I am enthused to know more after reading Clive's interesting essay or review on them. Succinct His discussion on the desire of universities in the 1960s to enthusiastically embrace radical theories exposes a great hypocrisy; especially when 'some of the loudest enthusiasts were on the faculty, actually teaching that the tenure they themselves had safely attained was not worth having, that the modern democratic state was the repressive mechanism of late capitalism...' shows James' clarity of succinct argument. There is so much in this book which is eloquent, sane and funny, all very important in our nervous world. The plea that James makes in his introduction should strike a chord with Christians: in an anxious world 'if we would speak to each other, we must speak first of all for ourselves, with no other end in view save to speak well.' Since Jesus is described as the Word, and we Christians inhabiting that Word , we can accommodate, with gentle loving kindness, a multitude of seemingly conflicting ideas without coming to blows. The end for us Christians, is to show unity in diversity, because the world is forever forcing suffocating uniformity on us all. Ironically I find much joy in what James writes, even though he is not a card carrying Christian, as far as I know.