Lawrence Miles

I expected better of Lawrence Miles I really did. I've enjoyed his blog, iconoclasty is always exciting and Lawrence writes a mean polemic in a fluid style that puts alot of professional pundits to shame. That I disagreed with just about everything he says is immaterial - he was a joy to read and always thought provoking - and now? Now he's just provoking.

Lawrence makes the classic mistake of interpreting other people's work entirely within the context of his own obsessions. The logic behind Genius Loci was perfectly simple - the Daleks were originally conceived as, and have continued to be, an explicit metaphor for Nazism. Therefore the war that forms the background Bernice's early life (a war started by card carrying communist Malcomn Hulke no less) is a metaphor for World War II. Now I believe WW2 was a 'righteous war' despite the horrible ambivalence of many of the things were done in the name of victory and this coloured the way the war was portrayed in the book.

Now Lawrence can believe that I got neocon cooties from my brother if he likes but until he accepts that people can do things for reasons outside his personal frame of reference his insight will continue to be limited.