Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Endnotes
‘Writing’: one of modern-life’s better-known exit-strategies... Presumably I don’t need to labour this point. Suffice to say the modern literary loom is driven as much by instincts of bloody-minded office-aversion as by honourable devotion to the Muse. The productivity of such endeavours is dependent here on the usual combination, found in all walks of life, of talent, luck and myopic eccentricity (and not necessarily in that order)
When I began this project in 1998, I was fond of insisting (to my more patient friends) that ‘I didn’t care’ if it took me ‘ten years or more!’ Whether through wish-fulfilment, or semi-accurate prognosis, here I am 6 years later – about to round off the bastard for once and for all. My tenure of slackness is drawing to a close.
In the meantime, there’s the expected pile of proofing and editorial work. If the contract goes ahead with the present publisher (hereafter known as The Second Party), I am to submit a manuscript by the 30th of September this year. The following thread will document the bitter-sweet journey towards the end of the production-life cycle of the work involved, referred to hereafter as The Little Monster…
Posted by Will @ 22:43 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Belle de Jour: The moment of truth!
The Book Club Blog is there. Join the dots.
On 8th Jan 2003, a writer revealed their own personal history in The Evening Standard as a means of publicising their newly released book about someone else's personal history.
On 26th October 2003, a writer demonstrated a knowledge of Martin Amis's latest novel "Yellow Dog," in an Observer piece about the need for men to be aware of the increasing need to look their best in order to attract empowered career women. It was pointed out that this article 'makes no reference to Sex And The Bloody City'.
The same writer has listed their top 10 scandalous French novels for The Guardian.
Two days earlier, on 24th October 2003, a new blog "Belle de Jour" appeared on the internet.
On 18th December 2003, this "Belle de Jour" blog won the 2003 Guardian Weblog award for best written blog. As Bruce Sterling, one of the awards' judges, said: 'She is in a league by herself as a blogger.'
On 10th March 2003, The Times featured an article on "The web diary, the book deal and the very happy hooker."
On 11 March 2003, this blogger confirmed that "Yes, there is a book deal. . . It is not, as has been reported, a 'six-figure deal. . . if you are an icky slimy journo at a Sunday tab bothering people who have never met me for shreds
of information, take your filthy lucre and leave those nice ladies and gentlemen alone."
On 14th March, The Times took a closer look at the "high-class hooker whose web diary is set to be a literary sensation."
On 18th March 2004, The Times announced that it had unmasked the Internet 'call girl author.' The London Evening Standard among other publications reported this, but noted that the bloggers recently acquired agent had never heard of the person named.
On 21st March 2004, the writer identified by The Times as the author of Belle de Jour published a denial in The Observer. "I want to make it clear that not only have I never been a call girl - which will especially please my mother, who has had journalists calling on her Manchester home - but I am not the author of the Belle de Jour net diary."
On 28th March 2004, the real Belle de Jour entered the print game for the "first time" with a piece in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine. She wrote: "I'm a whore. Not in the metaphorical sense, often invoked by writers my age, of auctioning my intellectual abilities to the highest bidder. I'm not some disillusioned twentysomething desk-job graduate equating salaried work with selling out. No, I'm an actual, exchanging-money-for-sex prostitute. . . . I began to write anonymously for several reasons. I don't plan to stay in this field forever; some day I want to have a real job in the subject I studied. Also, it is easier to write frankly under a pseudonym. People still do not think that women can have sexual lives and yet be respected for their character and intelligence. This is not true for men. Plus I didn't want to get escorting work from men hoping to see themselves in print. And I didn't want to compromise client confidentiality. . . I plan to remain anonymous for several reasons. It would embarrass my friends and family; they don't deserve that. I can take any slings and arrows the press choose to throw but would feel terrible if I put my loved ones through all this. In any case, my manager's job is illegal, and I suspect she would be in a world of trouble. . . Some people accuse me of being fake, and I'm flattered that anyone thinks my writing so good that I could not be real. Unfortunately for the conspiracy theorists, there is no conspiracy. I am a young woman, I have sex for money, and I love to read and write. My taste in books shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, this job affords more spare time than most. Think of Occam's razor, the principle of parsimony: what would be simpler - that I am who I say I am, and write about, or that I am a famous author living a double life, unable to tell anyone and having a joke at the expense of my agent, publisher and readers? What does bother me is the presumption that a person's occupation is a reflection of their intelligence or value to society: I have known plumbers who were geniuses and surgeons who couldn't tie their own shoelaces. But there are thousands of wittier, sharper authors in the world. I'd sooner spend my future as a reader than a writer."
On the same day, 28th March 2004, Professor Foster - whose research had supposedly substantiated the Times story of 18th March 2004, had a letter printed in the Observer in which he denied he ever definitively identified Sarah Champion as Belle.
Today, the Book Club Blog noticed that our original "writer" has a new book set for publication on 10th March 2005.
Curiously it is to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. The Times reported on 10th March 2004 that Weidenfeld & Nicholson have bought Belle’s book and plan to launch it next Valentine’s Day, 14th February 2005.
Is Belle just an anonymous blogger or is she a professional writer with more than one book on the go? As she says: "It's inspiring to have a large project to work on again." But how large exactly is the project?
Posted by Nick @ 21:17 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Gram Parsons linkage via Luther and Ali Campbell's Brit Pop Party!
W E L C O M E to Gram Parsons Project
Plus, the views of The Strokes on Iraq as featured in Q Magazine, via here.
Posted by Nick @ 15:40 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Literary Football Connection No. 2
Just what is Luther Blisset doing popping up on my Bookslut xml feed?
I now see that this is old news and that Luther in fact made it onto the long list for Guardian's first book prize last year. It judge seemed incongruous seeing him being mentioned by Bookslut!
Posted by Nick @ 15:24 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Paris by night - and no not the other Hilton, nor the hotel for that matter!
Found this link at troubled diva and thought WOW!
Posted by Nick @ 14:25 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
GHOST TOWN
A story about a town where one can ride with no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog.. my rides through chernobyl area. Seems to be the site of the moment!
Posted by Nick @ 13:15 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Roald Dahl
Thought this might be of interest.
Posted by Nick @ 20:08 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Alisatair Cooke dies aged 95
Following the announcement earlier this month that he was drawing his 58 year long "Letter From America" to a close, it has been announced that Alistair Cooke has died aged 95. A legendary broadcaster, and an insightful commentator whom America's future will do well to remember. Knowing that Alisatair Cooke was there somehow made America seem a little saner!
Posted by Nick @ 08:07 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Monday, March 29, 2004
The growth fetish exposed again
Here's a link to a slightly-extended version of the FT article I mentioned at Filthy's the other night, by Samuel Brittan (brother of Leon - can you see the family resemblance?).
And I'd like to remind you that I was the only one brave enough to take on the cock-sucking cowboy.
Blogging plans didn't work out this weekend because our computer's bust - hence the delay. McGonagall will have to wait a few days.
Posted by Jon @ 11:29 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
'Call Me': No Inhibitions, or Excuses, for a Hollywood Madam
Heidi Fleiss the TV movie starring Jamie-Lynn DiScala (Meadow from "The Sopranos").
"Heidi has no heart of gold hidden beneath her Rodeo Drive push-up bras and garter belts. Nor is she driven by "Waterloo Bridge" necessity or "Belle de Jour" psychosis. There is not even a traumatic childhood incident to help explain her career choice."
Sound familiar?
Posted by Nick @ 08:57 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Telegraph | Arts | 'I am a young woman. I have sex for money. And I love to write. This is my story...'
Belle's story at The Telgraph is now online - illustrationless.
Posted by Nick @ 08:00 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Houellebecq in line for England job!
Well he might as well be!
Posted by Nick @ 22:53 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Flatmate de Jour
Where has Belle's flatmate been hiding?
Posted by Nick @ 21:41 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
belle de jour coverage on Sarah Champion's site
Thanks to Darren at LINKMACHINEGO.COM for putting me onto Sarah's scans of her recent media coverage!
Can anyone tell me what the craic is when it comes to scanning press and mags and popping them up on the web?
Moreover, Darren at LINKMACHINEGO.COM has found in the Observer's letters what I've been waiting for all week in my email inbox - namely a denial from Professor Don Foster that he ever definitively identified Sarah Champion as Belle.
It is beocoming clear why Darren won the 2003 Guardian Blog Awards Special Judges Award for his blog.
Citation: "And there was no doubt that this should go to Darren Shrubsole's LinkMachineGo. It fell between the stools of best specialist, and best written. But it is one of the great wonders of the British blogging world: an understated, but always readable collection of links. If you're ever stuck for something interesting on the web, you'd be hard pressed to find a better starting point than this."
Posted by Nick @ 16:17 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Belle writes exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine now . . .
So the blog thingy is officially old hat - and she has joined the world of the hardcopy printed word (The Sunday Telegraph Magazine piece is not online until lord knows when - they say they don't work on Sundays but are too busy working to answer my questions now - go figure that one out!) presumably to reach a fee-paying (i.e. book buying) audience. What does this say about the power, or rather the limitations of blogs, and the resilience of print newspapers and books - does anyone still bother with that as a debate?
Belle writes:
"I am flattered that anyone thinks my writing so good that I could not be real," (a real person? a real prostitute? or a real writer?) "What does bother me is the presumption that a person's occupation is a reflection of their intelligence or value to society: I have known plumbers who were geniuses and surgeons wh couldn't tie their own shoelaces. But there are thousands of wittier, sharper authors in the world. I'd sooner spend my future as a reader than a writer."
Though she says that "some day (she) wants to have a real job in the subject (she) studied." So a return to academia beckons.
She also says she supports "legalising brothels, hard drugs and other socially awkward habits. If the crime and disease surrounding these activities can be reduced through legalisation and protection, and if the government can collect tax from it, what is the problem."
Anyway, steaming through Belle "the new newspaper exclusive" and the Houellebecq connection is there again. Belle on her childhood:
"My parents fancied themselves 1970s revolutionaries . . . the house was stuffed with books of all kinds. Psychedelic sci-fi disguised as literature: Aldous Huxley."
Halfway through "Atomised," (pp. 186- 192) Houllebecq recounts an episode when Bruno visits his half-brother Michel Djerzinski and the two of them discuss Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" at length. Then Michel goes on to detail Huxley's "large family of English biologists, his brother Julian's "What Dare I Think," (1931) and Aldous Huxley's final book "Island" (1962) (In which "The civilisation is technologically advanced but still at one with nature."!) but concludes that Julian's attempt to "set out the principles of a religion which could dovetail with science," was not terribly convincing:
"In fact, any attempt at fusing science and religion is doomed because of the understanding of morality, so cruelty and egotism have free reign. Its small comfort, but the same goes for love."
Posted by Nick @ 15:00 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Belle Watch
LINKMACHINEGO.COM reports Belle has written 5 pages in today's Sunday Telegraph Magazine - and its not on the sodding internet! Can this really be true? Off to the newsagents now.
Posted by Nick @ 13:35 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Team Dustin update
The Book Club Blog has taken over from the Team Dustin Blog as the main area of my blogging focus in the last few months. Sadly, Dustin has been somewhat neglected if not forgotten, there are only so many blogging minutes in the day afterall! If you've missed the latest on his 68 homes all over the world, then do pop over there to find out more.
And remember to visit the home of Team Dustin if you haven't already done so - and do please leave a comment if you have any valuable Dustin news!
Posted by Nick @ 12:07 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
The Baltimore Lowdown on the pre-Belle Chick Lit scene
One of The Book Club Blog's newest readers reviewed the Hottest Gal Tales Around back in September, 2003.
In fact she's written a fair bit, and has even interviewed our dear friend Helen Fielding.
Posted by Nick @ 11:16 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
plasticbag.org | weblog | On Belle de Jour...
Over at the plasticbag blog - pretty fantastic for all things blog - they've been discussing the Belle phenomenon for the past week (haven't we all!) and I noticed today that Franz has said (March 20, 2004 04:26 PM):
"I don't think anyone is really shocked and startled as you said, but just curious. Belle's blog - in case it's not just fiction - allows people to relate to a hooker on a different level through short stories and musings, and there's no need to read a whole Houellebecq."
So if Atomised is beyond you or you can't stretch to get hold of a copy from your work station you know where to go instead.
I have just posted a comment at plasticbag.org on the end of the discussion and thought I'd put up here too:
"A great discussion - with virtually all sides of the current debate regarding the BjD phenomenon expressed. I'm not sure if Tom Coates and yeahright are really disagreeing too much about what they recognise as Belle's achievement - you both seem to have more in common than you may think. What is it with this hostility towards media types and their lifestyles? Explain yourself coherently or get over it!
I'm surprised that people are still getting sidetracked by the identity issue, and concerning themselves with the degree to which it affects the quality or honesty of any author's writing - surely all storytelling is a construct - whether it represents itself as fiction, news journalism, commentary, political speech making, UN resolutions or judicial reports on the machinations of government. Haven't we all accepted that by now. Surely we all gather information from the environment we inhabit and choose to convey it in the way we see as being appropriate to our medium, audience and ends.
At the receiving end surely the process of interpretation is the same in reverse. Who are we when we read or hear something? Are we the same person all of the time? And do we truly know who we are? It is all constructs being deconstructed and reconstructed in different contexts over and over again.
(By the way I am not the nick who posted the Foucault link - and I wonder just why "literary anonymity is not tolerable"? Its not a zero-sum game - after all, who was William Sakespeare, really? And why is it so important when the words are the message?)
Regarding whether Belle is worth the Blog she's written on - its merely a case of personal judgement - either you get something from it, for good or bad, and choose whether or not to carry on reading as a result. That's the case with all written words and stories - you care or you don't.
Regarding the commercialism of Belle. Its unfortunate that the manufacture and purchase of a thong or a t-shirt, a book or a film, to signify an association or convey a message conjures pejorative reaction - but how on earth do ideas disseminate wholly outside of the pecuniary marketplace whilst there is still a material world out there beyond the free exchanges of the net that we are now so familiar with?
Regarding Belle being the latest in a long line of a particular genre: is there any singularly unique new genre out there that I haven't heard about yet? Surely a writer's challenge is to be conscious of the genre/tradition in which they write and to extend it knowingly. Is Belle guilty of failing to do this any more than say virtually any published author in the world today?
I don't mind admitting that I enjoy Belle's writing for what I take it to be - which is lots of different things that change over time - but on balance I continue to read. And that is the only measure by which I can honestly judge anyone's story - no matter who they are, or why they tell it.
Finally, does anyone know Lisa Hilton? And has she made any public or private statements regarding whether or not she has a blogger account responsible for http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/?
If I'm missing the point - please rattle my cage."
Posted by Nick @ 09:56 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
SharpReader RSS Aggregator
SharpReader is an RSS Aggregator for Windows, created by Luke Hutteman. It does what it says on the packet and is a fantastic tool for keeping up to the minute with all your favourite websites and blogs - just as long as they have an RSS feed - the lastest version (0.9.4.1) handles Atom, which is Blogger's feed of choice for its basic level free blogs. The Atom feed for The Book Club Blog is in the right hand pane, simply right-click copy the shortcut into the Open RSS Feed window (under File dropdown) tick the subscribe box and away you go!
Posted by Nick @ 09:24 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Saturday, March 27, 2004
kickAAS - Kick all agricultural subsidies
kickAAS: a blog for the third world - seems the perfect blog for the morning after a night in the pub discussing the pros and cons of capitalism, globalisation, poverty - and much more besides over a thirst quenching "Cock-sucking Cowboy."
Stasis or Evolution? (Our language strikes me as being ill-equipped to provide suitable terms for positing the dilemma. If anyone can come up with more elucidating alternatives, please let me know.) The joys of hunter/gatherer subsistence or the Shangri-La of the call centre?
• "Some global debt has been cancelled. Most has not, while the rich world has slashed aid and rigged trade," writes Bob Geldof.
• Ayn Rand on capitalism: "The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does—if that catch-phrase has any meaning—but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice."
• Karl Marx on capitalism: "Capital is money, capital is commodities. … By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs."
• The Almost Capitalist: "What Marx almost discovered was that both the benefits and the success of capitalism grow with the number of men who are capitalists. His error in failing to discover this truth was the most fateful near-miss in history." Louis O. Kelso, "KARL MARX:THE ALMOST CAPITALIST," American Bar Association Journal, March 1957.
I don't come across too many hunter/gatherers today (Jared Diamond Biography) (Interview), but I do remember hearing Raymond Blanc - widely acknowledged as one of finest chefs in the world and a tremendously skilled entrepreneur - talking about growing up as a hunter/gatherer.
• Raymond Blanc on growing up as a hunter/gatherer:
"I lived in a very rural environment in France and I was a hunter/gatherer from the age of six, selling (?!) wild asparagus, wild mushrooms, and frogs and snails that I gathered from the land around my home. This closeness to the land gave me a deep, deep understanding of the cycles and the moods of the seasons. I lived in a tiny little village environment where my father was a fantastic gardener and my mum was a great cook. She plied her simple craft to what my father provided her with, whether it came from the forest, or the garden or the peasant next door. Preparing good food was act of love, there was a simple chain from soil to pot, and the sharing of that moment added to the food."
• Raymond Blanc on the moment he realised he'd lost that hunter/gatherer instinct.
• Hunter-Gatherer blogs!
• Ever wondered about the gene that "Made Us Human" in the first place?
Posted by Nick @ 11:05 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
They've already made the movie!
Grand Theft Parsons
In the wake of The Book Club Blog's recent spotlight on Gram Parsons, I am very surprised to have missed this until yesterday.
Grand Theft Parsons stars Johnny Knoxville, Christina Applegate and Robert Forster. Having screened to great acclaim at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the film was released in the UK and Ireland on March 19th, 2004.
Recently initiated fans may be interested to know that "two Parsons fans have bought the Joshua Tree Inn, where Parsons died, which they intend to preserve in part as a shrine and die-hard Parsons fans have even been given a name - "grampires". Yet there's still a long way to go before Parsons gets the recognition he deserves. His ghost has been excised from the Joshua Tree National Park tourist literature and during the filming of Grand Theft Parsons none of the park rangers claimed to have any knowledge of the Kaufman/Parsons story."
Johnny Knoxville on Gram: "He's up there with David Bowie and Johnny Cash for me. Coupled with his death and what happened with his body, that smacks of cult following to me."
Posted by Nick @ 10:19 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Friday, March 26, 2004
Are rude French a dying race?
What do you think?
Reputed to be one of the world's rudest breeds, Parisians it seems are growing politer by the day, turning off their cellphones in restaurants, asking other diners first before lighting up at the table and, even picking up their dog droppings.
Loud personal cellphone conversations in public buses and trains are dying out -- "only people who are hard of hearing tend to speak too loudly nowadays" said one phone operator -- as are once-popular ear-splitting ringtones featuring hunting music or Bizet's "Carmen."
Posted by Nick @ 14:31 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Tony Blair and the Treaty of Westphalia or should that be West-Failure?
Recent Articles On Treaty of Westphalia in wake of Tony Blair's Sedgefield speech (6/03/04)
Telegraph.co.uk Mar 08, 2004
"Mr Blair argued that failing to take a stand on Iraq would have shown the international community's will to act over rogue states and WMD was weak. But it would be "monstrously premature" to think that the threat had passed. It was not a time to err on the side of caution, particularly when terrorists were "pouring into Iraq". Mr Blair claimed that "containment" would not deal with the threat. The terrorists had no intention of being contained, and there needed to be a global response. In what...
Blair's doctrine UK PM defends intervention to deal with rogue states Mar 08, 2004
He even mentioned the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. That basically ended the religious wars in Europe and began the modern system of the nation-state, whose rights, he suggested, should be further curtailed.
Guardian Mar 08, 2004
So, for me, before September 11, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, namely that a country's internal affairs are for it and you don't interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance. I did not consider Iraq fitted into this philosophy.
Posted by Nick @ 10:05 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Move over Belle - the master linguist, Noam Chomsky, has joined the blogosphere - yesterday afternoon !
Turning the Tide
Posted by Nick @ 07:05 GMTExpress Yourself! [ comments.]
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Breaking Belle news - Well more of a confirmation of what we already knew - South Manchester Reporter
It seems that The Times "which, (according to "The South Manchester Reporter") as everybody knows, never gets its facts wrong" has erred slightly. Having "decided to unleash the might of its investigative team on the trail of the mystery internet author" (Our dear Belle), and "even called in an American expert to identify the person who'd been writing the graphic entries on the website under the name Belle De Jour," the newspaper's expose is now reported to have done nothing more than "upset and embarass" the accused's parents.
Sarah Champion's mother Elaine has now said:
“It's awful, I don't see how this professor could have done it; he's supposed to have got it right with other people. We want to set the record straight that it is not Sarah and we are just hoping it's all going to blow over.”
Teachers at Sarah's school, Oakwood, were bemused by the suggestion that Sarah was either a working call-girl or knew enough about prostitution to write the diary.
Oakwood teacher Ed Wiley who taught Sarah said:
“I couldn't believe when I heard it. It seems odd; she was very studious and dependable. There was nothing to blot her copy book and her parents were very supportive of the school.”
I'm curious. Does this imply that a university educated woman who decides to pursue a career as, in the words of one of Belle's co-workers Lara, "a travel companion to discriminating gentlemen who appreciate beauty, elegance and intelligence" in exchange for "$4,000/day, plus associated expenses, with a 2-day minimum," would not have been "very studious and dependable" whilst at school and would have determinedly "blotted her copy book"? Would someone who chose such a career automatically have parents that would not be "very supportive of the(ir) school"? A woman like Lara who draws attention to the fact that "she has no tattoos or piercings, does not smoke and appreciates fine wine and champagne" and "holds an advanced engineering degree from a top tier California university (and before you ask - Do you really have an engineering degree? Yes I do. You don't think I could fake a technical background, do you?), is bilingual and an avid world traveler," does not sound to me like the typical school troublemaker or dropout. In fact she sounds more like a candidate for Head Girl (no pun intended).
In response to the question "Why are you doing this?" Lara tells her potential clients "I am doing this for the same reasons that brought you here or, more precisely, it’s the mirror image of your motivation. You might want to read the following article for a historical perspective on Courtesans." The nub of this piece on the role of courtesans in Renaissance Italy is that "Being a courtesan allowed women to hold on to their sexuality while cultivating their minds.The only other women who were allowed to study were those in convents." Moreover, "Homosexuality was seen as a huge threat and punishable by death (men would be beheaded and their bodies burned), so Venetian officials often paid courtesans to "cure" homosexuals. Courtesans were encouraged to stand topless on the Ponte Della Tette, or Bridge of Tits, as it's still known today, to entice and convert suspected gays." Comparing this Renaissance past with the twentieth century, Christina Valhouli concludes: "Renaissance Venetian Victoria Franco charmed her powerful men with poetry and sex. Fast-forward 400 years or so, and courtesan spirit is embodied in women like Pamela Harriman and Clare Boothe Luce, who propelled themselves to power through their associations and marriages with powerful men. The throne is still open for a true courtesan of the 21st century."
In the light of Ally McBeal's nauseating inability to find true love in the professional workplace, Carrie Bradshaw's sexual merry-go-round in the city, and Bridget Jones' flirtation with the edge of reason, is it any wonder that seriously career minded, well-educated women, who grew up in an era that championed the free-market, entrepreneurship and the survival of the fittest (substitute "sexiest" and read Madonna, Britney etc. etc.) should seek to maximise their ability to realise the ideal lifestyle of free time and spare money that we are all seemingly expected to aspire to today, by taking the most lucrative and least labour extensive option available.
Cue Belle's own account of a conversation about her motivation for following her chosen profession:
He: "So why do you do this?"
Me: "I'm not sure I have an answer to that."
"There must be something that you at least tell yourself."
"Well, perhaps I'm the sort of person apt to do something for no good reason other than I can't think of a reason not to."
"So if someone told you to jump off a bridge..."
"Depends on the bridge. Depends if they were paying. Why?"
Finally for now, Belle on her family:
"My family is quite normal, and I am in touch with my parents almost daily. They know I do 'adult entertainment' and I leave it at that. On a similar subject, I am not a drug addict and have never been on the dole."
Belle is clearly right on the cutting edge of the culture war that has beleaguered both Right and Left in Britain for so long. Namely, she is an empowered economic rationalist with a libertarian morality to match.
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