Update from a nearby planet

Now that the Swedes have relented and agreed to interview Julian Assange- the WikiLeaks guy- in his London ambassadorial bolt-hole, it's fascinating to read a ghost writer's account of how Assange tried to write an autobiography/manifesto by doing everything possible to make it not happen. Offered the opportunity, Andrew O'Hagan thought this:

I remembered Victor Maskell, the art historian and spy in John Banville’s The Untouchable, who liked to quote Diderot: ‘We erect a statue in our own image inside ourselves – idealised, you know, but still recognisable – and then spend our lives engaged in the effort to make ourselves into its likeness.’ The fact that the WikiLeaks story was playing out against a global argument over privacy, secrets and the abuse of military power, left me thinking that if anyone was weird enough for this story it was me.

As it turned out, dealing with Assange was like a comment of the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." For a long, fascinating read, click here.