Casting light in dark corners

David Wootton

IN 1956 YOUNG PETER BURKE, BETWEEN school and university, was doing his military service in Singapore. The officers were only on base from six in the morning till four in the afternoon. After that, Her Majesty’s Service was replaced by self-service: black market scams, protection rackets, beds for the night. Young Burke assumed the officers had no idea what was going on, though one might wonder if their strategic withdrawal to their quarters wasn’t precisely intended to give their men a free hand. Ignorance takes many forms — there is, here, the officers’ blind ignorance and Burke’s wilful ignorance. Ignorance ends with an extended glossary of 59 terms, though many are synonyms and they can quickly be reduced to asymmetrical, invincible, culpable, conscious, creative, group — along with a few other…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2023

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