The forum for general posting. Come join the madness.
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themanintheseersuckersuit
- Posts: 7619
- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:37 pm
- Location: South Carolina
#1
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by themanintheseersuckersuit » Tue May 20, 2008 5:30 pm
Air Vice-marshal Tom Howell, who has died aged 94, rose to senior rank in the RAF's engineering branch having suffered great privation in Java and Changi Jail after the Japanese had overrun Singapore and the Dutch East Indies in 1942.
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In late 1943 he was transferred to Changi Jail where he shared a cell with James Clavell, the author of King Rat, and an American NCO who was apparently the model for the anti-hero of the book.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... owell.htmlSuitguy is not bitter.
feels he represents the many educated and rational onlookers who believe that the hysterical denouncement of lay scepticism is both unwarranted and counter-productive
The problem, then, is that such calls do not address an opposition audience so much as they signal virtue. They talk past those who need convincing. They ignore actual facts and counterargument. And they are irreparably smug.
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Thousandaire
- Posts: 1251
- Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:33 pm
#2
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by Thousandaire » Tue May 20, 2008 6:29 pm
King Rat is a great book and my favorite Clavell novel (author of Shogun and Noble House).
