Here is a sure sign that Dalrymple is making some headway. You don’t get this kind of reaction from the libs at the Guardian if they think they can ignore you. They even drew up a little illustration. Crace’s satire doesn’t have the ring of truth — it veers between “accurate but not disparaging” and “disparaging but not accurate” — but I still enjoyed it. Am I being too sentimental if I give him an A for effort?

…just as the adjective “Hogarthian” conjures up images of gin-soaked hags and foundlings dying in the gutter, I’ve heard “Dalrymplean” used to describe both the squalor of the modern criminal classes, and the attitude – the endless excuses which criminals, having had any concept of responsibility taken away from them by the welfare system, give to excuse their wrongdoings.

…just as the Tate in 2007 held a Hogarth exhibition, which showed us the squalor of Georgian London, maybe art galleries in centuries to come will put on Dalrymple exhibitions, with examples of his work besides a realistic model of a 21st century council estate destroyed by the benefits system.

Writer and Dalrymple fan Bernard Chapin reviews the forthcoming New Vichy Syndrome.

Two videos recently posted on YouTube show Dalrymple’s activity in the Netherlands: the production of a one-man play based on his book De Filantroop (entitled So Little Done in the English-speaking world) and a new book in Dutch called Profeten en Charlatans (about which we are trying to get more information). The videos include interviews with Dalrymple and the actor Genio de Groot.

We meant to, but neglected to post a link last week to this story in the Daily Mail:

If you are a political conservative participating in a panel discussion entitled “After the crunch: How best to beat poverty?”, and it is sponsored by an organization called The Centre for Social Justice, chances are your views will not be warmly received. Such was the case for Theodore Dalrymple in Manchester on Monday (see here and here).

Actually (and this probably makes it much worse), the organization was founded by the former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, and the discussion was one of about two dozen organized by the group to coincide with the annual Conservative Party Conference. Apparently, there is some dispute regarding how much of the audience was actually conservative, but if it is true that Conservatives can no longer abide the idea of personal responsibility that Dalrymple promotes, then there is not much hope left for the party or their country.

Much of the so-called Right that has recently taken power in Europe have succeeded by simply promising to run the socialist welfare-state more efficiently than the socialists. While this might be good for “conservatives”, it can’t be good for conservatism. I don’t follow British politics closely, and others can correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that the Conservatives are so giddy with the prospect of regaining power that they are increasingly willing to compromise any principle to close the deal.

If you do and you’ll be in the Low Countries, there is a wealth of Dalrymplian entertainment awaiting. His fame continues to grow there, so that per capita he may be more well-known there than anywhere else. He has attributed his popularity in Holland to the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh, which opened the eyes of its intellectuals to many of the issues that he has explored. If my personal experience is representative, it could also be true that his criticism of his countrymen has struck a chord among citizens of Amsterdam who’ve grown tired of the sight and sound of English yobs marauding through the alleys on their way to the Red Light District.

Whatever the reason, he has a lot going on there. Later today, he will give a public speech or interview or some such at Rechtenfaculteit Leiden, which could very well be the Leiden University School of Law. Details are here. (Nice webpage, by the way, especially that bit on the bottom.) The speech might very well (can you tell I don’t speak Dutch?) have something to do with a new Dutch-language book called Profeten en Charlatans (Prophets and Charlatans, maybe?) published this month by Niuew Amsterdam, who has published all of his previous books in Holland. It appears to be focused on his literary criticism, but we will get more details soon.

Perhaps most exciting though, his 1995 book So Little Done has been turned into a one-man play. Sharing the name of the Dutch version of the book, De Filantroop (or The Philanthropist), it stars veteran Dutch actor Genio de Groot, who collaborated with Dalrymple in adapting it for the stage. How can a Dalrymple work be turned into a play, you ask? Well, remember: So Little Done is a fictional work (his one and only) subtitled “The Testament of a Serial Killer” and written in the first person. I re-read the first few pages, and it almost cries out for a one-man theatrical treatment. The play has been in previews for the last few weeks and officially opens… tonight! It will tour around the Netherlands through December. The schedule is here. For a lengthy interview of Dalrymple discussing the book in Holland, go here.

Why does this remind me of this?