For a man who is clearly extremely intelligent, Richard Dawkins can be a fucking idiot at times.
The worst thing about all this is, it has the appearance that the only reason Dawkins is saying this is because he is suffering from an irrational sense of rivalry stemming from this literary prize.
At least his wife probably supports him. I’m sure Romana would feel the same way as her former companion about the Abzorbaloff.
UPDATE: Richard Dawkins has issued a mea culpa in the Guardian, albeit making it clear that he was set up. It’s fair enough, but I still think it is an over-reaction to what is a fairly innocuous sentiment, regardless of who actually said it.
I think Dawkins is a bit like the EU. Does some stupid things – but on the other hand most of the stupid things you hear about have been invented or blown out of proportion by opponents.
Saying a rivals book is a bit shit may be stupid behaviour if you are trying to portray a certain image. On the other hand if you just want to be brutally frank, if your goals are not ‘diplomatic’, then why not?
I suspect Dawkins wants to be a celebrity-academic like David Starkey who has mades a media career out of being rude and histrionic.
And see here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2030741,00.html
A set up. Who’d have guessed.
Thanks for pointing that out. I meant to blog about it over the weekend but got distracted.