Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Which should win the title of "Thought for the Day," I wonder?

From an article in the May 28, 2007 issue of The New Yorker, "The Golden Man," in which Paul Theroux describes the tyranny of the late ruler of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, aka Bashi:

...he regarded himself as an accomplished writer — a clear sign of madness in anyone.
This would have been my favorite sentence in the article, if he hadn't added this a few paragraphs later:

This [memory of his mother's smile] was perhaps why many of the portraits of Bashi showed him with a smile, though he never looked less amused than when he was grinning; his smile -- and this may be true of all political leaders -- was his most sinister feature.

2 comments:

Joyce Tremel said...

I don't know Jan. Being a writer myself, I've got to go with the first one. I'm sure my family would agree!

Jan Burke said...

I think you're right, Joyce. I can think of politicians who have smiles that aren't sinster, but I can't think of any exceptions to that first statement.