Eric Hobsbawm on Desert Island Discs is the most difficult gear change ever
We’re grateful to the Times Literary Supplement for sharing this exchange from the Desert Island Discs episode featuring Eric Hobsbawm.
Hobsbawm died in 2012, aged 95, and was widely regarded as an unrepentant Stalinist who never expressed any regret for his commitment to the Communist cause (yes, we’re reading this straight out of the Guardian).
He was also once on Desert Island Discs, and the change of tone during this exchange is, well, it’s quite something.
My favourite quote from this week’s @TheTLS: when Eric Hobsbawm, historian and communist, went on Desert Island Discs. That pause and shift at the end. pic.twitter.com/M0A8ooQ49q
— Stig Abell (@StigAbell) March 6, 2019
Quite.
Best segue into Baby Got Back ever.
— Sara L (@mattinacoglioni) March 6, 2019
He really did have the most ghastly world view. And he got away with it.
— Terry Dignan (@TerryDignan) March 6, 2019
Lawley knew how to expertly deploy a pause. She interviewed Diana Mosley in 1989, who called Hitler "fascinating".
'What about the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis?'
'Oh no, I don't think it was that many.'
Long pause.'Tell us about your fifth record, Lady Mosley.' https://t.co/2ivyEBHieS
— Etan Smallman (@EtanSmallman) March 6, 2019
What was the music that followed??
— Kathy Kirk (@kirkkathy) March 6, 2019
As I recall, it was Aqua's Barbie Girl.
— Teddy Reynard (@teddyreynard1) March 6, 2019
This is wonderfully comic of course but the underlying philosophical distinctions being posited are not quite as simple as that suggests. In fact, I am not sure Lawley has stated the problem at all well. Certainly, it gives Hitler the chance to say "Well, exactly." https://t.co/emSZkGBsWi
— simon evans (@TheSimonEvans) March 6, 2019
