“Gay Pri” Paras, Nudy, and Nihilism - The New Amerin

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* JIM PRIDEAUX GAY

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class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/anthony-lane">Anthony Lane</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2011-12-04T23:00:00-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">December 4, 2011</time></div></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN 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class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><div class="GenericCalloutWrapper-tojWn iHBnEl llout--has-top-borr set-embedd-le" data-ttid="GenericCallout"><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="Le Carr Hamburg 1964. He had served wh the S.I.S. for five years and Sey had already appeared his novels." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn AssetEmbedCaptn-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Le Carré Hamburg, 1964. He had served wh the S.I.S. for five years, and Sey had already appeared his novels.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Photograph by Ralph Crane / Time Life Pictur / Getty</span></div></figure></div><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">The openg sentence of “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy,” a 1974 novel by John le Carré, ns as follows: “The tth is, if old Major Dover hadn’t dropped ad at Tnton rac, Jim would never have e to Thursgood’s at all.” The tone is stant and unmistakable, wh our narrator buttonholg like a man who, havg overheard our nversatn a pub, is leang across to jo , or to ntt our versn of events. We are plunged medias r, but what are the r? Tnton is a town Somerset, southwt England, but who, pray, is this funct major? And what might Thursgood’s be? It turns out to be a prep school—a private tablishment, for boys up to the age of thirteen, and a likely seedbed for some of the future spi, at once clubbable and closely guard, who btrew le Carré’s work. Hence the dash of geni those first three words, enough to show that we are already the hands of a supreme ironist: “The tth is.” It never jt is. Tths are misty and multiple, like ghosts. Believe them all you like, but you won’t p them down.</p><p class="paywall">Then, there is Jim, poor Jim Prix, lately a stalwart of the Secret Intelligence Service, or S.I.S.—known to the public as M.I.6, or, wh the pag of le Carré, as the Circ. The namels old rgmaster of the place, referred to only as Control, was privately nvced that one of his senr figur was a Soviet-n double agent—or, Circ patois, a mole. Jim was dispatched to Eastern Europe on a solo missn, to disver, om a ntact, the inty of the traor, and report back to Control. Whoever the mole was, though, he knew all about Jim’s venture and set a trap. Jim was snared, shot twice the back, tortured until there was nothg left to nfs, and then sent back to England, broken and bter, where he took Major Dover’s old job, teachg foreign languag to the pale boys of Somerset. Jim feels half at home there, for what do a boardg school remble, wh s cryptic slang, s awkward allianc, and s arne regulatns, if not the Circ?</p><p class="paywall">That, at any rate, is le Carré’s visn of the spyg game, and is one that has enveloped rears ever sce “Call for the Dead,” 1961. At the age of eighty, he is still wrg, wh a disappoted fury that seems to have heated up, rather than oled, over time; last year saw the publitn of his twenty-send novel, “Our Kd of Traor.” Le Carré’s characters have roamed across the map, om Panama to Israel and the Cs, while leavg certa terrori, notably North Ameri, uncharted. There is no doubt, however, that his favored stalkg ground is Europe, East and Wt, and that the era that most nsistently aro his imagatn, and to which, wh a twge of pardonable nostalgia, he ocsnally harks back, is the Cold War. “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” creaks and glistens the bleak midwter of that epoch, throughout which, to borrow a betiful phrase om Coleridge that sums up le Carré’s achievement, “the Frost performs s secret mistry.”</p><p class="paywall">And so to the snowman--chief. Thk of a superhero, cross to the polar oppose, and you bump to somethg like this:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Small, podgy and at bt middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not her the earth. His legs were short, his ga anythg but agile, his drs stly, ill-ftg and extremely wet.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">That is how rears of “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” first enunter Gee Sey, the puzzled problem-solver of the novel’s maze, as he hastens along a ray London street. It is by no means his first appearance the pag of le Carré. He was “Call for the Dead,” and then “A Murr of Qualy” (1962), which he is somehow transfigured to a tective, and asked by a iend to vtigate a murr at a public school. (In English parlance, that means private. Le Carré based on the school that he had attend and spised. I went there myself.) The followg year, Sey slipped to “The Spy Who Came In om the Cold,” which remas le Carré’s most celebrated work, partly bee scraped every lgerg speck of Jam Bond om our unrstandg of what spyg might entail. Sey is pared to a “surgeon who has grown tired of blood,” th yieldg the odd, Pockian sense of a man whose great days, as a hopeful human, are already behd him, even though his ft hour, as a spy, may be yet to e. He is said to be “a kdly, worried ltle man,” and the dimutive marks him as a b player: an imprsn nfirmed by “The Lookg-Glass War” (1965), where he is granted a wretched and thankls mor part, pullg agents out of a job near the East German borr, and leavg another man at the mercy of the foe. All of which is grist for the l of ntrn and regret that grds wh Sey’s nscience, and which acunts for the weary but termed air wh which he shuffl, “wh a lumpy skip,” onto center stage, “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy,” and fally assum his rightful role.</p><p class="paywall">From the start, Sey has a hab of beg dragged out of retirement, like a badger om hibernatn, to spect the Circ, and, if required, erase disorr or rot. Even “Call for the Dead,” we learn, he has already done his unrver duty the Send World War, and whdrawn to scholarly quietu at Oxford; then the summons. So is wh “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Control has died, takg his fears of betrayal to the grave, and unmourned except by Sey, who lost his job not long afterward. Now the murmured possibily of a mole has emerged once more, and the list of spects has been narrowed to four wise men, each wh a name culled om a nursery rhyme: Percy Allele, Tker; Bill Haydon, Tailor; Roy Bland, Soldier; and Toby Esterhase, Poorman. Sey himself was once the fifth man—labelled Beggarman, which is no surprise. As an ex-spy, he is the clear, and ially placed to e om the ld, at the vatn of the Cabet Office, and fd the culpr. Jim Prix tried, and took two bullets for his pas; now is Sey’s turn.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">Still, this hunt is a ponro and twil matter, much of nducted amid fil and archiv, and Sey’s most energetic act is to polish his spectacl on the thick end of his tie, so what is the appeal? One answer me 1979, when the BBC screened a seven-part adaptatn of “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy,” directed by John Irv; and now the same tale, wh the same tle, has land on cema screens. The director is Tomas Aledson, the Swedish master of slow-release dread, whose vampire film “Let the Right One In” seeped to our nscns 2008; that alone seems ample preparatn for the bloodsuckers of Brish telligence. As for the leadg role, battle is summarily joed. In the new rner, we have Gary Oldman—tight and trim, a Sey who keeps shape wh regular dips the river. And, the ancient rner, Alec Guns, a performance no ls Buddha-like, s opaque yet disarmg sagacy, than seemed thirty-two years ago. Time don’t fly. It eez.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">I was not the only one chaed to the uch by the TV seri, when origally aired. Millns watched and waed, over six weeks, for the mole to be unearthed. The productn was one of those lavish, patient affairs which flourished the heyday of Brish televisn drama; s span reached om “The Forsyte Saga,” 1967, to “The Sgg Detective,” nearly two s later, upheld at s midpot by “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” and, 1981, by “Brishead Revised.” The fact that most of the narrativ grew om good books mattered ls than the honor and the teem which they held their viewers, prumg that we were lerate and cur enough to dig for the long hl, and to stay wh the talkative tangl of the plot. That level of fixatn was well sued to “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy,” whose shabby domtic stillns was not so different om the liv of the people watchg—as if our TV screen were a curta or a half-drawn bld, and we ourselv were spyg on the spi. In “Brishead Revised,” wh s roster of sumptuo lotns and the wattage of s supportg stars, begng wh Lrence Olivier, you uld see how the budget had been expend. Look at the scroll of actors’ nam, however, “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy”: Terence Rigby, Michael Jayston, Bernard Hepton, Gee Sewell. I admired Jayston, particular, who had been a dour but dashg Mr. Rochter a 1973 versn of “Jane Eyre”; he th ma a perfect Peter Guillam, Sey’s sikick, a fellow of parable timbre. None of the solid souls, though, were hired to set the screen ablaze. They were there to simmer.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“I thk they were a civilizatn that celebrated middle age”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“I thk they were a civilizatn that celebrated middle age!”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 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19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">It was left to Guns, of urse, to sure that the excement never que boiled over. Even the glass he wore beme an em of armor stead of a visual aid. As Sey donned them, the thickns of the lens ma him downright sry, whereas when he took them off he was left blkg and exposed—uld <em>he</em>, we wonred a burst of hery, be the mole, after all? In the new movie, the glass bee time am: Oldman has one pair, horn-rimmed, to show that we are flashback, wh Sey still workg for Control, and another, larger pair to make clear that we have skipped ahead. That is typil of Aledson’s film, which is obliged, by s two-hour duratn, to keep thgs crisp.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">Here’s the strangt thg: the televisn seri, lastg more than five and a quarter hours, was bove of pace, often ugly to behold, and ntent to meanr along byways that petered out to open untry or led exorably to ad ends, yet I was tensed and transfixed by every mute, like a worshipper at a faiar Mass whose mystery will never abate. The new versn, by parison, feels purposeful, unbaffled, artfully posed, and l, amazgly, wh hts of joculary. (There is even a Christmas party at the Circ; image what Guns would have ma of that.) But somethg the drama has been dulled, and I was almost bored. Irv’s end creds rolled to the sound of the Nunc Dimtis and a shot of Oxford’s goln stone, mischievoly htg that the whole palaver had been nothg more than a donnish diversn. Aledson, on the other hand, clos wh “La Mer,” which I last heard sung at the end of “Fdg Nemo.” As for the dénouement, we have had too ltle room, so cramped a space, to spend time wh Tker, Tailor, and the others, and to sctize each man turn, and therefore, at the end, our overwhelmg reactn is: Big al. We got the mole, but do we get the pot?</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">To an extent, this is not Aledson’s flt. Some of his choic are perverse, like the cisn to rehoe Sey not the tragic cubbyhole of a hotel, near Paddgton Statn, to which le Carré rightly nsigned him but a loftlike affair wh sizable wdows, through which far too many outsirs uld peer. Other shifts are more gen; where the small screen was ashen and gray, tribute to the atmosphere of exhstn that pervas le Carré’s novel, cemagoers mt brace themselv for an explosn of brown. Wele to the fashnable neteen-seventi, where your walls matched your siburns. The sealed, podlike chamber which the high prits of telligence nvene is a nightmare of muddy orange, and Guillam, the rint valier of the Circ, driv not a sporty MG, as he did on TV, but a Croën DS the lor of light manure. One change wrought by Aledson strik me as spired: where Guillam, on the page, was a practiced ladykiller, nng a strg of girliends as if they were foreign agents, we see him now, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, breakg up wh a male lover—a secret mandg to be tucked away, the mid-seventi, far more than would the days. The qutn of sexualy barely touch the hem of the Sey books. “It sadned him to wns himself the gradual ath of natural pleasure,” we read “Call for the Dead,” and he himself is prented as the simplt of fools—married to the ltro Lady Ann, who dispens her favors to almost anyone who asks, cludg Tailor (Col Firth, the new film). Cuckoldry has been a ic standby sce Aristophan; the person of Sey, I would suggt, the joke, at last, ran out.</p><p class="paywall">When Guillam is left by his pann, he cri: one of a handful of weepers the new film, which feels more emotnally stricken than s precsor. The stggle, back then, was a moral one agast a naggg dread that the Wt had nothg more to offer, apart om the satisfactn of greed, than s sterner rival the East, and that what might rema, between spi, was a pure exchange of tactics, ungild wh sentiment or fah. On TV, the mole, once revealed, clared, “The secret servic are the only real exprsn of a natn’s character,” which is not a bad motto for the whole story. As for his own natn, his ma grievance was aimed at s dreamy pretensns of power. “Bra—oh, ar,” he said, wh a sniff, addg, “No viabily whatever world affairs.” When you snned the backdrop of the drama, was omoly hard to disagree. “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” began wh a band of lorls lleagu, eher smokg or rryg cups of foul ffee, enterg a dgy room, srcely botherg to greet one another, and expert only a life of profsnal pretense. It didn’t seem much to fight for. Yet I have often thought, If only the mole had burrowed down and clung on, he would have seen the land he had loathed and betrayed taken over by a woman who shared every ch of his tratn at s lassu and piful want of pri. Could the double agent not have turned triple, and bee a rampant Thatchere?</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">In all s forms, “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” strik the eye, and other sens, as monstrably real. You n taste the “half-eaten food, over which whe flak of fat had formed like seasonable ost.” That is Sey, dg on the ratns of the Cold War; Graham Greene would have smacked his lips. But is any of this te? Is the Circ, as spun to beg by le Carré, the sheert fictn, pletely unnnected to the thentic labors of spyg, Bra or elsewhere? “Oh, not <em>pletely</em>.” Such was the reful answer proffered by an acquatance of me, who knows the Secret Intelligence Service as well as anyone alive. He ma three pertent pots. One, that le Carré himself—whose actual name is David Cornwell—served the S.I.S. for no longer than five years, om 1959 to 1964, and that all his subsequent fabl are found on the template of that distant time. Two, that the sly, sour fightg that leaks through the novels do an jtice to the ngenial nduct of most officers the Service, who are, as my acquatance said, “notably good pany”—as they have to be, given the mands of their tra, which would unsettle lser or more divisive folk. Three, that le Carré has reversed the polari. Where there is tst (and pnage, like the ary, nnot hope to functn whout tst), he fds only treachery. Hearts and mds are not to be won, his world; they are for sale.</p><p class="paywall">That belief, go whout sayg, is his privilege as a wrer. We may rp at the veracy of what emerg om his near-paranoid dismay, but we are also the beneficiari of s thrills. Jt as we turn to Dickens’s prisons not as documentary ttaments to Victorian penal practice but as iron-tough metaphors for the dreadful tetherg of ee play every sphere of human actn, so the Circ speaks to our profound unease the face of all secrets. We love to lurk their midst, to learn their s, and to be iated to the circle of their charm; hence the lic slang that salts the Sey books, and that every rear quickly to relish—all the mol, lamplighters, slphunters, babysters, reptile funds, mothers, Cos, quisors, and jo. At the same time, the secrets that lie beyond our field of visn are a wellsprg of great disquiet; they tell at bt of unknowable natnal secury, at worst of unreachable lonels, or of a kgdom that has been hollowed out, like a marriage, whout our even noticg. Hence the ventory, “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy,” of all the mutiae that have never ceased to encircle Sey, and to menace his peace of md:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>The creak of a stair that had not creaked before; the stle of a shutter when no wd was blowg; the r wh a different number plate but the same scratch on the offsi wg; the face on the unrground that you know you have seen somewhere before: for years at a time the were signs he had lived by; any one of them was reason enough to move, change towns, inti. For that profsn there is no such thg as cince.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">The echo, here, is of Frd, who wr, his great say on the unnny, about “the sense of helplsns” that is ed by such unsettlg repetns. What on earth would an entire life be like, posed of such stl and creaks? And where do we wd up, once all the secrets are out? Wh “a fat, barefooted spy, as Ann would say, ceived love and impotent hate, clutchg a gun one hand, a b of strg the other.” That is le Carré’s portra of Sey, a Circ safe hoe, unable to fd his way the dark. Compare the fale of “Sey’s People,” the nse and pulsive sequel published 1979, and televised, aga wh Guns, 1982. This fds our hero pursug Karla—his lifelong nemis, the fanatil head of Mosw Centre (“Seemed to be head boy,” the words of Jim Prix), and the former ntroller of the mole. Trackg Karla, Sey crisscross the flatlands of northern Europe a qut that is momento to both men but whose grail would mean nothg to others; we are almost the realms of Beckett. Wh a dose of ncentrated blackmail, Karla is fally lured across a Berl bridge and to the Wt. But, aga, what figure is cut by the evil mastermd when he appears? “He wore a grimy shirt and a black tie: he looked like a poor man gog to the funeral of a iend.” Le Carré has never wrten a better sentence, one so impatient of iology and so attentive to what he, followg W. H. Aun, scrib plaly as “the human suatn.” The televisn seri of “Tker Tailor Soldier Spy” has lost none of s grip, and the new film will rec new iends to the e; but if we seek Gee Sey and his people, wh their full plement of terrors, illns, and sham, we should follow the example of the ever-retirg Sey, and go back to our books. That’s the tth. ♦</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box ArticlePageSplAdRail-OyjwD jikppc"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailContent-jsltpq iZDmmY spl-ad-rail-ntent"><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailTop-jUrrVY jzzFg"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="2w6i7"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailMiddle-tiRvu hiZeZX spl-ad-rail-middle"></div><div class="ArticlePageSplAdRailBottom-dBKMGQ jmCMsn spl-ad-rail-bottom"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="u0hg1g"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2011/12/12" data-reactroot="">December 12, 2011</a>, issue.</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/anthony-lane"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/anthony-lane">Anthony Lane</a> has been a film cric for The New Yorker sce 1993. 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When I fally started “The Frd,” one prciple was clear: no Dickens.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi hYsZi summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Zadie Smh</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hlYhBH summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm fvDIAb" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Tan Submersible Was “an Accint Wag to Happen”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl ldWYvC summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">A Reporter at Large</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Tan Submersible Was “an Accint Wag to Happen”</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Tan Submersible Was “an Accint Wag to Happen”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">Interviews and e-mails wh expedn lears and employe reveal how OceanGate ignored sperate warngs om si and outsi the pany. “It’s a lemon,” one wrote.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi hYsZi summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Ben Tb</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hlYhBH summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm fvDIAb" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="A Small-Town Paper Lands a Very Big Story" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl ldWYvC summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">U.S. Journal</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">A Small-Town Paper Lands a Very Big Story</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset 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