THE IMMORTAL MEMORY
Christmas Dinner
Trou MoetBlijcken
December 14th 2002
A couple of weeks ago I had to go to London for a meeting and entering the airplane I took
some free copies of the morningpapers. One was a copy of Le Monde, the other of The
Guardian. On the frontpage of Le Monde was the daily small story, this time devoted to a recent
report on poverty in London, stating that more than half of the kids in London - I believe some
150.000 were living below the poverty line. The story started and ended with an extensive
reference to Dickens.
Glancing in The Guardian my eye was attracted by a review of a recent TV adaptation of Dr.
Zjivago. The review was written by Jeanette Winterson, the novelist. Aware of her very
outspoken character I started to read. She was indeed very sharp on what she called the one-
dimensional soft porn adaption of Dr. Zjivago and she made a comparison to the scope and
depth of the original novel. More generally speaking about the value of literature in comparison
to television she made a laudatory reference to Charles Dickens.
So, on just an ordinary business morning one finds two references to Dickens in very different
morning papers and in two completely different contexts. The two references to Dickens I
quoted are in my view a good example of what Dickens still stands for. One is the Dickens Sir
Walter Bagehot dubbed the special correspondent for posterity, with the strong overtones of
social injustice. The other is the creator of thousands of living characters and many more insights
in the human mind and passions.
One can ask what the contribution is to mankind of literature. Is it just amusement? A pas-time
like playing golf? Or is there more?
Jeanette Winterson in her review gave an answer I couldn't agree more: "Literature is able to
express the range, depth, and strangeness of who we are". Of this ability of expression of who we
are, Charles Dickens possessed more than most mortals. It is for that reason I propose a toast to
the Immortal Memory of Charles Dickens.
Joop van Kessel
