'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

It is time that I said something about these pages. At the start of each article, I feel like an airman, strapping on his helmet for another mission. With something as fast and furious as this, I could be in a dogfight, maybe ending with a kill, but more likely with a shot up fuselage.

Of course, it is all highly subjective, and I try not to get too close to the action. There are occasions when the result seems pretty good, others when there are doubts, and other rare moments when there is that thrilling feeling that there might be something a bit special, something that has not been before, from me at any rate.

I remember once being told that there was a time when it was thought that you could know everything there was to know, and there came a day when it was generally agreed that this was no longer possible. This has led me to believe that any discovery which is not learnt but arrived at, be it commonly known or not, is still as much a discovery as it was the first time it was ever thought of. 

Given the title of this column I have the luxury of ignoring conventional considerations, and flying by the seat of my pants as ‘Loose Talk’ is all it is. I would certainly hope not to be ‘samey’ in anything but my writing style. I have in the past adopted many different styles for their dramatic effect, but that was fiction and I could not honestly have written those stories in another way. This current work is as journalistic as I am ever likely to get, and if it has brought to mind anyone, it has been Alistair Cook, not that I would remotely compare the end result to his unsurpassed reflections.

I am, if you like a ‘cheap-shot, merchant’, compared to Mr Cook. But that doesn’t mean that my aim is not true. A lot of the time you wouldn’t know whether Alistair (if I may be so bold as to call him that) was taking a shot at all. He was, if you like giving a very elegant flying display, whereas I am going up to do battle. But, I do admire his intellect and productive genius, and we do both ‘fly a kite’, as the saying goes. Towards the end of my first book, one of the characters said, ‘These words are my wings!’ And so they have turned out to be. I like my stuff and I hope you do too. It was recently put to me, that I am thirsting after recognition. I replied that I was in it strictly for the money. But that is also far wide of the mark. I love being up there, out on the wing. That’s the truth of it.     

As I go on, I am less concerned about literary considerations than I am about the overall feel of the thing; a sort of literary impressionist, wanting to make hay with splashes of colour and great gobs of paint. This column has certainly given me the freedom to move in that direction, but it has also made me aware of the inherent limitations that exist if I don’t want to come down in flames.

This is the end of the tour, but not the end of the War and I will be back, hopefully with bigger guns and a steel plate under my bum, but whatever they give me I don’t care, just as long as I’m up there!  

Send your opinions regarding Mr. Benedict's writings to bbenedict@netlistings.com