:22:10
Dame Iris.
:22:12
It's this way.
:22:15
She's written philosophy
and plays and poetry,
:22:18
but her novels are her
lasting literary legacy.
:22:21
Iris Murdoch is acknowledged
as the foremost English novelist
:22:25
of her generation.
:22:27
A little excessive,
don't you think?
:22:30
What do you reckon?
Shall I take that again?
:22:34
Her novels embrace
the subjects of freedom
:22:36
and what it means to be good.
:22:38
Dame Iris?
:22:41
... in the successes
and failures of love.
:22:43
She's written philosophy
and plays and poetry,
:22:45
but her novels are her
lasting literary legacy.
:22:48
People, of course,
are very secretive.
:22:50
And, for many reasons, want to
appear what we call ordinary.
:22:57
Everybody has thoughts
they want to conceal...
:23:02
perhaps even quite simple
aspects of their lives.
:23:05
People have obsessions
and fears and passions
:23:09
which they don't admit to.
:23:11
I think any character is
interesting and has extremes.
:23:16
It's the novelist's privilege
to see how odd everyone is.
:23:21
In your novels,
you yourself are very exact
:23:25
in your use of language.
:23:26
But in general terms,
do you think that language
:23:30
is becoming debased?
:23:31
Reading and writing
:23:33
and the preservation
of language and its forms
:23:38
and the kind of eloquence
and the kind of beauty
:23:43
that language is capable of
:23:46
is something terribly
important to human beings
:23:49
because... this is connected
to thought.
:23:54
If children are not taught...