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Ilse
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The brain only informs us on a need-to-know basis. Think of the world of John le Carré. Think of ourself - our self - as an agent running in the field, being told only part of a much wider picture, just enough for us to behave plausibly and fulfil our functions. 'Control' is running us, but at the same time we 'are' our brains. Even le Carré can't compete with all the complications and subterfuges of this.
— Feb 04, 2026 10:34AM
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Ilse
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I think the great novelists understand love, and most aspects of human behaviour, better than, say, psychiatrists or scientists or philosophers or priests or lonely-hearts columnists.
— Feb 05, 2026 03:10PM
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Jan-Maat
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Feb 04, 2026 02:09PM
I see what you mean, you read Le Carre and then youbfind him everywhere!
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Thanks for sharing cross-literary connection!
Jan-Maat wrote: "I see what you mean, you read Le Carre and then youbfind him everywhere!"Barnes compares the brain to the Circus! It was quite a surprise, tumbling from 'Tinker, Tailor' into this sentence in one day :).
Tirui wrote: "Thanks for sharing cross-literary connection!"You are welcome, Tirui - I loved coming across this about half an hour after having finished John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ;)
My current read too! Hope you’re enjoying it as much as me, I remember you’re a big fan of Barnes so I’m sure you are! 🥰
Melanie wrote: "My current read too! Hope you’re enjoying it as much as me, I remember you’re a big fan of Barnes so I’m sure you are! 🥰"Fun that we are both reading this as a break that we granted ourself, Melanie :) (I took this with me on holiday with my children, just because, as you remembered very well, I have a soft spot for Julian Barnes :)). Glad you are enjoying it so much too!
Having just reread "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" I can only totally agree with both you and Jan-Maat :-)
Jacob wrote: "Having just reread "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" I can only totally agree with both you and Jan-Maat :-)"Jacob, I was entirely hooked, gone was my plan to read a French classic :)). I hadn't thought I would enjoy the world of spies so much, but now long to continue with the Smiley novels - did you read them in a particular order? I'd like to read more about the Cambridge Five, but don't know where to start, have you read any good non-fiction book about them?
My first meeting with "Dear ol´ George" was the movie adaption of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" - probably 40 years ago, and that was where my reading began too. Of course I had to backtrack some to get fully acquainted, but I can´t remember any non-fiction, even I certainly remember to have dipped deeper into Philby way back when.The sequence is as follows:
1 Call for the Dead (1961)
2 A Murder of Quality (1962)
3 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963)
4 The Looking Glass War (1965)
5 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
6 The Honourable Schoolboy (1977)
7 Smiley's People (1979)
8 The Secret Pilgrim (1990)
9 A Legacy of Spies (2017)
On the Cambridge Five I have always liked that Anthony Blunt ended up as Surveyor of the Queen's pictures - perhaps a safe place to park a soviet spy?Kim philby, if I remember correctly, really missed the cricket once he had fled to Moscow. Which was punishment of a kind I suppose.
