James Meek

speaker

486 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 15 Jun

James Meek’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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And you have this different thing, the ruin.

And it's...

It's almost as if it's not the ruin of a building, but there was a building and now there is no building and now there are ruins.

And they are both a new thing, but also the thing that the actual building was all along, just waiting to become.

And what's his name?

The rings of Saturn.

Sebald.

Sebald talks about this in Austerlitz.

the buildings that contain their future ruin.

How long do we want a building to stay for?

I mean, this is the kind of the raff in me, the slightly impish, devilish destroyer that do we want people to live forever?

Do we want ourselves to live there?

Probably not.

Do we want buildings to last forever?

Well, it's wonderful if they do, but are they blocking the way for other buildings?

That's Raf's point of view.

And I mean, God knows, I don't want Paul's as it is to be blown up.

But there's a part of me that is always aware that in respect to that particular building, it was a replacement.

And they came up with a good one.

I think the same is true of the House of Parliament.

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