Interview with Jack Levy (from a publishers site)
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 9:20 pm
Source: http://www.austinmacauley.com/content/i ... -jack-levy
Jack has a book published see here http://www.austinmacauley.com/content/t ... ll-not-see
Please describe what the story / book is about:
Undeniably contentious, it brings into a realistic perspective the inanity of the course that humanity is blindly and recklessly bounding along. Unwittingly supressed by tradition and aeons of imprinting, the outcome from the almost unfettered worldwide escalation of population (when balanced against the impact of diminishing and costlier resources) can ultimately only culminate in an increasingly-obvious element to this conundrum, and that's another, little-questioned but inherently more sensitive element to this conundrum, and that's religious influence!
Necessarily circumspect, this writing rationalises the fundamental sustainability of beliefs (no matter which denomination) that so many lives, motivations, conflicts and so on are founded, both knowingly and subliminally. The rarely-acknowledged human foible of unquestioned belief of that which is recounted in a child's formative years, however fanciful and spuriously-sustainable it might be, has it's basic rationale carefully and objectively analysed and it's efficacy logically explained in terms of the natural evolution of virtual-indoctrination. In effect, and from a fully explained impartial viewpoint, the authenticity of long-ingrained 'understandings' is challenged.
How did you come up with the title?
There's None so Blind as He Who WILL Not See; what depicts it better
Who is your intended audience and why should they read your book?
The increasingly-manifest number of people who are waking-up to the conundrum and, frustrated by the lack of both awareness and checking action, who will want to know more about it's circumstances and the issues that are involved. O.K., it's a subject that is easily shunned, but it is written with it's unpleasant content taken into account by the progressive and explicative unfolding of the recognisable status quo before the more distressing issues are broached. Logically, the potential readership should increase with the passage of time and the world-destabilisation.
Is there any lesson or moral you hope your story might reveal to those who read it?
Dealing with imperative issues that any thinking person might be subconsciously aware about but that that they would prefer to ignore, the lesson is about how facts about our huge overpopulation conundrum is being is being politically concealed. As is the only solution to it. But, with the increasing pressure of evidence and with our ingrained repudiation wearing thin, the 'faux comfort' of gullible naivete must collapse soon. A similar rationale applies to many religious principles, and putting it all into an impartial, logically-argued focus is the purpose of this book.
What inspires you and motivates you to write the most?
It's the challenge of putting into unambiguous, understandable words and a rationalised sequence, an illustrative text about a subject that might be difficult to accept if not carefully presented. Of keeping a distasteful subject readable whilst gently working the anticipated objections in order to form a logically argued perspective, and then presenting the closing text that an ostensibly-distasteful subject is able to be rationalised without causing offence. Tendered in this way, the result is that it can be seen as offering enlightenment rather than inducement.
Location and life experience can sprinkle their influence in your writing. Tell us about where you grew up and a little about where you live now. If you could live anywhere you wanted to live, where would that be?
Thats's a bug subject which gives this book it's authenticity and takes several chapters to explain. In brief, I was born with a Jewish father and Church of England mother, but had the unique fortune in that neither tried to influence or prejudice my religious path. I was left to make my own decision about which route I'd prefer to take, in my own time and when I had enough experience to make a sound decision. With the normal school assemblies and religious instruction having their Christian bias, and my father's introducing me to the local shul (the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school) to balance this, I recognised the conflicting stories that were taken as "facts" on both sides, and I also came to realise how little real evidence there was to substantiate these beliefs.
In fact, I grew up with the benefit of a completely open mind, and one of the biggest benefits of this was a (modesty, jack) talent for seeing matters like engineering challenges through the impartial eyes. Which brings me onto the part of my life which raised quite a lot of public attention. In 1967, employed as a Design Engineer at the Ford Motor Co. and as a man who enjoyed racing in the motorcycle 'sidecars' class, it wasn't long before I was racing my own designed-and-built machines with Ford and Cosworth engines.
But what made these machines different was that the relatively-heavy engines were disposed centrally between my distinctive (advantageously prone) driving position and that of my sidecar passenger. It's unique, unorthodox design and it's use of Ford-based engines provided the machine with an obvious name, and the machines, racing under the "Unorfordox" moniker, raised quite a lot of publicity at that time. Even more so when the racing "Authorities" tried to ban it on unsubstantiated grounds, and with the help of T.V and an article by Leslie Nichol in the Daily Express which carefully highlight the possibility of discrimination, I was able to race on for another decade. Finally, the project was discontinued when the sidecar racing regulation were rewritten...
This feature and my autobiography has made an interesting story in it's own right. But as for life-locations, I was born in Hackney, grew up in Ilford, after my father died my mother remarried and we moved to Woodford where I finished my schooling and started work as a Draughtsman. I married my first wife in 1961 and we bought a house in South Woodford, and when we separated in 1964 I bought a new house with an enormous garage beneath it in Chelmsford, quite near to the Ford R & E Centre. This is from where my racing really progressed until the revised regulations and my advancing years made for my retirement from racing then, after my second wife and I separated, I met Stella and we moved to a little cottage in the Welsh Cambrian foothills. For 13 years we lived an idyllic life there, with nearly two acres on the slopes bordering the river Aeron and with a small stream trickling into the river through a series of ponds and waterfalls that I was able to build into the waterway.
Family matters meant that Stella and I had to return to England, and we bought a Chapel near Bungay in Suffolk the conversion of which had been startled before it was abandoned. In 2000, we moved in , designed our own conversion, then literally built it all by hand whilst living in the two part-completed rooms. All very satisfying but, again, age and medical complications meant that we had to move somewhere more central. Which is here, just 5-minutes' walk from Dereham, moving here last February.
Lots of work, again, re-plumbed and re-wired throughout, but the builders have now completed their work and we're getting it all ship-shape. And just where I want to be.
Tell us something personal about you that people may be surprised to know?
As can be seen from my wish to donate all proceeds from this book to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, as a result of several racing and connected transporting accidents and other health issues such as prostate cancer, I owe the medical profession more than I can hope to repay. It might be of interest that the incident which had the biggest effect in my life wasn't on the racetrack, it happened whilst the team and I were on the way to a big event at Brands Hatch in August 1979. It was at about 10.45 on Saturday night, and we were heading through a back road in Essex towards the M15.
An ominous rattling from the trailer carrying the racer behind the Transit revealed a punctured tyre, so we pulled on the pavement on the left, switched on the hazard warning lights and set-to change the wheel. The next thing I knew was coming round in an Intensive Care unit (at Orsett Hospital), and from the police interview a couple of days later it appeared that a drunk driver "all over the road" (eye witness) happened to swerve into the trailer and the back of the van and, without stopping, continued as far as a mile away before bent bodywork onto his front wheel forced him to stop.
The police and ambulance were called by people in the house nearby and the alert and the alert police driver noticed the damaged car and apprehended the inebriated driver before driving on the scene of the accident. But enough of this; it was injuries which included spinal-cord damage, the unvoiced consequence of these and the multiple internal and limb injuries that are the purpose of this paragraph. Without going into gory details, had it not been for the care of fortunately-near hospital and their staff, I'd probably be dead and, if not, then I'd soon have become a doubly-incontinent asexual with a big chip on his shoulder!.
But, to keep to essentials, although I cannot say that it's all been resolved now, what I can say is that these potentially (for a man in his prime) life-destroying afflictions were brought into focus psychologically by both the intensity and dedication of the caring attentiveness provided so spontaneously by the medical staff. Almost without fail, they treated me 'like family'; nothing was too much bother and, at that time, this probably rekindled my raison d'etre. In short, and once again, I owe them everything. This, in conjunction with rather elaborate disability concealing' measures when I returned to work about four months later, together the widely-known Unorfordox project's completion being within reach, and with passenger Ian Wardlaw's and the other guys at Marconi Avionics (I was 'Senior Production Engineer' there at the time), This all convinced me that there was still an exciting development and racing future ahead for me.
The old outfit had been badly damaged in the drunk-shunt, so I took a racing 'breather' whilst a lightweight a lightweight new 'Maconi-model' Mk 6 was conceived and built. Without any form of suspension and computer-stress as such by the Company, with a huge 'rader-scanner' bearing right round the front wheel, and with several other quite adventurous innovations, by the end of the following racing season the Mk 6 Unorfordox was ready to roll. But I deviated; this issue whilst of probably little interest is intended to portray how thoroughly psychological treatment had reversed a soul-destroying condition. And, medically too, I have provided with the best possible treatment on many occasions since; which is why I'm trying to repay just a little of my debt to the profession. Well, you asked for something personal...
Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to meet and why?
I think that young Lewis Hamilton or, perhaps more basically, his own father; the working-class man who worked hard against the odds to provide his son with the openings into a rich man's world. And Charles Darwin; the contents of this book will empathise with the enormity of the challenge that he confronted in a world in which religion was sacrosanct; when to dispute 'The Word' was a sin!
Which writers inspire you?
I suppose, at least in the context of this book, people like Fred Pearce and Rita Carter, maybe not household names but they, too, are trying to put humanity's self-concealed suicide into it's proper frame of reference.
What are your ambitions for your writing career?
I'm 75 years old, suffering quite a lot from memory problems and have a series of injuries and other afflictions which are quite likely to prejudice personal longevity. So, apart from getting my already-drafted racing memoirs printed, I really think it might be a little speculative to anticipate a career in writing...
What are your expectations for this book?
Hopefully, a lot of controversy which will bring the issues to attention, but more realistically and understanding human complacency, I don't expect much to happen until the fragile middle-east conditions collapse, or the unseen starving rise up, or the religious conflicts self-eliminate with collateral wipe-outs. Or, just maybe, that somehow the renationalisation of evidence over ancient, convenient and unauthenticated word-of-mouth yarns, will put all of these different life-directing beliefs into their proper place...THEN wouldn't it be a peaceful world? As for the book, whether or not it catches-on immediately (after all, we've had a long time of avoiding the obvious, even if it IS becoming inescapable), with the evidence of deteriorating social stability everywhere, surely the passage of time will enlighten
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Just that it's the foundations which result in this book's having a more veritable and authentic footing than similar publications. It is the uniqueness of my freedom from instilled-from-birth religious imprinting which my parents provided me with, and how many people do you know who haven't been force-fed from birth with one religion or another? This gift allowed me to develop a valuable impartiality, viewing everything subjectively and working on sometimes unexpected results. As the boom reveals the validity of the viewpoints and the (yes, I can safely say,) some of the unequalled and now inimitable engineering described, carry the same verifiable pedigree. Well, you asked me...
Jack has a book published see here http://www.austinmacauley.com/content/t ... ll-not-see
Please describe what the story / book is about:
Undeniably contentious, it brings into a realistic perspective the inanity of the course that humanity is blindly and recklessly bounding along. Unwittingly supressed by tradition and aeons of imprinting, the outcome from the almost unfettered worldwide escalation of population (when balanced against the impact of diminishing and costlier resources) can ultimately only culminate in an increasingly-obvious element to this conundrum, and that's another, little-questioned but inherently more sensitive element to this conundrum, and that's religious influence!
Necessarily circumspect, this writing rationalises the fundamental sustainability of beliefs (no matter which denomination) that so many lives, motivations, conflicts and so on are founded, both knowingly and subliminally. The rarely-acknowledged human foible of unquestioned belief of that which is recounted in a child's formative years, however fanciful and spuriously-sustainable it might be, has it's basic rationale carefully and objectively analysed and it's efficacy logically explained in terms of the natural evolution of virtual-indoctrination. In effect, and from a fully explained impartial viewpoint, the authenticity of long-ingrained 'understandings' is challenged.
How did you come up with the title?
There's None so Blind as He Who WILL Not See; what depicts it better
Who is your intended audience and why should they read your book?
The increasingly-manifest number of people who are waking-up to the conundrum and, frustrated by the lack of both awareness and checking action, who will want to know more about it's circumstances and the issues that are involved. O.K., it's a subject that is easily shunned, but it is written with it's unpleasant content taken into account by the progressive and explicative unfolding of the recognisable status quo before the more distressing issues are broached. Logically, the potential readership should increase with the passage of time and the world-destabilisation.
Is there any lesson or moral you hope your story might reveal to those who read it?
Dealing with imperative issues that any thinking person might be subconsciously aware about but that that they would prefer to ignore, the lesson is about how facts about our huge overpopulation conundrum is being is being politically concealed. As is the only solution to it. But, with the increasing pressure of evidence and with our ingrained repudiation wearing thin, the 'faux comfort' of gullible naivete must collapse soon. A similar rationale applies to many religious principles, and putting it all into an impartial, logically-argued focus is the purpose of this book.
What inspires you and motivates you to write the most?
It's the challenge of putting into unambiguous, understandable words and a rationalised sequence, an illustrative text about a subject that might be difficult to accept if not carefully presented. Of keeping a distasteful subject readable whilst gently working the anticipated objections in order to form a logically argued perspective, and then presenting the closing text that an ostensibly-distasteful subject is able to be rationalised without causing offence. Tendered in this way, the result is that it can be seen as offering enlightenment rather than inducement.
Location and life experience can sprinkle their influence in your writing. Tell us about where you grew up and a little about where you live now. If you could live anywhere you wanted to live, where would that be?
Thats's a bug subject which gives this book it's authenticity and takes several chapters to explain. In brief, I was born with a Jewish father and Church of England mother, but had the unique fortune in that neither tried to influence or prejudice my religious path. I was left to make my own decision about which route I'd prefer to take, in my own time and when I had enough experience to make a sound decision. With the normal school assemblies and religious instruction having their Christian bias, and my father's introducing me to the local shul (the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school) to balance this, I recognised the conflicting stories that were taken as "facts" on both sides, and I also came to realise how little real evidence there was to substantiate these beliefs.
In fact, I grew up with the benefit of a completely open mind, and one of the biggest benefits of this was a (modesty, jack) talent for seeing matters like engineering challenges through the impartial eyes. Which brings me onto the part of my life which raised quite a lot of public attention. In 1967, employed as a Design Engineer at the Ford Motor Co. and as a man who enjoyed racing in the motorcycle 'sidecars' class, it wasn't long before I was racing my own designed-and-built machines with Ford and Cosworth engines.
But what made these machines different was that the relatively-heavy engines were disposed centrally between my distinctive (advantageously prone) driving position and that of my sidecar passenger. It's unique, unorthodox design and it's use of Ford-based engines provided the machine with an obvious name, and the machines, racing under the "Unorfordox" moniker, raised quite a lot of publicity at that time. Even more so when the racing "Authorities" tried to ban it on unsubstantiated grounds, and with the help of T.V and an article by Leslie Nichol in the Daily Express which carefully highlight the possibility of discrimination, I was able to race on for another decade. Finally, the project was discontinued when the sidecar racing regulation were rewritten...
This feature and my autobiography has made an interesting story in it's own right. But as for life-locations, I was born in Hackney, grew up in Ilford, after my father died my mother remarried and we moved to Woodford where I finished my schooling and started work as a Draughtsman. I married my first wife in 1961 and we bought a house in South Woodford, and when we separated in 1964 I bought a new house with an enormous garage beneath it in Chelmsford, quite near to the Ford R & E Centre. This is from where my racing really progressed until the revised regulations and my advancing years made for my retirement from racing then, after my second wife and I separated, I met Stella and we moved to a little cottage in the Welsh Cambrian foothills. For 13 years we lived an idyllic life there, with nearly two acres on the slopes bordering the river Aeron and with a small stream trickling into the river through a series of ponds and waterfalls that I was able to build into the waterway.
Family matters meant that Stella and I had to return to England, and we bought a Chapel near Bungay in Suffolk the conversion of which had been startled before it was abandoned. In 2000, we moved in , designed our own conversion, then literally built it all by hand whilst living in the two part-completed rooms. All very satisfying but, again, age and medical complications meant that we had to move somewhere more central. Which is here, just 5-minutes' walk from Dereham, moving here last February.
Lots of work, again, re-plumbed and re-wired throughout, but the builders have now completed their work and we're getting it all ship-shape. And just where I want to be.
Tell us something personal about you that people may be surprised to know?
As can be seen from my wish to donate all proceeds from this book to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, as a result of several racing and connected transporting accidents and other health issues such as prostate cancer, I owe the medical profession more than I can hope to repay. It might be of interest that the incident which had the biggest effect in my life wasn't on the racetrack, it happened whilst the team and I were on the way to a big event at Brands Hatch in August 1979. It was at about 10.45 on Saturday night, and we were heading through a back road in Essex towards the M15.
An ominous rattling from the trailer carrying the racer behind the Transit revealed a punctured tyre, so we pulled on the pavement on the left, switched on the hazard warning lights and set-to change the wheel. The next thing I knew was coming round in an Intensive Care unit (at Orsett Hospital), and from the police interview a couple of days later it appeared that a drunk driver "all over the road" (eye witness) happened to swerve into the trailer and the back of the van and, without stopping, continued as far as a mile away before bent bodywork onto his front wheel forced him to stop.
The police and ambulance were called by people in the house nearby and the alert and the alert police driver noticed the damaged car and apprehended the inebriated driver before driving on the scene of the accident. But enough of this; it was injuries which included spinal-cord damage, the unvoiced consequence of these and the multiple internal and limb injuries that are the purpose of this paragraph. Without going into gory details, had it not been for the care of fortunately-near hospital and their staff, I'd probably be dead and, if not, then I'd soon have become a doubly-incontinent asexual with a big chip on his shoulder!.
But, to keep to essentials, although I cannot say that it's all been resolved now, what I can say is that these potentially (for a man in his prime) life-destroying afflictions were brought into focus psychologically by both the intensity and dedication of the caring attentiveness provided so spontaneously by the medical staff. Almost without fail, they treated me 'like family'; nothing was too much bother and, at that time, this probably rekindled my raison d'etre. In short, and once again, I owe them everything. This, in conjunction with rather elaborate disability concealing' measures when I returned to work about four months later, together the widely-known Unorfordox project's completion being within reach, and with passenger Ian Wardlaw's and the other guys at Marconi Avionics (I was 'Senior Production Engineer' there at the time), This all convinced me that there was still an exciting development and racing future ahead for me.
The old outfit had been badly damaged in the drunk-shunt, so I took a racing 'breather' whilst a lightweight a lightweight new 'Maconi-model' Mk 6 was conceived and built. Without any form of suspension and computer-stress as such by the Company, with a huge 'rader-scanner' bearing right round the front wheel, and with several other quite adventurous innovations, by the end of the following racing season the Mk 6 Unorfordox was ready to roll. But I deviated; this issue whilst of probably little interest is intended to portray how thoroughly psychological treatment had reversed a soul-destroying condition. And, medically too, I have provided with the best possible treatment on many occasions since; which is why I'm trying to repay just a little of my debt to the profession. Well, you asked for something personal...
Which famous person, living or dead, would you like to meet and why?
I think that young Lewis Hamilton or, perhaps more basically, his own father; the working-class man who worked hard against the odds to provide his son with the openings into a rich man's world. And Charles Darwin; the contents of this book will empathise with the enormity of the challenge that he confronted in a world in which religion was sacrosanct; when to dispute 'The Word' was a sin!
Which writers inspire you?
I suppose, at least in the context of this book, people like Fred Pearce and Rita Carter, maybe not household names but they, too, are trying to put humanity's self-concealed suicide into it's proper frame of reference.
What are your ambitions for your writing career?
I'm 75 years old, suffering quite a lot from memory problems and have a series of injuries and other afflictions which are quite likely to prejudice personal longevity. So, apart from getting my already-drafted racing memoirs printed, I really think it might be a little speculative to anticipate a career in writing...
What are your expectations for this book?
Hopefully, a lot of controversy which will bring the issues to attention, but more realistically and understanding human complacency, I don't expect much to happen until the fragile middle-east conditions collapse, or the unseen starving rise up, or the religious conflicts self-eliminate with collateral wipe-outs. Or, just maybe, that somehow the renationalisation of evidence over ancient, convenient and unauthenticated word-of-mouth yarns, will put all of these different life-directing beliefs into their proper place...THEN wouldn't it be a peaceful world? As for the book, whether or not it catches-on immediately (after all, we've had a long time of avoiding the obvious, even if it IS becoming inescapable), with the evidence of deteriorating social stability everywhere, surely the passage of time will enlighten
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Just that it's the foundations which result in this book's having a more veritable and authentic footing than similar publications. It is the uniqueness of my freedom from instilled-from-birth religious imprinting which my parents provided me with, and how many people do you know who haven't been force-fed from birth with one religion or another? This gift allowed me to develop a valuable impartiality, viewing everything subjectively and working on sometimes unexpected results. As the boom reveals the validity of the viewpoints and the (yes, I can safely say,) some of the unequalled and now inimitable engineering described, carry the same verifiable pedigree. Well, you asked me...