It is probably not a coincidence thatthe best
writers of the thirties have been poets.
There is no need to under-rate him now because he
wasover-rated a few years ago. Communists and near-Communists had
adisproportionately large influence in the literary reviews. The first part of
thebook, is, more or less, an evaluation of present-day literature.
There is no need to under-rate him now because he
wasover-rated a few years ago.
Why should WRITERS beattracted by a form of
socialism that makes mental honesty impossible?
Even the whales own movements wouldprobably be
imperceptible to you. Nevertheless his interesting essay only glances veryshortly at
this difficulty.
In other words, purpose has come back, the younger
writers have goneinto politics.
Most people canget a job of sorts, even at the
worst of times.
Here was aChurch, an army, an orthodoxy, a
discipline.
For several years the old-young antagonismtook on a
quality of real hatred. In cultured circlesart-for-arts-saking extended practically
to a worship of themeaningless. Literature was supposed to consist solely in
themanipulation of words. But it appears that to writesuccessfully about such a
world you have got to believe in it.
What Joyce is saying is Here is life without God.
And what areyou going to write about, dear? Throughout those years Russia means
Tolstoy,Dostoievsky, and exiled counts driving taxi-cabs.
But all the same it was thedespised highbrows who
had captured the young.
So he flees to Mexico, and then dies at forty-five,
a few years beforethe wave of death gets going. Similar remarks are scattered
throughout Mr MacNeices book.
Youhave not necessarily got rid of the need for
SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN.
Even the handful one couldname have usually been
bad Catholics. They can swallow totalitarianism BECAUSE they have noexperience of
anything except liberalism.
The first part of thebook, is, more or less, an
evaluation of present-day literature. After the bombs and thefood-queues and the
recruiting-posters, a human voice! But it appears that to writesuccessfully about
such a world you have got to believe in it. Various other writers have made similar
or comparable statements.
However, there is more than one kind of
irresponsibility.
In cultured circlesart-for-arts-saking extended
practically to a worship of themeaningless.
It is almost inconceivable thatgood novels should
be written in such an atmosphere.
The slump in religious belief, forinstance, was
spectacular. That was not actually the truth about the war, but it was the
truthabout the individual reaction. Most people canget a job of sorts, even at the
worst of times. As Hitlersthree targets of attack were, to all appearances, Great
Britain, France,and the U.