–The most interesting item this week is a short essay posted on the literary website Dappled Things by Geoffrey Smagasz. This is called “Orphans of the Storm” and is based on the chapter of that name in Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited. Here are the opening paragraphs:
Probably a thousand articles have been written in praise of Evelyn Waughâs masterpiece, Brideshead Revisitedâabout the expertly-limned characters, about the spot-on dialogue, about the resolution of each characterâs story arc. Iâm going to heap on the thousandth-and-first accolade by showing the precise way that Waugh handles the rolling of the ocean liner crossing the Atlantic during a storm while Charles pursues and consummates his adulterous relationship with Lady Julia Flyte.
Charles, the narrator, lays it on thick as he gives us his excuses for committing adultery in the chapter, âOrphans of the Storm.â We find out that heâd married; that his wife, with whom he is traveling, had previously committed adultery; that his marriage is loveless; and, by coincidence, that Julia is on board. Soon, he runs into Julia, he looks into her eyes, sheâs at the peak of her beauty, and heâs hooked like a trout. Cut to the beginning of the storm…
The full article is worth a read and is available at this link.
—Reason magazine has posted its summer travel issue that includes this:
…Travel is not merely an industry or a leisure activity. It is a human imperative, a manifestation of liberty. It is to claim membership in the great, messy project of humanity. It makes bureaucrats with stamp fetishes nervous, for good reason.
In his memoir Labels, Evelyn Waugh, that most elegant and misanthropic of English travelers, described the strange joy and self-discovery made possible by arriving in a place where nothing makes immediate sense: “I soon found my fellow passengers and their behaviour in the different places we visited a far more absorbing study than the places themselves.” Waugh’s travel writing is peppered with complaints, to be sureâabout delays, discomfort, fellow passengers, and the prevalence of garlicâbut beneath the surface there’s something else: curiosity, humility, and a recognition that being a stranger can be a deeply moral experience…
The quote is taken from an article by Katherine Mangu-Ward.
–The religious website Aleteia has posted an article about Graham Greene’s 1948 novel The Heart of the Matter. Here’s an excerpt:
…The great Catholic novelist, Evelyn Waugh, went so far as to claim that Scobie, the novelâs sinful protagonist, was a saint. Others disagreed.
âScobie commits adultery, sacrilege, murder (indirectly), suicide in quick succession,â one correspondent wrote. âIn three of these cases he is well aware of what he is doingâŠ. He takes communion in mortal sin because he canât bear to hurt his wifeâs feelings. This isnât the way a saint behaves.â
This view was echoed in an unfavourable review of the novel by a priest, Father John Murphy. Describing Scobie as âa Catholic with a conscience of the highest sensitivity and insight,â Fr. Murphy then blames Scobieâs âweak willâ which had led him âto adultery, sacrilegious Holy Communions, responsibility for a murderâ and ultimately to suicide:
âHow can you account for the fact that a man commits suicide in order, among other things, to avoid making any more bad Communions? But the answer is obvious: Because he despaired where he should have repented?â
The confusion sown by the novel was not the intention of the novelist himself. In a letter to Evelyn Waugh, Greene insisted that he âdid not regard Scobie as a saint, and his offering his damnation up was intended to show how muddled a mind full of good will could become when once âoff the rails.ââ…
–The website Bloomsbury.com has posted an article about the award of this year’s “Pleasure of Reading Prize” to novelist Robert Harris. Here is an excerpt:
…On being chosen as this yearâs recipient Harris said, âI keep a quotation on my desk from Evelyn Waugh: “It cannot be said too often or too loudly – that all Art is the art of pleasing.” I don’t think Waugh meant by this that all novels must have happy endings – most of his don’t – but that they should stimulate, engross, entertain and generally engage the reader from beginning to end. That is not an easy task, but it has been my overriding ambition. It is therefore a particular honour to be given this wonderfully-conceived prize, that aims to celebrate the delight of reading, and to join such an impressive list of previous winners.â
The judging panel commented, âRobert Harris is one of Britainâs most deeply and repeatedly engaging novelists, known for his strong storytelling, sharp eye for history and canny take on politics. His breakthrough book, Fatherland, imagined a chillingly plausible world in which Nazi Germany had won the war, and set the tone for a career marked by fiction that has been consistently intelligent and driven by an ever-alert ear for suspense. From the intrigues of Ancient Rome in the Cicero Trilogy to the Dreyfus affair in An Officer and a Spy, Harris has a talent for turning complex historical events into page-turning narratives. His journalism taught him clarity and his political engagement subtlety. Nothing is more enticing than sitting down with a new Robert Harris to hand and opening that first inviting page.â…
–Finally, Larry Barnett, writing in the Sonoma Valley Sun, a free newspaper distributed in Northern California, has an article containing his thoughts on life and death. Here’s an excerpt:
…Life and death are two sides of a coin. At some juncture we still do not fully understand, chemistry becomes biology; lifeless chemicals and minerals become living systems, reversing entropy for a little while. This may be commonplace within the universe, although weâve yet to discover life anyplace else other than here on Earth.
As Bob Dylan wrote and sang, âhe not busy being born is busy dying.â Itâs true; life will kill you. This fact underlies the naming of AimĂ©e Thanatogenos in Evelyn Waughâs book The Loved One; her last name literally means âBorn dead.â So it is for us all…
