LONDON DIARY 25th APRIL 2013
Well the shortlist for the Orwell prize is out again:-
‘The prize is awarded annually to the book that comes closest to George Orwell's ambition "to make political writing into an art". Prize director Jean Seaton said they were looking for "writing that was measured and calm not simply angry." The BBC Website March 2013.
I should have given up by now on the Orwell prize, but something, I think it is the name Orwell, keeps me engaged. Like most literary prizes it has now become completely subservient to fashion and the mores of political correctness; both of course anathema to Orwell himself. As I have written before Orwell would not win The Orwell Prize.
I can think of no writer as angry as Orwell was after he returned from Spain in 1938. Out of this he produced Homage to Catalonia, not only one of the greatest books of war reportage ever written but also a scathing assault on Stalinism and the Stalinist mindset that then gripped the left. I doubt that even Orwell would have made great claims for this book as being either measured or calm.
I am also not sure what ‘simply angry’ means. Certainly any politically engaged writer writing in an age like this who does not experience anger is probably not very good. An analogy could be drawn from my own experience in mentoring students training to be substance misuse counsellors. I had to explain that once you loose the essential human quality of being shocked and made angry by cruelty and inhumanity you cease to be effective as a practitioner. *The same I believe holds good for political writing. A good guiding principle for such a writer might be, ‘follow your anger.’
I increasingly have to fight the urge to commence entries to the blog with the line ‘I am old enough to remember….’ So I must confess that I not only remember the 1983 election but was very active in the proceedings, carrying the people’s flag to all corners of the constituency of Shrewsbury and Atcham. These activities will one day feature in my book, ‘Margaret Thatcher; My Part in Her Downfall.’
I mention this election since it is a part of recent history that should greatly concern the conservatives. The myth has grown up that Margaret Thatcher was swept into office on a great tide of public support following her performance as Boadicea in the Falklands conflict. The reality on the ground, as they say, was very different. The anti Thatcher vote far exceeded that of her supporters, however the anti Thatcher vote,-and believe me it was very anti-was split. The emergence of the SDP split the left of centre vote almost evenly gifting Thatcher her tremendous victory. Thus the great Thatcher landslide was in reality no such thing; in fact the Tory vote fell from 1979 by almost 700,000. I mention this as it is the election that ought to haunt David Cameron, since with the rise of UKIP we have the spectre of UKIP doing for the Tories what the SDP did for the Labour party in 1983 and 1987.
As the 1983 election results came in the SDP were hailing the result as the beginning of the end of the Labour Party and the SDP’s emergence as the new party of opposition. Well we all know what happened; the SDP was deposited in Trotsky’s dustbin of history. I suspect the same fate awaits UKIP. In the meantime I look forward to them doing as much damage to the Tories as is possible.
Just had one of my poems pretty heavily slated, so slunk off to a corner to lick my wounds. This of course is only one reaction to heavy criticism of one’s work. When Nabokov was informed by his publishers that they intended making serious revisions of his work his reaction was, “oh no you are not.” He insisted on the novel being published as he had written it or not at all. When Faber and Faber rejected Under the Volcano, demanding major changes, the umpteenth such rejection, Malcolm Lowry embarked on writing a page by page defence of his novel. In meticulous detail he explained why it was written in the way that it was and the rationale for each revision already made. This eventually became nearly one quarter the size of the actual novel itself. My favourite response however was from Gore Vidal, who being told on the BBC programme Start the Week, that his current book was ‘meretricious’ he simply responded by saying, “Mmmm Meretricious, meretricious and a happy new year!” As I have said elsewhere, that’s the way to do it.
I am in the process of considering undertaking training in legal and welfare rights advocacy. I must admit to having mixed feelings about this. It strikes me as being very hard work with a great deal of boring reading required, on the other hand I keep seeing my self as Perry Mason or perhaps Rumpole, completely dissecting and destroying my opponent’s arguments.
Well the sun is finally shining and it is warm, so I am off to sit outside reading Huxley, Chrome Yellow.
* Many students in training seemed to hold the belief that to be affected in this way by what a client told you was somehow ‘unprofessional.’
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.
Well the shortlist for the Orwell prize is out again:-
‘The prize is awarded annually to the book that comes closest to George Orwell's ambition "to make political writing into an art". Prize director Jean Seaton said they were looking for "writing that was measured and calm not simply angry." The BBC Website March 2013.
I should have given up by now on the Orwell prize, but something, I think it is the name Orwell, keeps me engaged. Like most literary prizes it has now become completely subservient to fashion and the mores of political correctness; both of course anathema to Orwell himself. As I have written before Orwell would not win The Orwell Prize.
I can think of no writer as angry as Orwell was after he returned from Spain in 1938. Out of this he produced Homage to Catalonia, not only one of the greatest books of war reportage ever written but also a scathing assault on Stalinism and the Stalinist mindset that then gripped the left. I doubt that even Orwell would have made great claims for this book as being either measured or calm.
I am also not sure what ‘simply angry’ means. Certainly any politically engaged writer writing in an age like this who does not experience anger is probably not very good. An analogy could be drawn from my own experience in mentoring students training to be substance misuse counsellors. I had to explain that once you loose the essential human quality of being shocked and made angry by cruelty and inhumanity you cease to be effective as a practitioner. *The same I believe holds good for political writing. A good guiding principle for such a writer might be, ‘follow your anger.’
 |
| The Gang of Four who established the SDP |
I increasingly have to fight the urge to commence entries to the blog with the line ‘I am old enough to remember….’ So I must confess that I not only remember the 1983 election but was very active in the proceedings, carrying the people’s flag to all corners of the constituency of Shrewsbury and Atcham. These activities will one day feature in my book, ‘Margaret Thatcher; My Part in Her Downfall.’
I mention this election since it is a part of recent history that should greatly concern the conservatives. The myth has grown up that Margaret Thatcher was swept into office on a great tide of public support following her performance as Boadicea in the Falklands conflict. The reality on the ground, as they say, was very different. The anti Thatcher vote far exceeded that of her supporters, however the anti Thatcher vote,-and believe me it was very anti-was split. The emergence of the SDP split the left of centre vote almost evenly gifting Thatcher her tremendous victory. Thus the great Thatcher landslide was in reality no such thing; in fact the Tory vote fell from 1979 by almost 700,000. I mention this as it is the election that ought to haunt David Cameron, since with the rise of UKIP we have the spectre of UKIP doing for the Tories what the SDP did for the Labour party in 1983 and 1987.
As the 1983 election results came in the SDP were hailing the result as the beginning of the end of the Labour Party and the SDP’s emergence as the new party of opposition. Well we all know what happened; the SDP was deposited in Trotsky’s dustbin of history. I suspect the same fate awaits UKIP. In the meantime I look forward to them doing as much damage to the Tories as is possible.
Just had one of my poems pretty heavily slated, so slunk off to a corner to lick my wounds. This of course is only one reaction to heavy criticism of one’s work. When Nabokov was informed by his publishers that they intended making serious revisions of his work his reaction was, “oh no you are not.” He insisted on the novel being published as he had written it or not at all. When Faber and Faber rejected Under the Volcano, demanding major changes, the umpteenth such rejection, Malcolm Lowry embarked on writing a page by page defence of his novel. In meticulous detail he explained why it was written in the way that it was and the rationale for each revision already made. This eventually became nearly one quarter the size of the actual novel itself. My favourite response however was from Gore Vidal, who being told on the BBC programme Start the Week, that his current book was ‘meretricious’ he simply responded by saying, “Mmmm Meretricious, meretricious and a happy new year!” As I have said elsewhere, that’s the way to do it.
I am in the process of considering undertaking training in legal and welfare rights advocacy. I must admit to having mixed feelings about this. It strikes me as being very hard work with a great deal of boring reading required, on the other hand I keep seeing my self as Perry Mason or perhaps Rumpole, completely dissecting and destroying my opponent’s arguments.
Well the sun is finally shining and it is warm, so I am off to sit outside reading Huxley, Chrome Yellow.
* Many students in training seemed to hold the belief that to be affected in this way by what a client told you was somehow ‘unprofessional.’
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.
