[ilds] Violence and Disintegration

[James Gifford]

Bruce,

Well, there's a lot in there, but I agree with Charles that a turn to 
/Prospero's Cell/ might be a worthwhile endeavour.  A month from now, 
I'll be suggesting /Panic Spring/...

But, I am troubled by at least one critical move you make in your posting.

> I don't see Durrell as espousing pacifist's 
> views, political or otherwise, in view of how 
> some of his personal relationships developed.

I understand the Percy Shelley loved shooting...  Churchill was 
something of a drunk, and where would we even start with Ghandi's women 
and caste?  Do you really mean that an individual's marital/sexual 
relationships (let's lump them all together and take an average sum) are 
so important to you that you'd then say you prefer to ignore anything 
else he espoused at politically significant moments?  An author can 
never produce something finer that his/her own life?  That strikes me as 
the biography not only overshadowing the text but eclipsing it -- 
there's a place for that, in biographies, but I must admit that as a 
reader I'm more interested in the texts themselves.

I find the political critique of Empire in /Pied Piper of Lovers/ quite 
clear.  Likewise, /Panic Spring/ demonstrates a turn away from politics 
in a manner I'm inclined to read as very loosely akin to a politics of 
the unpolitical.  Likewise, writing his landscape poetry in the midst of 
war shows a decidedly personal turn that the New Apocalypse poets saw in 
expressly political terms (see G.S. Fraser's work on that, though not in 
his Durrell book -- Durrell peers at the time certainly don't see his 
choices as without a politics).  Durrell also says as much in a letter 
to Alex Comfort as well, in relation to Comfort's anarchist politics.

At any rate, Durrell was never terribly shy of publishing in political 
venues -- he just turns away from politics in a way that is decidedly 
political.  He even asked to not have his works appear in anthologies 
that have an express political goal; yet, he gladly sent materials for 
publication in anarchist periodicals at the same time.  As I've noted in 
my edition of the Herbert Read - Henry Miller letters, he even 
articulates his first comments on the Heraldic Universe in direct 
response to Read's most political speech at the 1936 London 
International Surrealist Exhibition (at that point a very Communist 
speech, prior to Read's development of his anarchist thought).  That 
letter makes more sense when you realize he was writing to Miller in 
reaction to Miller's forwarding to him several political letters and 
print materials from Read.  In other words, the personal position he 
adopted is taken up as a direct and overt rebuttal of state-oriented 
political action that values the community over the individual.

But, what I'm really interested in, Bruce, is what this does to your 
reading of an actual text.  I would like to hear more about that.  Can 
you bring it to /Prospero's Cell/?  I think he's hiding much by that 
point, so I would genuinely look forward to rehashing the discussion (at 
some later date) in relation to one of his previous novels, which I 
think are less apt at hiding things.  Still, it would give us a good run.

I should also add, we'll surely have some great debate about Durrell's 
sources for the text, and I've just cancelled my trip into Athens, which 
was going to include a fast visit to the Gennadius -- on my first trip 
there, I discovered Durrell had expressly requested a series of books 
from the Gennadius (not a lending library) in order to finish his work 
on a text he was then writing about Corfu, which is clearly /Prospero's 
Cell/.  They glued the letter into the back endpapers of the first 
edition of /Prospero's Cell/ and promptly forgot they had it...  This 
was, however, 8 years ago and my transcription has vanished.  But, this 
letter did not overlap perfectly with the bibliography (the one that 
includes Atkinson at the end of /Prospero's Cell/).  I wonder what else 
it might point us to.  Is anyone on the list conveniently in Athens?

Bruce and I will strongly disagree about /how/ Atkinson is used, though 
I think we can mutually endeavour to show /where/ she's used.  Let's see 
if that's productive.

I'll see if the White House in Kalami reveals any secrets this evening. 
  Alas, I don't think many papers are bound to fall out from the rafters 
at this stage in the game.

Best,
James

ps: I've consulted the author with regard to your thoughts on the 
Chronology and its suggestions around 1974, and he believes you're 
reading contrary to his intentions...  Are you now a strong reader 
Bruce?  I hope so -- that might lead to some very exciting things.

Bruce Redwine wrote:
> "What happened after?" Charles Sligh asks.  A lot.