The other thing about Doris Lessing's GOING HOME that I do not like only becomes apparent to me upon reflection. She writes in such a way that whatever subject comes under her microscope is demonstrated to have monstrous, ridiculous and vulgar aspects. This works to paint the white colonials in a wholly negative and idiotic light.
Lessing does uphold a particular group of people as being above reproach, and those are the English people of good character, who remain in England. But these people, whilst referred to, are by no means depicted in the book. They simply stand as shadowy figures of contrast -- representing truth and light.
And so at bottom what you have here is the exact dynamic at work that the philosopher Nietzsche termed as ressentiment. Those who come to the attention of the viewer are interpreted as evil. Those who do not come to attention of the viewer are considered good -- by means of contrast and (perhaps in terms of the lack of artistic attention given to depicting them at all), they appear only as an afterthought. The British types who represent a true and pure human decency and morality to Lessing (and to her readers) do not have any representation within her book at all. They are not there as actual characters but only as an idea of righteousness, without artistic or journalistic form (since perhaps they do not exist at all).
For a corrective regarding this idealised view of the British working class, see: Isabel Menzies Lyth's book on The Dynamics of the Social: Selected Essays. Here the British working class of the 60s receive a diligent and accurate psychological portrayal.
Read this -- don't they look every bit as idiotic, pathological, and/or conceited as the white colonials of the 1950s looked to Lessing?
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I am by no means intending to defend any of the characters concerned.
My point is that it is an act of deceit to depict one set of people "warts and all", whilst hold up against them a notion of ideal morality (resting in a class of British people) that has no actuality except as an afterthought.
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2 comments:
Well, the British working class was traditionally militant and class conscious with its own culture.
They've been bought out by now, like everyone else.
The Rhodesian whites were there to exploit the land and its people. Not their kids, of course, who were brought up in a faked apolitical environment.
I saw that kind of false paradise in Franco's Spain. Wasn't it nice, all those little Catholic kids in uniform going to school, middle class extended families out enjoying the air and the outdoor restaurants, nuns and priests swarming about, and the Guardia Civil keeping order on every corner. All fake. As soon as the old guy died, Spain modernized overnight. People ran about fornicating over the place!!! They modernized their laws, their infrastructure, and it was quite a mess for a while. Still is, but it sure beats living in a murderous dictatorship!
It should be fascinating to see what becomes of Rhodesia eventually. I'm betting on them to work it out. They've got great resources and great people and if they can rid themselves of the kleptocrats (both black and white) they should do very well. I can't forget the attempts of Rhodesian and SA mercenaries to take over, too. I don't admire them.
It was all a very bad thing and it had to change. Lessing is just right on that.
Yes. That is what I said to you before: The idea of 'authenticity' on a moral level seems to me very out of date. I could just as easily make a case that you were "fake", it seems to me. But there is the additional problem of using the term "fake" when what you mean is "immoral". I think it should be one or the other, and should be stated clearly, too. Otherwise, "I don't like your jive" all too quicly evokes the mood: "I have a right to condemn you as immoral."
So, when it boils down to it, depending on point of view, there are many bad things that have to change. I can't wait until your puritanical US system (which I find very fake) begins to change, so that people will fulfil their truer destinies of running around and fornicating in the proper manner. Yes, I want to see that. No more kids in dowdy consumer goods going to school plz. All fake.
And your insight that Zimbabwe will inevitably change and become pure and unfake?
Well, my gut tells me that that's a hope many of the Zimbabweans have -- but coming from an American without a clue, I'd say it's fake.
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