(urth) Orwell on Chesterton

[Stanisław Bocian]

Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 7:41:52 PM, aqala at yahoo.com wrote:

ayc> I think some of this list’s subscribers will benefit from reading George
ayc> Orwell’s opinion of G. K. Chesterton:

ayc> -------------------quote-------------------
ayc> ...political Catholicism. Its most outstanding exponent—though he was
ayc> perhaps an extreme case rather than a typical one—was G. K. Chesterton.
ayc> Chesterton was a writer of considerable talent who whose to suppress both
ayc> his sensibilities and his intellectual honesty in the cause of Roman
ayc> Catholic propaganda. During the last twenty years or so of his life, his
ayc> entire output was in reality an endless repetition of the same thing,
ayc> under its laboured cleverness as simple and boring as ‘Great is Diana of
ayc> the Ephesians.’ Every book that he wrote, every scrap of dialogue, had to
ayc> demonstrate beyond the possibility of mistake the superiority of the
ayc> Catholic over the Protestant or the pagan. But Chesterton was not content
ayc> to think of this superiority as merely intellectual or spiritual: it had
ayc> to be translated into terms of national prestige and military power, which
ayc> entailed an ignorant idealisation of the Latin countries, especially
ayc> France.  Chesterton had not lived long in France, and his picture of it—as
ayc> a land of Catholic peasants incessantly singing the MARSEILLAISE over
ayc> glasses of red wine—had about as much relation to reality as CHU CHIN CHOW
ayc> has to everyday life in Baghdad. And with this went not only an enormous
ayc> overestimation of French military power (both before and after 1914-18 he
ayc> maintained that France, by itself, was stronger than Germany), but a silly
ayc> and vulgar glorification of the actual process of war.  Chesterton’s
ayc> battle poems, such as Lepanto or The Ballad of Saint Barbara, make The
ayc> Charge of the Light Brigade read like a pacifist tract: they are perhaps
ayc> the most tawdry bits of bombast to be found in our language. The
ayc> interesting thing is that had the romantic rubbish which he habitually
ayc> wrote about France and the French army been written by somebody else about
ayc> Britain and the British army, he would have been the first to jeer. In
ayc> home politics he was a Little Englander, a true hater of jingoism and
ayc> imperialism, and according to his lights a true friend of democracy. Yet
ayc> when he looked outwards into the international field, he could forsake his
ayc> principles without even noticing he was doing so. Thus, his almost
ayc> mystical belief in the virtues of democracy did not prevent him from
ayc> admiring Mussolini. Mussolini had destroyed the representative government
ayc> and the freedom of the press for which Chesterton had struggled so hard at
ayc> home, but Mussolini was an Italian and had made Italy strong, and that
ayc> settled the matter. Nor did Chesterton ever find a word to say about
ayc> imperialism and the conquest of coloured races when they were practised by
ayc> Italians or Frenchmen. His hold on reality, his literary taste, and even
ayc> to some extent his moral sense, were dislocated as soon as his
ayc> nationalistic [Nationalism as defined by GO and not the standard meaning]
ayc> loyalties were involved.

ayc> [From NOTES ON NATIONALISM (1945)]
ayc> -------------------quote-------------------

Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/nationalism.html

The whole Orwell's essay is very interesting, even if the quoted
fragment is wrong. (I presumed not to quote or comment the gratuitous
insult of the poster). It is necessary to remember that Orwell were a
truly believing socialist. He went to Spain in order to fight against
Franco. Being an honest and extremely intelligent man, he, seeing
communism in action, wholly repudiated it. His sympathies, however,
remained the same - he had no patience for religion in general or
Catholicism in particular.

The essay mentions some very interessing points, still relevant, even
very relevant today. It has, however, a few flaws.

I am sorry to say that this essay shows that Orwell's rhetorical
method remains still typically socialist - he defines a word, which
usually means one thing, as quite another, and then accuses others of
it. Here he defines nationalism not as a unreansoning support of one
nation, but as a unreasoning support or condemnation of anything.(note
1) I would guess that Orwell means here something like "fanaticism."

Nationalism usually means supporting a nation, right or wrong. Of this
Chesterton was obviously not guilty. He was an English patriot, but he
was opposed to colonialism and any agression.

I have read a lot of Chesterton works, although not all. Orwell is
right that nearly all of his work is in greater or lesser degree an
apology of Christianity and Catholicism. He, since he was not
persuaded by it, have every right to think Chesteron's cleverness
laboured. I happen to think otherwise.

I have not seen in Chesterton's writing any support of Mussolini or
French or Italian colonialism. He certainly condemned British
colonialism, and can perhaps be excused for not criticising everything
everywhere. He had also not very much time to criticise invasion of
Ethiopia (note 2).

The essay, among many very true opinions, contains some which are
frankly astonishing, eg the sentence immediately preceding the text
quoted above. It has unhappily not been quoted by the first poster.

  "Ten or twenty years ago, the form of
nationalism most closely  corresponding to Communism today was
political Catholicism. Its most  outstanding exponent -- though he was
perhaps an extreme case rather  than a typical one -- was G.K.
Chesterton."

That unusual theory of Orwell explains, I think, his opinions about
Chesterton. If Catholicism is a kind of communism, it is obvious that
believers in it should be hunted and destroyed, or at least boycotted.
I personally think Catholicism to be wholly opposed to Communism (I
agree that it is not the point Orwell was making.)

As for "political Catholicism" - I again presume that he thinks about
the movement in France associated with Charles Maurras and Action
Fracaise. It is difficult to connect it with Chesterton, however -
Maurras was an agnostic most of his life, and supported the Church
only as a necessary source of order in society.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Maurras
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Fran%E7aise

Orwell makes also a few factual mistakes. Chesterton did not support
democracy. He did support self-government, but it is not the same. His
political theory was quite similar to Tolkien's, it could be described
as anarchism,even sometimes monarchistic anarchism, with strong local
self-government.

 I also wonder whether Orwell did not confuse Chesterton with Hilaire
 Belloc, his friend. Belloc certainly supported Mussolini, of course
 only before the war. As he was a Frenchman, he certainly thought
 highly of France, especially so called "France profonde", which
 Orwell seems heartily to dislike.


As for the the Lepanto, I think it very good verse - but it is
certainly enthusiastic.(note 3). I am also not sure that Orwell
actually read it - because according to his theory Chesterton should
think King Philip of Spain an ideal king - since he was a Catholic and
a famous enemy of Protestants. If he did think so, he certainly hid it
well.



- Note 1


"Notes on Nationalism

May, 1945

 Somewhere or other Byron makes use of the French word longeur, and
 remarks in passing that though in England we happen not to have the
 word, we have the thing in considerable profusion. In the same way,
 there is a habit of mind which is now so widespread that it affects
 our thinking on nearly every subject, but which has not yet been
 given a name. As the nearest existing equivalent I have chosen the
 word "nationalism", but it will be seen in a moment that I am not
 using it in quite the ordinary sense, if only because the emotion I
 am speaking about does not always attach itself to what is called a
 nation -- that is, a single race or a geographical area. It can
 attach itself to a church or a class, or it may work in a merely
 negative sense, against something or other and without the need for
 any positive object of loyalty.

By "nationalism" I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human
beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of
millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled
"good" or "bad." But secondly -- and this is much more important -- I
mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other
unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty
than that of advancing its interests.Nationalism is not to be confused
with patriotism.  Both words are normally used in so vague a way that
any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a
distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas
are involved. By "patriotism" I mean devotion to a particular place
and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the
world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its
nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the
other hand, is inseperable from the desire for power. The abiding
purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more
prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he
has chosen to sink his own individuality. "


- note 2


Short chronology of Italy's intervention in Ethiopia

 On Dec. 5, 1934, a skirmish at Wal Wal (Ualval) involving an Italian
 garrison 80 miles inside the Ethiopian border was used by Mussolini
 as a pretext for demanding compensation and preparing for war.

 Jan. 3, 1935 - Hailie Selassie appeals to League Anglo-French
agreement excluding Italy from  Ethiopia

 Oct. 2, 1935, Mussolini ordered the bombing of Adowa by planes and
 the beginning of the invasion of Ethiopia by Marshal Badoglio Oct. 3
 who was authorized to use poison mustard gas and destroy civilian
 villages.

 Oct. 7 - League declared Italy the aggressor

 Nov. 18 - Leagues sanctions begin arms embargo, financial embargo,
nonimportation of Ital. goods

Feb. 1936 - League could not agree on critical oil sanctions

May 5 - Italy occupied Addis Abeba - annexed all Ethiopia May 9

June 14, 1936, Chesterton dies.

I have met with opinion, (eg Paul Johnson in his history of the XX
century) that ineffectual sanctions of the League of Nations did
nothing for Ethiopia and caused Mussolini to ally himself to Hitler.


- note 3

Lepanto

        G.K.Chesterton 
 

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, 
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run; 
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared, 
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard; 
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips; 
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships. 
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy, 
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea, 
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss, 
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross. 
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass; 
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass; 
>From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun, 
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun. 

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard, 
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred, 
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall, 
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall, 
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung, 
That once went singing southward when all the world was young. 
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid, 
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade. 
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far, 
Don John of Austria is going to the war, 
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold 
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold, 
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums, 
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes. 
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled, 
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world, 
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free. 
Love-light of Spain--hurrah! 
Death-light of Africa! 
Don John of Austria 
Is riding to the sea. 

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star, 
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.) 
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees, 
His turban that is woven of the sunsets and the seas. 
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease, 
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees; 
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring 
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing. 
Giants and the Genii, 
Multiplex of wing and eye, 
Whose strong obedience broke the sky 
When Solomon was king. 

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn, 
>From the temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn; 
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea 
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be, 
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl, 
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl; 
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground,-- 
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound. 
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide, 
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide, 
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest, 
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west. 
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun, 
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done. 
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know 
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago: 
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate; 
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate! 
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth, 
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth." 
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar, 
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.) 
Sudden and still--hurrah! 
Bolt from Iberia! 
Don John of Austria 
Is gone by Alcalar. 

St. Michaels on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north 
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.) 
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift 
And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift. 
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone; 
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone; 
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes, 
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise, 
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room, 
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom, 
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,-- 
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea. 
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse 
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips, 
Trumpet that sayeth _ha_! 
    Domino gloria! 
Don John of Austria 
Is shouting to the ships. 

King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck 
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.) 
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin, 
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in. 
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon, 
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon, 
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey 
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day, 
And death is in the phial and the end of noble work, 
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk. 
Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed-- 
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid. 
Gun upon gun, ha! ha! 
Gun upon gun, hurrah! 
Don John of Austria 
Has loosed the cannonade. 

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke, 
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.) 
The hidden room in man's house where God sits all the year, 
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear. 
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea 
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery; 
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark, 
They veil the plume graved lions on the galleys of St. Mark; 
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs, 
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs, 
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines 
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines. 
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung 
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young. 
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on 
Before the high Kings' horses in the granite of Babylon. 
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell 
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell, 
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign-- 
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!) 
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop, 
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop, 
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds, 
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds, 
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea 
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty. 

Vivat Hispania! 
Domino Gloria! 
Don John of Austria 
Has set his people free! 

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath 
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.) 
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain, 
Up which a lean and foolish knight for ever rides in vain, 
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade.... 
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)


--

Stanislaus Bocian



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