Thoughts on Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop

Since my reading schedule has folded in on itself (one book lead to another which lead to another) and I am finally working my way out of that rabbit hole for the book that was supposed to be for this week, I will delay that post for the time being and, instead, as my friend recently returned my loaned copy of Scoop, I will provide my modest and perhaps overly-enthusiastic thoughts on Evelyn Waugh’s Novel About Journalism.

There is not much that can be said about this book that has not been said. It is well-established that The Great Fleet Street Novel shed a light on the journalistic forces at play in manipulating public opinion with almost prophetic accuracy way back in 1938, even more so now than in 2011. If it is true that almost every D.C. “political junkie” journalist carried a copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 then the same must be said for the same breed of Foreign Correspondent “political junkie” journalist (the origin of this claim of Thompson’s presence in the bars of DC still eludes me, but if anyone knows who originally stated this, I am almost positive it was in book form, please do let me know). Hell, it was my personal aspirations of being a conflict-zone journalist during my Undergrad years that led my picking up Scoop and devour it almost overnight.

As one can gather from the above, the book reads rather quickly. It is a simple story at heart, one of a slight confusion that sends the wrong “correspondent” to a fictional African nation to cover the political and social happenings at the time. The book is filled with Waugh’s trademark witticisms under the guise of “The Wrong Man Abroad” style antics (in reference to Karl Pilkington in An Idiot Abroad).

The book, the so-called “novel of pitiless realism; the mirror of satire held up to catch the Caliban of the press corps, as no other narrative has ever done save Hecht and MacArthur’s ‘Front Page’ and, to a smaller extent, Michael Frayn’s ‘Towards the End of the Morning.’ ” (quote by Christopher Hitchens as written in the Introduction section for the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Scoop), is not one of Waugh’s most popular works. That title is perhaps better awarded to his 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. Regardless, Scoop remains a wonderful glimpse into the criticisms of journalism already exisiting as early as 1938 and how difficult it would be to differ the criticisms of the time from modern criticisms of the very same industry.

Waugh himself, a travel writer and journalist by career, had, by 1938, had a fair share of experience amongst the “writers in a foreign land” scene. After a lengthy trip to South America and two seperate trips to Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) representing a number of news publications, Waugh already had his feet wet as a foreign correspondent as well as somewhat of a critic of the journalism industry (as implied by his diaries, he hardly looked upon his time as correspondent in Abyssinia with much discernable seriousness).

His reflections upon this time in his life have since been heavily criticized for its pro-colonial attitudes towards the Italian intervention in the area, calling the region, “a savage place which Mussolini was doing well to tame”. He is, of course, a product of his time, a time in which acceptance of perceived merits of colonialism would have been roughly the status quo, especially for a young writer recently graduating from Oxford – cut from the same cloth of those intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group and, more specifically, responsible for The Dreadnought Hoax. That said, he was, by all accounts, a far more unpleasant individual to be around in person (more of the interesting accounts of the “nastiest-tempered man in England” abound amongst the number of biographies written on him, see below).

Politics, dialectics, and colonial theory aside, Scoop plays its role perfectly apolitical, as the absurdity of most beliefs portrayed walk a thin line of the author’s veiled opinioins, or simply the opinions of those around him; the exact population he wished to criticize.

Upon his death in 1966 after attending Easter Sunday Mass due to heart failure (he had been in declining health for well over a decade), however, the position in which his sizeable bibliography found itself in was one of legal confusion. The date of the inclusion of his works into the Public Domain has resulted, as is often the case, in a limited amount of his work publically available in France, Canada and others, leaving the United States Waugh-free until 2024 at the earliest, and the fate unknown in other countries where his work has been published. It takes a bit of digging, but to begin this interesting Rabbit Hole dive, this statement from the Waugh Estate combined with the work of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain out of Duke University is a great place to start.

Waugh himself is an interesting character, and although the main body of his work has its impact firmly elsewhere in the halls of the Academy and various other literary circles. His character, extensive library, and ideas of a “simple yet educated writer from Oxford” are the point of much deserved discussion and debate. That said, his influence amongst the journalist crowd is already written in stone, no questions asked. Scoop continues to inspire countless journalists, writers and students across the world. Merely look at its inclusions of various top 100 lists by the likes of The Observer or Modern Library. Scoop is a short novel, a joy to read, and will continue to be a book I frequenly recommend to friends. The work of Waugh himself, however, I do not recommend as readily, interesting as it may be.

To see more about the book, or to refresh your memory if you read it many moons ago, check out this Cultural Op-Ed from one William Francis Deeds, a contemporary of Waugh’s.

For another interesting view into Waugh’s life, The Evelyn Waugh Collection from at the University of Texas Austin not only includes an entire inventory of his library, but also many of the objects within the library itself, in addition to countless other Entangled Things Waugh encountered in his life. A Catelogue of the collection made in 1981 can be found here.

Thoughts on Arthur Chichester’s The Burning Edge

And they say independent publishing is dead.

In recent months, the Soviet-trotting adventures of one Bald and Bankrupt exploded upon YouTube recommended feeds around the globe, just another occurrence of the whims of the mostly inexplicable YouTube algorithm.

Upon seeing a few videos of his, I was almost instantly a fan.  His simple selfie stick-wielding, fluent Russian-chatting, “Briton in a Foreign Land” video layout is addicting in today’s over-produced, cookie-cutter travel vlog scene.  This was neither a man wishing to discuss the touristic merits of calling Prague “cheap” vs “affordable” nor a model (sorry, Bald) hoping to spread the Good News of her next big trip.  Here was a man who shows us the truth of work paying off.  After studying Russian for years, individually and in classes (not to mention living in Belarus for a spell to refine his linguistic skills), Bald is perfectly capable of taking us to the most remote corners of the former Soviet Union.

After looking around the Internet about this guy, a few things seem to come to the surface, and though I needn’t attempt to go into this guy’s life story here, from what I have gathered from his Q&A videos and some posts online, he has had an interesting life nonetheless.  It was during this peak of heightened interest in his content that I came across the fact that he had self-published a book detailing a branch of his travels and, for the low price of £6.35 plus shipping to the Netherlands, I ordered it post-haste.

Though he has lived in India for a number of years, as well as extensively travelled the former Soviet Union, his book The Burning Edge: Travels Through Irradiated Belarus focuses solely upon his time in Belarus: Europe’s “Last Dictatorship” written under the penname Arthur Chichester (he is a rather private gentleman, a proper Brit).

The book is a simple joy to read.  As simple as his video editing is hands-off.  He writes bluntly, honestly and with just a touch of poetics.  The book will read very quickly, not unlike the number of videos one can watch in a single sitting should they allow the Autoplay to dictate their media.  Though sitting at twenty-eight short chapters, it feels as though the book could be read cover to cover or as simply a collection of short experiences that happened to a foreigner in a lesser-known country.

I will not go into the stories themselves, Mr Bald is a far better storyteller of his experiences than I could be, but this book, coupled with the popularity of such a simple channel, shows the potential of self-publishing.  Meaning no disrespect to the book, but it was probably rather simple to write, perhaps the product of converting notes kept in a journal to explain the series of interesting experiences of the travel, and it was kept entirely in Mr Bald’s voice (something that is perhaps more difficult to do when going through the Orthodox Publishing House method of publishing written work).  This results in a book that seems to come naturally from the videos themselves, almost the perfect film to book adaptation.  This is a method I have not yet seen much of from independent content creators on YouTube, most that seem to write books tend to wait for the sought-after Book Deal to come through first.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and wish I could read more work in this vein of writing.  Bald and Bankrupt continues to grow and produce content, though at the time of this writing I believe he is back in the United Kingdom, so I am uncertain what the publication schedule will look like for him in the near future.

For more of his work, or information on the fascinating nation of Belarus:

This video from the channel featuring another interesting character from YouTube: Roman or NFKRZ: a true, bonafide YouTuber from the lesser-known city of Chelyabinsk.  They met recently at the behest of both of their sizeable fan bases and created a number of enjoyable videos ranging from Russian language videos to some travel trips.  In this one, in particular, they check out the so-called “Most Polluted City in Russia”.

Mr Bald’s Instagram account seems to be where a majority of his correspondence takes place.  A few weeks ago he posted on his Story the details for an impromptu meeting with his fans in Prague, so stay tuned, perhaps he will continue to do as such in the future.

Journeyman Pictures’ documentary from early last year covering current President Lukashenko’s election and earlier crackdowns in the nation after the 2010 elections is an excellent glimpse into the nation’s history and contemporary position.

Thoughts on Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead

Though about a week and a half behind my desired schedule, I finally got around to finishing up The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.  Here are some thoughts:

Initially, I thought it was alright.  I think it is mostly garbage now, but initially I thought otherwise.  Architecture is an interesting proxy for Rand to live out her high school dreams of “realm domination” and that is what initially re-drew my attention to the novel (having read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem years ago and mostly writing off Objectivism as something I did not care much for).  It is interesting to note that perhaps architecture as a theme for such a novel was thrust upon Rand more than anything, being initially charged with the writing of a screenplay for the 1928 film Skyscraper, a plan which failed to come to fruition leaving Rand with more than enough material to begin a solid story that would become The Fountainhead (even keeping the name Howard for her beloved protagonist).

The novel itself, just shy of 700 pages, dragged on, and already from the halfway point, I found myself struggling to continue reading.  The writing itself, in my opinion, was notably weak, forcing the reader to shoehorn human interaction that is best left for the stage into Rand’s rendition of New York City (perhaps this flair for the theatre makes sense given Rand’s previously popular Broadway play from eight years prior).  Unfortunately, given the sustenance (if it can be called that) of the conversations themselves, mixed with the flaccid character development, the novel reaches barely a cut above a group of High School, semi-elite, theatre kids who are all certain their shenanigans in architecture comprise the full extent of human existence.

It would feel unfair to critique the novel for its philosophical merit, according to most, it was not written as a philosophical novel though it would be utilised in her further philosophical work.  That said, as it stands in popular culture today, it seems to be widely understood to be a novel of a philosophical character, even if that character is just laying down the ground soil for Objectivism to one day grow out of.  That said, in my opinion, Rand’s philosophy seems to be fairly weak due to its obsession with absolutes.  Every character in her works (not just The Fountainhead) are such exaggerated stereotypes that they portray parody more than humanity.  This extremity allows her “philosophy” of The Fountainhead to attach itself to a very emotional response to the novels constructed reality; of course, one who wishes to make the world a good place would attach themselves to Howard Roark’s sociopathic “altruistic egotism” given the characteristics and actions of the other parodied characters.  This is a dangerous literary sleight of hand that allows for many to walk away believing themselves to have come to the naturally “correct” conclusion that Rand herself laid out for them.  This is a trick that is used often in literature and varying media outlets at large but rarely is it so appallingly apparent as it is with Rand.  Perhaps this would be an argument that she is a genius philosopher (an argument that is no doubt made by many, many people) but I do not believe that to be the case.  To me, Ayn Rand simply seems confident that by becoming less human, or by dealing in far-reaching absolutes, that the world could be a slightly different place, for better or for worse.  And well, hats off to her for that observation, I suppose, as it is not incorrect.  But what relevance does that hold for more than the escapism provided by films, television dramas and video games?

The theming of architecture is enjoyable, I will admit that as it itched my passing architecture fancies.  And additionally, Roark could be viewed as an inspiring individual when looking at his relationship with the establishment.  It is a relationship that many people of all sorts of backgrounds wish to embody in their own way: to boldly march to the beat of their own drum with total and utter disregard for any establishment that may exist.  Independent content creators embody this character, investigative journalists often fit this mould also, hell, even Donald Trump believes himself to be doing the same, and perhaps he is even correct in some ways.  Though the notion of blindly wishing to follow a glorified idiosyncratic mascot with a unique drum beat to follow seems to belong more in a theme park than it would on the bookshelves of potential political leaders.  But that is a discussion for another day.

To conclude, perhaps there is a place for thinkers like Ayn Rand in the philosophical debate, though I am uncertain what it would be.  For centuries philosophers and various other thinkers have lamented the difficulty in finding the balance between the dualities of life (and in turn have offered their differing ways to view a potential Third Way).  Ayn Rand took one simple look at the duality of individual wishes vs collective needs and, like an oversimplified Gordion Knot, cleaved what she beleived to be the only half worth looking at, and she simply never looked back from that point on.

For some further reading/viewing on The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand and Objectivism:

This brief interview between Australia’s ABC Radio National and Slavoj Žižek referring to Ayn Rand’s Objectivism.  Keep an ear out for the explosion of joy relating to a slightly obscure part of Australia’s history in the last two minutes.

This great comic from Existential Comics.  Though nearly all these comics are academically golden, this one, in particular, exemplifies Rand’s political philosophy in contrast with another political philosophy that is encroaching upon public discourse more and more in recent times:  Marxism.

This book by Rand’s student and protégé Leonard Peikoff.  I have not read nearly the entirety of this book, but from a few visits to a London Ayn Rand Book Club a few years back, I read a few excerpts and from what I gathered it appeared to be the closest I had seen at the time to a full-fledged, epistemological showcase of Rand’s ideas.