Indeed his sins appear as manifold as those of the average British royal
(not to be mentioned and/or commemorated). We read in a review of his
recent biography in The Guardian that
"As he got older, Bell made excruciating stabs at trying to be groovy –
angling for an invite to the infamous Bath and Bottle party of 1928, taking
cocaine in Vita Sackville-West’s Long Barn, dad-dancing with girls young
enough to be stepping out with his own grownup sons."
Some say that youth is wasted on the young, but in truth it is wisdom that
is wasted on the old.
Anyway.
Pan Fjeld
Gdynia
On Mon, 31 May 2021, 17:43 david ritchie, <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 31, 2021, at 6:52 AM, epostboxx@xxxxxxxx wrote:wrote:
On 31. May 2021, at 07:10, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Civilization. I recall being impressed. ... However, several years later
At one time [Lee Griffith] showed me and let me read his prized copy of
I acquired a copy of my own and wasn't nearly as impressed. Nor could I
recaptured the feeling I had when I first read it. I did recall that Lee
and I used to drink a lot of beer together; so maybe that was a requirement.
certain (Middle-Eastern?) culture judged the greatness of an idea. One
I heard someone yesterday on the radio commenting on how members of a
must consider an idea once while sober and a second time while inebriated.
Only if the idea is considered 'great' under BOTH conditions is it to be
judged so.
We drank a lot of beer at Sussex, back in the day, and I took a course
about literature of the inter-war years. Why then, if it is such a great
work, did not someone press “Civilisation” into my hands and suggest I read
it? I do recall it being on lists.
The answer may be found in Wikipedia’s entry on Bell. Sussex was a very
lefty place. Here’s what a historian of Bloomsbury says about Clive, "Bell
may, indeed, be the least liked member of Bloomsbury.... Bell has been
found wanting by biographers and critics of the Group – as a husband, a
father, and especially a brother-in-law. It is undeniable that he was a
wealthy snob, hedonist, and womaniser, a racist and an anti-Semite (but not
a homophobe), who changed from a liberal socialist and pacifist into a
reactionary appeaser. Bell's reputation has led to his being underestimated
in the history of Bloomsbury…."
Now I wonder how many others failed an undefined lefty test, if indeed
there was one.
David Ritchie,
spinning theories like webs,
while on the web in,
P.O.
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