Geoffrey Wagner (1927–2006)

I think it was Hugh Kenner's _Pound Era_ that got me fascinated by Wyndham Lewis. I've lined up a bunch of his books on my shelf... ok, they're all stuffed away in boxes, but I think of that as being on a shelf... but I have not read any of them yet. Now having read Wagner's critical review of the whole pile, hmmm. I dream of writing a bit of philosophical satire myself, so probably I should read Lewis, to learn both the positive and the negative lessons.

Wagner does a great job of showing how controversial Lewis is. It's not just that some folks like him and some folks don't, but sometimes the very same person both likes him and doesn't. More amazing to me was Wagner's sketches of how Joyce and Lewis were constantly sniping at each other in their books. I have never read Ulysses, never mind Finnegan's Wake, so all that is far out of my realm. But now, sixty years after Wagner's book, Lewis must qualify as obscure while Joyce is anything but. It is a bit shocking to see them treated side by side, not just by Wagner but by each other.

So one thing that amazed me by reading this book is to see how major controversies of one era, e.g. Bergson's philosophy, fade into irrelevance after a hundred years. Another thing that amazed me is how much Wyndham Lewis actually sounds like some of the alt-right or neo-conservative ranters of today. Wyndham Lewis wrote two books on Hitler, the first admiring and the second the reverse. Wagner does a bit of comparison with Ezra Pound's political ideas but doesn't go into great depth. But really, the heated controversies of the 1920s might just be quite close to the heated controversies of the 2010s. The nutty ideas of today will surely fade into irrelevance after another century, but not until they have caused great destruction along the way. Then, having been forgotten, the folks of that future can relive them once again.

Wagner does drag the reader through a lot of detail without providing much of the big picture. There are multi-sentence quotes in French, German, and Latin, with no translations provided. This is a book for scholars. I am no scholar but still I got a lot out of the book. I'm sure that most of the points were flying over my head, but hey that's what I get for diving into the deep end!… (mere)

This book interweaves several threads, focussed on what seem to be Wagner's experiences in Italy during the WWII Italian Campaign and in the years following the end of the war in Europe, when he travelled in Italy, probably revisiting the regions in which those memories were rooted. One thread concentrates on medical therapies, seemingly directed towards coming to terms with the leading character's understanding of that period, perhaps reflecting Wagner's own memories. These memories are of two types: events (possibly autobiographical) that are dealt with in considerable detail in the later novel “The Killing Time” (1981); and Axel's search for the several old flames he encountered or imagined in the period of his early travels. Another thread meanders through a bizarre series of psychiatric clinics which are supposedly aiming to assist Axel in his quest for resolution. As always with Wagner his narrative he exercises the intellect with clever prose and thought-provoking references, although it must be said that the storyline is frequently difficult to follow.… (mere)

“Venables” was Wagner's first novel written in the US, published in 1952 while he was studying for his PhD at Columbia University, New York. It is an accomplished work, relating the progress of its principal character, David Bellingham between the age of ten and the onset of WWII. David has an awkward relationship with his rich mother Catherine, in Venables, her substantial country house and farm. Catherine treats him cruelly, and weaves a deceitful atmosphere based on lies about her dead husband Waldo. The book has a strongly autobiographical feel to it, including many similarities with Wagner's own schooldays, his short time at Oxford, abbreviated by the outbreak of war, and his enlistment as an officer. Its storyline follows an intriguing path through blighted young love, interactions with the family servants, and the history of the old family home. Of the Wagner novels I have read this one is the most approachable, entertaining, and easiest to read.… (mere)

Although he spent his life mostly in New York, Geoffrey Wagner was thoroughly English; public school and Oxford included. Gifted academically, he took a fellowship in Rochester, New York in 1949 and made the USA his home. He taught English at several educational establishments in the New York area, and “The Asphalt Campus” is one of the results of his experiences at that time. His educated English background allowed him a unique perspective on US campus politics and social behaviour in the early nuclear, anti-Communist era, and this book provides a vivid insight into student language (already well past its use-by date) as well as the faculty politics in a department mostly devoted to teaching English literature to unwilling scientists and engineers. Wagner's style here is fairly experimental, and I found that it didn't flow easily, but it is nevertheless fascinating and amusing, not least in its descriptions of the students' “most superior posterior” contest.… (mere)