1961-08-15 — Page 6

THE CHINA MAIL TUESDAY, AUGUST 15,, 1961.

A novel by the tutor in moral philosophy raises an intriguing question

Why has this face appeared

IRIS MURDOCH

fer her a hoto

PERHAPS you recog

nise that heavy and somewhat sullen face on the left. If you are fond of being in the fashion you certainly ought to.

For weeks uw those thick- Fill end decidully twinkt- ing eyes have stared at at the ruders of a sueversion of heavy Herary magazines and review pages. Fur weels the owner of the face has had her name at then tup of the 1st of best-selling novelist

She is Miss Iris Murdocli. tutor in mural philosophy at St Anne' College, Oxford: wife of Mr John Dayley, a fellow don; and muthor

SEVERED HEAD, which was published in a tom cooing of June aud Intellectual approval.

ار کروا

Mas Murdoch is the author of sarval books. Yet suddenly, with her with novel, she has For ifted and by the priests nf cutture for their own fummoors. fist Her une has nequired an almost visible al

For those who wish to im pregs, 11, ren nyw be plopped Poficiently into a enversation like Fertich wakotiin! Upon sadant

Sucts theme who exaunot quite afford Scatolinuxture cutlery or Pratitre frem Hoals will have the latest Iris Murboch their sitting-roomg instead.

And soon, no domat, an inter- the BBC. pro- Viewer from gramme "Monitor will be lead in: TV COPIAN

und Miss Murdoch's Liuuse at Steeple Aston outside Oxford with the towed, hushed tread appropriate to a enthedral,

DEGENERATE

Yet, despite all this attention, Po one has mentioned the really Gutstanding characteristle of Mas Murritch's now novel.

It is not its style, which is oftem povtentious and sometimes a little lame.

The moon and back! That's equal to the mileage Titov planned to

in

just

Titov

to cover 24 hours By

CHAPMAN PINCHER

among

best-

sellers?

the

by ROBERT PITMAN

It is not its characters, which are unbelievable, nor Its buck- ground; which is incesrate ant

real.

It is the fact that this story from the Oxford Moral Philo- sophy Department is, by the Standards of most people, utlier- ly degenerate.

That is an epithet I rarely use in this page. Even when it is Justified the best cr#icism is studly silence. There are 100 many booksellers, not all by any means in the back streets. who gloat over condemnation of their wares with the relish with which some film distributors Preet an "X" certificate.

Yet A Severed Head has already been given its "X" by the mandarin reviewers. Their coy or leering references to its plut have kept it selling well for weeks on und I do not feel it out of place to offer a corres- live.

PLEASED

Dell. Yet the striking thing is that none of these crites chal- lenged Miss Murdoch's novel on moral grounds.

I would mi ask them to de- nounce il as pornography. A Severed Head is not porno- graphy.

It is so stuffed with turgid and often meaningless sym- bolism that only an extreme masochist could drive himself to read for the kicks. Nor is propagandist as Lolita was. It does not enthuse over incest or homosexuality.

It does not enthuse. It does worse-1 merely yawns.

It enshrines the bored and disgusted-by-nothing attitude of that shallow but influential clique which dominates the literary weeklies and the B.B.C. Broins Trust and which tries to make normal, kunan, shuck- able people feel like country couring or 11 the "pl" little boys who dare to remain mute while the rest of the dormitory is giggling over dirty stories.

A Severed Head is the story

The crities who praised Lolita of a wine merchant named defended the author's moral Martin Lynch-Glbbon. We meet notions. But there was no such him Arst of all watching his defence of Miss Murdoch-the mistress, Georgie Hands, while erities were so sophisticated that ("eith # #S dentre cune They saw nothing which neetied ciousness" of his gaze) she defending. draws on the praebek-blue

stockings which Lynch-Gibbon The Observer wrote, "She is Serious, Leftish, anel high- led, with a sharp brate

has given her.

- Lynelt-Gibbon is pleased with tempered by pout sense; on life. His wife Antods, though a English, university seems just

VICKM

"Ah, mon cher docteur-the British still don't think like good

Europeans, as WE do..

"

London Axplain Surcice d

Progress report

on

grapefruit

ANDREW ALEXIS is

a

big-smiling but

for Miss Murdoch's mind? very monosyllabic little

few years older than he 18. is the right background for her." beautiful, intellectually smu But is "gh" the most apl word Jaringank knows nothing about George. Then, piece by Lynch-Gibbon's pivce, placency is shattered.

con- For this s

Antonlu falls in love with her

American psychiatrist and goes to live with him. The psychia irist's ugly but roysterious half- sister, Honor Klein, also upsets Lynch-Glubon by find out about Georgie nzel telling Antonia.

not her only

fellow who came to Lon-

by

planter

don from St Lucia a few David Ash

puzzling novel. In her often Brilliantly funny second book weeks ago with a few Flight from the Enchanter, tose, a tensible upper-middle shillings in

she meets

signed

"Some people here three, four months before they ge; work," she said, smiling.

Andrew has been given a room and the other house help to buy him food.

prople in the

his pocket Assistance Board. He's class young lady, befriends two and high hopes in his on at the Labour. Peles whom

in a head.

He thought he factory. She teaches therm English in their serdid room in Would soon get a job. Pimlico while their aged

In his halting way he had nother, lying on a mattress on told me, when he arrived, he A penitent Lynch-Gibbon is the floor, looks on.

was a "skilled labourer." severely rebuked by his wife and

the brothers What he meant. I finally est- lover for Occasionally her psychiatrist

mother or ablished, was that he knew how deceiving them over Georgie. dance round the Then Lynch-Gibbon has a flight prod her with their feet. One to plant grapefruit with Honor Klein in t evilar cries; "You oli rubbish! You bananas.

me with id nucle! We soon kill you, we' called at a house in Padding- both hands pushing and claw- put you under floorboards, tou ton to see how he fy, and endeavoured to drive not stink her are into my stomach,”). here!"

came against

After this encounter, Lynch- Gibbon decides that be 1s fascinated with the rather re- pellent Miss Klein. He goes to her hatise in Cambridge, gets in through an open door, and finds

half-brother.

fidence Titev would be less than her in bed with her psychiatrist

human had he not been haunted by the [Par la meclinical tallur in the Vosick.

evolution the human frame has heen conditioned to the I- petual puli of the garth which Japanchored us we land,

nd makes movernent passible. He could never have been When a apnership puts into e lirely free from the prospect crint this (1 lety futve in of suffncating failure of his suddenly canelled eut by the air supply.

So put Breakdown of the vivetrunic only the alp but the pilot and systems which kept him In eke in it become elamunication with the Russian

ground-stations could com- tirpended,

of

4

SO WRONG

There

HIOTSC

WATCHING

Dan on

One day Rosa goes to meet the brothers and finds only ono wulting for of them, Stefan, her. He takes her to the room

where he says: "We make love

ow. Rosa. It is time."

*Your mother!" exclaims Rosa, noticing the old lady's watching Bys.

Before the buok ends Georgle gives herself firt to Lynch- Gibbon's brother,

Alexander She not Fee, not car, is and then to the psychiatrist. the reply. Antonia leaves the psychiatrist

and cut

He is 28, but looks about If. "He aln't seen much misery in St Lucia," said Miss Toussint, There was a smell of burning

slow.

Sabit Braithwalle; the Barba- 07, 37ld she was going to Bike her two-year-old to a lend's place in Holloway. I called

there.

On the wall of the house op- "Keep Britala White"

was daubed in huge letters.

Sybil hadn't been seen any- where in the neighbourhood.

Hope

When Francis Maxcine, from Dominien, went through the Cus- ioms nt Plymouth he had an ade dress in Southall scrawled quité illegibly in his notebook,

He had few bits of luggage and very little else. He

hud hoped to contact an uncle... but neither he nor a welfare

"I must go now. I got a lot officer could read Dint address,

Now Francis has vanished too. Another 900 West Indian in Biluth higrants landed lately.

was yelling. to do," she said. Thick red curtains were draw aerom the dusly windows, and it was a long time before any body answered my knock. Afler a long fumbling with the latch, the door opened a few cautious inches and a worried brown face peeped round it,

It was Andrew. And hir smile was a lot less optimistic than it was when 1 first met him un board ship, the day he disembarked at Ply-

cuth with Po other Indians.

about know

Full up

West

Andrew was the only one of the many Immigrants I met a few weeks ago that I could find presently. The rest have been

Many of them, like Anataw swallowed up in our cities. and Francia and the rest will Chiff Gillings who, on his first have nowhere to go, nowhere to day here had no home to go tu, work, no one to befriend them. They will have nothing bat ne job, broken shoes and ragged

clothes, has not called at any what they stand up in-and a

the plates he was advised to lot of hope.

(London Express Services,

iry.

-THEY POUR INTO BRITAIN

FROM THE SUNSHINE

the

Immigration

IN man's first full day tile forward seed.

of space-flight, Major vverything

He stared silly out at the Gherman

subject

The next day Rosa finds only cold rain beating down on AlexTM for her brother-in-law it you have experienced the Aim fo povere psychologient ouder. And Lynch-Gibbon the other brother, Jan, walling. | pavement, pleted a journey of about rigittance of falling eatingly fress.

is left with the incestuous, In the roun at Pintico, Rosa Had he got a Jobi 'yet? 430.000 miles almost in the void you have some idea Scientists who have studied | Mightfy-moustached Miss Klein. **k*; "You

"No, Bir." 173 training have

Stefan?"

le seratched a Rannelled leg the distance to the moon of the feeling of weighflessness, estrenants

Copertul unus srand pioneer emphasised the utmost impor- should also mention that in

with the big the peeping frum and back.

Jon replies sternly "One of his sandals. Bght Shiristel hat am can tance of keeping them occupied addition to all these hannour- willstnad up to 90 minuter of

contact and in regular radio

Jess Couplings

course. Lynchi-Gibbon

Aud now is me." this sensation without losing the with friends on carin while auffers from A homosexual rapority 10 performs vital tasker, alone in orbit,

liking for the psychiatrist loo, But nobočky knew what the The most stable mind could

Such is the novel which Mr rf many

pante in uut-of-the-world isula- hours of

Cyril Connolly greeted us "G webchtlessness might be when Ben,

y murbed on to the launch- As Titov watched the Russian raven-sent p" and which led

from Mr Alan Pryce-Jones to away

le could claim "She triumphs," and Mr Kenneth Allsop, the "Tonight" interviewer, lo give as his judg

tlic "She has ment: universal epc of the great

novelist,"

Which,

I believe you will decide, in all my rare universal eye and Belly Marlin.

So the prime purpose bis flight is clear-it is farther tremendous test of the capacity of both man and bit machineg In fly to the moon.

dug pad at the Baykonur racket homeland rotate rape in the early morning, under him, he knew

n:

That in the next stated ob jective in the

is tuck was to lud out not make his landing base built Ramelan sprin terzopono. And the frut of whether there really is such a it came round ugalt next day, Titov and the Soviet releatista bozarel

the land "pace

When anticipating lelucess" Lehad

imprevive which night prove Incapacita- ing he could hardly have falled

far thug i manged missile explora- evidence

to remember what happened to that they are und of their Auertean come on, it will be nonflis before the prototype Vostok which was petitury,

U Bed Air Force doctors can sent me with a dummy man In Do not let the news at Putase be certain that Toy's heart and . The auxiliary ruckets which tute-course meal by spaces misthing system have rscaped were supposed to slow li down

speeded it in thrustink kar your to thinking that long-term damage,

whiri akmont wa!!

ex-

rare

11 Tris, the praise hus not been Mr Connolly him- unrelieved. Felf printed out that is

merchant as a hero, goes wrong over" almost every detail cerning wine,

con-

Like a geod many of the new Of this inteldent one ertile immigrants I have met. Andrew isn't very articulate. But Emin has written;-

Tousslitt,

almit and kindly "This

tahole epizode ir a Duminican woman who had a on the room in the same house, came brutal commentary equivocal nature

the of pity: nd sanke for him. 'revulsion of feeling which an

"You know what 'a like the here. first few weeks they're anual relationship rapirea.“

They don't know how to"go on,"

It may be, of course, that these sald, stud-form

of "ite

no relatives over entanglements

Hot Miss Murdoch's latest book are here, so he gut no one to take of my him about nucli One also a brutal commentary on

frlenda took him to a place the something's equivocal nuture,

other day, but he didn't get a Unfortunately, if they are, job." even Miss Murdoch's most dis- Where was it, and why was Unguished admirers crem un he unlucky? able to discover exactly what that something is.

publishers

Mika Murdoch's claim that A Severed Head "x

Signed on

us exciting as Treasure Island," up," Andrew exploited.

The flow of Coloured menimpants into Britain.

49,700

Wast

babes

0800

5600

India

fill

to

Pakistan

2.100

1956 1957

1958

1950

Fucked Hight in orbit jo new But as his redioral reporla further out jnjo space. Cande mid gat2.

come la hr after bour, the If that happened, Tilov knew doctors realised they had prob- his fate wild be the same The sural of sites am fear ably over-estimate the danger the clummy's (alally colt Mardoch, having chosen a witie Alured by Afajor Tur during that when robbed

Hi sojourn in orbit with or even of 1⁄2 10,000-lb-art-bour

"Dinimo. Factory. All alalalaking force of gravity the tout fery phingh to earth. round the work

ents, muscles, and eyc1 might The events of this tremendutin

Somebody she took him erikinly more severe than that begin to feed dangerously con- year so far houp altown that the Mt Philip Toynbee, welili to the ulica-sophisticated so another workplace. but they Impuerem any previous volun- fleting Jutormation to the braits, conquest of upuce is going ahead se me Justice, wrote. "Though clely which cumparisons ilke | didn't". watit no isbourerë, teer for a daniter mission,

Strepped to his couch so that at a tempo for more expid that ale dore not wish se to admire that can be made bed, in which neither," and Miss Toussint, From the moment that the he could not fast away into the even the relende Bellon Writers any of the characters, except people like Mins Murdoch are Trouble is, egotia have finni etion of his colognal cabin, Titov could tict only forecast.

round, like Honor she does, demand of us not, just the rebels but the stmoone tako šeji ecks thut the Vostok 3 manipulate M

controls trut The final, results of cherima credulity, a sympathy, and a teachers, it is Httle wonder that all the new ona dt. He don't spreeship Into orbit, town carry out his propaganda task Titov's courageous Brent will concern which I have found the young are occasionally more know, how to had placer alid Lody win continuously subject of bearning messages to almori determine whether mon can quite impodárole to give."

interested in yellow golliwogs ask people things. I'll have to to the unearthly feeling at every nation on the eve of now go on without delný to life-

that in the works of old weke him myacit. betw{ }} {{s

Kruschev's political TV speech, moon and planets,

Mr Peter Forster likened tales aquares like #. L. Stevenson "It Andrew don't get work Through a mii years of Yet for all his apparent con -(Lendor Expreld geretek), Murdoch's dialogue to Kilidi M.

London Espreid ̈Gefòica), | FOUR" HU'II' Lave to gu ́to the

CRANT DEBÍDNIÓ KY, ROV CASTLE"

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