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 show more 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! show less

Wagner wrote superb erotic chastisement fiction under the name 'P N Dedeaux', and it is only to be expected that at least some reference to this practice should appear in his more standard oeuvre. 'A Singular Passion' was written much later than the middle period of his writings which seems to have been devoted to his overtly erotic work, as Wagner was approaching old age, and it concerns the wistful longings of an old man, an Italian playwright past his sell-by date, cornered in a marriage show more of frustration. He meets a callipygous American college girl who is travelling in Northern Italy and she lures him into an intensely erotic relationship involving the frequent fustigation of her attractive rear. The novel captures the heartaches of aging and sexual longing, including the jealousy promoted by her vibrant youth, as they progress into an increasingly hallucinatory and self-destructive conclusion. Wagner's style is always deeply intellectual and seemingly self-referential, and the book is fascinating, particularly in the context of what little is known about his personal life.

Unusually, 'A Singular Passion' seems to be a faithful rewrite of the author's 'The Lake Lovers' of 1963 - thirty years earlier. Its greater erotic content may simply reflect the increasingly permissive publishing scene at the time of its publication. Alternatively, 'A Singular Passion' may be the original book, and 'The Lake Lovers' a version toned down to fit the standards of its time. show less

The English writer Geoffrey Wagner had a flair for atmospheric writing and powerful plot in his novels, despite their existence on the pulp fiction fringe of novel writing. He travelled widely, and successfully captured in his work the unique flavour of a country and its people. The Passionate Land is set in post-WWII Mexico, a land on the edge of revolution in which Western exploitation and corruption competed with bloody sincerity against the local, primitive versions of those human show more traits. An atmosphere of brooding menace pervades the whole novel, infusing commercial and political activities as much as inter-personal jealousies and rivalries. It is a snapshot of a handful of Westerners pitted against traditional sloth and bitterness, and it is natural that blood will necessarily flow from the cultural incomprehension that is mutual. It is a bitter novel, but instructive of the human condition. show less

Geoffrey Wagner served as an officer in the British army while he was still a young man, straight out of Oxford, and in his later unpublished writings he made clear his very low opinion of the army. Elsewhere, in his novels he describes events which, although presumably merely fiction, suggest some of the possible reasons for his attitude. Having an aspirational middle-class upbringing in the1930s he would naturally find much class prejudice, and also attitudes relating to the non-ethical show more concepts of colonialism that were increasingly incompatible with the rapidly changing post-war world. His extensive travels included the Caribbean islands, and “Rage on the Bar” draws on his perception of the incipient colonial conflicts in the colonies, and the way the British class system signally failed to deal ethically with them. The principal character here, Philip Teale is seen as an outsider in this complex system, and it is tempting to look at him for traces of Wagner. A seething romantic entanglement adds to the complexity of Teale's ethical feelings, and the result is a thought-provoking novel of action, well supplied with humorous caricatures. The book will interest anyone interested in the post-war disintegration of the British Empire. show less