The Novel

A middle class pursuit?



I think it has been a truism that the novel as a literary form rose with the middle classes. Perhaps that is why I found so many of the earlier practitioners so stolid in their endeavours. Reading "Joseph Andrews" which was required if exams were to be passed, was a horrible experience as, to my peasant eyes, were the middle classes in general.


If I wanted to wind friends up I claimed to be middle class. It sent them into a paroxysm of denial.
Of all the groups who have most made codes of behaviour to intimidate and repress, they must take the prize. Joseph Conrad saw through the charade and his "he was one of us" makes "Lord Jim" one of the most searing portrayals of the horrors endured by those who fall out of the favour of the group.



Seemingly they now rule the world and novelists continue to hold up a satirical mirror, revealing flaws in the game, pointing to how dangerous they have become. This is very necessary, but makes for tiring reading on my part.



The game is based on consumerism and the book trade itself is not safe from the self-serving practices of middle class values. Why chop down trees to make paper that wil be shredded or cost a fortune to send by transport systems around the world when everything could be put out in electronic forms? The physical nature of the book has been part of its power since the time of the printing press. Owning books and choosing well regarded writers has been a time honoured way of gaining status in certain areas of life leading to what is seen as "success".


It is also a way of being isolated from those who find education a bore. I once tried to join a library in a remote part of Ireland to be faced with a hefty fee, as, unlike in Dublin, the library service was not free. I declined, of course, realising that this was a way of keeping books as some sort of esoteric mumbo-jumbo system of exclusion... one to which I did not want to contribute.



When this country started closing down libraries I finally just gave up work. It was a sign of times that were changing for the worse and I did not want to participate in the downfall. Why go out to work to pay taxes that are then used to make institutions that reduce people to psychological misery? There was a lot of clamour for "new institutions" at the time. All that seemed to mean was putting people in suits in charge of offices that then made decisions for those of us at the bottom of the pile.


I've been reading Thoreau again and realise that this attitude is not new. He was arrested for failing to pay taxes as he did not agree with the powers that ran the America of his time. I consider this as a bit too fanatical and my own failure to perform socially was based on exhaustion from listening to nonsense rather than any philosophical high mindedness. The game was not worth the candle and this is even more so the case today. The latest row is based on how to make economies grow while protecting the Earth's resources. Read Thoreau on the subject of a pleasant day weeding a bean field and somehow the question is solved.



I think there are a lot of very tired people in the middle classes these days. Rather than advise them to read books that put them down I think they just need to take a break.