74
PARTISAN REVIEW
ter is (though much better expressed) much the impression given by a
sequence of
Horizon
editorials. He moves among
Tribune
circles, and
the
literary left, and you must know how irresponsible that literary left is:
that had a pseudo-proletarian admiration for Moscow and social-realism,
when it suited it, and, equally under pressure of war lined itself up with
Churchill. What I am getting at is, frankly I don't think Orwell is in a
position to know what serious writing is being done in this country at the
moment: because the literary circle of which he is aware is the circle
which grinds out highbrow pseudo-proletarian "kitsch." Once, it was
communist. Now it is bourgeois pro-Churchill leftist. Nor does Orwell
know very much about poetry, or, if he does, show any signs of it.
In
actual fact there is something of a post-poetic revival going on: admit·
tedly subjective (if you like romantic), hut not particularly escapist.
Its
organ, if any, is
Poetry
(London): its forerunners Dylan Thomas and
George Barker. (That is not to say, of course, that it is derivative
in
technique or style, from them: hut merely that its enthusiasm is.)
I
would deny utterly Orwell's statement that "a belief in the unity
of
European civilization, and in international working-class solidarity"
doesn't exist any longer. In the particularly Leftist group whose parties
Orwell frequents, Fascism has killed it. That particular group happens
to have a monopoly of the progressive literary press. New writing comes
out in sixpenny penguins and sells like hot cakes. (Hot kitsch fresh from
the fake-proletarian oven.)
Horizon
is the only extant (subsidized) pur·
veyor of good writing. Politically it again reflectS the defeatism of social·
democracy and ex-communists. It probably shares Orwell's belief that
"to be effectively anti-war in England now one has to be pro-Hitler." Are
P.R. readers really expected to accept that?
I hope the P.R. continues to provide what America needs and what
we here don't get. In my part of the world officers are still saluted in the
street (pace George Orwell) and the big cafes have plenty of good food.
For food for thought I think I shall have to rely on P.R.,
Horizon
being
a
wet-blanket politically. I think you will
he
surprised in the "serious writ·
ing" that will arise from this England in this war.
Sirs:
Yours sincerely,
NicHoLAs
MooRE
London, England
September 23, 1941.
When I said that
the
belief in international working class solidarity
doesn't exist any longer, I was not thinking of what may or may not
be
said at the "parties" which Mr. Moore supposes I frequent. I was
think·
ing of the history of Europe during the past ten years and the utter failure
pf the European working class to stand together in the face of Fascii
