I Commit to the Flames

I COMMIT TO THE FLAMES BY IVOR BROWN HAMISH HAMILTON 90 GREAT RUSSELL STREET LONDON First Published .... January Second Impression - February 1934 Third Impression February 1934 Fourth Impression - June 1934 Fifth Impression ... - February 1935 PRINTED IN GUERNSEY, C. I., BRITISH ISLES, BY THE STAR AND GAZETTE COMPANY LTD. CONTENTS CHAPTER P GE I THE FEAST OF UNREASON 7 II SEX IN OUR TIME 26 III CUPID AND PSYCHE 41 IV ROMANTIC NOTIONS 59 V BROTHER LAWRENCE 78 VI BELLY AND BRAIN 95 VII CALIBAN - Sh - no . VIII NEW SCHOOLS FOR OLD - - 136 IX MYTHS AND MAGIC - 168 X THE SONGSTERS 196 XI THOUGHTS BY THE FIRESIDE - 225 I COMMIT TO THE FLAMES CHAPTER I THE FEAST OF UNREASON ARSON is one of the oldest forms of aesthetic criticism and is still a favourite exercise Berlin rekindles the fires of Rome. The Nazis, who appear to have some sense of ceremonial, have invented a ritual of book-burning. University towns are chosen, with a nice irony, as the site of these performances midnight is the hour of incinera tion. A bonfire is assembled, the purifying flame begins to rise, and a crier proclaims and expounds the sentence as the literary fuel is flung to the fur nace of Teutonic Liberation. Crier Against class-war and materialism For community of the people and idealism. I commit the works of Marx and Kautsky to the flames. So passes, in spark and smoke, the massive timber 7 I COMMIT TO THE FLAMES of Das Kapital. Again, the Crier speaks. Against soul-destroying over-valuation of subconscious life. For the nobility of the human soul, I commit the works of Freud to the flames. So to the pyre goes that tiresome monarch of the modern mind, CEdipus Complex. There is more stoking, more fuel is hurried tothe incinerators hand. Crier, Against presumptuous bungling with the German language. For the protection of our peoples most priceless property. I commit to the flames . . . Read English for German and what you would yourself commit upon these terms may be a very large matter. The joy of destruction is not yet dead in us we gladly pay our coppers at the showmans stall where we are encouraged to bombard all the cups and saucers, so inviting and so elusive. It need hardly be said that I do not believe in bonfires as the best means of dispatch for intel lectual nuisances. I am old-fashioned enough to believe in freedom I do not want to put on a coloured shirt and dance upon the stinking corpse of liberty. If arson there must be, let us burn such natural fuel as the fasces and the shafts of axes and leave the books upon the shelf. My title is a gesture, my invocation to let the fire-gangs 8 THE FEAST OF UNREASON commence is metaphorical. The flames to which I commit the enemy are those of argument, rein forced, I hope, by a little salutary rudeness and by a spark or two of insolent contempt. These are the only flames which can finally consume. The crier may shout his loudest, the stoker may set the indubitably Aryan flames roaring about the print and paper so deplorably misused by Jews and Democrats. Rely on cookery as a short way with Socialism and Psycho-analysis, and Marx will prove a salamander yet, Kautsky will develop asbestos qualities, and Freud will emerge Phoenix like, from these punitive ashes. Roasting the villain solves no problems, as persecution should have dis covered after its first experiments with the stake and the tinder-box. A platitude A thousand times yes, but amillion times forgotten. The Irish Free State, young child of liberty, is busily engaged on averting the opinions of Aldous Huxley from the pious homes of gunmen. Burn or ban, the process is eternally popular and eternally futile. But committing to the flames of contrary argu ment is a job that has to be done, a task, at the moment, insufficiently attempted...