George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 100 (Woo Hoo!! Party Party!) George & Arthur. And God.

Gissing fans celebrate the 100th Commonplace blog with their interpretation of
The Nether World via the medium of The Frug click.   

In time-honoured tradition, when the party gets mellow, musings on the meaning of life rear their heads. Is all blind chance? Is all the clash of unconscious forces? Or, are we sentient toys of an almighty power that sports with our agony? - as asked by Annie Besant click. Is the meaning of life more than 42, or was Douglas Adams right? click

There is soon to be a television film version of Julian Barnes' 2005 book 'Arthur and George'. This is an account of a notorious miscarriage of justice that so appalled Arthur Conan Doyle, that he summoned all the Holmesian detective skills he had built up writing about imaginary crime to the task of exonerating Mr George Edalji, a vicar's son who was sent to prison for crimes he did not commit. Mr Edalji was a Christian, a son of a minister, but his father had been born a Parsee; George Edalji had an Indian father and a Scots mother - and Arthur's 'Mam' was Scots, too. Doyle was of the opinion the case was riddled with the taint of racism, though Mr Edalji was reluctant to accept that might be the case, and worked enthusiastically to right the great wrong. Doyle's forceful campaigning lead to the formation of the UK Courts of Criminal Appeal. For more on this click.

The Great Wyrley Outrages and the fate of George Edalji was only one of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'causes' - he tended to immerse himself completely in most of his interests, sometimes controversially - for example, the infamous 'Cottingley Fairies' episode, and his involvement in Spiritualism might be seen as signs of enthusiasm getting the better of reason/intellect. However, Doyle was living at a time when new ideas of what is termed 'being and reality' were being discussed and explored; delving into what might constitute the hereafter was a logical extension of what was being revealed about consciousness and the inner workings of the mind, as explained by Sigmund Freud et al. Doyle was one of the first true followers of Spiritualism; he promised to appear before a crowd after his own passing, and this event is mentioned in Julian Barnes' novel. Not many experienced Doyle's spirit if it it did return - maybe he is still around, biding his time before making a spectacular comeback. I wonder if he met up with our George in the Otherworld?

Elsie Wright's Evidence of the Cottingley Fairies? 
click

Our George rarely took up 'causes', not because he was mean-hearted (he might have been a misguided misanthrope, but he wasn't totally mean-hearted), but because he preferred to stay on the periphery looking in on events; he could never really summon up what it took to be an activist. For that, he would have needed to be more of an optimist, and less of a Pessimist.

Though George knew Arthur Conan Doyle via the Omar Kayaam dinners they would not have had much in common - apart from very fine moustaches, George wasn't very keen on successful writers. George didn't need an Arthur in his life - he had already given his heart to one: Herr Schopenhauer.

Amen to that!

In Commonplace 4, there is ample evidence for how much Schopenhauer's own unpleasant take on 'Woman' wormed its way into George's thinking. Pessimism - you can tell from the nomenclature that it isn't going to be an easy ride. In 1880, George wrote to his brother William, urging him towards Schopenhauer, but William wasn't a masochist, and so he no doubt passed on that heads up. But, there is more to the unlucky in love Arthur Schopenhauer from Danzig than his woman-hating ways. His legacy is more than persecuting his neighbour (a woman) and believing women were primitives with no real worth unless one was bestowed on her by a man: Freud, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche were influenced by Schopenhauer, and many Artists and writers have wrangled with his ideas on Art being the great compensator. Schopenhauer's philosophy is more about Buddhism than Christianity, even going as far as to suggest there might be a state akin to Nirvana.

Kamakura Buddha Japan c 13th Century  

Possibly Schopenhauer's most acclaimed work is 'The World As Will and Representation', published in 1818. Perhaps our man read it in the original German - though he never could get his head round the German Fraktur typeface click possibly because he was short-sighted and needed spectacles, and Fraktur is a myopic's nightmare. However, a three-volume edition in English translated by Haldane and Kemp entitled 'The World as Will and Idea', appeared in 1883. What is it all about? Something to do with the self and subjective vs. objective reality and the tussle between the will and our perceptions of the world. Have a look at this click for an easy to understand introduction to it from the renowned theologian Don Cupitt. Made in 1984, a reminder of how far we have fallen in the television calibre department. For all the Sea of Faith series click. Part 5 contains the Schopenhauer film. Nietzsche appears in Part 6. And to find out about Don Cupitt's very working class Oldham, Lancashire roots click. 

The Dude abides...

In his Commonplace Book, George startlingly George reveals that, if pressed he would describe his religion as Manichaeism. Why is this such a shock? Well, it is one of the Gnostic religions, whose basic tents include, according to Tobias Churton, an expert on all such things click philanthropy to the point of personal poverty, sexual abstinence (as far as possible for hearers (disciples/followers), entirely for initiates) and diligently searching for wisdom by helping others. We all know George is not famed for these personal qualities. 

And, yet, in other ways, it makes perfect sense for George to claim to be a Manichaen - this ancient Middle-Eastern faith has the added allure of being the sort of religion a somewhat pretentious academic would follow. It was once a main competitor to early Christianity in its zeal to rid the world of paganism, flirts with some of the Eastern philosophy so beloved of Schopenhauer, by way of Plato, and requires hours of solitary reading research to reanimate the lost texts. Basic concepts: Existence is the perpetual struggle between Light (spiritual things) and Dark (base, physical stuff). Good vs Evil is the basis of most religions, but Sigmund Freud, himself much influenced by Schopenhauer, would be right at home. The religion was started by Mani a third century AD Persian, and seems to have pulled together bits of Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Babylonian folklore click - something there for Friedrich Nietzsche. 

In Manichaeism, the woes of the world started after a mighty kerfuffle kicked off when the Prince of Darkness invaded the Realm of Light - shades of the Asgardians vs the Frost Giants here, in the canon of Stan Lee's reworking of the Norse Legends. For a comprehensive, and highly fascinating, account of Manichaeism, I urge you to click. This is a strange place for an Atheist to send you, but I am a complex creature (though not a gullible one haha). 

So, was our George ever a Manichaean? Well, if you have to practice a faith to own it, then the answer would be a resounding No. George was not the sort to follow any other man's calling - he might have started his own religion (and who says he didn't haha) if he'd had enough interest in the Soul of Woman/Man - but he didn't care much about saving anyone. The dualism of Good vs Evil was a popular theme of late Victorian discourse, exemplified by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde - animal versus spiritual, rich versus poor, industrial versus bucolic, old versus new, Britain versus the Rest of The World, Capitalism versus Socialism, faith versus proof - and, in the case of Arthur Conan Doyle, alive versus dead. 

To many Atheists, one of the central flaws of all faiths is the 'In Crowd' scenario - 'if you are not with us, you are against us'. In George's time, a more sinister concept - one that exemplifies Dark versus Light - was beginning to muster on the battlefield of morality (one trait shared by the religious and the non-believers is morality). This was the 'worth versus non-worth' debate. The spectre of eugenics was stalking the mental landscape. 

JOIN ME IN COMMONPLACE 101 TO EXPLORE WHAT GEORGE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS.