The Janeites

[poliphilo]

This is one of Kiplings later stories, published at a time when his reputation was in decline and his talent at its sharpest and most refined.  Three men are talking in a Masonic Lodge shortly after the end of the first world war. One of them, the main speaker, Humberstall,  has been blown up twice, which has affected his memory and his nerves. The Lodge specialises in men like him and offers them, without patronage, therapy through work and ritual. Humberstall's story emerges as he polishes the woodwork of the Lodge's 18th century organ.

He's not so much an unreliable narrator as a not fully-comprehending one. He gives us bits of a picture and we have to fit them together and supply missing connections.  There were three men (as in the story frame)- citizen soldiers who had bonded across rank and class in a shared love of the works of Jane Austen.  For Humberstall- interpreting what he doesn't know in terms of what he does- this bond is a kind of Masonry. One of the men- the alcoholic professor, now mess steward-  tutors Humberstall in Austen- for cash- and he gets to enter the "lodge". The unit receives a direct hit from a bomb- in the last great German offensive of the war- and the other three are killed.  Humberstall is the last of the Janeites. Only he isn't.  He carries on talking Austen- because Austen has taken him over-  and a nursing sister- a fellow initiate- finds him a place on an over-crowded hospital train.

It's a story about war, healing, class and the redemptive and enduring power of art.  It's a text that keeps on giving.

Kipling is a master craftsman- a writer who weighed the value of every word. Which makes him a lot like Joyce, when you come to think of it- a comparison I think worth making because it suggests how modern, how experimental a writer he is.   Also, like Joyce, he demands very careful reading- with full attention to the sub-text. Again like Joyce- he must be an absolute bugger to translate. His place in the canon has been denied him because the literary establishment doesn't like his politics- though he never dabbled in fascism- as so many of the gold-standard modernists did- and he wasn't an anti-semite either. Certain of his things are ridiculously popular, others- like the Janeites- will probably only ever appeal to the few. 

It has always annoyed me that the world doesn't "get" Kipling- that it's still dismissing him as a bristle-moustached jingo ("Such a coarse soul" as one of my University tutors protested) when he's actually so subtle, so humane, so very great - but on the other hand there's a pleasure in belonging to a small band of initiates- bonding across all manner of divisions- in our shared love for a favourite, undervalued writer. I've met some of my brothers and sisters here on LJ.

You know who you are, my fellow Kiplingites.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

*hands up*

I'm a big fan, especially of his poetry. He's got a beautiful sense of rhythm.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was a wonderful technician. He could do anything in verse- from music hall rythmns to pastiche Chaucer.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Some of the more robustly imperialistic, chauvinistic poems might put people off him. "If" is great until the last line, and as for the White Man's Burden, the less said the better.

But now you have me wanting to go find this story. Thanks for sparking my interest in Kipling. I wonder if he is anything like Somerset Maugham, another writer I enjoy.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I've never minded the ending of 'If' - I interpret 'a man' as 'a member of the human race' and 'my son' as the narrator addressing a specific individual.

But then I'm an unashamed fan.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was an imperialist- but a thinking imperialist. He was paternalistic too, but never racist. "If" surprised him; it was one set of verses among many- and he was astonished when it took off and conquered the world. It's my considered view that in most cases his best known poems are far from being his best.

I haven't read much Maughan. There are clear connections. They both wrote about the Empire. I imagine Maughan was influenced by Kipling, especially by the early Indian stories.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

one of my favorite of his stories is "The Man Who Would be King". I found it in a moldy old garage sale book. I keep the book in a plastic bag because it stinks, but I love it.

I'll have to go look for this story. That you are a Kiplingite surprises me not. I began to read Kipling - the Just So Stories - when I was about 8.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Man Who Would Be King is a great story.

I love the Just So Stories- Kipling wrote brilliantly for children- of all ages- and also for adults. He had amazing range.

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

I've never really read any Kipling, but my highschool auditorium had a bit of Kipling inscribed above the stage in gold letters which I've read so many times I could never forget it "Stand to your work and be wise, certain of sword and pen, who are neither children nor gods, but men in a world of men."
I've always really liked it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You know what, I can't place those lines! :)

But Kipling is enormously quotable. He had a gift for the elegant, well-turned phrase.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Another Kipling fan here!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Bravo!

[sovay]

I am going to re-read this story now.

"The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I sing that one around the house sometimes.

[sculptruth.livejournal.com]

Ah! Consider my hand raised -- Kipling was my first great love in literature and is still at 33. I read the Jungle Books by the time I was seven and kept reading them, as well as Just So Stories. I still have my battered 1929 copy (of the Jungle Books) from childhood. He always struck me as being so insightful to human nature. It never once occurred to me until college that he might be Imperialist and I'm saddened at his exclusion. I feel he was so instrumental at shaping who I became.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The politics are hardly apparent in the children's books. He was too much of an artist to stuff his work with mere opinions.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Roy and I are reading Kim aloud to one another in the evenings right now. I have a set of Kipling's complete works -- unfortunately, it was published in 1917! One of these days I'll have to complete it with his later works.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Kim is tremendous. One of the great novels of the 20th century.

[oakmouse]

*hand up*

I haven't read enough Kipling --- I got pulled over to Tolkien and a couple of other faves at an early age --- but I'm an unmitigated fan of the Jungle Books and hate Disney for turning them into so much sugary farina.

I need to read more Kipling.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Yes, Disney made them not even a shadow of their former selves. I dont understand why they always have to rewrite a good story when they turn it into an animated musical. They also took Maxine Hong Kingston's story "Woman Warrior" and made it into that lame "Mu-Lan" feature. I wonder if they even gave Kingston credit for the story...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you might particularly like Puck of Pook's Hill and its sequel, Rewards and Fairies. They were key books in the evolution of 20th century paganism.

O_O

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> It has always annoyed me that the world doesn't "get" Kipling- that it's still dismissing him as a bristle-moustached jingo <<

I really haven't seen much of that. Most references I've seen to Kipling have been favorable. (I'm not doubting your experience, merely being glad that mine differed.) Kipling had a big influence on my taste in poetry and fiction; click the "poem" tag in my blog and you'll see it. My favorite Kipling pieces include "Law for the Wolves," "The Female of the Species," The Jungle Book, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

When my poem "One Ship Tall" won the SFPA contest last year, someone described it as 'Heinlein by way of Kipling' ... which is apt, and one of the best compliments I've ever received.

Re: O_O

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I think folks wrote and spoke more dismissively of Kipling some decades ago than they do now.

Re: O_O

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was at university at a time- in the early 70s- when Britain was coming to terms with the loss of Empire- and Kipling was right out of favour. I suspect his reputation never sank as low in the States as it did over here.

And now I'll go look at your poems :)

P.S. I should imagine Heinlein was a big Kiplingite.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Back for a second bite at this. Shakespeare and Kipling were my formative influences. I encountered both when I was eight, Shakespeare via some 78s of Olivier's Hamlet and Kipling through a slim book of verse that fell open at Gunga Din. I fell under the spell of the sound and the rhythm even though I didn't understand half of what I was reading/hearing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Kipling was always around in my childhood. I believe my mother read the Just So Stories aloud to me before I was able to read them for myself. (Some of the illustrations terrified me). My grandmother had worked on Kipling's Sussex Farm during the First World War- so there was a personal link as well. I still have the little leather bound copy of "The Seven Seas" that he signed for her.