FROM Simon
Allen
Fellow Readers,
I am about to upset some of you ... I have to 'downsize'
and my collection of NSN paperbacks are between 40 and
45 years old. They are yellowed and taking up space - so
they will be placed in the paper recycling bin. Should I
want to read them again - are they now all available as
eBooks? However, I do not expect to read them again.
Most have been read two or three times and only On The
Beach has been read once. I have so many new books to
read and many books yet half read that I cannot give
time to re-reading even these wonderful books. I know
the books as well as I am going to.
I do have a copy of The
Seafarers and that is in good order. I shall happily
donate that to any of the NSN libraries or offer to a
reading circle. Please request.
If you ask my top three have, for a long time, been:-
Requiem For A Wren (by a long margin)
In The Wet
An Old Captivity.
I shall remain a member of the circle through this
newsletter.
--
Regards,
FROM Andy
Kwiatkowski
Dear NSN Foundation friends
My name is Andy and I am from
Dunedin, New Zealand
(temporarily livingin
Queensland, Australia). I am
seeking help for a research
project on Shute.
A Shute reader at an early and
impressionable age, he was
always my favourite author.
However in the process of
obtaining a postgraduate degree
in political philosophy (and
growing up into a screaming
lefty) I found I grew to
vehemently disagree with almost
all of Shute's moral and
political positions as stated in
his fiction. However I still
read him frequently and fondly,
and his work will always be very
special to me.
But leaving my personal
experiences and biases aside, I
find it more than a little odd
that (as far as I can find)
nobody has written
extensively and thoroughly on
his political philosophy. I know
we all agree it is deserving of
close scrutiny!
There are plenty of places (like
the foundation website, for one)
that will provide a tonne of
historical and contextual
information on the man, as well
as some talks, short form
pieces, speculation, notes about
being 'prophetic' re: metal
fatigue, tall tales, and not to
mention of course the wonderful
biographies and autobiography.
There is an informal collection
of things we all agree about -
eg his conservatism, anti
government etc etc - and will
toss out there as 'that's a very
NSN idea'; we share a
short-hand, but there seems to
be nothing exhaustive that
treats all his works as one long
text that is trying to
communicate a unified thesis to
us (in the manner of a Socratic
dialogue). What do we mean when
we think of 'his philosophy'?
Even leaving aside authorial
intent and the obvious
comparisons with his lived
experiences, what does all of
the fiction alone add up to,and does it hold water?
I find the idea of writing
100,000 words on this topic for
a PhD
thesis extremely exciting - not
to mention that it would appear
to be the first time anybody has
done it and is therefore 'new'
knowledge and worth doing for
everybody else as much as
myself.
I would like to ask you all for
any reputable, peer-reviewed
sources you might be able to
provide. Am I mistaken about
this? Are there in fact already
resources out there that
systematically catalog and
deconstruct these political,
social, economic, religious
positions? I am very curious. I
have found only a handful of
articles in the whole of the
world's online libraries that
mention him in passing as an
author, but absolutely nothing
on his works themselves. But
maybe I have simply not been
looking in the right places.
Working from the primary sources
alone would be okay, but as for
secondary sources it may be time
to reach out and crowd-source.
Please email me articles and
links if you have them.
Life and finances have prevented
me from beginning this project
in earnest since I conceived it
some years ago, and it may very
well be one of those things I
put off until my later years in
life. But as far away and
impossible as it sometimes
seems, I am heartened and
sustained by an article that
insists we must be ready to read
and embrace fiction as
philosophical texts or a
handbook for our real lives
(Martha Nussbaum, "'Finely Aware
and Richly Responsible':
Literature and the Moral
Imagination," in Anti-Theory in
Ethics and Moral Conservatism,
Stanley Clarke & Evan Simpson
eds. (State University of New
York Press, 1989). Of course, I
need to find an appropriate
supervisor as well. NS does not
appear to be very widely read in
New Zealand.
Thus I would also like to extend
an invitation to any New Zealand
based members to get in touch
with me. If there was enough of
us it would be great to host an
event at some point; for
example, I know there is an
Airspeed Oxford in the
Christchurch aviation museum.
And finally if you think I'm
barking up the wrong tree with
this, do say so, because if
anybody would know it would be
you guys!
You may drop me a line at alrightythen214@gmail.com.
Best wishes and hope to hear
from you all soon,
Andy Kwiatkowski
29, New Zealand
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