I have decided I will not comment on CS Lewis's long essay "
Kipling's World." It is enough to know that if you are a Kipling fan, Lewis has read more of him than you have, and remembers it better. I will start you off, though.
Kipling is intensely loved and hated. Hardly any reader likes him a little. Those who admire him will defend him tooth and nail, and resent unfavourable criticism of him as if he were a mistress or a country rather than a writer. The other side reject him with something like personal hatred. The reason is not hard to find and will, I hope, become apparent as we go on. For the moment, I will only say that I do not fully belong to either side.
I have been reading him off and on all my life, and I never return to him without renewed admiration. I have never at any time been able to understand how a man of taste could doubt that Kipling is a very great artist. On the other hand, I have never quite taken him to my heart...
A fan. I've read a fair bit, but Lewis clearly read more.
ReplyDeleteI think Lewis was on to something--but there's plainly more. Kim doesn't seem to fit the model well. Kim has companions, and eventually people he works with, even when working with a team he never seems to be quite anyone's peer, and his adventure isn't always a shared one.
I have a book of Kipling, which I am going to read...someday.
ReplyDeleteDo you like Kipling?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I've never kippled.
A Kipling song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDQEoK0-J9c
Orwell also wrote about Kipling:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/kipling/english/e_rkip/
SAm, Lewis says you will either love him or hate him, but i do think many are in-between. "If," "Gunga Din," and The Jungle Book are his best known, but my own view is you can start anywhere. He has dramatic characters in interesting settings, which is always a good start.
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all sure that Eliot and Orwell had a thorough understanding of what "good poetry" means. It seems broader than their categories.
ReplyDelete