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Inner and outer lives

By Old Grumpy Guy on March 4, 2009 at 11:45 PM in OldGrumpyGuy

As I say in the video, it seems to me that many, if not most people tend to live their lives on the surface, hiding their true natures from the world so as to present a facade of normality, whatever the concept of normality happens to be at the time and in the circumstances of their lives.

The characters in Iris Murdoch’s novels, however, are different. The people in her books, drawn mainly from the British upper classes and aristocracy, tend to live their inner lives on the outside, revealing all kinds of behavior and inclinations that most people try to hide from the world.

Murdoch is considered by many to be one of the most intelligent as well as one of the most compelling novelists of the 20th Century. As a professor of philosophy at Oxford University, she was certainly one of the most educated writers. But there is no academic stuffiness in her novels.

I look on her and her novels as forces for the best kind of liberalism – representing a freedom of the spirit and a wide ranging and intelligent mind that is not afraid to confront a host of issues that most people might prefer to sweep under the carpet.

It is interesting to note that her final novel, which was written in the advancing stages of Alzheimers, and was very disjointed and confused, was praised by academics and literary critics as one of her best.

Patrick Henry

interesting..
JulieD

Well done OGG!!

It is interesting to note that her final novel, which was written in the advancing stages of Alzheimers, and was very disjointed and confused, was praised by academics and literary critics as one of her best.

Hmmmmmm? REALLY interesting!

Thanks as always for your insight.
mary

Excellent post and most refreshing….

Iris Murdoch was a prolific and talented artist. I also would like to see you write about the Margaret Atwood phenomenon and her book The Handmaidens Tale or that other dynamo Alice Munro…

Thanks…if only Barry had stuck to writing prose rather than have his ego inflated to the point of no return by his former boss, Michele’s political push for the Top Job.

do you think that Barry’s prose is mundane or pretensious—of course we know the little Empty Suit wrote it as a ‘future candidate’…what do you think? I read (not bought!) parts of his masturbatory Me-Me Proseur prose and was not impressed!!
mary

I forgot to ask whether her last writings bear any resemblance to Virginia Woolf’s “stream of consciousness”?….She was suffering from various mental illnesses at the time, too…
Ellen D

I saw an Iris Murdoch play in London in the 80′s called The Black Prince which, as I remember, was a gentleman center stage giving a monologue which I have to tell you was incredibly boring and dull.
However, as I respect you OGG, I’ll give her another try.
OldgrumpyGuy

That’s an interesting connection Mary. It seems that the academic elite often ascribe depth and acuity to the ravings of lunatics.
http://uk.yahoo.com/?fr=fptb-bt Josie

Hi,

Thanks for the post – I want to read some Murdoch now. Look forward to the next post.

p.s I have to say that Kate Winslet turns me off big time, as she is so far up her own *rs* now, but I do recognise that she is a great actor.

JD