The Uses of Slime Mould: Essays of Four Decades

by Nicholas Mosley

Overview

Including pieces on Gregory Bateson, William Faulkner, Philip Pullman, Sir Oswald Mosley's politics, religion and stammering, this diverse collection gathers essays written by Nicholas Mosley over the past forty years. Resembling the behaviour of slime mould - a strange organism made up of separate amoebae that temporarily form a single pillar which then bursts in order to scatter its seeds across the forest floor - the ideas found in these essays converge and disperse, crossing over into other disciplines, and creating a unique way of looking at the world, one echoed in Mosley's fictional writings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564783608
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	04/15/2004
Series:	British Literature Series
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.52(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Born in London, Mosley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford and served in Italy during the Second World War, winning the Military Cross for bravery. He succeeded as 3rd Baron Ravensdale in 1966 and, on the death of his father on 3 December 1980, he also succeeded to the Baronetcy. His father, Sir Oswald Mosley, founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932 and was a supporter of Benito Mussolini. Sir Oswald was arrested in 1940 for his antiwar campaigning, and spent the majority of World War II in prison. As an adult, Nicholas was a harsh critic of his father in "Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family 1933-1980" (1983), calling into question his father's motives and understanding of politics. Nicholas' work contributed to the 1998 Channel 4 television programme titled 'Mosley' based on his father's life. At the end of the mini-series, Nicholas is portrayed meeting his father in prison to ask him about his national allegiance. Mosley began to stammer as a young boy, and attended weekly sessions with speech therapist Lionel Logue in order to help him overcome the speech disorder. Mosley says his father claimed never really to have noticed his stammer, but feels Sir Oswald may have been less aggressive when speaking to him than he was towards other people as a result.

Table of Contents

	Introduction: What's in a Name?	ix
Part I	Speculation
	The Coming of Wit	5
	Runaway Mankind on Gregory Bateson	10
	Nietzsche and Creation	13
	Not What the Doctor Ordered	17
	The Heart of a Venomous Squabble on Jung, Freud, and Spielrein	20
	Trust Life to Work with You	23
	The Value of the Clown on R. D. Laing	25
	Do Humans Desire Happiness?	27
	'Two Cultures' Are No Culture	32
Part II	Literature and Reality
	from Journey into the Dark, I	39
	What Are Novels For?	47
	William Faulkner's Universe	52
	Seeing It Whole on Patrick White	56
	What Life Is Like on Italo Calvino	59
	The Philosopher Fails - The Artist Succeeds on Iris Murdoch	62
	Bits of Gold on J. P. Donleavy	65
	Lament for Lost Childhood on Vladimir Nabokov	67
	Desire for Delinquency on Philip Roth	70
	No Answer from the Sky on Joseph Conrad	73
	Dissidence on Fyodor Dostoevsky	77
	'The New Humanism Is Coming, in Spite of All the Barbarism' on Thomas Mann	80
	Against the Tyranny of Genes on Arthur Koestler	83
	Jerusalem: A Novel of Hope that Cannot Find a Publisher	85
	Gilbert Sorrentino and Mulligan Stew	89
Part III	Pathology and Sanity
	from Journey into the Dark, II	95
	The Schizoid State	99
	The Burden of Vocation	101
	Self-Deceit and Lack of Courage on Heinrich Himmler	104
	Becoming Free of the Burden	107
	Are Not Humans Responsible for Themselves? on Bruno Bettelheim	110
	Some Do Take Responsibility for Themselves	112
	Jonestown Enigmas	114
	Evil Is Done by Ordinary People Going about Their Ordinary Tasks	117
	Cold Feet on Leon Trotsky	120
	Sparks that Glowed on Andrei Sakharov	124
	Cogs in Wheels	128
	What Makes Life Worth Living	131
Part IV	Philosophy and Practice
	from Journey into the Dark, III	135
	A Question of Probabilities on John Maynard Keynes	139
	The Enemy of Paradox on Bertrand Russell	142
	The Moral Voluptuousness of Hell on Michel Foucault	145
	Philosophy Back in the Mainstream?	148
Part V	Religion
	The Church and Art	153
	Through a Glass Darkly	156
	A Social Contract?	159
	For Heaven's Sake - Repent!	161
	The Christian and the Bomb	165
	Mohammed and Monotheism	167
	The Old Testament and Paradise Lost	169
	The Uses of Adversity	173
	Prayer	175
	Freedom Made Available by God	177
	Philip Pullman's Theology	181
Part VI	Science, Self, God
	from Journey into the Dark, IV	189
	What Price Political Idealism?	197
	from Journey into the Dark, V	203
	Stammering	211
	from Journey into the Dark, VI	215

Editorial Reviews

"Mosley is that rare bird: an English writer whose imagination is genuinely inspired by intellectual conundrums."--Robert Nye, Guardian; "Mosley is the most serious and brilliant of Britain's novelists of ideas." - Robert McFarlane, Times

Dalkey Archive Press

From the Publisher

This collection largely comprises book reviews and also features personal and philosophical essays published here for the first time. British experimental novelist Mosley (Hopeful Monsters) writes trenchantly on Nietzsche, Russell, Keynes, Trotsky, Andrei Sakharov, Freud and R.D. Laing in reviews of biographical studies that display his characteristically quirky and independent thought. Demonstrating his interest in formalism and his openness to international literature, Mosley shows acute appreciation of Faulkner, Patrick White, Calvino and Nabokov. Mosley's engagement with overcoming his legacy as the son of the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley is well known. In a section of reviews entitled "Pathology and Sanity," he displays striking analytical seriousness on such topics as anti-Semitism, Israel, Himmler, Bruno Bettelheim and apartheid. In a fascinating essay describing his emotional confrontation with his father, who twice attached himself to nationalistic movements that relied heavily on racism, Mosley draws a razor sharp portrait of the "trap" of his father's political idealism. Similarly, when writing about his own stammering, Mosley brings thoughtfulness and a bristling intellect to bear. His writing about his Christian faith is similarly alert and persuasive. A keen advocate of reading the Bible straight through, Mosley is alive to its metaphorical complexity as a work of art. Six previously unpublished essays grapple critically and mystically with a modern age intent on bringing all mystery to light. This collection will satisfy admirers of Mosley's work and will greatly enhance readers' understanding of his formally daring and deeply metaphysical art. (June 15) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Feeling that he has "exhausted the ground from which his work has sprung," Mosley, the author of over 20 books, including the award-winning Hopeful Monsters, finds 58 "bits and pieces" (written over the past 40 years) and compares them to slime mould: that "strange organism" consisting of many separate amoebas looking for new ground on which to feed. Many of the inspiring pieces collected here are book reviews published in the Listener and Daily Telegraph; others are articles written for Prism, a magazine for which Mosley served as editor; still others are essays published for the first time. Mosley poses difficult questions about a variety of disciplines and suggests methods of finding answers with intelligence and grace. Topics range from the meaning of happiness to the differences between the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Through these disparate writings emerges the sense of a man who in quoting Andrei Sakharov might just as easily have been writing of himself: "I am certain that so long as there are people, the sparks will glow." Appropriate for academic libraries.-Anthony J. Pucci, Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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