This is the first chapter (and may well be the last if the novelty wears off too soon) of a series in defence of the Captain W. E. Johns Biggles books.
The need for this defence has come about because some dastardly person, aware of my weakness for the works of Captain W.E.Johns, left a poorly argued article critical of his literary output, especially the Biggles series, in my pigeon hole. Not even would Eric Von Stalhien have engaged in such an underhand operation, after all, not-with-standing the fact that he was on-the-other-side, Von Stalhien was a gentleman.
(Incidently, you might well ask why Captain W. E. Johns maintained the title of captain after completing military service, but then again you might well ask why Professor Allan Fels has the title of professor when he has no chair to be professor of. The answer is that Fels is an honorary professor, courtesy of the Faculty of Business and Management, Monash - I guess Johns was an honorary captain.}
The article by Brian Matthews (wasn't he a footballer or something?) in the Australian Magazine (May 20-21 2000) ineffectively fires away at Biggles like a thoroughly rattled new chum. Before we attempt to make sense of Matthews' rambling logic, a point well worth making in this chapter, is that any second rate critic can score cheap points by drawing attention to an author's failure to achieve what he/she never intended to achieve.
Watch.
A severe weakness of Conrad is that he totally disregards the importance of sculpture and painting in the formation of the human condition.
(Or you might prefer - a severe weakness of Conrad is that he totally disregards the importance of the human condition in the formation of sculpture and painting.)
Solzhenitzen shows some strength in his approach to 1950's USSR political issues, but where does he stand on industrial relations in the American South in the same period?
Patrick White! pooh! dispite his claims he is totally devoid of any understanding of anatomny.
One thing is immediately apparent about Tolstoy's work - its unevenness - "War and Peace" runs to almost 1500 pages, by contrast "Resurrection" barely rises to 560.
There is something to be said for Nabokov's adult works, but he has failed dismally to produce anything suitable for 14 year old school girls.
OK, so Johns can call on his flying experience to prop up his work, but show me anything sound he has written on the emerging feminist influence in the social reconstruction of post war Europe.
See?
It makes no more sense to label Johns sexist (a common charge) than it does to call Conrad a philistine. You are no more likely to find a serious discussion of feminism in a front line RAF mess than a Caravaggio painting deep in the jungles of Sumatra or a Puget marble on the deck of a South China Sea trading brig. We can't blame either Johns or Conrad for that.
Next week: Biggles writes prose.