
Evelyn Waugh, the Art of Fiction No. 30 (1963) - samclemens
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4537/the-art-of-fiction-no-30-evelyn-waugh
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bshimmin
This was a great interview, and it was very interesting to read that Waugh
admits to being influenced by Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises": I remember
reading that book and "Vile Bodies" at much the same time and thinking to
myself how similar they were (though Brideshead, really, is very different).

Whenever I have the misfortune to visit a shopping centre, I always make an
effort to quote Waugh: "All that succession and repetition of massed
humanity... Those vile bodies..."

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jonahx
This is wonderful.

It's sad that both the writer in Waugh's mould, and the interview in this
style, seem like relics of a bygone era.

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nickff
Could you please elaborate on what you mean when you say there are no more
writers in Waugh's mold? I have read his major works, and enjoyed them
tremendously, but think that the reason I haven't found recent works of
similar literary merit may be a lack of perspective.

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jonahx
I've only read a few of Waugh's novels, but love A Handful of Dust.

My comment was about the interview though. I think you'd be hard pressed to
find a writer today who, without apparent pretense, begins an interview by
putting on a robe, complaining authoritatively about the lack of good views in
London hotels, retiring to the bedroom while bullying the interviewer into
smoking a cigar with aristocratic aplomb, and tearing down his own work and
that of his contemporaries with casual precision.

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mturmon
That was really excellent. To the point. A good summary:

"I regard writing not as investigation of character, but as an exercise in the
use of language, and with this I am obsessed. I have no technical
psychological interest."

The Men at Arms trilogy was just excellent.

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vaadu
How many thought Evelyn Waugh was a women?

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jarcane
Time Magazine, apparently. [http://observer.com/2016/02/time-magazine-put-
evelyn-waugh-o...](http://observer.com/2016/02/time-magazine-put-evelyn-waugh-
on-a-list-of-female-authors/)

