Forster acted the part of the guru all his life. No mention is made in Aspects of the Novel of the element of preaching in novels, but Forster preached relentlessly in his fiction.
I said some similar things about Forster last year: Only connect! But to what?
I wish I could say that you have understood Forster, but I think you've completely missed what he meant when he wrote what he wrote. He was also the least sentimental of that circle of writers called Bloomsbury.
ReplyDeleteWell, he may have been the least sentimental among them, but that does not mean he wasn't sentimental. In fact, the overriding weakness of the Bloomsbury crowd is sentimentality - shaping one's thoughts in accordance with how one feels. I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on Forster. As I said, I find him a squishy thinker. The best thinker among the Bloomsburyites, in my view, was Keynes.
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