Decline & Fall has been a been really welcome change from the more obscure academic writings of Lefebvre (for instance), but just because it is a comic novel doesn't mean it can't carry with it some important ideas. It is part of a long tradition (Punch, Spitting Image...) of using satire to expose some crazy notions which have become accepted, whether they be in politics, society, or in the case of Professor Silenus, modernism in architecture.
Waugh brilliantly turns some of the most famous quotes from modernists like Le Corbusier into physical or mental characteristics of the architect himself, showing how bonkers they were. 'Machines for living' became Silenus' complaint about the human need for stairs "Why can't the creatures stay in one place?... Why can't they sit still and work?..." as he himself demonstrates, expressing machine-like qualities while he thinks about his next project "Two hours later the foreman in charge of the concrete-mixer came to consult with the Professor. He had not moved... the hand which had held the biscuit still rose and fell to and from his mouth with a regular motion, while his empty jaws clamped rhythmically; otherwise he was wholly immobile."
Its easy to poke fun at the architect, but we as the reader, the public, don't get off so easily either - in the very next chapter, Paul Pennyfeather 'the shadow' spectre who really just observes events, meets his friend Arthur Potts, who is basically a cipher for the majority of us, or at least the majority of Waugh's reading audience. Potts is not upper-class, he's a worker bee for the League of Nations, a mid-level functionary. Educated and liberal, with reasonable views and a solid middle class background aspiring to be more - 'discussing many subjects of importance - Budgets, birth control and Byzantine mosaics.' He contrasts radically from the debauched upper class Bullingdon lot who abused Paul at Scone, but get on far better, and the Beste-Chetwynde's who just DO without care to the rest, or ideas of morality.
Arthus Potts is basically 'us'. His judgement of Silenus (read Modernism) is "it all looks extraordinarily interesting... its the only really imaginative thing since the French Revolution." So while the pseudo-intellectual Silenus is shown to be deluded, we are shown to be lapping it all up as well.
Waugh goes on with Silenus, with scenes where he describes how he may or may not marry Margot, but that he can see virtually no distinguishing factors about her - her digestive tract apparently works, he like the functionalism of that, but he does not recognise any of the human characteristics which have made Pennyfeather fall head over heels in love with her. Modernist architects had completely lost touch with humanity was his implication. What is more, Waugh gives him a strongly Faustian set of characteristics in relation to his treatment of Kings Thursday (total destruction of the old) and when asked what he thinks of this new creation, for which he has been so highly praised, he 'despises it.' The creation, however much better he believes it to be than the old mansion, has failed - the real world can only disappoint. The next logical step is to destroy it, and start over. The continuous revolution of modern development, sharply juxtaposed against the old house which has resisted even electricity and hot water, having had 'rushes burning in the sconces'. How could this be translated into a modern day satire on architecture? Instead of an obsession with machinery and dynamos, might the Silenus character in a contemporary version just want entire rooms full of insulation and constructed entirely from straw and mud found on site, or be some parody on Zaha, zooming endless around the world only touching down to sign a contract for a new city in Xengdu province?
Silenus stays relevant...
However there is a scene at the end of the book, where Pennyfeather bumps into Silenus again at Margot's villa, which provides a slightly different perspective on his cold robotic facade.
Silenus, penniless and wandering after failing to secure any more clients, cracks and admits "maybe I will marry Margot", only to be told, too late, she's married off into the aristocracy and is now Lady Metroland. His humanity starts to show a little - his modernist principles only run so deep - in crisis he reverts. He goes on to describe his view on life - is this Silenus, or Waugh speaking? - as a great spinning disc, from which people are thrown by the centripetal forces. Its a game really - the rat race. Paul, he says, isn't even in the game - but somehow was forced to play and was damaged (thrown off), whereas others play for fun. He see that at the centre there is a point of total rest/stillness where these forces either don't affect you, or could be seen as the forces emanating from... either way, Silenus sees himself as close to this centre and sort of protected. Conversely though, he recognises some kind of association with Paul - this weak character so different from how he sees himself - "...its inevitable, they think the scrambling and excitement and bumps and the effort to get to the middle... and when they do get to the middle [where Silenus thinks he is], its just as if they never started. Its so odd."
He doesn't like this comparison that they are both standing still, it comes too close to collapsing all his ideas, so he quickly reverts to his mechanistic descriptions and decides to arbitrarily classify people as static and dynamic. And then disappears off to bed without further discussion...
Waugh brilliantly turns some of the most famous quotes from modernists like Le Corbusier into physical or mental characteristics of the architect himself, showing how bonkers they were. 'Machines for living' became Silenus' complaint about the human need for stairs "Why can't the creatures stay in one place?... Why can't they sit still and work?..." as he himself demonstrates, expressing machine-like qualities while he thinks about his next project "Two hours later the foreman in charge of the concrete-mixer came to consult with the Professor. He had not moved... the hand which had held the biscuit still rose and fell to and from his mouth with a regular motion, while his empty jaws clamped rhythmically; otherwise he was wholly immobile."
Its easy to poke fun at the architect, but we as the reader, the public, don't get off so easily either - in the very next chapter, Paul Pennyfeather 'the shadow' spectre who really just observes events, meets his friend Arthur Potts, who is basically a cipher for the majority of us, or at least the majority of Waugh's reading audience. Potts is not upper-class, he's a worker bee for the League of Nations, a mid-level functionary. Educated and liberal, with reasonable views and a solid middle class background aspiring to be more - 'discussing many subjects of importance - Budgets, birth control and Byzantine mosaics.' He contrasts radically from the debauched upper class Bullingdon lot who abused Paul at Scone, but get on far better, and the Beste-Chetwynde's who just DO without care to the rest, or ideas of morality.
Arthus Potts is basically 'us'. His judgement of Silenus (read Modernism) is "it all looks extraordinarily interesting... its the only really imaginative thing since the French Revolution." So while the pseudo-intellectual Silenus is shown to be deluded, we are shown to be lapping it all up as well.
Waugh goes on with Silenus, with scenes where he describes how he may or may not marry Margot, but that he can see virtually no distinguishing factors about her - her digestive tract apparently works, he like the functionalism of that, but he does not recognise any of the human characteristics which have made Pennyfeather fall head over heels in love with her. Modernist architects had completely lost touch with humanity was his implication. What is more, Waugh gives him a strongly Faustian set of characteristics in relation to his treatment of Kings Thursday (total destruction of the old) and when asked what he thinks of this new creation, for which he has been so highly praised, he 'despises it.' The creation, however much better he believes it to be than the old mansion, has failed - the real world can only disappoint. The next logical step is to destroy it, and start over. The continuous revolution of modern development, sharply juxtaposed against the old house which has resisted even electricity and hot water, having had 'rushes burning in the sconces'. How could this be translated into a modern day satire on architecture? Instead of an obsession with machinery and dynamos, might the Silenus character in a contemporary version just want entire rooms full of insulation and constructed entirely from straw and mud found on site, or be some parody on Zaha, zooming endless around the world only touching down to sign a contract for a new city in Xengdu province?
Silenus stays relevant...
However there is a scene at the end of the book, where Pennyfeather bumps into Silenus again at Margot's villa, which provides a slightly different perspective on his cold robotic facade.
Silenus, penniless and wandering after failing to secure any more clients, cracks and admits "maybe I will marry Margot", only to be told, too late, she's married off into the aristocracy and is now Lady Metroland. His humanity starts to show a little - his modernist principles only run so deep - in crisis he reverts. He goes on to describe his view on life - is this Silenus, or Waugh speaking? - as a great spinning disc, from which people are thrown by the centripetal forces. Its a game really - the rat race. Paul, he says, isn't even in the game - but somehow was forced to play and was damaged (thrown off), whereas others play for fun. He see that at the centre there is a point of total rest/stillness where these forces either don't affect you, or could be seen as the forces emanating from... either way, Silenus sees himself as close to this centre and sort of protected. Conversely though, he recognises some kind of association with Paul - this weak character so different from how he sees himself - "...its inevitable, they think the scrambling and excitement and bumps and the effort to get to the middle... and when they do get to the middle [where Silenus thinks he is], its just as if they never started. Its so odd."
He doesn't like this comparison that they are both standing still, it comes too close to collapsing all his ideas, so he quickly reverts to his mechanistic descriptions and decides to arbitrarily classify people as static and dynamic. And then disappears off to bed without further discussion...
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