I've been listening to the BBC adaptation of Waugh's Sword of Honour. It's set in World War II. Theme - how an honourable generation of soldiers are being ousted by a bunch of brash and amoral rabble of conscripts and shysters. That bunch of course are now the decent and honourable generation who are the last veterans that we lament as they die off, in our brash and amoral times.
A better way of putting it would be: Waugh was paranoid about socialism and the working class taking over, so he saw the assertion of working-class power which WW2 represented (and which the Falklands War was, very explicitly, fought to reverse) as brash and amoral.
Now it is socialism that we are really lamenting when we lament WW2 veterans, and neoliberalism that we see as brash and amoral.
Posted by: Robin Carmody | 16 October 2013 at 09:20 PM
Despite Waugh's ultra-reactionary politics, Men at Arms and, especially Sword of Honour, have me laughing out loud. The Radio 4 adaption is superb...the thunder box! Richie-Hook! And what did the "mildly obscene" one-armed flautist routine involve?
Posted by: Jim Denham | 19 October 2013 at 12:59 PM
I agree it's been an excellent adaptation. One of those things Radio 4 does really well. I find it less annoying than the books, where it's emphasised that Crouchback thinks he's fighting for Christian civilisation against barbarism, and becomes disillusioned. I always thought fighting against Nazism was a big enough cause for anyone.
Posted by: RosieBell | 19 October 2013 at 01:22 PM