Hotbeds Book

They don't write books like this anymore.....and you can probably guess why right away-even if all you know is the title of the book. This is an interesting book. Wyndham Lewis was quite a satirist in his day. What makes most readers of Lewis uneasy today is trying to discern from his prose a joke, or just sarcasm, or the straight-out truth as Lewis sees it. I get the feeling boundaries for these categories were more scumbled for Lewis than most people would allow or consider decent today. This book is a satirical polemic on race relations at the end of the twenties, and all that that implies. Lewis spends more time spanking self-eviscerating palefaces, though, than being condescending to other races; but he makes ample time for that as well. Lewis stumbles onto animal rights in this book; unfortunately the reader is left to feel it's a sour joke-I think he meant it to be-, so Lewis the prophet looses out again to the Lewis of bad manners. It's hard to imagine him wanting it any other way, however. There are a lot of interesting extracts from other works inside this book that I appreciated. Lawrence's 'Mornings in Mexico' is quoted at length as is Dubois' novel 'The Dark Princess'-I blush to admit I had no idea Dubois wrote novels until
I read this book. Lewis mentions Van Vechten a couple of times in comparison with Dubois' novel, likely making few happy back when this was written and even fewer readers-if any-now. I also believe this book introduced me to T H Green. If it means anything to you, Hemingway took this book and its ideas seriously. Again, it's really hard to tell how much Lewis himself did. I'm inclined to think he did more than somewhat. Lewis saw nonwhite racism as a cosmic cultural, if not political, threat as it was abetted by and allied with white anti racists attacking themselves. This is a unique book for readers today as its ideas aren't allowed satirical examination any longer. Racism can't/shouldn't hide behind jokes any longer. Maybe this explains why my review is the only one for this book.....