Bright Young Things discussion

Welcome to the July group read discussion of...


Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

I'm looking forward to hearing what you thought.

Ally

I posted my earlier review in the wrong place, I see. Apologies.

Plot summary: Due to a case of mistaken identity, a mild-mannered columnist on country life, William Boot, is sent as a war correspondent to Ishmaelia, a (fictional) independent African nation where dissent is brewing between long-time ruling family the Jacksons and anarcho-communist upstarts prompted by German and Russian interests. Boot, though utterly stymied by the lackadaisical and corrupt Ishmaleian government (as well as his fellow journalists), and through no merit of his own, scoops everyone and returns to a rather unwelcome hero's welcome. Of course there's also a love interest, and a bit of espionage on the outskirts of Plot Central.

Thoughts: Scoop recalls the stories of Wodehouse (of whom I am a longtime devotee) in its muddled plot and the tortuous misadventures of its characters, as well as the brilliant characterization through dialogue. But Waugh is much more scathing: of the fatuous, ant-brained upper classes, of the bumptious but ultimately useless journalistic set, of the oafish and self-centered country dwellers. More than a satire of what was then modern journalism, it's a witty, often hilarious look at the caprices of human nature. I enjoyed it even more the second time around than I did the first (which, to be sure, was a few years ago).

Thanks for the review. I too have read a number of Waugh novels - alas, not this one. Which ones? Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, The Loved Ones, Brideshead Revisited, A Handful of Dust and at least one other. Brideshead and Dust are my favorites. Loved Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (really recommend it). I've just ordered Scoop from Amazon - it should arrive in a week or so (gives me time to finish Never Let Me Go and work a little bit more on Fried Green Tomatoes... for my land based book group).

I still haven't got a copy of the book.

I am hoping it will be up for sale at the used book sale I go to every July 4th.

If not, I will pick it up when I get back from vacation next week.

Off to the mountains of North Carolina.

This is a review I wrote specifically with this discussion in mind. Sorry if it's a bit too long.

There is a story that has long since entered into the mythology of journalism. It concerns William Randolph Hearst, among the most unscrupulous of the press barons, for whom newspapers were not so much a source of information but an expression of his personal power. After the beginning of the Cuban struggle for independence against Spain in the mid1890s he was active among those pushing for American intervention, seeing war as a way of selling even more newspapers.

The artist Frederick Remington was sent to the island to provide Hearst’s New York Journal with illustrations. When he arrived in Cuba he cabled back, saying that all was quiet, that there was no war in sight. Hearst response was “You supply the pictures, I’ll supply the war.”

True or not it’s a story about the power of the press and the ability of unscrupulous publishers to ‘manufacture’ news. I was reminded of it immediately on reading Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop, a satire centring on the pursuit of a non-existent story about a non-existent war.

To begin with I should say that I have not read an awful lot of Waugh. The truth is I’ve never really warmed to him as a novelist and a story teller. As a writer he shows tremendous technical proficiency, and Scoop is probably as good as he gets. But I find his style, the way he approaches his subject, tiresomely superficial. I quite liked Brideshead Revisited for all its snobbishness but I found the comedy in Decline and Fall unfunny and forced, so much so that I gave up reading after a few dozen pages.

Scoop is also a comedy, one that worked much better for me than Decline and Fall. It’s a reasonably effective expose of the absurdity of the press and the arrogance of newspaper owners. Lord Copper, owner of The Daily Beast, serves here in the role of a fictional Hearst. Hearing rumours of war in the fictional African republic of Ismaelia naturally he wants The Beast to get the scoop. Having been told that there is a man by the name of Boot ideal for this kind of assignment he arranges to have him sent to Africa. The problem is he and Slater, the foreign news editor, send the wrong Boot! They send the Beast’s nature correspondent William, a man more used to voles and lush places.

William is hopelessly out of his comfort zone but by a mixture of good fortune and good contacts he manages to get the story that isn’t a story, a scoop that isn’t a scoop. Yes, the press can work like that, spinning something out of nothing, though more in the days of Beaverbrook and Northcliffe, the British equivalents of Hearst and most probably the models for the frightful Lord Copper.

So, that’s it, part satire, part comedy of errors. It’s light and easy to digest, a book probably more for its time than ours. Some smiles, a few laughs, some interesting comic situations, a satire without any real bite. It’s quickly read and just as quickly forgotten. According to the Wikipedia article it was included in The Observer’s list of the hundred greatest novels of all time. So, it’s one of the hundred greatest novels of all time; really? Well, if The Observer’s readers say so who am I to argue.
:-)

before joining this group, I just bought the novel! I hope I can read it soon and join the discussion :)

I read this at the end of May so hopefully I remember enough to participate well. :) I liked all the bits with Katchen and William's uncle. And how you had to reply to the boss was great. :) This wasn't my favorite Waugh though; I liked Vile Bodies and The Loved One much better, they were funnier I thought.

I do like that the online paper The Daily Beast took it's name from the paper in Scoop though. :)

Oh, that doesn't sound good. I couldn't get into Vile Bodies. Maybe stretches at a time. I still haven't picked up Scoop. I was hoping to find it at a used book sale. The managers of it said they didn't see it come in at all. Got a couple of Graham Greene, though.

I just got my copy - and it's really a lovely little edition. Now I have to read it....but I'm right in the middle of "The Devil Rides Out." So, I'll be back.

I'm going to add a couple of questions into the mix...

1) what did you think of the humour in this book? - which bits made you laugh out loud?

2) did you fid the book in any way racist? - what does the use of language such as 'nigger' in this time/context mean?

3) what does the book say about the English Class System?

4) Did the situation in Ishmalia remind you of any current political events or wars.

5) Waugh wrote that his main theme was "to expose the pretensions of foreign correspondents . . . to be heroes, statesmen and diplomats". What sort of picture does he paint of journalists?

6) Did you find the ending satisfactory?

Ally

I am anxious to join the discussion but I haven't finished the novel yet. I will be back as soon as I can!
I find the premise so funny, however, that I keep describing it to people!

Now that the discussion is about over, I finally got hold of the book.

I like the beginning.

Not over Jan - at least I hope not! - I've been super busy and have only just managed to pick this one up myself so I'll be back in a weekor so to post my thoughts!

Okay, to try and answer Ally's questions...

I can't remember too much specifically that made me laugh, but I did laugh quite a bit throughout the book. All the mix-ups of the Boots were funny. I don't think I would think of this as one of Waugh's funnier books, though it does have it's moments.

I didn't find the book racist, though you did get the feel for how the English (and probably whites in general) thought of the Africans, but I don't know that it's necessarily racist. The use of nigger didn't bother me at all given the time this was written and the context of the book and the world at that time. I think if it hadn't been used it would've seemed weird. All that being said, I don't know that this book could be written today in the same way.

I don't really remember much with the class system other than that connections seem to get you everywhere (or ought to've in the case here). But that's not terribly different from today, is it?

To be perfectly honest, I don't know a whole lot about what's going on in the world, other than what they show on the news. It did make me think of the whole Iraq situation but mostly just with all the different little rival groups and how most people have no idea what the differences are and why they're fighting and everything (myself included). :\

If I didn't know that Waugh had been a sort of foreign correspondent, I would've thought he didn't like them. It all seemed to show how stupid journalism is, to me anyhow.

I didn't really find the ending satisfactory, but it definitely fit in with the rest of the book and worked.

I wish I could contribute more... :\

I'm not "getting" it. I've made several false starts, but can't seem to get into the rhythm of it. I often feel Waugh's comedy forced and too broad.

You know Ivan, I'm half-way through and it comes in waves but I'm also not really gelling with this one. - It kind of feels like a wodehouse in parts (...the mistaken identity, the badger vs the great crested grebe, the obscure cable instructions etc) but then I get bored and my mind wanders for a bit and I feel I've woken up in a new place. - I wonder if what is trying to be tongue in cheek satire is simply coming across as bitter venom???

I'm liking it but its not spectacular and certainly not Waugh's best.

Ally

...I did like the following quoted passage...

"'Why once Jakes went out to cover a revolution in one of the Balkan capitals. He overslept in his carriage, woke up at the wrong station, didn't know any different, got out, went straight to an hotel, and cabled off a thousand word story about barricades in the streets, flaming churches, machine guns answering the rattle of his type-writer as he wrote, a dead child, like a broken doll, spreadeagled in the deserted roadway below his window - you know.
'Well, they were pretty surprised at his office, getting a story like that from the wrong country, but they trusted Jakes and splashed it in six national newspapers. That day every special in Europe got orders to rush to the new revolution. They arrived in shoals. Everything seemed quiet enough, but it was as much as their jobs were worth to say so, with Jakes filing a thousand words of blood and thunder a day. So they chimed in too. Government stocks dropped, financial panic, state of emergency declared, army mobilized, famine, mutiny and in less than a week there was... an honest to God revolution under way, just as Jakes had said. Theres the power of the press for you."

...probably still an accurate reflection of the media today methinks!

Ally

The press can "wag the dog" too.

"They are all negros. And the Fascists won’t be called black because of their racial pride, so they are called White after the White Russians. And the Bolsheviks want to be called Black because of their racial pride. So when you say black you mean red, and when you mean red you say white and when the party who call themselves blacks say traitors they mean what we call blacks, but what we mean when we say traitors I really couldn’t tell you. But from your point of view it will be quite simple. Lord Copper only wants patriot victories and both sides call themselves patriots, and of course both sides will claim all the victories. But, of course, it’s really a war between Russia and Germany and Italy and Japan who are all against one another on the patriotic side. I hope I make myself plain?"

What do we make of this quote?

Aly

Ivan (or anyone else) having read more than I have of Evelyn Waugh's biography and background - what was Waugh's general attitude towards women?

I'm thinking particularly of the portrayal of Katchen in this story (the girl who sells her 'husband's' specimens to pay her rent and then buys a new dress).

Ally