Culture as Politics. Christopher Caudwell

      Introduction

      Christopher Caudwell died in defence of the Spanish Republic, covering the retreat of his company in the Battle of Jarama. He was only 29 when he died, yet he had already published five books on aeronautics and seven works of crime fiction under his real name of Sprigg, and his most important work, Illusion and Reality, written under the pen-name of Caudwell, was in press when he died. Illusion and Reality and the essays subsequently published as Studies in a Dying Culture were widely read and admired during the war and in the post-war spirit of democracy. For people concerned with creating a fairer, better world Caudwell’s work had strong appeal. He saw the problems of the world not as inherent in the human condition but as susceptible to change, and his prose had an attractive energy and optimism. Today, amidst increasing corporate dominance of everything, unstable democracy and rising right-wing populism, Caudwell’s analyses show not only how culture is shaped by the social-economic structure of the time but also how it is important in shaping public attitudes. His explanations make sense at the level of human experience.

      Caudwell was an autodidact. He left school at 15 and gained a wide knowledge of science and literature on his own. When he left school, he moved with his journalist father, whose career was in decline, from London to Bradford. His father took up a position as literary editor on the Yorkshire Observer and Christopher himself started work as a cub reporter on the same paper and also wrote occasional book reviews. Father and son led an unsettled existence in boarding houses, which is reflected in some of Caudwell’s best short fiction; one of his stories suggests that he secured his own space by constantly retreating into a book. In 1925, he returned to London to join his brother in aeronautical publishing. The choice may seem strange for someone so orientated to literary culture and who considered himself a poet, but it was not accidental – both brothers had a strong interest in engineering and technical innovation and aircraft still had the excitement of a pioneering industry. As well as writing technical reviews, Christopher gained his own pilot’s licence and wrote five books on flying. For him, flying was never just a means of transportation – there was a thrill in flying: ‘There is nothing in the world like being in complete charge of that responsive creature, an aeroplane, with all the air in front of you, and confidence in your power to make it obey your will,’ he wrote in Let’s Learn to Fly! (LLF!).¹ The crime novel considered by some specialists to be his best is set in a flying club and conveys the attraction of flying. Aircraft design and production involved the most advanced engineering of the day; he was exploring new territory – ‘behind it all is the thrill of mastery of man’s latest and most difficult conquest, the ocean of air’ (LLF!, p. 209). There was adventure in flying: ‘The older pilots … are the real heroes of the air,’ he wrote, ‘although one hears little about their work. They faced all the dangers of early commercial aviation in

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