Paradoxes of Peace: Or, the Presence of Infinity (British Literature) - Softcover

Mosley, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564785394 ISBN 13: 9781564785398

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2009

Synopsis

Paradoxes of Peace continues the meditation of Mosley's Time at War, at the end of which he wrote that humans find themselves at home in war because they feel they know what they have to do, whereas in peace they have to discover this. But what should inform them--custom? need? duty? ambition? desire? Forces pull in different directions--fidelity versus adventurousness, probity versus fun. During the war, Mosley found himself having to combine fondness for his father, Oswald Mosley, with the need to speak out against his post-war politics. In times of peace, his love for his wife and children, too, seemed riddled with paradoxes. He sought answers in Christianity, but came to see organized religion as primarily a social institution. How does caring not become a trap?

About this title

About the Author:

Born in London, Mosley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford and served in Italy during the Second World War, winning the Military Cross for bravery. He succeeded as 3rd Baron Ravensdale in 1966 and, on the death of his father on 3 December 1980, he also succeeded to the Baronetcy. His father, Sir Oswald Mosley, founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932 and was a supporter of Benito Mussolini. Sir Oswald was arrested in 1940 for his antiwar campaigning, and spent the majority of World War II in prison. As an adult, Nicholas was a harsh critic of his father in "Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family 1933-1980" (1983), calling into question his father's motives and understanding of politics. Nicholas' work contributed to the 1998 Channel 4 television programme titled 'Mosley' based on his father's life. At the end of the mini-series, Nicholas is portrayed meeting his father in prison to ask him about his national allegiance. Mosley began to stammer as a young boy, and attended weekly sessions with speech therapist Lionel Logue in order to help him overcome the speech disorder. Mosley says his father claimed never really to have noticed his stammer, but feels Sir Oswald may have been less aggressive when speaking to him than he was towards other people as a result.

From Publishers Weekly:

This slim yet largely torturous memoir covers Whitbread winner Mosley's two marriages totaling almost 60 years, several love affairs, a religious crisis and much else. Now wheelchair-bound and in his 80s, the novelist and screenwriter delves into his dysfunctional family background, which includes his father, Oswald Mosley, who gave his life to the Fascist cause, plus a mother, Oswald Mosley's first wife, who gave her short life to this man. Mosley had a stammer, which he several times attributes to a mechanism of self-defense, and ultimately found himself in analysis.The childhood pattern of self-service as a means of survival continues into maturity: when one wife dies, the next organizes her funeral.The title refers to Mosley's lifelong acceptance of paradox within a Christian setting. His meeting with a charismatic Anglican minister proves essential in setting Mosley on a path to editing a monthly called Prism and to come to grips with his extramarital loves: "the proper working-out of difficult fate or chance does not seem to favour persons who keep to rules so much as those who trust and are ready to take off and fly." (Mar. 26)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1564785394
• ISBN 13: 9781564785398
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 190