Progress

Thursday, February 18th., Hotel Miramare, Genoa.

Hotel Miramare

We didn't go out at all until 3.30 pm., but I had done a lot of thinking about my new novel. I think I shall call it "The Vanguard". We drove along the sea front, and then back into town by the Via XX Settembre. By this time I was dying to write Chapter III, so I continued to drive home while Dorothy walked. I began to write at 5 pm. and at 7.30 had written the chapter - 1200 words. All my chapters are going to be short in future. I was glad to get some time on my own, and probably Dorothy was too. Being a couple is all very well but I start to feel claustrophobic after a few days of close confinement.


I started reading "Pilgrim's Progress" yesterday and thought it promised well, but not so sanguine today. So far it is too full of minute 'similitudes' which are tedious. I doubt whether I shall finish it. What a prig Bunyan must have been - dry and dessicated one would imagine!

The question is: Do children read it all? Or do they skip the morality and theology for the more active parts? I doubt whether the book is holding its own in the public esteem today. How did it get to be such a well-known book in the first place? I can only attribute its prominence to the insidious effect of church propaganda. I don't imagine any child ever 'got' its message directly but it was pressed into the immature intelligence by repitition and adult influence. I think it is an example of abuse of adult power. No child should be exposed to religious propaganda until he or she is old enough (adult) to make a sensible personal assessment of what is being pushed onto them. That would finish all the major religions in fairly short order.