Paul Scott's life, work become personal journey for scholar Continued from p. 1 India of Rudyard Kipling j"East h cac;t, west is west, and never the Iwai'h shall meet," explains Reece); the Indi.1 of LM. Forster ("mystery and mlJddle"); and the India of Peler Sellers, whose comic parodies of Indian men were a "reduction of the human being." "India may be quaint. exotic. even horrible," Reece paraphrases Scott. "But, damn ii, it's not mysterious, In just complex." The Rilj Quartel is the result of Scott's lifelong effort to understand \ndi:l. "He arri\led \00 late for the 'QUit India' rule in 1942 and 100 early for Independence and Partition in 1947. There's always a shadowy stranger in his novels returning 10 find oul what was really going on." When Scon himself returned to India on a lecture lour aftN his Ihird Raj novel had been published, "he wasscen there as someone who under-slood," said Reece. The Raj Quartel. on the surface of iI, reveals a lapeslry of characters and events sewn together by a century of carefully constructed social and political behaviors. Bul it was a tapestry that was steadily unraveling as the Indians resisted their British "molhers OJnd f(lthers," and the ruling class was left without any film\\i<'lr rules. The last days of the Raj were a time when individuals, victims of an unjust system of their own making. were weighed down with questions like "00 I mailer?" One of the things that so impresses Reece <Jbout the QU~lrlct, however, IS how far it ranges beyond the specifics of Indm in the 19405. "Scon considered himself to be examining the moral drift of history," says Reece. "The India of Paul Scott is il metaphor of his vision of the world." In Scott's world, "we .1fe not what we can be, but there's hope we can change." And in Scott's fiction, his characters "carry the weight of history like baggage, but they're taking su~ps forward." Il i3 thiS universal quality of The Raj Quartet that inspires Reece to say, like a born.again fiction reader, "I believe this is a classic. It makes me want to keep reading." Then Reece testifies. "I'm aware of the size and scope of it. I'm aware of SCOII's sensitivity to language, class and culture. I'm aware that many of his portraits of female charactcrs nng truer to me than those of other conlemporary British rnale writers." It was not without sacrifice that Scott crcaled his most important work. life for Scott was a struggle - 10 survive financially and to keep the "small blue flame" of crCillil/lty burning. He had given up a career as a literary agent with the Higham Agency in london to lc1unch "the Indmn novel I ought 10 be able 10 write." Though he had written eight other no\'el~. six aboul lndla, Scott felt he still hadn't made his point. So Ihe Heinemann Company, his publisher. wisely sent him to India in 1964, where Scott suffered recurrences of the jaundice and amoebiasis he had had in Ihe '40s. and came back inspired to write the nove' that, len years laler, would be a quartet of novcls and a "S<"Id coda." Three years after the final volume was published, Scott died, "Damn, it's sad," S<Jys Reece. shaking his gray, bearish head. "He was al the height of his powers when he died." In the summer of 1982, \....ith a study grant from the Oregon Committee for the Humanities, Reece visited the University of Tulsa to pore through 15,000 of Scott's personal letters. When he was finished, he fell into a depression. '" was going to be a scholar," he said of his intentions that summer. "I didn't realize I would feel the loss of the man." Paul Scott Higham and Heinemann redux This fall, Reece will have finished ediling a collection of unpublished essays by Scott. His agent: Higham. His publisher: Heinemann. During a proposed sabbatical in 1986, Reece plans to go to England to look through the Higham archives. to try to talk 10 Scott's wife and daughters, and to begin "reconstructing the process Scott used 10 put together The RaJ Quartet. " II may not be too difjicult; as Reece S.WS, "I sometimes feel like I can read his mind." like Scott, Reece has felt what it 1s to be unrecognized. When the professor first heard that "The Jewel in Ihe Crown" series was being planned, he wrote to WGSH in Basion and offered his expertise. A polite "'Thank you, but Alistair Cooke can handle it" finally arrived, and Reece had 10 be content to offer a summer session course at PSU on The Raj Quartet. Reece is nevertheles.. delighted with "The Jewel in the Crown." which takes its title from the iirs! novel of the Quartet. "The novels are more reflective and interior, and the television series more panoramic and external. But overall, I think SCOII would be happy with il. "This is a way in which Scott's work can receive some of the applause it should have rt.'Ceived during his lifetime." (Shelley Reece has taught at Portlimd State since 1969. with over 35 different course titles to his credit. Such "pop" c1dsse5 as "The Language of Pop Culture" and " The Put-On in Literature" have been tempered with more traditional courses in recent American and British fiction, eiJffy 20th century poetry, and many more. The popul<lr professor has also made composition palatable to uninterested non-majors and has regularly tilughl fn8fiSh to teachers. To earn IllS Ph.D. from the University of ebr<Jska. Reecf! studIed Irish novelIst James Joyce, and his expertise beciJlne known locally when he helped Portland celebrate Joyce's IDOth blrthday;n 1982. Reece seems /0 h.we an eye for the unusual in language and literature, which may have precJispo!>eri him to embrace Paul Scott. He is continually exploring Third World fiction written in English, fasciniJtec/ by how t/1e authors' use 0; language helps illuminate the cultural and his/oncal circumstances of their countries.) - 3
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