Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The 2024 syllabus can be found here. This lecture is about the life and work of George Bernard Shaw. We begin by discussing Shaw’s 1930s position that unproductive members of complex societies should be culled and then trace this concept through its hints and intimations in the Ibsenite New Woman fin-de-siècle realist drama of Mrs. Warren’s Profession before pursuing it into the cosmic vistas of his later work. We also note Shaw’s position that Wagnerian opera has made “the drama of feeling” obsolete, leaving only “the drama of thought” as the legitimate form of non-musical theater, as well as his view that art must be propaganda for a high spiritual and social vision and his consequent deprecation of the “entertainers” Shakespeare and Dickens below “artist-philosophers” like Blake and Tolstoy. The relation of these ideas to contemporary conspiracy theories, to socialism, fascism, and feminism, and to my own political views is also carefully considered. Please like, share, comment, subscribe—and please enjoy. The slideshow corresponding to the lecture is below.
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