posted on 19 Oct 2023

Constellation of Genius: 1922 Modernism Year One by Kevin Jackson

I'm temperamentally disinclined to believe that epoch-making changes in history or culture can be neatly pinned-down to one specific set of events or a specific moment in time and I approached Kevin Jackson's book in that frame of mind. After reading the book I'm still - perhaps less - sceptical but what a pile of fun it was allowing Constellation of Genius to take you on a trip to 1922.

Jackson's starting point is Ezra Pound's pronouncement that the publication of Joyce's Ulysses marked the end of the old literary establishment and the beginning of a new Modern Age. In a typically flamboyant and slightly irritating way Pound tended to go over the top and he even started redating his writing psU or post scriptum Ulysses. However, as Jackson goes on to show us, 1922 was indeed a quite special year and undoubtedly a pretty crucial one for literature.

The trick that really makes this book such an enjoyable read is the way Jackson has structured the study. He takes us through the whole year in a series of 'diary' style entries that moves us from one landmark author or work of art to another without the need for a continuous prose narrative. It feels like you're reading about the events as they unfold in front of you - almost as if the diary is being written by a unique team of authors who, in reality, would never have embodied the same space.The narrative jumps from one day to the next and the whole year knows no national boundaries and the entries include snippets of letters, diaries and conversation. It's almost as if you're a fly on every important wall.

I'm a great fan of the Modernists but not an uncritical one - I admire Virginia Woolf's writing but loathe her social and political views; I'm awestruck by the poetry of Eliot but I don't think I'd like to have spent time in his company. This book is an absolute must if you're a fan of the literature but also if you want to understand how culture moves forward and how writers and other artists plug into the spirit of the age. I don't think the book entirely explains the process - it seems to me that the way ideas seem to hang suspended in the air like electricity just waiting to be bought to earth by the right combination of lightening conductors will always remain a mystery. Jackson does at least come close to reconstructing some of this magic.

Highly recommended - especially for 20th century literature nerds (like me).

Terry Potter

October 2023