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An Interview With Roger Scruton
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10156 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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8 / 1986 |
2,604 Words |
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Gregory Wolfe
Gregory Wolfe is the founder and coeditor of Image: A Journal
of the Arts and Religion, and a frequent contributor to The
World & I. |
As I traveled to Roger Scruton's office at the University of London to conduct this interview, I couldn't help reflecting on the irony of its location - especially in light of his recent book Sexual Desire. The office is situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, a part of London characterized by elegant Georgian squares and made famous by the group of intellectuals and artists, including Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey, who dominated British cultural life during the first three decades of this century. It was the Bloomsbury Group, more than any other set of "progressive" intellectuals in this most progressive of centuries, who legitimized and celebrated the modern ethic of "free love" and the cult of bisexuality. And it is precisely this Bloomsbury ethic that Scruton attacks in Sexual Desire. Indeed, he believes that the heavy cloak the Victorians threw over the intimacies of our sexual nature indicated a saner and more realistic attitude than our modern sexual libertarianism. Several generations alter its heyday, it appears that the Bloomsbury group has formidable antagonist.
'Formidable' is a word that comes easily to mind in describing Roger Scruton's many achievements. At an age when most writers are only beginning to make their mark, Scruton has ten books to his credit, and is already an established presence on the British political and intellectual scene. He has been praised for his "independence of mind" - a conservative critic of socialism who has maintained a stance that is far from identical with that of Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher.
At Cambridge University, where he received both is bachelor's degree and his doctorate, Scruton began by studying natural sciences. But a passion for literature led him to an interest
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