Julian Hartridge Green

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Thaqafat Eng Side 8/25/05 11:03 AM Page 252 THAQAFAT %##& شتاء (%& ثقافات Paul’s condemnation of sexual pleasure in any form. 37 While Green has little esteem for the advocates of militant homosexuality and what he sees as their excessive and unreasonable demands, 38 his deep-rooted sympathies for the invert’s condition lead him to the conclusion that homosexuality is a mystery, and he quotes Goethe on the subject: it (homosexuality) is “against nature and yet in nature, a part of it”. 39 Green, then, pleads for tolerance and understanding, yet he remains a Roman Catholic convert, a man who, despite his individualism, has chosen obedience and submission to Vatican authority. Indeed, he had much earlier acknowledged the importance of Rome for the Protestant convert 40 , and in his case, as Robert Merle has remarked of “converted” homosexuals in general, it is the seduction of authority that leads such men to prefer Catholicism to any other form of religion. 41 There is in Roman Catholicism, or at least in the pre-conciliar form about which Merle writes and after which Green hankers, a form of spiritual assurance and security of inestimable value to the tormented invert alone with his conscience and seeking to placate what he would deem to be the righteous ire of an offended deity. In old age Green continued to view sexuality as a negative force, as an impediment to spiritual progress. In an interview given to Le Figaro in his ninetieth year he sums up thoughts often mulled over in the pages of his journal: “Why are we on this earth? For the purpose of being united to God. Sexuality is a barrier which stands in the way”. 42 Resisting the accusation of puritanism often levelled against him for such remarks, Green defends himself on the grounds that sexuality occupies far too important a place in people’s lives: “sexuality always tends to exclude everything else”. 43 And commenting in the journal itself some months later on another interview he had given, the author returns to the charge, seeking to clarify his thoughts on the relationship between sexuality and sin. He believes that the term “sin” in such a context should be rejected, replaced precisely by this idea of sexuality as an obstacle between the love of God and the human soul. 44 Remove sexuality, then, and the path leading to spiritual progress is a much less rocky one. If the twentieth century was largely a spiritual disaster and as such a century which greatly disappointed Green - he writes of it as “sinister” and “sad”, and it is in the twentieth century that man has perfected his “wickedness” 45 - the hope persists that man is capable of re-inventing his future, a future that will have to be founded on genuine fraternity; 46 and for Green this entails a spiritual brotherhood far removed from the slogans of revolutionary politics, a fraternity of tolerance without exclusions. The Journal, L’avenir n’est à personne, ends on Christmas Eve 1992 with a fervent evocation of Noël, of the immense joy and hopefulness that Christmas inspires. 47 To the futile pursuit of earthly power and its trappings, the author opposes a vision of the Holy Child, seemingly so fragile, and yet possessing the only real power, that of offering us Paradise, the mystic “Countrie far beyond the stars” of Green’s beloved Metaphysicals.[ Texts in English ""
Thaqafat Eng Side 8/25/05 11:03 AM Page 253 &%! ثقافات شتاء %##& THAQAFAT Texts in English 1. The third volume of his American trilogy, Dixie, Fayard, Paris, 1995. Very early on in his literary career, Green drops the Hartridge from his name and Julian is gallicized to Julien. Death finally claimed both writers in 1998, Julien Green himself succumbing on 13th August of that year. 2. See Robert de Saint Jean and Luc Estang, Julien Green, Ecrivains de toujours, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1990, p.184. “Le Journal restera sans doute parmi les documents essentiels et les moins contestables de notre siècle”. 3. A word of elucidation is in order here. Born in Paris of American parents in 1900, Green was educated at French schools, only proceeding to an English speaking institution in 1919 when he began his higher education at the University of Virginia (the alma mater of amongst others, Jefferson and Poe, and more recently of his fellow novelist, Paul Bowles). Returning to Paris in 1922, Green soon began a literary career - in French - remaining faithful to this language, with one or two exceptions, for the rest of his life. 4. Commenting on the pages of his early Journal (1919-1924), Green himself notes in 1991: “Tout ce que je puis dire sur ces écrits d’adolescence, cest que je m’y retrouve à peu près tel que je suis aujourd’hui, avec les mêmes élans et les mêmes fureurs à peine maîtrisées. La foi est là, avec des naïvetés supplémentaires en 1920” (dated 25 th September 1991). L’avenir n’est à personne (The Future Belongs to No one), Journal 1990-1992, p.305. “All I can say about these adolescent writings is that I see myself in them just about as I am today, with the same impulses and the same barely controlled passions. Faith is there, with some additional naivety in 1920”. 5. “Mon malheur est de n’être pas un” (“My misfortune is not to be one (undivided person)”),On est si sérieux quand on a 19 NOTES ans (Nineteen Is Such a Serious Age). Journal 1919-1924, p.15 (dated 17 th December 1919). 6. Journal 1919-1924, p.45 (10 th January 1921). “J’ai l’impression de n’être ici qu’à moitié vivant, tant la France est nécessaire à mon existence. Un affreux dégout m’a pris de l’Amérique...” 7. J, dated 9 th November 1928, in OEuvres Complètes IV, Gallimard, Paris, 1975, p.30. 8. Ibid., p.777 (dated 28 th May 1944). 9. J 1919-1924, p.36, dated 5 th August 1920. “On lit les Testaments, on est heureux de vivre sagement, on aime Dieu; mais le corps s’affaiblit, la tentation le harcèle et, si l’on ne tombe pas, une détestable langueur, une torpeur nous possède. 10. Ibid., p.37, 12 th ,13 th August 1920. “L’amour de Dieu est intolérant, l’amour de Dieu ne souffre pas de partage, l’amour de Dieu demande plus, toujours plus...il veut tout... Ne crucifiez pas Dieu. Ayez pitié de Lui afin qu’Il ait pitié de vous au dernier jour”. 11. See O.C., V, p.947. 12. J, 1919-1924, p.43, 15 th December 1920. 13. L’avenir n’est à personne, Journal 1990-1992, p.17 (13 th February 1990). “Le petit nombre des élus. Que ces mots de saint Matthieu (XX, 16) m’auront inquiété et fait souffrir ma pauvre Anne”. Green is here referring to the words “for many are called, but few chosen”, which he notes are often omitted from recent editions of the Bible. 14. J, 1919-1924, pp.105, 106, 17 th April 1924. "&
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Julian Hartridge Green

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