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Moving Target
An important and illuminating collection of essays and lectures by the winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature. William Golding writes about places as diverse as Wiltshire, where he lived for over half a century, Dutch waterways, Delphi, Egypt ancient and modern, and planet Earth herself. Other essays discuss books and ideas, and provide a fascinating background to the appreciate Golding's own writing and imagination. Includes Golding's Nobel Speech.
'Golding come through this collection as reserved and wary, but delightful . . . His writing is a joy.' Sunday Times
'Golding come through this collection as reserved and wary, but delightful . . . His writing is a joy.' Sunday Times
- GenresEssaysNonfiction
202 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1982
About the author
William Golding
163 books4,892 followersSir William Gerald Golding was an Engish novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.
As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 28, 2015
This collection was originally published in 1982, but after he received his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, Golding had his Stockholm speech appended to the volume for a re-publication in 1983.
I started with the Nobel acceptance speech, the last essay/speech in the volume, which is composed of lectures re-worked and odd bits of writing he'd done for travel magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. The final essay, the Nobel speech, is a gem, and I was pleased to re-read it when I had travelled from the first genial essay to the penultimate, less genial, more crotchety essay that had apparently closed out the original 1982 edition. Golding's manner in the Nobel speech is appropriately humble, and he begins it by assuring everyone that he's only a pessimist when it concerns the real and tangible world, that as for the world that also encompasses the spiritual, he is very much an optimist; as he would put it, he is a universal pessimist and a cosmic optimist. He speaks a bit on his own mortality, cites some apt verse, speaks of the state of English, then settles in to speak of the state of the novel, of its value—despite the simple genre fictions and the claims of other media—how it is that story telling and the virtues of accessing the mysteries that lie at the heart of creation and emotion will help to guide man from the brink of his own and the world's destruction. The novel, he says, "performs no less an act than the preservation of the indivudality and dignity of the single being, be it man, woman or child. No other art, I claim, can so thread in and out of a single mind and body, so live another life." Again, appropriately humble, Golding concludes his acceptance speech with an anecdote about how received a parking ticket for failing to have read a notice, then after being told what he should have read on the ticket itself about paying the fine, the policeman added, "And may we congratulate you on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature."
The introduction is also worth reading, as it is a good essay in itself on Golding's manner of delivering speeches, which he considered a necessary evil. He loathed the repetitiveness of delivering the same words day after day, and he relates how he found himself distinctly at a loss when he observed that some auditors were taping his speech, seemingly nodding or mouthing with anticipation portions of his speech they'd heard at some other venue. The essays in this volume, he concludes, have been cleaned up, fixed, so that record may be straight about which is the "authorative" version.
The first half of his essays are travel pieces, ranging from an appreciation of local English settings (all of historical Wiltshire, a crossroads of many civilizations: Celts, Romans, Saxons, et al., now fully domesticated; and Winchester and Salisbury, with their cathedrals), the Dutch canals (and the earnest, friendly Dutchmen's penchant for reclaiming land from the sea: "God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland"), Greece (Delphi, the site of pre-Apollonian mother cults, and site of the mysteries of the oracles), and Egypt. There is also a short paean to Mother Earth, Gaia, in his appraisal of George Gerston's book of aerial photographs, Grand Design: The Earth from Above. In the essays about Egypt and Greece, Golding speaks as much about the topography as the terrain of the mind, in particular his conception of the ancient mind as it reveals itself to him. It is in the ancient cultures of the Egyptian and the Delphic Greeks that Golding sees a readier access from the mundane to the spiritual worlds.
In the latter essays, which are reviews and lectures, Golding ranges over Robert Fitzgerald's then new translation (1963) of The Odyssey (better to read it in the Greek, Golding concludes, so as to deal with the epic's proper repetition of language), the Opies' Classic Fairy Tales (indispensable for grandparents, so that they might read to their grandchildren of the reality of evil), Paul Fussell's The Great War and Memory (well done bits about poets Graves, Sassoon, and Owens, but in general too cheeky), what might be the sole purpose of journal keeping (essaying a survey of English diarists ranging from the naive Jimmy Mason to public Pepys, the liberal Herve, the excruciating Johnson, and the pious Queen Victoria), tricks of the trade (the "rough magic" necessary to create a work of fiction and to hold an audience in thrall), his first book (a flimsy 34-page book of poetry, a medium in which he precociously soared though never beyond the heights of Tennyson rhyme and rhythm), his inability to endorse a single mode of composition (and ill suitability as a subject of anyone's post-graduate thesis topic), the inherent immutability and moral stagnation in utopias (surveying Swift, DeFoe, Orwell, Huxley, Butler, et al.), and the spirit of the times (which beliefs are abysmally materialistic and must be countered with the creativity and mysteries inherent in stories).
I like Golding's novels, hence found what he had to say of more merit than others might. He reveals his erudition in numerous of these essays, and I found the pair of Egypt essays the most interesting, both in what they say about the ostensible topic and how the ancient Egypt of his imagination is spark and kin to the world of the spirit he limns in his fiction.
I started with the Nobel acceptance speech, the last essay/speech in the volume, which is composed of lectures re-worked and odd bits of writing he'd done for travel magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. The final essay, the Nobel speech, is a gem, and I was pleased to re-read it when I had travelled from the first genial essay to the penultimate, less genial, more crotchety essay that had apparently closed out the original 1982 edition. Golding's manner in the Nobel speech is appropriately humble, and he begins it by assuring everyone that he's only a pessimist when it concerns the real and tangible world, that as for the world that also encompasses the spiritual, he is very much an optimist; as he would put it, he is a universal pessimist and a cosmic optimist. He speaks a bit on his own mortality, cites some apt verse, speaks of the state of English, then settles in to speak of the state of the novel, of its value—despite the simple genre fictions and the claims of other media—how it is that story telling and the virtues of accessing the mysteries that lie at the heart of creation and emotion will help to guide man from the brink of his own and the world's destruction. The novel, he says, "performs no less an act than the preservation of the indivudality and dignity of the single being, be it man, woman or child. No other art, I claim, can so thread in and out of a single mind and body, so live another life." Again, appropriately humble, Golding concludes his acceptance speech with an anecdote about how received a parking ticket for failing to have read a notice, then after being told what he should have read on the ticket itself about paying the fine, the policeman added, "And may we congratulate you on winning the Nobel Prize for Literature."
The introduction is also worth reading, as it is a good essay in itself on Golding's manner of delivering speeches, which he considered a necessary evil. He loathed the repetitiveness of delivering the same words day after day, and he relates how he found himself distinctly at a loss when he observed that some auditors were taping his speech, seemingly nodding or mouthing with anticipation portions of his speech they'd heard at some other venue. The essays in this volume, he concludes, have been cleaned up, fixed, so that record may be straight about which is the "authorative" version.
The first half of his essays are travel pieces, ranging from an appreciation of local English settings (all of historical Wiltshire, a crossroads of many civilizations: Celts, Romans, Saxons, et al., now fully domesticated; and Winchester and Salisbury, with their cathedrals), the Dutch canals (and the earnest, friendly Dutchmen's penchant for reclaiming land from the sea: "God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland"), Greece (Delphi, the site of pre-Apollonian mother cults, and site of the mysteries of the oracles), and Egypt. There is also a short paean to Mother Earth, Gaia, in his appraisal of George Gerston's book of aerial photographs, Grand Design: The Earth from Above. In the essays about Egypt and Greece, Golding speaks as much about the topography as the terrain of the mind, in particular his conception of the ancient mind as it reveals itself to him. It is in the ancient cultures of the Egyptian and the Delphic Greeks that Golding sees a readier access from the mundane to the spiritual worlds.
In the latter essays, which are reviews and lectures, Golding ranges over Robert Fitzgerald's then new translation (1963) of The Odyssey (better to read it in the Greek, Golding concludes, so as to deal with the epic's proper repetition of language), the Opies' Classic Fairy Tales (indispensable for grandparents, so that they might read to their grandchildren of the reality of evil), Paul Fussell's The Great War and Memory (well done bits about poets Graves, Sassoon, and Owens, but in general too cheeky), what might be the sole purpose of journal keeping (essaying a survey of English diarists ranging from the naive Jimmy Mason to public Pepys, the liberal Herve, the excruciating Johnson, and the pious Queen Victoria), tricks of the trade (the "rough magic" necessary to create a work of fiction and to hold an audience in thrall), his first book (a flimsy 34-page book of poetry, a medium in which he precociously soared though never beyond the heights of Tennyson rhyme and rhythm), his inability to endorse a single mode of composition (and ill suitability as a subject of anyone's post-graduate thesis topic), the inherent immutability and moral stagnation in utopias (surveying Swift, DeFoe, Orwell, Huxley, Butler, et al.), and the spirit of the times (which beliefs are abysmally materialistic and must be countered with the creativity and mysteries inherent in stories).
I like Golding's novels, hence found what he had to say of more merit than others might. He reveals his erudition in numerous of these essays, and I found the pair of Egypt essays the most interesting, both in what they say about the ostensible topic and how the ancient Egypt of his imagination is spark and kin to the world of the spirit he limns in his fiction.
September 26, 2019
First off, there are two versions of this book, a 1982 version without Golding's Nobel prize lecture, and later ones with.
This collection is about half "place" pieces which are which are partly but not entirely about travel, and "idea" pieces, which are a mix of book reviews and lectures (though one of the place pieces is also a book review). The travel pieces are much lighter than most of Golding's writing, mostly focussing on the impressions and sensations of some place. They're often surprisingly poetic, and the final two travel pieces about Egypt do an excellent job of communicating some of the appeal of Egypt (which I have personally never understood). There was one bit, where he noted how at the equator, the phases of the Moon can look like a boat at times, compared to the higher latitudes, that really amazed me. He can look at something so simultaneously ordinary and incredible as the Moon, and surprise me so thoroughly. I could look at the moon from every part of every continent and never really notice it.
The idea pieces are more of a mixed bag. The reviews are straightforward and interesting, especially the long rumination on journal-keeping. The lectures, on the other hand, were tough going. I probably should have taken it as a warning that the preface does not actually say that they're interesting, merely that there was something cathartic (for Golding) about getting them out in a fixed form in a book. He notes that they're as much performance pieces as anything, which I think accounts for their lack of appeal on the page. Like a play, which is only half-formed if it is only read, I'm probably missing out on the experience of seeing and hearing a bearded old man step up onto a stage and talk about the what and why of novels, after his customary opening lament about the fixity of his reputation as the author of Lord of the Flies. The standouts from the lecture section are Rough Magic, which actually comes around to saying interesting things by pulling examples from actual novels, and Utopias and Antiutopias, which would be a great survey and critique of the concept if he had read and commented on the works of Olaf Stapledon, who I would contend anticipated every comment Golding makes about the utopian concept.
This collection is about half "place" pieces which are which are partly but not entirely about travel, and "idea" pieces, which are a mix of book reviews and lectures (though one of the place pieces is also a book review). The travel pieces are much lighter than most of Golding's writing, mostly focussing on the impressions and sensations of some place. They're often surprisingly poetic, and the final two travel pieces about Egypt do an excellent job of communicating some of the appeal of Egypt (which I have personally never understood). There was one bit, where he noted how at the equator, the phases of the Moon can look like a boat at times, compared to the higher latitudes, that really amazed me. He can look at something so simultaneously ordinary and incredible as the Moon, and surprise me so thoroughly. I could look at the moon from every part of every continent and never really notice it.
The idea pieces are more of a mixed bag. The reviews are straightforward and interesting, especially the long rumination on journal-keeping. The lectures, on the other hand, were tough going. I probably should have taken it as a warning that the preface does not actually say that they're interesting, merely that there was something cathartic (for Golding) about getting them out in a fixed form in a book. He notes that they're as much performance pieces as anything, which I think accounts for their lack of appeal on the page. Like a play, which is only half-formed if it is only read, I'm probably missing out on the experience of seeing and hearing a bearded old man step up onto a stage and talk about the what and why of novels, after his customary opening lament about the fixity of his reputation as the author of Lord of the Flies. The standouts from the lecture section are Rough Magic, which actually comes around to saying interesting things by pulling examples from actual novels, and Utopias and Antiutopias, which would be a great survey and critique of the concept if he had read and commented on the works of Olaf Stapledon, who I would contend anticipated every comment Golding makes about the utopian concept.
March 26, 2023
- A Moving Target is a collection of essays and lectures by William Golding, the Nobel Prize-winning author of Lord of the Flies and other novels. It was first published in 1982, but later editions included his Nobel Prize lecture from 1983.
- The book is divided into two sections: Places and Ideas. In Places, Golding reflects on his travels to various locations, such as Egypt, Greece, America, and India. He also writes about his childhood in Cornwall and his experiences as a naval officer during World War II. In Ideas, Golding discusses some of the themes and influences that shaped his fiction, such as myth, religion, history, science, and literature. He also comments on some of his own novels and those of other writers, such as R.M. Ballantyne, Joseph Conrad, and Saul Bellow.
- The book reveals Golding's wide-ranging interests and insights, as well as his personal struggles and doubts. He writes with honesty, humor, and eloquence, blending anecdotes, observations, and arguments. He also shows his humility and self-criticism, admitting his flaws and failures as a writer and a human being.
- The book is not a conventional autobiography or a systematic analysis of Golding's work. It is rather a series of snapshots and glimpses into his mind and imagination. It is a valuable and enjoyable read for anyone who wants to know more about Golding's life and work, or who shares his curiosity and passion for the world and its mysteries.
May 11, 2023
“I was recognising this path we were on. It was a faint, white thread on the first photograph of the valley I have ever seen, in the British Museum Guide to the Egyptian Antiquities, et cetera. That was when I was child, small. It was a shot taken from down there of up here. I had said to myself – he said to himself – ‘one day I will walk there, alone, because it will be where they walked and I shall feel them.’ Want to be somewhere long enough and when you get there you remember wanting to be there. Want as a child and as an old man you do not achieve the ambition. You remember a child wanting. Time is exact or place is exact, not both. The world is Heraclitian. You cannot bathe once in the same river.”
A really well done collection of essays. Thoughtful and imaginative and written in a unique voice. Perhaps his earlier collection The Hot Gates has the edge, but there’s not much in it and if you enjoyed one you’ll enjoy the other.
A really well done collection of essays. Thoughtful and imaginative and written in a unique voice. Perhaps his earlier collection The Hot Gates has the edge, but there’s not much in it and if you enjoyed one you’ll enjoy the other.
April 15, 2023
TBH I enjoyed the travel writing rather more than the more philosophical essays: but the final piece - the acceptance speech for the Nobel prize - is superb.
March 28, 2012
Wonderful, nourishing, warming and inspiring, intelligent yet grounded, innovative and eloquent, mindful while earthly, this collection of essays varies wildly in subject but rarely in quality. A few drier pages, some repetition and a couple of other minor imperfections keep me from awarding 5 stars, but I do not mean that as such a detraction of merit as it comes across. I wish I could rate 4.5 stars, or even in smaller increments - for there truly is only the faintest discolouring at play here. William Golding is fast becoming one of my favourite authors, that rise helped in no small part by this book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews