Between the Lines: Shaw in His Own Words
George Bernard Shaw's "Are We Heading For War?" is crudely duct taped inside of a large cardboard folder. It is emblazoned with Shaw's photograph and filled with strong political words endorsed by the Labor Party. This small booklet was not, however, written specifically for the Labor Party, but instead indicated that it is a transcript of a speech Shaw had previously given, leaving his actual direct involvement in the Labor Party ambiguous. Was he a member, a leader, or simply affiliated? Though he may not have necessarily aligned himself with the Labor Party, his message is decidedly political. He sees the British government as having failed its own people, ignoring issues on the homefront and engaging in unecessary aggression.
The use of Shaw's photograph may have been an attempt on the part of the Labor Party to create a leader who could serve as a face of their movement, with Shaw being the ideal candidate. The picture appears to be posed, so perhaps Shaw consented to such a depiction. His affiliation with the controversial Labor Party may have contributed to the mythology surrounding his character. This ambiguity points toward a larger issue: are icons born or made? Perhaps the interest surrounding Shaw was placed on a man, making him into a celebrity when he only sought to be a writer.
Some of the questions left lingering by the "Are We Heading For War?" booklet can be answered by the newspaper to which it is duct-taped. The Listener periodical is filled with enlightened articles concerning science, math, and politics. It is formulated as a newspaper of progress.
Shaw's submission makes the unflinching statement that the British people are in a kind of slavery to their government. This sentiment would likely have been echoed by the British working class--at the time, worker's rights were on the forefront of political discussion. Shaw expresses support for Karl Marx, an iconic communist thinker. He seems willing to shift the iconization and notoriety on to someone else.
Though "Are We Heading For War?" and "Freedom" make similar statements, a glaring difference is the picture. While the pamphlet contained an all-encompassing image of Shaw, the focus of The Listener is not Shaw as a figure--instead, the front page has an image of an impoverished British factory worker. The focus is shifted to the message rather than the iconization of Shaw. Very little of Shaw's focus was on his own status as a political leader.
George Bernard Shaw did not write about himself, and likely did not see himself as the face of any revolution. He wrote about the working class and disenfranchised, a group he could have easily ignored as a succesful intellectual. The article in The Listener may be one of the more accurate depictions of Shaw, since it is both written by Shaw and contains nothing about him. Other peoples ideas about Shaw simultaneously dilute his message and expand him larger than life. We may just feel more entitled to the truth about celebrities. In the end, we likely will never entirely understand who Shaw was, but that makes him no more enigmatic than anyone else.
My specialty is being right when other people are wrong.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, You Never Can Tell