The delights of Aspidistra
The delights of the Aspidistra (English original title: Keep the Aspidistra Flying) is a novel by George Orwell from the year 1936. The hero of the novel is a poet in London in the 1930s who tried to refuse the business society and failed radically.
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Gordon Comstock comes from the descending middle class, his family is described as unfit for life. According to his status, he should get a good education (at the expense of his sister), but he suffers from the humiliation of being from a poorer family than his classmates. In his further professional life he cannot show any successes and cannot free himself from his poverty, which however seems to please him subconsciously, since he does not make any serious efforts to improve his circumstances. Nevertheless, he is depressed by the constant lack of money and seems to be the only source of all his problems. He wants to become a poet and when a small success seems possible, he immediately gives up his job with an advertising agency. His volume of poetry, which receives good reviews, is not selling well. In order to escape the bourgeoisie, Gordon opts for a poorly paid job with no opportunities for advancement: he becomes an antiquarian clerk. But he does not take a political position, he is unable to share the Marxist views of an acquaintance and, moreover, he is toying with the Catholic Church. Rather, he seems to represent an anti-capitalism with the basic stance “Everything was better in the past”, since he is constantly upset about advertising posters and campaigns around him.
Now his life has come to a standstill. He does not get to write because he is depressed by his poverty. He can hardly take part in social life because he is poor. His girlfriend doesn't want to sleep with him - as he suspects - because of his poverty. A newspaper publishes a poem by him, and now he's getting a real payment. He has to spend the money immediately: When he is completely drunk, the money is stolen from him by a hooker, he beats himself up with a policeman and is taken to the sobering cell. Because this unimportant news is reported in a newspaper, he then loses his job.
He finds a similar but worse job and a worse furnished room to live in and lets himself go to pieces, he hardly ever washes himself, lives in a filthy room and would like to break off all contact with friends and relatives. Out of pity, his girlfriend finally sleeps with him and immediately becomes pregnant. She asks Gordon whether they should keep the child or have an abortion, whereupon he spontaneously begins to feel fatherly. He absolutely wants to keep the child and can finally bring himself to ask for a new job at his former workplace, the advertising agency. A little later it is accepted and is immediately quite successful. (However, at their request only a civil ceremony) he marries his girlfriend, decides in favor of a middle-class life and decides a Aspidistra to buy a house plant, which was previously considered him as a symbol of the stuffy England.
filming
The novel was filmed in 1997 with Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter in the leading roles. The film was released in New Zealand and the United States under the title A Merry War . In Germany the film was released under the title Love, Art and Indoor Plants .