MARGINAL COMMENTS
By MONICA REDLICH WHY stop at Book Clubs ? The question is a pertinent one, since certain Book Clubs have lately given the impression that they would prefer to stop at nothing. When once the Great British Public catches on to the idea that by being a member of a " club " (no nomination required, and no subscription, and there is no danger of being blackballed), it can have three objects at least for only the price of one, it should be pretty quick to see the value of extending the system. Why not, for example, a Hat of the Month Club ? Sign an undertaking to belong for six months, and we deliver to you on the first of each month an exquisite Paris model hat, designed in collaboration by all the leading luminaries, and fitted with an invisible elastic gusset that automatically adapts itself to every type of head. Three guineas in all the shops: price to members only as. 6d. each.
Or a Tie Club. Or a Boy Friend Club (Familiarity Breeds Contempt—have a new Boy Friend every first of the month, and make all your girl friends jealous). Or a Social Credit Club, distributing bank notes half price to its members every month. Never mind all the agreements that exist for fair trading—they are a little inconvenient, certainly, but they can be got round, and it's you who are going to benefit. (Us ? Oh, my dear madam, no—we do it from the purest altruistic motives. We are creating a new Hat Public, or Bank Note Public, or whatever it happens to be, and of course by so doing we don't in the least affect the ordinary sale of the article at the ordinary price in the shops—in fact, we probably help it.) There need be no end to the benefits which a system such as this could confer on our bewildered and tax-ridden civilisa- tion. Might it not even be the revolutionary reform for which the whole world is waiting ?
Perhaps, indeed, it is so already, though we in this country seem to be being a little slow to grasp it. They do these things much better when there are dictators about. The Hate Club, for instance, as featured in all really progressive countries nowadays : this month, my dear friends, the object selected for your hatred is the bourgeoisie : last month it was the Jews, the month before that it was Christianity, and we promise to provide you with an absolutely unfailing supply of new objects, month after month, at no effort or expense to yourself.
Such a state of affairs shows us very plainly where Book Clubs fall short—and not only Book Clubs, but all federations, altruistic or merely reasonable, which have books as their raison d'être. For books imply reading, and it is the most flat-footed of truisms to point out that in this age of grace people are able to hurtle their bodies about so fast that they have almost ceased to feel any need for bestirring their minds. Yes, the dictator countries have the secret. There the State takes your money and acts in return as Book Club, Belief Club, Intolerance Club, Bee-in-the-Bonnet Club, and every other club one could possibly need for the conduct of one's everyday life. Nothing is left to the individual but to put on his uniform and acquiesce.
We in this country are lamentably far behind the times.
Why stop at Book Clubs ? Here is a clear lead, not only to dispensing with those antiquated extras the booksellers, and in time all retail traders generally, but also towards that high level of individuality which shows itself on the spiritual plane by allowing other people to prescribe one's books and opinions, and on more mundane levels by an uncontrollable tendency to rush into uniforms. I for my part would willingly start a Hat of the Month Club (ladies', of course) if the neces- sary technical arrangements could only be made. It is hardly likely that many of us would look sillier than we do now we choose our own headgear, and I could I am sure, like the founders of other Clubs, manage by only a trifling exercise of the imagination to regard it as my contribution to the peace and prosperity of the world.
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