This essay addresses dual sensitivity at the root of the human dilemma, which is also the theme of Howards End.

http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/dualsens.html

This essay describes the unique situation of human beings in the scale of things

http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/unique.html

Didn't watch it, I thought that it was about John Howard.

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Dear Peter,

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Thank you for that interesting review of the ABC’s TV programme on E M Forster's 1910 novel “Howard's End”.

I particularly appreciated your comment :

« The tragedy of the Wilcox men is that they can never have an intimate relationship with another human being because not seeing depth within themselves they do not see depth in the other. It is this lack that marks them off as being less than human, both men are capable of brutish behaviour. Their relationship with others will be defined by ownership, power and protocol »

That description applies to a number of people I can think of – some personally – others not, such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, for example.

Such people are megalomaniacs and narcissistic perverts. They suffer from what Freud might have described as a sort of “phallus psychosis”.

It is significative, in this regard, that Angela Merkel declared, following her discussions with Vladimir Putin in 2017, that it is impossible to have a meaningful conversation about anything with a person who lies constantly.

Apart from that, I can’t say that I agree with your interpretation of E M Forster’s underlying premise of the dualism between "the seen and the unseen" as being of a “theological” nature. On the contrary, everything in Forster’s life points to his attraction to pagan mysticism and humanism. He was president of the Cambridge Humanists for 11 years until his death and a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association for the last 7 years of his life as well.

Forster was a homosexual and a lifelong bachelor. Jim Herrick, the founder of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, quoted Forster as having said : "The humanist has four leading characteristics – curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race".

The apparent "mysticism" in Forster’s writing in general and in his novel, “Howard’s End”, in particular, has nothing to do with theology. It has to do with what he perceives as the hidden "mysteries" that allow human transformation.

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