Page 14 - Art First: Simon Morley: Lost Horizon

Peach Blossom Paradise, locating it in a ‘real’ place—the Valley of the Blue Moon,
hidden away high up in the Himalayas. Here, a dying French priest, who is already
more than 300 years old, has been building a perfect society based, he says, on the

simple virtues of ‘kindness’ and ‘modera tion’, while also hording everything noble
andgoodfromaworldhebelievestobeonthebrinkofapocalypse.is High Lama,
most improbably, has arranged the kidnapping in China of Hugh (or Robert in the

movie) Conway, an enlightened British diplo mat and survivor of the trenches
of the Great War, whom he hopes to persuade to become his successor. But for
reasons that are by no means clear Conway chooses to depart from Shangri-La.
ese centre on Conway’s sense of loyalty to a diplomatic colleague (in the movie
it’s his brother, so his subse quent decision to leave seems much stranger in the

book), who is also a passen ger on the plane but is desperate to leave Shangri-
La. But Conway is soon wanting to return, and we learn through a diplomat col-
league’s account that he struggled against impossible odds to make his way back
to Shangri-La, under tak ing a Herculean journey in order to find the happiness,

inner peace, love, sense of purpose and long life he believed to be his birthright.

◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉ ◉

As we know very well, there is a dark side to the Utopian dream. To borrow
a phrase of Robespierre (adopted by Lenin), the twentieth century was full of
cracked eggs but not many omelets, (Robespierre said ‘You can’t make an omelet
without breaking eggs’—that is, it is necessary to engage in act of violence in order

to create the perfect society). Acknowledging the difference between what the