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letters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( )ames Baldwin and the *+an* B! %,-, .upee The %ire Ne/t Time b! )ames Baldwin The .ial 0ress$ 1(,23 As a writer of polemical essa!s on the Ne4ro 5uestion )ames Baldwin has no e5uals, He probabl! has$ in fact$ no real competitors, The literar! role he has taken on so deliberatel! and pla!ed with so a4ile an intelli4ence is one that no white writer could possibl! imitate and that few Ne4roes$ 6 ima4ine$ would wish to embrace in toto, Baldwin impresses me as bein4 the Ne4ro in e/tremis$ a virtuoso of ethnic sufferin4$ defiance$ and aspiration, His role is that of the man whose comple/ion constitutes his fate$ and not onl! in a societ! poisoned b! pre7udice but$ it sometimes seems$ in 4eneral, %or he appears to have received a heav! dose of e/istentialis m8 he is at least half9inclined to see the Ne4ro 5uestion in the li4ht of the Human Condition, So he wears his color as Hester 0r!nne did her scarlet letter$ proudl!, And like her he converts this thin4$ in itself so absurdl! material$ into a form of consciousness$ a condition of spirit, Believin4 himself to have
been branded as different from and inferior to the white ma7orit!$ he will make a virtue of his situation, He will be different and in his own wa! be better, His ma7or essa!s:for e/ample$ those collected in Notes of a Native Son:show the e/tent to which he is able to be different and in his own wa! better, +ost of them were written$ as other such pieces 4enerall! are$ for the ma4a;ines$ some obviousl! on assi4nment, And their sub7ects:a book$ a person$ a locale$ an encounter:are the inevitable sub7ects of ma4a;ine essa!s, But Baldwin<s wa! with them is far from inevitable, To appl! criticism *in depth* to =ncle Tom<s Cabin is$ for him$ to illuminate not onl! a book$ an author$ an a4e$ but a whole strain in a countr!<s culture, Similarl! with those routine themes$ the 0aris e/patriate and >ife -ith %ather$ which he treats in *?5ual 6n 0aris* and the title piece of Notes of a Native Son$ and which he wholl! transfi4ures, @f course the transfi4urin4 process in Baldwin<s essa!s owes somethin4 to the fact that the point of view is a Ne4ro<s$ an outsider<s$ 7ust as the satire of American manners in >olita and +orte d<=rban depends on their bein4 written from the an4le of$ respectivel!$ a forei4n9born creep and a Catholic priest, But Baldwin<s point of view in his essa!s is not merel! that of the 4eneric Ne4ro, 6t is$ as 6 have said$ that of a hi4hl! st!li;ed Ne4ro$ a role which he pla!s with an artful and ;estful consistenc! and which he
e/presses in a lan4ua4e distin4uished b! clarit!$ brevit!$ and a certain formal ele4ance, He is in love$ for e/ample$ with s!nta/$ with sentences that mount throu4h clearl! articulated sta4es to a resoundin4 and clarif!in4 clima/ and then 4racefull! subside, %or instance this one$ from The %ire Ne/t TimeA NYRB Holida! Sale irls$ onl! sli4htl! older than 6 was$ who san4 in the choir or tau4ht Sunda! school$ the children of hol! parents$ underwent$ before m! e!es$ their incredible metamorphosis$ of which the most bewilderin4 aspect was not their buddin4 breasts or their roundin4 behinds but somethin4 deeper and more subtle$ in their e!es$ their heat$ their odor$ and the inflection of their voices, Nobod! else in democratic America writes sentences like this an!more, 6t su44ests the ideal prose of an ideal literar! communit!$ some aristocratic %rance of one<s dreams, This former Harlem bo! has under4one his own incredible metamorphosis, His latest book$ The %ire Ne/t Time$ differs in important wa!s from his earlier work in the essa!, 6ts sub7ects are less concrete$ less clearl! defined8 to a considerable e/tent he has e/chan4ed prophec! for criticism$ e/hortation for anal!sis$ and the results for his mind and st!le are in part disturbin4, The %ire Ne/t Time 4ets its title from a slave son4A * od
4ave Noah the rainbow si4n$BNo more water the fire ne/t time,* But this small book with the incendiar! title consists of two independent essa!s$ both in the form of letters, @ne is a brief affair entitled *+! .un4eon Shook* and addressed to *+! Nephew on the @ne Hundredth Anniversar! of the ?mancipation,* The ominous promise of this title is fulfilled in the te/t, Between the hundred9!ear9old anniversar! and the fifteen9 !ear9old nephew the disparit! is too 4reat even for a writer of Baldwin<s rhetorical powers, The essa! reads like some specimen of *public speech* as practiced b! +ac>eish or Norman Corwin, 6t is not 4ood Baldwin, The other$ much lon4er$ much more si4nificant essa! appeared first in a pre9Christmas number of The New Yorker$ where it made$ understandabl!$ a sensation, 6t is called *.own At the Cross8 >etter %rom a Re4ion of +! +ind,* The subtitle should be noted, ?videntl! the essa! is to be taken as onl! a partial or provisional declaration on Baldwin<s part$ a sin4le piece of his mind, +uch of it$ however$ re5uires no such appeal for caution on the reader<s part, +uch of it is une/ceptionabl! first9rate, %or e/ample$ the reminiscences of the writer<s bo!hood$ which form the len4th! introduction, @ther of Baldwin<s writin4s have made us familiar with certain aspects of his Harlem past, Here he concentrates on 5uite different thin4sA the bo!<s increasin4 awareness of the ab!small! narrow world of
choice he inhabits as a Ne4ro$ his attempt to escape a criminal e/istence b! under4oin4 a reli4ious conversion and becomin4 at fifteen a revivalist preacher$ his discover! that he must learn to *inspire fear* if he hopes to survive the fear inspired in him b! *the man*:the white man, 6n these pa4es we come close to understandin4 wh! he eventuall! assumed his rather speciali;ed literar! role, 6t seems to have 4rown naturall! out of his e/perience of New York Cit!, As distinct from a rural or small9town Ne4ro bo!$ who is earl! and firml! tau4ht his place$ !oun4 Baldwin knew the treacherous fluidit! and anon!mit! of the metropolis$ where hidden taboos and unpredictable animosities la! in wait for him and a trip to the CDnd Street >ibrar! could be a 4rim adventure, All this part of the book is perfect8 and when Baldwin finall! 4ets to what is his ostensible sub7ect$ the Black +uslims or Nation of 6slam movement$ he is ver! 4ood too, As 4ood$ that is$ as possible considerin4 that his relations with the movement seem to have been sli4ht, He once shared a television pro4ram with +alcolm E$ *the movement<s second9in9command$* and he paid a brief and inconclusive visit to the first9in9command$ the Honorable ?li7ah +uhammad$ and his entoura4e at the part!<s head5uarters in Chica4o, F+uhammad ranks as a prophet8 to him the Black +uslim doctrines were *revealed b! Allah Himself,*G Baldwin reports the Chica4o
encounter in charmin4 detail and with what looks like complete honest!, @n his leavin4 the part!<s rather 4rand 5uarters$ the leader insisted on providin4 him with a car and driver to protect him *from the white devils until he 4ets wherever it is he is 4oin4,* Baldwin accepted$ he tells us$ addin4 wr!l!A *6 was$ in fact$ 4oin4 to have a drink with several white devils on the other side of town,* He offers some data on the Black +uslim movement$ its aims and finances, But he did a minimum of homework here, Had he done more he mi4ht at least have provided a solid base for the speculative fireworks the book abounds in, To cope thorou4hl! with the fireworks in short space$ or perhaps an! space$ seems impossible, 6deas shoot from the book<s pa4es as the sparks fl! upward$ in bewilderin4 5uantit! and at random, 6 don<t mean that it is all da;;le, @n the cruel parado/es of the Ne4ro<s life$ the failures of Christianit!$ the relations of Ne4ro and )ew$ Baldwin is often superb, But a lot of dama4e is done to his ar4ument b! his indiscriminate raids on %reud$ >awrence$ Sartre$ enet$ and other ps!cholo4ists$ metaph!sicians and melodramatists, Still more dama4e is done b! his refusal to draw on an!one so humble as +artin >uther Hin4 and his fellow9practitioners of non9violent stru44le, %or e/ampleA *-hite Americans do not believe in death$ and this is wh! the darkness of m!
skin so intimidates them,* But suppose one or two white Americans are not intimidated, Suppose someone cooll! asks what it means to *believe in death,* A4ainA *.o 6 reall! want to be inte4rated into a burnin4 houseI* Since !ou have no other$ !es8 and the better9disposed firemen will welcome !our assistance, A4ainA *A vast amount of the ener4! that 4oes into what we call the Ne4ro problem is produced b! the white man<s profound desire not to be 7ud4ed b! those who are not white,* You e/a44erate the white man<s consciousness of the Ne4ro, A4ainA *The real reason that non9 violence is considered to be a virtue in Ne4roesJis that white men do not want their lives$ their self9ima4e$ or their propert! threatened,* @f course the! don<t$ especiall! their lives, +oreover$ this imputin4 of *real reasons* for the behavior of entire populations is self9defeatin4$ to put it mildl!, @ne last 5uotation$ this time a re4ular apocal!pseA 6n order to survive as a human$ movin4$ moral wei4ht in the world$ America and all the -estern nations will be forced to ree/amine themselves and release themselves from man! thin4s that are now taken to be sacred$ and to discard nearl! all the assumptions that have been used to 7ustif! their lives and their an4uish and their crimes so lon4, Since whole cultures have never been known to *discard nearl! all their assumptions* and !et remain intact$ this amounts to sa!in4 that
an! essential improvement in Ne4ro9white relations$ and thus in the 5ualit! of American life$ is unlikel!, So much for the fireworks, -hat dama4e$ as 6 called it$ do the! do to the writer and his cause :which is also the concern of plent! of othersI -hen Baldwin replaces criticism with prophec!$ he manifestl! weakens his 4rasp of his role$ his st!le$ and his 4reat theme itself, And to what endI -ho is likel! to be moved b! such ar4uments$ unless it is the more literate Black +uslims$ whose pro4ram Baldwin specificall! re7ects as both vindictive and unworkable, And with the situation as it is in +ississippi and elsewhere:dan4erous$ that is$ to the Ne4ro stru44le and the whole social order:is not a writer of Baldwin<s standin4 obli4ed to submit his assertions to some kind of pra4matic test$ some process whereb! their truth or untruth will be 4au4ed accordin4 to their social utilit!I He writesA *The Ne4roes of this countr! ma! never be able to rise to power$ but the! are ver! well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and rin4 down the curtain on the American dream,* 6 should think that the anti9Ne4ro e/tremists were even better placed than the Ne4roes to precipitate chaos$ or at least to cause a lot of trouble8 and it is unclear to me how The %ire Ne/t Time$ in its madder moments$ can do nothin4 e/cept inflame the former and confuse the latter, Assumin4 that a book can do an!thin4 to either,
email icon ?mail to a friend >etters )une #$ #&'(A Robert C, Kuinlan$ >etter Subscribe to The New York ReviewL Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B Riviera >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo Series Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, Bookmark P ShareNYRB ToA %romA NoteA
"olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( .Q7euner sur l<Herbe B! +ar! +cCarth! The Naked >unch b! -illiam S, Burrou4hs rove 0ress$ ',33 *You can cut into The Naked >unch at an! intersection point$* sa!s Burrou4hs$ suitin4 the action to the word$ in *an atrophied preface* he appends as a tail9piece, His book$ he means$ is like a nei4hborhood movie with continuous showin4s that !ou can drop into whenever !ou please:!ou don<t have to wait for the be4innin4 of the feature picture, @r like a worm that !ou can chop up into sections each of which wri44les off as an independent worm, @r a nine9lived cat, @r a cancer, He is fond of the word *mosaic$* especiall! in its scientific sense of a plant9mottlin4 caused b! a virus$ and his +use Fsee et!molo4! of *mosaic*G is interested in or4anic processes of multiplication and duplication, The literar! notion of time as simultaneous$ a monta4e$ is not ori4inal with Burrou4hs8 what is ori4inal is the scientific bent he 4ives it and a view of the world that combines biochemistr!$ anthropolo4!$ and politics, 6t is as thou4h %inne4ans -ake were cut loose from histor! and adapted for a cinerama circus titled *@ne -orld,* The Naked >unch has no use for histor!$ which is all *ancient histor!*: slou4hed9off skin8 from its planetar!
perspective$ there are onl! 4eo4raph! and customs, Seen in terms of space$ histor! shrivels into a mere wrinklin4 or furrowin4 of the surface as in an aerial relief9map or one of those pieced9to4ether aerial photo4raphs known in the trade as mosaics, The oldest memor! in The Naked >unch is of 7ackin49off in bo!hood latrines$ a memor! recaptured throu4h pederast!, This must be the first space novel$ the first serious piece of science fiction:the others are entertainment, NYRB B Names on the >and The action of The Naked >unch takes place in the consciousness of @ne +an$ -illiam >ee$ who is takin4 a dru4 cure, The principal characters$ besides >ee$ are his friend$ Bill ains Fwho seems momentaril! to turn into a woman called )aneG$ various members of the Narcotic S5uad$ especiall! one Bradle! the Bu!er$ .r, Benwa!$ a charlatan medico who is treatin4 >ee$ two vaudevillians$ Clem and )od!$ A, ),$ a carnival con man$ the last of the Bi4 Spenders$ a sailor$ an Arab called Ahmed$ an archet!pal Southern dru44ist$ .oc 0arker F*a man don<t have no secrets from od and his dru44ist*G$ and various bo!s with whinin4 voices, Amon4 the minor characters are a number of automobiles$ each with its specific complaint$ like the oil9burnin4 %ord "9N$ a film e/ecutive$ the 0art! >eader$ the "i4ilante$ )ohn and +ar!$ the se/ acrobats$ and a pu;;led American housewife who is heard complainin4 because the +i/master keeps tr!in4 to climb
up under her dress, The scene shifts about$ shiftil!$ from New York to Chica4o to St, >ouis to New @rleans to +e/ico to +almo$ Sweden$ "enice$ and the human identities shift about shiftil! too$ for all these modern places and modern individuals Fif that is the ri4ht wordG have interchan4eable parts, Burrou4hs is fond too of the word *ectoplasm$* and the bein4s that surround >ee$ particularl! the inimical ones$ seem ectoplasmic phantoms pro7ected on the wide screen of his consciousness from a mass sQance, But the hauntin4 is less visual than auditor!, These *characters$* in the collo5uial sense$ are ventrilo5uial voices produced$ as it were$ a4ainst the will of the ventrilo5uist$ who has become their dumm!, 0assa4es of dialo4ue and description keep recurrin4 in different conte/ts with sli4ht variations$ as thou4h the! possessed ubi5uit!, The best comparison for the book$ with its aerial se/ acts performed on a hi4h trape;e$ its con men and barkers$ its arena9like form$ is in fact a circus, A circus travels but it is alwa!s the same$ and this is Burrou4hs< sardonic ima4e of modern life, The Barnum of the show is the mass9manipulator$ who appears in a series of dis4uises, Control$ as Burrou4hs sa!s$ underlinin4 it$ can never be a means to an!thin4 but more control:like dru4s$ and the vicious circle of addiction is reenacted$ worldwide$ with sideshows in the political and *social* sphere:the social here has vanished$ e/cept in 5uotation marks$ like the historical$
for ever!thin4 has become automati;ed, ?ver!one is an addict of one kind or another$ as people indeed are wont to sa! of themselves$ complacentl!A *6<m a crossword pu;;le addict$ a Hi4h9%i addict$* etcetera, The South is addicted to l!nchin4 and ni44er9 hatin4$ and the Southern folk9custom of burnin4 a Ne4ro recurs throu4hout the book as a sort of %ourth9of9)ul! carnival with fireworks, Circuses$ with their ca4es of wild animals$ are also dan4erous$ like Burrou4hs< human circus8 an accident ma! occur$ as when the electronic brain in .r, Benwa!<s laborator! 4oes on the rampa4e$ and the freaks escape to min4le with the controlled citi;ens of %reeland in a 4eneral riot$ or in the scene where the ho4s are let loose in the 4ourmet restaurant, @n a level usuall! thou4ht to be *harmless$* addiction to platitudes and commonplaces is 4lobal, To Burrou4hs< ear$ the Bore$ lurkin4 in the hotel lobb!$ is literall! deadl! F* <You look to me like a man of intelli4ence,< Alwa!s ominous openin4 words$ m! bo!L*G, The same for .oc 0arker with his captive customer in the back room of his pharmac! F*JSo lon4 as !ou 4ot a le4itimate condition and an R/ from a certified bona feed! +,.,$ 6<m honored to serve !ou*G$ the professor in the classroom F*Hehe hehe he*G$ the attorne! in court F*Hehe hehe he$* likewiseG, The complacent sound of snickerin4 lau4hter is an alarm si4nal$ like the suave bell9tones of the ps!chiatrist and the emphatic drone of the 0art! >eader F*You see
men and women, @rdinar! men and women 4oin4 about their ordinar! ever!da! tasks, >eadin4 their ordinar! lives, That<s what we needJ*G, Cut to ordinar! men and women$ 4oin4 about their ordinar! ever!da! tasks, The whine of the put9upon bo! hustlerA *All kinda awful se/ acts,* *-h! cancha 7ust 4et ph!sical like a humanI* *So 6 4uess he come to some kinda awful clima/,* *You think 6 am innarested to hear about !our horrible old conditionI 6 am not innarested at all,* *But he comes to a clima/ and turns into some kinda awful crab,* This a44rieved tone mer4es with the malin4erin4 si4hs of the American housewife$ openin4 a bo/ of >u/A *6 4ot the most awful cold$ and m! intestines is all constipated,* And the clarion of the SalesmanA *-hen the 0riorit! numbers are called up !onder 6<ll be there,* These avera4e folks are addicts of the science pa4e of the Sunda! supplements8 the! like to talk about their diseases and about vile practices that paral!;e the practitioner from the waist down or about a worm that 4ets into !our kidne! and 4rows to enormous si;e or about the *horrible* result of mari7uana addiction:it makes !ou turn black and !our le4s drop off, The superstitious scientific vocabular! is diffused from the laborator! and the mental hospital into the 4eneral population, @verheard at a l!nchin4A *.on<t crowd too close$ bo!s, His intestines is sub7ect to e/plode in the fire,* The same diffusion of
culture takes place with modern ph!sics, A lieutenant to his 4eneralA *But$ chief$ can<t we 4et them started and the! imitate each other like a chained reactionI* The phenomenon of repetition$ of course$ 4ives rise to boredom8 man! readers complain that the! cannot 4et throu4h The Naked >unch, AndBor that the! find it dis4ustin4, 6t is dis4ustin4 and sometimes tiresome$ often in the same places, The prominence of the anus$ of faeces$ and of all sorts of *horrible* dischar4es$ as the characters would sa!$ from the bod!<s orifices$ becomes too much of a bad thin4$ like the sado9masochistic se/ performances:the automatic e7aculation of a han4ed man is not ever!bod!<s cantharides, A reader whose ero4enous ;ones are more temperate than the author<s be4ins to feel either that he is a s5uare Fa 4uilt! sentiment he should not !ield toG or that he is the captive of an addict, 6n defense$ Swift could be cited$ and indeed between Burrou4hs and Swift there are man! points of comparison8 not onl! the obsession with e/crement and the horror of female 4enitalia but a dis4ust with politics and the whole bod! politic, >ike Swift$ Burrou4hs has irritable nerves and somethin4 of the craft! temperament of the inventor, There is a 4reat deal of >aputa in the countries Burrou4hs calls 6nter;one and %reeland$ and Swift<s solution for the 6rish problem would appeal to the
American<s dr! lo4ic, As ulliver$ Swift posed as an anthropolo4ist Fthou4h the stud! was not known b! that name thenG amon4 sava4e people8 Burrou4hs parodies the anthropolo4ist in his descriptions of the American heartlandA *Jthe 6nterior a vast subdivision$ antennae of television to the meanin4less sk!J, 6llinois and +issouri$ miasma of mound9buildin4 peoples$ 4rovellin4 worship of the %ood Source$ cruel and u4l! festivals,* The st!le here is more emotive than Swift<s$ but in his deadpan e/planator! notes F*This is a rural ?n4lish custom desi4ned to eliminate a4ed and bedfast dependents*G there is a Swiftian factualit!, The *factual* appearance of the whole narrative$ with its batter! of notes and citations$ some strai4ht$ some loaded$ its e/tracts from a diar!$ like a ship<s lo4$ its pharmacopeia$ has the flavor of ei4hteenth9 centur! satire, He calls himself a *%actualist* and belon4s$ all alone$ to an A4e of Reason$ which he locates in the future, 6n him$ as in Swift$ there is a kind of soured utopianism, Yet what saves The Naked >unch is not a literar! ancestor but humor, Burrou4hs<s humor is peculiarl! American$ at once broad and sl!, 6t is the humor of a comedian$ a vaudeville performer pla!in4 in @ne$ in front of the asbestos curtain to some Heith Circuit or 0anta4es house lon4 since converted to movies, The same 7okes reappear$ sli4htl! refurbished$ to suit the circumstances$ the wa! a vaudeville artist used to chan4e Yonkers to
Renton when he was pla!in4 Seattle, %or e/ample$ the Saniflush 7oke$ which is alwa!s 4ood for a lau4hA somebod! is cuttin4 the cocaineBthe morphineBthe penicillin with Saniflush, Some of the 7okes are verbal F*Stop me if !ou<ve heard this atomic secret* or .r, Benwa!<s *A simopathJis a citi;en convinced he is an ape or other simian, 6t is a disorder peculiar to the arm! and dischar4e cures it*G, Some are mimic buffooner! F.r, Benwa!$ in his last appearance$ dreamil!$ his voice fadin4 outA *Cancer$ m! first love*G, Some are whole vaudeville *numbers$* as when the hoofers$ Clem and )od!$ are hired b! the Russians to 4ive Americans a bad name abroadA the! appear in >iberia wearin4 black Stetsons and red 4alluses and talkin4 loudl! about burnin4 ni44ers back home, A skit like this ma! rise to a fren;!$ as if in a +ar/ Brothers or a Cla!ton$ )ackson$ and .urante act, ?,4,$ the ver! funn! scene in Che; Robert$ *where a hu4e ic! 4ourmet broods over the 4reatest cuisine in the world*A A, ), appears$ the last of the Bi4 Spenders$ and orders a bottle of ketchup8 immediate pandemonium8 A, ), 4ives his ho49 call$ and the shocked 4ourmet diners are all devoured b! famished ho4s, The effect of pandemonium$ all hell breakin4 loose$ is one of Burrou4hs< favorites and an e5uivalent of the old vaudeville finale$ with the acrobats$ the 7u44lers$ the ma4ician$ the hoofers$ the lad!9 who9was9cut9in9half$ the piano pla!er$ the comedians$ all pushin4 into the act,
Another favorite effect$ with Burrou4hs$ is the metamorphosis, A citi;en is turned into animal form$ a crab or a hu4e centipede$ or into some unspeakable monstrosit! like Bradle! the Narcotics A4ent who turns into an unidentifiable carnivore, These metamorphoses$ of course$ are punishments, The Hell;apoppin effect of or4ies and riots and the metamorphosis effect$ rapid or creepin4$ are reall! cancerous onslau4hts:matter on the rampa4e multipl!in4 itself and *buildin4* as a revue scene *builds* to a clima/, rowth and deterioration are the same thin4A a human bein4 *deteriorates* or *4rows* into a one9man 7un4le, -hat !ou think of it depends on !our point of view8 from the 7unkie<s an4le$ Bradle! is better as a carnivore eatin4 the Narcotics Commissioner than he was as *fu;;*:7unk! slan4 for the police, The impression left b! this is perple/in4, @n the one hand$ control is evil8 on the other$ escape from control is mass slau4hter or reduction to a state of proliferatin4 cellular matter, The police are the enem!$ but as Burrou4hs shrewdl! observes in one passa4eA *A functionin4 police state needs no police,* The policeman is internali;ed in the citi;en, You mi4ht sa! that it would have been better to have no control$ no police$ in the first place8 then there would be no police states$ functionin4 or otherwise, This would seem to be Burrou4hs<s position$ but it is not consistent with his picture of se/, The
libertarian position usuall! has as one of its a/ioms a love of Nature and the natural$ that is$ of the life9principle itself$ commonl! identified with se/, But there is little overt love of the life9principle in The Naked >unch$ and se/$ while ma4nified:a common trait of homose/ual literature:is a kind of mechanical mantrap baited with fresh meat, The se/ual clima/$ the 7et of sperm$ accompanied b! a whistlin4 scream$ is often a death spasm$ and the *perfect* or4asm would seem to be the posthumous or4asm of the han4ed man$ shootin4 his 7issom into pure space, 6t is true that Nature and se/ are two9faced and that 4rowth is death9oriented, But if Nature is not seen as far more 4ood than evil$ then a need for control is posited, And$ stran4el!$ this seems to be Burrou4hs< position too, The human virus can now be treated$ he sa!s with emphasis$ meanin4 the species itself, B! scientific methods$ he implies, Yet the laborator! of The Naked >unch is a musical9comed! inferno$ and .r, Benwa!<s assistant is a female chimpan;ee, 6t is impossible$ as Burrou4hs knows$ to have scientific e/periment without control, Then whatI Self9controlI .o9it9!ourselfI But self9 control$ a4ain$ is an internali;ed s!stem of authorit!$ a sub7ection of the impulse to the will$ the least *natural* part of the personalit!, Such a s!stem mi4ht suit +arcus Aurelius$ but it hardl! seems con4enial to the author of The Naked >unch, And even if it were Ffor the
author is at once puritan and tolerantG$ it would not form the basis for scientific e/periment on the *human virus,* @nl! for scientific e/periment on oneself, 0ossibl! this is what Burrou4hs meansA in fact his present literar! e/ercises ma! be sta4es in such a deliberate e/periment, The 5uestions 7ust posed would not arise if The Naked >unch did not contain messa4es that unluckil! are somewhat arcane, Not 7ust messa4es8 prescriptions, That:to answer a pained 5uestion that keeps comin4 up like a refrain: is wh! the book is taken seriousl!, Burrou4hs<s remarkable talent is onl! part of the reason8 the other part is that$ finall!$ for the first time in recent !ears$ a talented writer means what he sa!s to be taken and used literall!$ like an R/ prescription, The literalness of Burrou4hs is the opposite of *literature,* =nsentimental and factual$ he writes as thou4h his thou4hts had the 5ualit! of self9evidence, 6n short$ he has a crankish coura4e$ but all coura4e nowada!s is probabl! crankish, email icon ?mail to a friend >etters )une #$ #&'(A >ouis =nterme!er$ >etter Search the Review Advanced search NYR Holida! Subscription Special >ittle
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( House of the .eadI B! 0hilip Rahv @ne .a! in the >ife of 6van .enisovich b! Ale/ander Sol;henits!n$ translated b! +a/ Ha!ward$ b! Ronald Hin4le! %rederick A, 0ra4er$ 1(,&2 @ne .a! in the >ife of 6van .enisovich b! Ale/ander Sol;henits!n$ translated b! Ralph 0arker ?,0, .utton$ 1(,&2 This is an important book$ perhaps the most important that has come out of Russia in man! !ears, A completel! authentic account of life in the forced9labor camps under Stalin$ it is cast in a fictional form superbl! adapted to its sub7ect, 6ts narrative tone and method$ rel!in4 on the selective accumulation of minute factual particulars$ finel! controls the powerful emotional content$ never 4ettin4 out of hand$ never descendin4 to rhetorical presentation or to an! sort of preachin4 and morali;in4, The author$ Ale/ander Sol;henits!n$ who is at present teachin4 ph!sics and mathematics in a secondar! school$ served with distinction in the Red Arm! durin4 the war but was arrested
in #&C2 on what is now officiall! admitted to be a *baseless political char4e$* and was sentenced to ei4ht !ears< imprisonment, The e/perience recorded in @ne .a! no doubt parallels his own$ but he is not the novel<s prota4onist, That role$ from first pa4e to last$ is reserved for the simple villa4e workman$ 6van .enisovich Shukhov$ who has no head for politics or an! kind of *learned conversation,* He is a wonderful creation$ e/hibitin4 certain traits that are new as well as traits deepl! rooted in the Russian literar! tradition, The fi4ure in that tradition he most reminds me of is Tolsto!<s 0laton Harata!ev, But there is also a si4nificant difference between them, %or Harata!ev$ standin4 somewhat apart from the other characters in -ar and 0eace$ who are portra!ed with surpassin4 realism$ is in the main a m!thic fi4ure$ an abstraction of Christian 4oodness$ while Shukhov$ in no wa! dependent on reli4ious doctrine or precept$ is invested with a 4oodness that is alto4ether credible$ alto4ether embedded in the actual, He fills in ever! crevice of his own nature$ without appeal to hi4her powers or utopian and ambi4uous dreams of saintliness, NYR Holida! Subscription Special As all ideolo4ies are alien to Shukhov$ so none can ruin him, Neither hero nor saint$ e/istin4 in an environment where the onl! time the prisoners are not marched out to work in the earl! mornin4s is when the thermometer 4oes down to fort!9two de4rees below ;ero$ he
!ields neither to hope nor despair but depends for survival on his own lar4el! unconscious and invulnerable humanit!, Thou4h in no wa! e/ceptional$ he is the unbeatable human bein4 whom the re4ime can at an! time destro! but never convert nor make over in its own ima4e thus 4ivin4 the lie to @rwell<s ni4htmare of total demorali;ation in #&NC, Humble !et e/tremel! resourceful in small wa!s$ a man whose self9respect demands that he do his work properl! and even 7o!full!$ Shukhov has been *walkin4 this earth for fort! !ears, He<d lost half his teeth and was 4ettin4 bald, He<d never 4iven or taken a bribe from an!bod!$ and he hadn<t learned that trick in the camp either,* He knows that the authorities twisted the law an! wa! the! wanted, *You finished a ten9!ear stretch and the! 4ave !ou another one, @r if not$ the! still wouldn<t let !ou 4o homeJ, So !ou 7ust went on livin4 like this$ with !our e!es on the 4round$ and !ou had no time to think about how !ou 4ot in and when !ou<d 4et out,* And wh! was Shukhov put in a concentration campI He had escaped from a erman prisoners9of9war ca4e and upon returnin4 to his own lines found himself accused of treason, Thou4h 4uiltless$ he was forced to 4ive evidence a4ainst himselfA *The wa! he fi4ured$ it was ver! simple, 6f he didn<t si4n$ he was as 4ood as buried, But if he did$ he<d still 4o on livin4 for a while, So he si4ned,* Shukhov<s fate is the essence of the Stalinist terror9s!stem,
However$ the wa! in which the author chiefl! succeeds in his characteri;ation of Shukhov is not b! harpin4 on his innocence or puttin4 an! kind of political 4loss on his ordeal but b! depictin4 him throu4hout as a person in his own ri4ht:not merel! a victim and least of all a s!mptom but alwa!s a person$ even when ill$ starvin4$ and free;in4, The secondar! characters$ such as Al!osheka the Baptist and Tu!rin the boss of the work s5uad$ are portra!ed with e5ual responsiveness to their personal 5ualities, Now it is precisel! this newl! won and trul! e/istential personali;ation of vision$ so lon4 outlawed in the Communist theor! and practice of literature$ which surprises and impresses us most in @ne .a!, As a novel it is not$ in m! view$ the *4reat work of art* that some people sa! it is8 its scale is too small for that, But it is a ver! fine book in which not a false note is struck, 6ts theme$ the nature of man under e/treme conditions of inhumanit!$ is treated unpretentiousl!$ without despair or overt bitterness$ and above all$ without the distempers and consolations of ideolo4!, 6t is the same theme that .ostoevsk! developed$ thou4h in a manner 5uite different$ in his House of the .ead$ another account of life in a Siberian prison$ published almost e/actl! a hundred !ears a4o, .ostoevsk!$ too$ was a political criminal$ sentenced b! the C;ar to penal servitude, How 4reatl! the Russian people have suffered that their writers thus tra4icall! echo each other across a centur!L
@ne .a! first appeared in the +oscow literar! monthl! Nov! +ir for November in #&'D in an edition of &2$333 copies that was at once sold out, 6ts publication in Russia thus clearl! marks some kind of breakthrou4h towards freedom in Soviet writin4, Thank od$ the world is still unpredictable after all, No one$ not even the most astute Hremlinolo4ist amon4 us$ could possibl! have forseen that the part!9hierarchs would be prevailed upon to permit the publication of a work so devastatin4 in its implications, 6t<s all ver! well to sa! that its sub7ect fits in with Hhrushchev<s renewed campai4n a4ainst Stalin, That is true onl! in an immediate and narrowl! political sense, The novel<s meanin4$ in its broader aspects$ is scarcel! open to political manipulation, 6t is senseless to see its meanin4 servin4 the partisan interests of an! faction in the Soviet power structure, No$ the inte4rit! of this stor! of an ordinar! winter da!$ from reveille to li4hts out$ in the life of 0risoner No, S9N2C is inviolable, 6n the lon4 run it cannot conceivabl! benefit an! authoritarian elite$ whether Communist or anti9Communist, The lessons it enforces:such as *How can !ou e/pect a man who<s warm to understand a man who<s coldI*:are of a down9to9earth simplicit! that should make an! ideolo4ue of power 5uail, And in the one *learned conversation* in the book$ overheard on the run b! the prota4onist$ we come upon the followin4
words in a ver! brief discussion of ?isenstein<s famous film 6van The TerribleA *The politics of it is utterl! vile:vindication of a one9man t!rann!, An insult to the memor! of three 4enerations of Russian intellectualsJ, .on<t call ?isenstein a 4eniusL Call him a toad!$ sa! he carried out orders like a do4, A 4enius doesn<t adapt his treatment to the taste of t!rantsL* 6f Hhrushchev can turn such sentiments to his own use$ he is b! all means welcome to them, 6n a wa! it is a pit! that we have on hand two simultaneousl! published and competin4 American editions of the book$ for the! are bound to 4et in each other<s wa! so far as prospective readers are concerned$ and the more readers this book has the better, However$ both versions seem to me satisfactor! on the whole$ thou4h the Ha!ward9Hin4le! translation F0rae4erG is somewhat more forceful and slashin4l! idiomatic in st!le, The 0arker translation F.uttonG has been authori;ed in +oscow$ but that should not pre7udice readers one wa! or the other, email icon ?mail to a friend NYR Subscriptions9Save 1C#L Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B Budapest NYR Holida!
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Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( Albee .amned B! Nicola Chiaromonte -ho<s Afraid @f "ir4inia -oolfI b! ?dward Albee Atheneum$ 1#,&2 FpaperG ?dward Albee<s first four pla!s were remarkable for an unusual abilit! to ima4ine and develop a dialo4ue that was both realistic and absurdA true to life$ that is, At the same time$ the pla!wri4ht did not seem to know what to do with the situations he had created$ e/cept to end them with some abruptl! introduced trick, 6n the Roo Stor!$ for e/ample$ the meetin4 between the tramp and the well9 paid intellectual unfolds for a while with all the appropriate cruelt!$ and one is made to e/pect a consistent development and a con4ruous endin4, 6nstead of which comes a ver! incon4ruous trickA a knife is forced into the hands of the harmless +adison Avenue emplo!ee so that the tramp:suddenl! made into a ps!cholo4ical metaphor:can commit suicide on it, Somethin4 similar happens to the dialo4ue between the doctor and the nurse in The .eath of Bessie Smith$ where a pitiless description of the cold vul4arit! of relations e/istin4 in a hospital is suddenl! turned into the tearful stor! of the Ne4ro sin4er who bled
to death because she was denied admission to a Southern clinic, The two pla!s that followed these$ The Sandbo/ and The American .ream$ led theater9 4oers to think Albee was headed awa! from realism toward some kind of ironic alle4or!, And in fact$ in these two pla!s there is somethin4 like an attempt to create the American e5uivalent of the theater of 6onesco and Beckett$ to both of whom Albee is obviousl! indebted, This is$ however$ no more than a superficial impression8 a realistic inspiration clearl! dominates these pla!s too$ while the comico9s!mbolic ima4ination is both weak and uncertain, NYR Holida! Subscription Special @n the basis of his first four pla!s one could not reall! make up one<s mind as to the direction in which Albee was headed$ althou4h it was clear that he had theatrical talent, -ho<s Afraid of "ir4inia -oolfI seems to settle the 5uestionA Albee is headed for popular success precisel! because of the same unconvincin4 mi/ture of livel! dialo4ue and incon4ruous tricks$ of brutal realism and false s!mbolism$ that characteri;ed his first pla!s, This last pla! can best be described as a photo4raphic description of a runnin4 fi4ht between a wife and husband, 6nsofar as the pla! is this$ it is indeed successful in its own ver! limited wa!, But insofar as it la!s claim to
some deeper$ s!mbolic meanin4$ it is prett! unbearable, The first act is innocent of an! such ambitions$ and is 5uite readable$ and obviousl! theatrical, 6t is pure dialo4ue between a married couple who not onl! dislike each other but are drunk$ and keep drinkin4 relentlessl!, This bein4 the case$ what the! sa!$ and especiall! what the wife sa!s$ no matter how brutal and obscene$ cannot on the face of it be of much conse5uence, 6t is 5uite impossible to know what these insults$ accusations$ 4rud4es and obscenities reall! mean, A drunken fi4ht that 4oes on from two in the mornin4 until five is hardl! the best situation throu4h which to reveal the real relation between two human bein4s, That the! drink so much mi4ht indeed be si4nificant$ but is it a sufficient characteri;ationI This is where the pla!wri4ht<s tricks come in, Had Albee faced the problem of carr!in4 out to its most e/treme conse5uences the situation he had actuall! be4un with:the merciless fi4ht between husband and wife:he mi4ht have written an interestin4 pla!, But then$ of course$ he would have had to ima4ine not onl! an interminable continuation of the fi4ht itself$ and of the drinkin4$ but also a theatrical action :somethin4 that reall! happens between the two characters:and not 7ust a series of onl! too probable and sordid e/chan4es,
6nstead of inventin4 somethin4$ it would seem that Albee made instead the unwarranted assumption that his pla! had a s!mbolic meanin4$ namel! that his couple represented at the same time the American couple and the deca! of -estern civili;ation, Then he looked for a mechanical wa! of stretchin4 the dialo4ue into three ver! lon4 acts with an endin4 that would be both theatrical and pathetic, The s!mbolic meanin4 of the pla! does not$ of course$ e/ist:e/cept in the author<s mind, -hat we are actuall! 4iven is the description of a battle between a rather formidable female and an understandabl! depressed$ althou4h resentful$ male, The fi4ht is complicated b! the presence of a second$ !oun4er couple obviousl! headed for an even worse fate than that of the two mature characters, But this does not add an!thin4 to the meanin4 of the pla!, 6t is a 4ood theatrical device to provide a kind of counterpoint to the main dialo4ue$ especiall! since the author seems incapable of usin4 his ima4ination$ or unwillin4$ and the main dialo4ue tends to become monotonous, But this does not solve the problem of the plot which is simpl! to end the 5uarrelin4$ insults$ obscenities and drinkin4 of the pla! b! some other means than complete e/haustion, To do this$ Albee resorts to one of the most unlikel! tricks in the histor! of the contemporar! theater, He ima4ines that the son to whom his
characters have been referrin4 does not e/ist at all:that he is onl! a creature of their ima4ination$ a melanchol! fair! tale that the two have been tellin4 each other for !ears, The poi4nanc! of the situation is supposed to be enhanced b! the fact that$ in the end$ the husband punishes his wife for havin4 mentioned this ima4inar! son in the presence of stran4ers, He announces:in the presence of the same stran4ers:that the fabulous son has died, And so Albee<s piSce noire is suddenl! turned into a piSce rose, +uch to the comfort of its Broadwa! audience$ one must suppose, email icon ?mail to a friend NYR Subscriptions9Save 1C#L Search the Review Advanced search NYR Holida! Subscription Special NYRB Children<s 0icture Books
Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( Simone -eil B! Susan Sonta4 Selected ?ssa!s b! Simone -eil$ translated b! Richard Rees @/ford =niversit! 0ress$ 1T,33 The culture9heroes of our liberal bour4eois civili;ation are anti9liberal and anti9bour4eois8 the! are writers who are repetitive$ obsessive$ and impolite$ who impress b! force:not simpl! b! their tone of personal authorit! and b! their intellectual ardor$ but b! the sense of acute personal and intellectual e/tremit!, The bi4ots$ the h!sterics$ the destro!ers of the self :these are the writers who bear witness to the fearful polite time in which we live, 6t is mostl! a matter of toneA it is hardl! possible to 4ive credence to ideas uttered in the impersonal
tones of sanit!, There are certain eras which are too comple/$ too deafened b! contradictor! historical and intellectual e/periences$ to hear the voice of sanit!, Sanit! becomes compromise$ evasion$ a lie, @urs is an a4e which consciousl! pursues health$ and !et onl! believes in the realit! of sickness, The truths we respect are those born of affliction, -e measure truth in terms of the cost to the writer in sufferin4:rather than b! the standard of an ob7ective truth to which a writer<s words correspond, ?ach of our truths must have a mart!r, -hat revolted the mature oethe in the !oun4 Hleist$ who submitted his work to the elder statesman of erman letters *on the knees of his heart*:the morbid$ the h!sterical$ the sense of the unhealth!$ the enormous indul4ence in sufferin4 out of which Hliest<s pla!s and tales were mined:is 7ust what we value toda!, Toda! Hleist 4ives pleasure$ oethe is to some a dut!, 6n the same wa!$ such writers as Hierke4aard$ Niet;sche$ .osto!evsk!$ Hafka$ Baudelaire$ Rimbaud$ enet:and Simone -eil:have their authorit! with us because of their air of unhealthiness, Their unhealthiness is their soundness$ and is what carries conviction, NYRB B Chr!salids Holida! 0erhaps there are certain a4es which do not need truth as much as the! need a deepenin4 of the sense of realit!$ a widenin4 of the
ima4ination, 6$ for one$ do not doubt that the sane view of the world is the true one, But is that what is alwa!s wanted$ truthI The need for truth is not constant8 no more than is the need for repose, An idea which is a distortion ma! have a 4reater intellectual thrust than the truth8 it ma! better serve the needs of the spirit$ which var!, The truth is balance$ but the opposite of truth$ which is unbalance$ ma! not be a lie, Thus 6 do not mean to decr! a fashion$ but to underscore the motive behind the contemporar! taste for the e/treme in art and thou4ht, All that is necessar! is that we not be h!pocritical$ that we reco4ni;e wh! we read and admire writers like Simone -eil, 6 cannot believe that more than a handful of the tens of thousands of readers she has won since the posthumous publication of her books and essa!s reall! share her ideas, Nor is it necessar!:necessar! to share Simone -eil<s an4uished and unconsummated love affair with the Catholic Church$ or accept her 4nostic theolo4! of divine absence$ or espouse her ideals of bod! denial$ or concur in her violentl! unfair hatred of Roman civili;ation and the )ews, Similarl!$ with Hierke4aard and Niet;sche8 most of their modern admirers could not$ and do not embrace their ideas, -e read writers of such scathin4 ori4inalit! for their personal authorit!$ for the e/ample of their seriousness$ for their manifest willin4ness to sacrifice themselves for their
truths$ and:onl! piecemeal:for their *views,* As the corrupt Alcibiades followed Socrates$ unable and unwillin4 to chan4e his own life$ but moved$ enriched$ and full of love8 so the sensitive modern reader pa!s his respect to a level of spiritual realit! which is not$ could not$ be his own, Some lives are e/emplar!$ others not8 and of e/emplar! lives$ there are those which invite us to imitate them$ and those which we re4ard from a distance with a mi/ture of revulsion$ pit!$ and reverence, 6t is$ rou4hl!$ the difference between the hero and the saint Fif one ma! use the latter term in an aesthetic$ rather than a reli4ious senseG, Such a life$ absurd in its e/a44erations and de4ree of self9 mutilation:like Hleist<s$ like Hierke4aard<s: was Simone -eil<s, 6 am thinkin4 of the fanatical asceticism of Simone -eil<s life$ her contempt for pleasure and for happiness$ her noble and ridiculous political 4estures$ her elaborate self9denials$ her tireless courtin4 of affliction8 and 6 do not e/clude her homeliness$ her ph!sical clumsiness$ her mi4raines$ her tuberculosis, No one who loves life would wish to imitate her dedication to mart!rdom nor would wish it for his children nor for an!one else whom he loves, Yet so far as we love seriousness$ as well as life$ we are moved b! it$ nourished b! it, 6n the respect we pa! to such lives$ we acknowled4e the presence of m!ster! in the world:and m!ster! is 7ust what the secure possession of the truth$ an
ob7ective truth$ denies, 6n this sense$ all truth is superficial8 and some Fbut not allG distortions of the truth$ some Fbut not allG insanit!$ some Fbut not allG unhealthiness$ some Fbut not allG denials of life are truth9 4ivin4$ sanit!9producin4$ health9creatin4$ and life9enhancin4, This new volume of translations from Simone -eil<s work$ Selected ?ssa!s #&(C9C($ displa!s her somewhat mar4inall!, 6t contains one 4reat essa!$ the openin4 essa! here titled *Human 0ersonalit!* which was written in #&C($ the !ear of her death in ?n4land at the a4e of thirt!9four, FThis essa!$ b! the wa!$ was first published in two parts under the title *The %allac! of Human Ri4hts* in the British ma4a;ine The Twentieth Centur! in +a! and )une #&2&, There it suffered the curious and instructive fate of re5uirin4 a defensive editorial in )une$ when the second part of the essa! appeared$ repl!in4 to criticism of the ma4a;ine<s decision to publish the essa! *on the 4rounds that it involves heav! 4oin4 for some readers,* 6t certainl! speaks volumes about the philistine level of ?n4lish intellectual life$ if even as 4ood a ma4a;ine as The Tweentieth Centur! cannot muster an enthusiastic$ 4rateful audience for such a piece,G Another essa!$ placed last in the book$ called *.raft for a Statement of Human @bli4ations$* also written the !ear of her death$ contains matter central to Simone -eil<s ideas, The remainin4 essa!s are on
specific historical and political sub7ects:two on the civili;ation of >an4uedoc$ one on a proletarian uprisin4 in Renaissance %lorence$ several lon4 essa!s on the Roman ?mpire which draw an e/tensive parallel between imperial Rome and Hitler<s erman!$ and various reflections on the Second -orld -ar$ the colonial problem$ and the post9war future, There is also an interestin4 and sensitive letter to eor4e Bernanos, The lon4est ar4ument of the book$ spannin4 several essa!s$ develops the parallel between Rome Fand the ancient Hebrew theocrac!LG and Na;i erman!, Accordin4 to Simone -eil$ who displa!s an unpleasant silence on the Na;i persecution of the )ews$ Hitler is no worse than Napoleon$ than Richelieu$ than Caesar, Hitler<s racialism$ she sa!s$ is nothin4 more than *a rather more romantic name for nationalism,* Her fascination with the ps!cholo4ical effects of wieldin4 power and submittin4 to coercion$ combined with her strict denial of an! idea of historical pro4ress$ led her to e5uate all forms of state authorit! as manifestations of what she calls *the 4reat beast,* Readers of Simone -eil<s Notebooks Ftwo volumes$ published in #&2&G and her 6ntimations of Christianit! Amon4 the Ancient reeks F#&2NG will be familiar with her attempt to derive ever!thin4 distinctivel! Christian from reek spiritualit! as well as to den! entirel! Chrisianit!<s Hebraic ori4ins, This fundamental ar4ument:alon4 with her
admiration for 0rovenUal civili;ation$ for the +anichean and Catharist heresies:colors all her historical essa!s, 6 cannot accept Simone -eil<s 4nostic readin4 of Christianit! as historicall! sound Fits reli4ious truth is another matterG8 nor can 6 fail to be offended b! the vindictive parallels she draws between Na;ism$ Rome$ and 6srael, 6mpartialit!$ no more than a sense of humor$ is not the virtue of a writer like Simone -eil, >ike ibbon Fwhose view of the Roman ?mpire she absolutel! contradictsG$ Simone -eil as a historical writer is tendentious$ e/haustive$ and infuriatin4l! certain, As a historian she is simpl! not at her best8 no one who disbelieves so fundamentall! in the phenomena of historical chan4e and innovation can be wholl! satisf!in4 as a historian, This is not to den! that there are subtle historical insi4hts in these essa!sA as for e/ample$ when she points out that Hitlerism consists in the application b! erman! to the ?uropean continent$ and the white race 4enerall!$ of colonial methods of con5uest and domination, F6mmediatel! after$ of course$ she sa!s that these:both Hitler<s methods and the *normal colonial ones*:are derived from the Roman model,G The principal value of the collection is simpl! that an!thin4 from Simone -eil<s pen is worth readin4, 6t is perhaps not the book to start one<s ac5uaintance with this writer:-aitin4 for od$ 6 think$ is the best for that, The ori4inalit! of her ps!cholo4ical insi4ht$ the
passion and subtlet! of her theolo4ical ima4ination $ the fecundit! of her e/e4etical talents are unevenl! displa!ed here, Yet the person of Simone -eil is here as surel! as in an! of her other books:the person who is e/cruciatin4l! identical with her ideas$ the person who is ri4htl! re4arded as one of the most uncompromisin4 and troublin4 witnesses to the modern travail of the spirit, email icon ?mail to a friend NYR Subscriptions9Save 1C#L Search the Review Advanced search NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books
Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( Histor! on the Couch B! -illiam 0hillips Crowds and 0ower b! ?lias Canetti "ikin4$ 1T,23 Sooner or later$ ?urope was bound to break the American monopol! in the manufacture of new social theories and facts, Since the war the stud! of societ! has become an American industr!$ and thou4h the sociolo4ists have naturall! been the bi44est producers$ a few historians$ some 4loss! 7ournalists$ and a number of freelance thinkers have also made their contribution to the national effort, There were of course some solid works$ but most of the new studies were little more than pro4ress reports on the 4rowth of American societ!, The! claimed to be empirical and open9minded$ but what the! reall! did was to create a new st!le of observation that made their theories and insi4hts look like facts, Some of these studies used the new st!le for cultural apolo4etics instead of anal!sis, @thers seemed to be more critical$ and man! of them complained about the slickness of the culture, But their complaints were themselves so slick that the! immediatel! became fashionable, The result of all these advances in social
thou4ht was that the thin4 critici;ed became indistin4uishable from the criticism of it$ and soon both became part of the same cultural packa4e, Now we have a new work from abroad$ combinin4 politics$ ps!cholo4!$ sociolo4!$ and certified to be the ori4inal$ profound$ and ima4inative book we have all been waitin4 for, 6t is said to present a new view of civili;ation that combines the 5ualities of vision with those of anal!sis, The book is so e/trava4antl! well9blurbed$ and b! such respectable fi4ures as Arnold To!nbee$ Hathleen Raine$ C,", -ed4ewood$ and 6ris +urdoch$ that one is actuall! put on one<s 4uard instead of bein4 impressed, -hen a new book is hailed in the wa! Crowds and 0ower is$ as *a new olden Bou4h$* *a Twentieth Centur! >eviathan$* or its author as the Spen4ler of the si/ties$ one cannot help rememberin4 how man! 4reat books were born without such fanfare$ or how lon4 the! had to wait for serious opinion to build up, NYRB Holida! Sale Yet despite the fact that Crowds and 0ower has been advertised as the thinkin4 man<s 4uide to realit!$ it is ver! difficult to sa! 7ust what the book is about, Canetti<s theme seems to be that histor! boils down to two elementsA societ!$ which is 7ust a more complicated form of what he calls the *crowd$* and power$ which is created b! the fact that the needs of the
*crowd* coincide with those of its rulers, Thus$ accordin4 to Canneti$ we have the ruled and the rulers, Now$ this is not a ver! startlin4 idea or ima4e8 at most it is an insi4ht$ and not a new one at that$ since most studies of modern societ! have dealt in one wa! or another with the manipulation of the masses b! leaders and rulers, And the value of such an insi4ht depends on how it is ar4ued and developed, But Canetti does not reall! develop the idea8 what he does instead is to spin a web of illustrations$ associations$ and analo4ies, 6n this sense$ he has written a poem, The trouble$ however$ is that it is a bad poem$ far too lon4$ cluttered up with home9made 7ar4on$ and much too pretentious, 6ts method is to convert truisms into metaphors$ to state a fact as thou4h it were a discover!$ such as that *a soldier on dut! acts onl! in accordance with commands$* or that war consists of one crowd fi4htin4 another$ or that *in revolutionar! periods e/ecutions are accelerated*8 and then to 4ive these inflated facts all kinds of historical resonance, %re5uentl!$ the idea itself is a bad metaphorA the most pictures5ue e/ample is Canetti<s description of spermato;oa as a crowd$ with one survivor, Sometimes the metaphor is purel! verbal$ as when Canetti sa!s that in an inflation the *unit of mone! loses its identit!,* Here we have 7ust the opposite of what 4oes on in a 4ood poemA instead of an ori4inal and concrete association that puts thin4s in a new li4ht or makes for a new e/perience$ an ordinar! observation is
4iven *poetic* overtones$ and made to sound more su44estive, And unlike 4ood poetr! which loses in paraphrase$ some of Canetti<s inspired rhetoric mi4ht easil! 4ain b! a paraphrase, The scheme of the book is 5uite simple, Canetti be4ins b! catalo4uin4 the various kinds of crowds and their attributes, Thus we learn that the crowd *wants to 4row$* is based of *e5ualit!$* *loves densit!$* and *needs a direction,* And all crowds are either *rh!thmic* or *sta4natin4,* Then we discover that there areA baitin4 crowds$ fli4ht crowds$ prohibition crowds$ reversal crowds$ feast crowds$ panic crowds$ double crowds$ invisible crowds$ etc, FNo lonel! crowdsLG Ne/t$ Canetti 4oes back to tribal cultures to e/plore what he calls the pack$ which is a more primitive form of the crowd, Then Canetti brin4s the idea of the crowd up to date b! e/plainin4 such recent phenomena as the rise of Hitler$ the parliamentar! s!stem$ inflation$ capitalism$ and socialism in terms of *crowd s!mbols,* Here$ 6 think$ is the most absurd part of the book$ for Canetti talks about both capitalism and socialism as societies obsessed with the idea of production as thou4h production were a disease, 6n Canetti<s s!stem$ production is nothin4 but *the modern fren;! of increase,* Since *increase* is a characteristic of crowds$ production becomes 7ust another instance$ a double one$ of the crowd 4one wild$ for 4oods and consumers each make up a crowd, %inall!$
Canetti 4oes into the 5uestion of power$ which he e/plains in a lon4 and in4enious rumination on the ps!cholo4ical m!ths that surround the idea of the ruler in all civili;ations, -hat we end up with is a portrait of the despot as a paranoid$ whose *passion for survival* leads him to destro! all those who mi4ht survive him, The book closes with an impassioned epilo4ue which sounds like a hopped9up version of the current mood, Here Canetti warns us that we are in a new dan4erous period$ because *the survivor is himself afraid,* *Rulers tremble toda!$* sa!s Canetti$ *notJbecause the! are rulers$ but as the e5uals of ever!one elseJ,Toda! either ever!one will survive or no9one,* There are a few nice observations scattered throu4h Crowds and 0ower$ as when Canetti sa!s that a fire sometimes unifies a theater more than the pla! can, But most of the book reads like a ps!choanal!sis of histor!$ and this reall! sa!s no more about histor! than lo4ical anal!sis does about a person, email icon ?mail to a friend Subscribe to The New York ReviewL Search the Review Advanced search Books V ifts NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds
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Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( W la +ode B! Richard 0oirier 0u;;les and ?piphanies b! %rank Hermode Chilmark 0ress$ 1C,&2 %rank Hermode is 4enerall! re4arded as the best practicin4 critic in ?n4land toda!$ free of the polemical or theoretical limitations that have been ascribed to >eavis or Richards and credited with the power$ which Arnold re5uired of 4ood criticism$ *to ascertain the master9 spirit in the literature of an epoch,* 6n Hermode<s case$ this would mean literature since #N&3$ especiall! its post9Romantic and S!mbolist tendencies$ thou4h he has done creditable work on ?n4lish pastoral poetr! and on +ilton$ .onne$ and Shakespeare, 0u;;les and ?piphanies is a collection of his reviews and essa!s written for ?n4lish and American periodicals from #&2N to #&'#, The table of contents would b! itself call attention to his versatilit!$ listin4 twent!9four pieces on various critics F?dmund -ilson$ Northrop %r!e$ +ario 0ra;$ amon4 othersG$ a 4ood man! novelists Fincludin4 Robert +usil$ )o!ce$ 0asternak$ oldin4$ .urrell$ Henr! +iller$ -au4h$ reene$ %orster$ NabokovG$ a few poets F"alQr! and Bet7emanG$ all of these
crammed with allusions to other writers$ dancers$ and critics associated in some wa! with what Hermode considers the main lines of force in modern literature, An!one who read these essa!s and reviews as the! appeared could not fail to be impressed with Hermode<s ener4!$ his self9assured erudition$ his capacit! to appl! himself nearl! an!where in ?n4lish or continental literature, To read the same pieces in this collected form$ however$ is to find that the! are fre5uentl! repetitious of one another$ often densel! written$ and indicative less of suppleness than of an obstinac! in the kind of interest which the author brin4s to the 4reat variet! of sub7ects to which he addresses himself, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement To be4in with$ there is there is the sort of repetition almost unavoidable in a book composed of items not ori4inall! intended to be seen to4ether, =suall!$ all that can intelli4entl! be said of such matters is that there should have been more vi4orous rewritin4 or editin4$ thou4h here the editin4 is of a sloppiness nearl! delin5uent, These rather trivial anno!ances are in this instance a s!mptom of serious limitations in Hermode<s criticism of which he has himself become aware$ 6 suspect$ in lookin4 throu4h this collection, @ut of Romantic 6ma4e$ published in #&2T$ and the work continued from that book in the brilliant openin4 essa! of this volume$ *0oet and .ancer Before .ia4hilev$* Hermode
has made$ 5uite unwittin4l!$ 6 would 4uess$ a sort of 4ridiron throu4h which he then looks at too man! of the books he has since reviewed, -hat Hermode claims repeatedl! is that the literature of this centur! and much of the criticism has been based on a m!th of dissociation between mind and bod!$ form and matter$ and on the attendant m!th that it is in the power of art momentaril! to mend these breaks, 6n the process$ so his account runs$ art has been made on the assumption that it could constitute a second nature$ dependent for its meanin4 on nothin4 outside itself, The fascination of "alQr! and Yeats with the primitive aspects of non9verbal art such as the dance$ the accompan!in4 notion that art is an essentiall! atavistic activit!$ m!thical$ ima4istic$ the emphasis in modern criticism on the impersonalit! of the poet and on the poem as an autonomous structure$ and the support 4iven these enterprises and assumptions b! the philosophies of s!mbolic form articulated out of Hant and Herder b! Cassirer and Su;anne >an4er:these are amon4 the components that have 4one into the literar! culture of our time as Hermode sees it, 6 cannot take issue here with Hermode<s account of the dependence of modern literature on m!tholo4ies of artistic creation, -hat 6 can sa! about the collection under review is that the kinds of in5uir! often called for b! the books and writers represented in it
are sometimes badl! served b! his obsession with these m!tholo4ies and with the de4ree$ as he sees it$ to which the! have directed the activities of modern writers, The deficienc! is obvious first of all in the rela/ation of Hermode<s critical attention when he is discussin4 novelists who share his view of literar! culture, There can otherwise be little reason for his admirin4 the novels of Sir Charles Snow$ however timidl! Fhe is *a 4reat deal easier and more pleasant to read* than BeckettG$ or for his e/trava4ant praise of such a modish contrivance as oldin4<s >ord of the %lies which$ we are told$ is in part about the division of *our world into two cultures:the followers of )ack and the admirers of Simon$ those who build the fortresses and those who want to name the beast,* The accounts b! which .octor Rhiva4o becomes a kind of S!mbolist novel$ that 4ive both The Heart of the +atter and the over9praised )ustine attributes of Hu!smans$ and that turn a discussion of Henr! +iller into a summar! of Hermode<s theor! of how the occult has become a literar! alternative to science are t!pical of the de4ree to which man! of these reviews are less in the service of the books the! are supposed to elucidate than of doctrines that are for the most part onl! tan4entiall! relevant to them, Hermode deserves praise as a historian of ideas more than as a critic, His reputed freedom from critical do4ma is an
achievement$ if !ou think it one$ but mi4ht as easil! be taken as a reflection of his more absorbin4 interest in the ideolo4ical conte/ts in which he places the books he reads$ a kind of placement to which novels have alwa!s been especiall! resistant, He is most effective when dealin4 with works that are committed on the surface to an interest like his own in the histor! of modern aesthetics and its relation to contemporar! cultureA *Second Nature* on F"alQr!G and *Sillies* Fa review of the Cambrid4e of ,?, +oore and$ incidentall!$ of >eonard -oolf<s Sowin4G are e/amples$ and so is his rare combination of 4ossip! relish and dia4nostic power in tellin4 the stor! of the dancer >oie %uller, Bein4 at home with artists more theoreticall! conscious of what the! are doin4 than are most novelists$ he is also$ of course$ especiall! stron4 in his reviews of other critics, His anal!sis of Northrop %r!e<s Anatom! of Criticism is impressive enou4h to brin4 some pause$ one hopes$ to an increasin4 and unfortunate academic vo4ue$ and his deepl! admirin4 account of -ilson<s A/el<s Castle$ one of the best thin4s in the book$ is a tribute to a literar! historian of an older 4eneration in terms at once respectful and potentiall! self9descriptive, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number # %ebruar! #$ #&'( New ?ditions B! )ason ?pstein The .ecline and %all of the Roman ?mpire b! ?dward ibbon$ edited b! ),B, Bur! The Herita4e 0ress$ 1DD,23 The Herita4e 0ress has reissued in three volumes its indispensable edition of ibbon<s .ecline and %all of the Roman ?mpire$ with an introduction b! the late 0rofessor Bur! and with his version of the te/t, This edition had lon4 been out of print$ available onl! sporadicall! on the secondhand market at about fift! dollars, The Herita4e 0ress edition is to be commended for its handsome and clear t!po4raph! and desi4n in which ibbon<s notes appear$ as the! should$ in the mar4ins of each pa4e ad7acent to the te/tual passa4es which the! are meant to amplif!, 6t is unfortunate$ on the other hand$ that the publishers chose to illustrate their edition with en4ravin4s b! 0iranesi who$ thou4h he was ibbon<s contemporar!$ approaches Roman anti5uit! in a somewhat more valetudinarian spirit than ibbon would have liked, %urthermore$ 0iranesi<s en4ravin4s$ which show the anti5uities as the! appeared in the
ei4hteenth centur!$ half9buried and often in ruins$ surrounded b! contemporar! buildin4s and out of scale$ are$ for all their brilliance$ hardl! as illuminatin4 as reconstructions of the ori4inal states of these monuments would have been and still less illuminatin4 than reproductions of the coins$ medals$ and trophies to which ibbon continuall! refers and on which his ar4ument so 4reatl! depends, %inall!$ the publishers have chosen to print the en4ravin4s in a brown tone rather than in 0iranesi<s own black$ with the result that the reproductions are not at all representative of the ori4inals, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement 6t is also to be re4retted that the publishers did not take this opportunit! to replace 0hilip uedalla<s introduction$ which was no 4ood to be4in with and is now hopelessl! out of date$ with somethin4 more apposite and scholarl!, This new printin4 mi4ht also have been the occasion to 4ive 0rofessor Bur!<s admirable te/t$ which is now man! !ears old$ to a modern scholar for further emendation, Nevertheless$ the new edition$ whatever its faults:and these include the bindin4$ which is too flims! for volumes this lar4e:is the best we have and perhaps the best we shall have for some time to come, 6t is to be hoped$ however$ that in future printin4s the publishers will replace the present end9paper maps$ which are ver! sparse$ with maps that
are more informative, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books
Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( .eath in )erusalem B! Stephen Spender ?ichmann 6n )erusalemA A Report on the Banalit! of ?vil b! Hannah Arendt "ikin4 0ress$ 12,23 Hannah Arendt<s book is a brilliant and disturbin4 stud! of the character and the trial of Adolf ?ichmann, ?ichmann$ himself$ scareel! seems to be one of the ma7or fi4ures in the erman! that killed si/ million )ews, He is$ rather$ an a4ent$ conditioned to follow orders$ who had certain 4ifts as an or4ani;er, 6n her own summin4 up$ +iss Arendt distin4uishes between the responsibilit! of an a4ent and the passivit! of a mere co4, As the moral ar4ument for ?ichmann<s e/ecution$ Hannah Arendt writes in her conclusionA )ust as !ou carried out a polic! of not wantin4 to share the earth with the )ewish people and the people of other nations:as thou4h !ou and !our superiors had an! ri4ht to determine who should and who should not inhabit the world:we find that no one$ that is$ no member of the human race$ can be e/pected to want !ou to share the earth with them, This is the reason$ and the onl! reason$
!ou must han4, FThis final statement is perhaps the onl! instance in which one is not entirel! convinced of the ri4htness of the author<s touch,G ?ichmann in )erusalem sums up for us the immensel! comple/ or4ani;ation of those branches of the Na;i 0art! which were concerned with the *%inal Solution* of the )ewish 5uestion, 6t studies also the situation in the various countries outside erman! which made it in some places more difficult$ in other less difficult$ to li5uidate non9 erman )ews8 it 4ives a deep understandin4 of what was historicall! unprecedented in the Na;i adoption of 4enocide as a national polic! toward the )ews and toward$ potentiall!$ all other nations, NYR Holida! Subscription Special To man! of us it ma! seem that +iss Arendt<s 4reatest achievement is not 7ust to e/plain the character of ?ichmann within the settin4 of a monstrous$ 4uilt9laden histor!$ but to translate the 4uilt into the conscious and immediate lan4ua4e of responsibilit!, @ur 4uilt for the evil of the world oppresses and h!pnoti;es us, But Hannah Arendt stresses in her subtitle that this book is her *report on the banalit! of evil,* The feelin4 that we all must in some m!sterious wa! share the 4uilt of the Na;is is a sentimentalit! she deplores8 nevertheless banalit! is the atmosphere in which our
civili;ation breathes, iven the political situation$ the surroundin4 banalit!$ with its corruption of lan4ua4e$ led to the pro4ram of mass9killin4, Responsibilit! would have consisted of a da!9to9da! effort to keep one<s mind free of that banalit!$ from the acceptance of those abstractions which first produced the mind and then the action of an ?ichmann, The meanin4 of this$ not onl! for erman!$ but for all of us should be clear, ?ichmann was naturall! a t!pe upon and throu4h whom the Na;is could workA one of the low$ or lowered$ who in the post9war Austrian and erman Republics had become meanin4less ciphers$ and to whom the Na;is offered a life of rhetorical meanin4$ on condition$ thou4h$ that he still remain essentiall! a cipher, His opinions:even at )erusalem he held a 4ood man!$ most of them self9contradictor!:did not come out of his personalit! but out of a kind of non9 personalit!, He wore them like bad4es which provided him with occasions for boastin4, Thus until Hitler decided on the *%inal Solution* ?ichmann called himself a Rionist$ a wa! of drawin4 attention to the fact that he had read Theodor Her;l<s .er )udenstaat and learned a little Hebrew, He boasted of these thin4s not onl! to his S,S, collea4ues but even to his )ewish victims, He nurtured the fantas! of obtainin4$ throu4h emi4ration or some *political$* as distinct from a *final$* solution$ what he called *firm 4round* to put under the
feet of the )ews, He entered with his *Rionist* enthusiasm into He!drich<s scheme for formin4 a *center of emi4ration* within the area of the 0olish swamps under the ae4is of %rank<s * eneral overnment,* +iss Arendt cites an S,S, officer<s description of this *)ewish home*A There are no dwellin4s$ there are no houses, 6f !ou build$ there will be a roof over !our heads, There is no water$ the wells all around carr! disease$ there is cholera$ d!senter! and t!phoid, 6f !ou bore and find water$ !ou will have water, But ?ichmann also worked out an or4ani;ational plan for transportin4 millions of )ews in the middle of the war Facross waters patrolled b! the British fleetG to +ada4ascar, FHe seems to have confused +ada4ascar with =4anda,G )ust as his *Rionism* and *correct behavior* were superimposed on a void of personalit!$ so his or4ani;ational 4ifts could operate$ as it were$ in a vacuum, -hen in the summer of #&C# He!drich told ?ichmann that *the %Xhrer has ordered the ph!sical e/termination of the )ews$* ?ichmann e/perienced the emptiness which resulted from havin4 bad4es of self9esteem stripped off him, Soon afterwards he even 4ave wa! to a human feelin4 and *for the first and last time* acted a4ainst orders and had a transport of )ews diverted from Russia Fwhere the! would most certainl! have been shotG to >od; where
no arran4ements for their e/termination had !et been completed, He was further depressed when he visited the head5uarters of @dilo lobocnik Fone of the most enthusiastic interpreters of the %inal SolutionG at >ublin, This was one of the few occasions on which he witnessed the real actions which the abstract *lan4ua4e rules* of his or4ani;ation were describin4, At >wYw he saw )ews bein4 pushed into the vans where the! were 4assed$ *the most horrible si4ht 6 had thus far seen in m! life, The truck was makin4 for an open ditch$ the doors were opened and the corpses were thrown out$ as thou4h the! were still alive$ so smooth were their limbs,* He saw too a fountain of blood 4ushin4 out of the 4round beneath which there was a mass 4rave, Yet lo!alt! to that ne4ation at the center of all the other ne4ations which made up the diabolism of the Third Reich:the %Xhrer<s will :soon converted ?ichmann<s feelin4 of emptiness into elation, He turned his virtuosit! to the or4ani;ation of the %inal Solution, +iss Arendt traces the e/tinction of his conscience to the Conference of the =ndersecretaries of State held at -annsee in )anuar! #&CD, This meetin4 was held precisel! for the purpose of discussin4 means to carr! out the %inal Solution$ and it was anticipated that some of those attendin4 mi4ht make difficulties, But in fact the %inal Solution was 4reeted with
*e/traordinar! enthusiasm* b! all those present, 6t enormousl! added to ?ichmann<s self9esteem when$ in the cordial atmosphere of a luncheon followed b! drinks$ after the discussion of the *various t!pes of possible solutions to the problem Fi,e,$ the different wa!s of killin4 )ewsG$* he min4led sociall! with the *hi4h persona4es* of the Na;i re4ime$ *the popes of the Third Reich* as he called them, 6t had been his privile4e to prepare the statistical material for He!drich<s introductor! speech$ settin4 forth the pro4ram for killin4 ## million )ews, And He!drich seemed 4rateful$ because later in the da! ?ichmann was permitted to *sit down near the fireplace* with his chief$ +Xller$ and with He!drich, -hat we see at the -annsee Conference is the cordialit! of officials as the! undertake their unspeakabl! 4ruesome tasks$ their unbendin4 7ovialit! when the! meet to4ether as hi4h9ups$ feelin4 themselves the more human because of the abstractions which cover their inhuman operations, +iss Arendt<s underl!in4 theme is the corruption of individual or personal values b! 4randiose$ perverted social aims which see people not as individuals but as the ob7ect of statistical calculations$ as disposable$ even interchan4eable$ social units, The Na;is were of course diabolists$ and the %inal Solution therefore offers the supreme e/ample of the statistical approach to the human communit!,
But +iss Arendt means to warn us that this abstract wa! of dealin4 with people upon bases of statistics$ even when attached to less bad or even theoreticall! 4ood aims$ runs into the dan4er of convertin4 4ood into evil 7ust because people are looked upon as abstractions and disposed of as such, The Na;is corrupted not onl! their own followers but also$ to a 4reat e/tent$ their opponents and even their victims b! their dehumani;in4 methods of thou4ht and action, 6n this lies the *banalit! of evil,* The most deepl! distressin4 pa4es in this book :pa4es which will doubtless 4ive rise to the most bitter recriminations:are those in which +iss Arendt discusses the cooperation of the )ewish Councils and of certain Rionist leaders or representatives with the Na;is, -ithin the conte/t of war and of Na;i corruption$ the interests of the officials representin4 Na;is and )ews could appear to mer4e and become at some points the same, The one part of ?ichmann<s stor! which he never abandoned in the trial was that in "ienna in #&(N when he had been in char4e of *forced emi4ration* Fi,e, e/pellin4 the )ews from AustriaG$ *he and his men and the )ews were all <pullin4 to4ether<J, The )ews <desired< to emi4rate and he$ ?ichmann$ was there to help them$ because it so happened that at the same time the Na;i authorities had e/pressed the desire to see their Reich 7udenrein,* So the )ewish leaders would meet ?ichmann in a cordial atmosphere
Fhe even shook hands with them$ and seemed in his behavior *perfectl! correct*G to arran4e$ sometimes$ for the emi4ration of the *best )ews* to 0alestine, The aims of the )ews and the Na;is coincided at a time when both sides could a4ree that there were *4ood )ews* who 5ualified for salvation$ *bad* ones who could be disre4arded, Hence the situation arose that *wherever )ews lived$ there were reco4ni;ed )ewish leaders$ and this leadership$ almost without e/ception$ cooperated in one wa! or another$ for one reason or another$ with the Na;is,* And from this follows +iss Arendt<s appallin4 conclusionA The whole truth was that if the )ewish people had reall! been unor4ani;ed and leaderless$ there would have been chaos and plent! of miser! but the total number of victims would hardl! have been between four9 and9a9half and si/ million people, The procedure a4reed on between the Na;is and the )ewish Councils 4ave the Na;is lists of the names of all )ews in a particular communit!$ thus makin4 it far easier for them to fill the trains which went to the concentration camps and the 4as chambers, This was the result of abstract calculations like those of .r, Hastner in Hun4ar!$ who could claim that out of CT'$333 victims he had saved #$'NC people, The promised land becomes the common 4rave,
The 7oinin4 of one aim with another$ of compromises$ abstractions$ euphemisms$ handshakes in hotel rooms and restaurants$ was the outer rin4 of concentric circles of conditionin4$ whose outermost circumference was violent death produced b! war$ and at whose center were the actual victims$ behavin4 with a compliance which was also the result of the surroundin4 complicit!, -e 4et$ finall!$ the spectacle of thousands of )ews di44in4 their own 4raves and submittin4 without protest to bein4 shot b! mere hundreds of the S,S, +oreover$ as Bruno Bettelheim points out in The 6nformed Heart$ the identification of the aims of persecutor and persecuted was even reflected b! some of the victims themselves in the campsA 6t came about that some of the political 4roups formed to protect fellow prisoners ended up 4ivin4 full$ if heav!9hearted$ cooperation to the e/termination of thousands of prisoners in order to save some of their own 4roup, +iss Arendt points out$ however$ that in places where the )ewish leaders did not cooperate with the Na;i representatives and refused to provide them with the necessar! information$ far fewer )ews were apprehended and subse5uentl! murdered, Thus in Bel4ium it was e/tremel! difficult to collect the )ews partl! because their leaders had fled$ makin4
it impossible to form a Bel4ian )ewish Council, But in nei4hborin4 Holland$ where there was a )ewish police collaboratin4 with the Na;is$ the result was a *catastrophe unparalleled in an! -estern countr!,* A4ain$ in .enmark$ the .anes refused to take action a4ainst the )ews, The Hin4 of .enmark declared that if the .anish )ews were compelled to wear bad4es$ he would be the first to wear one$ and when the Na;is attempted to sei;e the )ews$ the .anes shipped them in the .anish fishin4 fleet to neutral Sweden, ?ven some of the erman forces occup!in4 .enmark sabota4ed orders from Berlin to sei;e )ews, There is evidence$ then$ in favor of naive$ strai4htforward and un5uestionin4 refusal to deal with totalitarians8 deviousness does not necessaril! pa!, After all$ as Churchill points out in his histor! of the -ar$ even Stalin was cau4ht in the trap of his own devious dealin4s with Hitler, The picture Hannah Arendt paints is e/tremel! depressin4 with respect to the past$ and ver! alarmin4 for the future, She points out that there is now a historic precedent for 4enocide$ and 4iven the conditions likel! soon to confront 4overnments as the result of the population e/plosion$ it is onl! too possible that e/cuses will be found to follow the Na;i precedent$ coverin4 it over$ of course$ with the methods of a less primitive bureaucrac!$ with subtler euphemisms$ officialese and new lan4ua4e rules,
Hannah Arendt shows the deep connection between the actions of an ?ichmann who could think onl! in officialese$ and whose idea of virtue was lo!alt! to the clichQs of Hitler$ and the corruption of the erman lan4ua4e b! the Na;is, Havin4 lived in Berlin in the late twenties and earl! thirties$ 6 think that a 4ood deal of what +iss Arendt writes about the corruption of the lan4ua4e applies to the erman situation before Hitler, After the %irst -orld -ar$ at the time of the inflation$ a whole 4eneration of !oun4 ermans was brou4ht up to think in political slo4ans, 0olitical parties$ of the left even more than the ri4ht$ endeavored to politici;e people at the earliest possible a4e, +an! of the !oun4 4rew up to think of murderin4 their opponents as the necessar! if not noble means whereb! an abstract *correct* course of histor! could win out over the *wron4* historic forces, 6t was e/tremel! noticeable that with the !oun4$ abstract clichQs of political lan4ua4e which were tau4ht b! one part! were reversible$ and could readil! be taken over b! its opponents and applied to opposite kinds of action, Thus in the earl! !ears of Hitler<s re4ime$ when unemplo!ment was *cured$* man! !oun4 socialists Fincludin4 even some ?n4lish ones who had learned the erman ideolo4ical lan4ua4eG suddenl!$ if momentaril!$ welcomed the re4ime as a socialist phenomenon appearin4$ it is true$ in a rather une/pected form, 6n the same wa! there were political Christians read! to see behind
Stalin<s moustaches the bearded fi4ure of Christ, Nor does +iss Arendt<s criti5ue of banal habits of thinkin4 as a device camoufla4in4 evil appl! onl! retrospectivel!, She discerns the survival of *lan4ua4e rules* in the speech of .r, Servatius$ the -est erman law!er defendin4 ?ichmann, Servatius declared the *accused innocent of char4es bearin4 on his responsibilit! for the collection of skeletons$ sterili;ations$ killin4s b! 4as$ and similar medical matters,* 6nterrupted b! )ud4e Halevi$ who wished to correct what he thou4ht must be a slip of the ton4ue$ .r, Servatius replied$ *6t was indeed a medical matter$ since it was prepared b! ph!sicians8 it was a matter of killin4 and killin4$ too$ is a medical matter,* And this is a voice from -est erman! in the #&'3s, Sadder than this$ a heav! suspicion also han4s over the )erusalem court itself in these pa4es: the suspicion that the prosecutin4 counsel: and ultimatel! Ben urion:was not tr!in4 ?ichmann for what he did Fwhich would have been enou4h to han4 himG but for the Na;i that he was$ and$ more than this$ for the crimes of the whole Na;i re4ime a4ainst the )ews, 6t would be useless to den! that the whole ?ichmann case was pre7ud4ed, There are ample emotional e/cuses or 7ustifications for this$ !et when one considers the effects of precedents from this trial and the Nurember4
trials on possible future views of international law$ one feels apprehensive, However$ these considerations lead be!ond the kinds of responsibilit! which are likel! to concern a reader of this article, There are much more immediate responsibilities for intellectuals$ writers and educators which surel! could be fulfilled, ?ichmann<s mind was ruined b! miseducation before it was distorted b! politics, And even supposin4 that a man like ?ichmann can 4et into a powerful position$ should not one e/pect that in a civili;ed countr! ?ichmann<s clichQs$ his *lan4ua4e rules$* his evasions and euphemisms would have made him ludicrous to an educated publicI 0erhaps the 4reatest delusion of the ermans about themselves is that the! are a cultivated$ educated people, But then$ when it comes to resistin4 the *lan4ua4e rules* used b! politicians Fthe e/istence of the H9bomb has created a whole new vocabular! of evasionsG$ who is toda! resistin4I email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B Budapest HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( America Absolved B! Ben7amin .e+ott Anti96ntellectualism in American >ife b! Richard Hofstadter Hnopf$ 1',&2 %or saints and seers Histor! is all oneA the! call it terror F?liadeG or ni4htmare F)o!ceG or inertia FNiet;scheG$ and dream of escape, %or lesser men$ thou4h$ the matter is complicated, Aware of histor! as an oppressive dead hand on e/perience$ the! think of it also as a contrivance$ that which historians make or *do$* and the! tend to be optimistic about the doin4s, Shrewd in5uirers can find thin4s out about the past that$ as the historian +arc Bloch sa!s$ the past didn<t know about itself$ or didn<t wish to know, The! also can learn for4otten lan4ua4es$ social or political$ which$ used with appropriate 4in4erliness as a means of interpretin4 the present$ win respect for criti5ues of contemporar! do4ma that would seem outra4eous if delivered in contemporar! terms, Neither accomplishment enables the in5uirer to 4et the full wei4ht of the monke!9 past off his back8 neither offers the audience a read! wa! up and out of time into eternit!: that for which seers have a cr!in4 need, But
both provide people with release in the form of a 4limpse of Now from the outside, And in a faithless a4e the need for this release is so 4reat that whatever satisfies it deserves re4ard as a kind of poor man<s race, As should at once be admitted$ commonplaces like these are irrelevant to ordinar! works of American histor!, +ost studies of our past are written b! men who are simpl! passin4 respectabl! throu4h the professional da!$ harmin4 nobod!$ keepin4 facts in si4ht$ establishin4 that the humble act of bein4 sound about an! sub7ect demands hard work Fthe point can never be well9enou4h establishedG, NYRB B Chr!salids Holida! And at first 4lance the treatise at hand appears to deserve no hi4her praise than this, The tenth book of a fort!9si/9!ear9old scholar$ Anti96ntellectualism in American >ife$ promises little to people who read professional tomes for the pleasure of encounterin4 For ima4inin4G appurtenances of the lost world of leisure: librar! loafers$ claret lunches$ fireside teas$ prett! calli4raph! and the like, A whiff of 4rim! worldliness$ essence of te/tbook9T"9 timestud! academia$ rises from its pa4es8 some provincial readers who turn them will call to mind the stereot!pe of the Columbia prof as the proprietor of a madl! e/pandin4 one9man insurance brokera4e:a hustler nailin4 the bi4 premium ever! time he hits the street$ 5uotin4
rates in phone booths while nibblin4 a desperate Nab$ shootin4 back to the shop to break in a fleet of new clerks and steno4raphers Fthe staff .ean Bar;un said ever! professor should haveG and all the while flo44in4 himself with the dream of 4ettin4 out earl! toni4ht to Bellmore to spend half an hour with the kids, The author announces that he worked on and off at this lar4e volume for ten !ears8 in that period he delivered lectures in series at a splendid variet! of other institutions Fthe universities of +ichi4an and Southern California$ Hiram Colle4e$ Smith Colle4e$ 0rinceton:and Cambrid4e$ overseasG wheeled and dealed successfull! with the foundations Fthe Carne4ie Corporation and the %und for the Advancement of ?ducation were amon4 his supportersG and finished si/ other books, His thanks 4o forth to no fewer than four *research assistants$* a +iss ruber amon4 them, Toward the close of his book he delivers himself on the natural isolation of the intellectual F*The trul! creative mind is hardl! ever so alone as when it is tr!in4 to be sociableJ, %acin4 the worldJalone seems to be the characteristic creative stance*G$ and a pa4e or two later he acknowled4es the help not onl! of the four assistants but of thirt!9 three friends, And throu4hout he abides b! the no/ious footnote rules which re5uire an academic author to drop off at the bottom of ever! pa4e$ like a !oun4 mouser mewin4 pridefull! at the back door$ a furr! little ball of dead ad7ectival tribute F*+arcus Cunliffe$ *in
his penetratin4 stud!*J*+erle Curti$ in his su44estive little volumeJ,* *%or an e/cellent statement about the numbersJsee Timoth! >, SmithJ* *%or an interestin4 e/ercise in definition$ see +orton -hiteJ* *%or a spirited defense and appreciationJsee Samuel ?liot +orisonJ* *%or a stimulatin4 e/plorationJsee R,-,B, >ewisJ* etc,G, Nor is it merel! superficies and trivia of production and composition that raise doubts about the book<s essential value, No one before 0rofessor Hofstadter had thou4ht to write a histor! of American attitudes toward mind$ tracin4 4eneral c!cles of hatred$ love and apath! from the #Tth centur! to the present$ and avoidin4 such pitfall topics as *hi4hbrow anti9rationalism,* But few specialists in an! period of the American past have left these attitudes wholl! out of account :which is to sa! that the *field* of anti9 intellectualism is not one from which news for professional Americanists can easil! be reaped, 0rofessor Hofstadter treats patterns of intellectualism and anti9intellectualism in reli4ion Ffrom the 0uritan cler4! throu4h the Awakeners and ?van4elicals to the evolution controvers!G$ in politics Ffrom the decline of the %ederalist elite throu4h odkin and the Civil Service reformers to the rise of the e/pertG$ in business F*the van4uard of anti9 intellectualism in our culture*G$ and in education Fspecial attention to .ewe! and the 4ospel of life ad7ustmentG, The heroes$
episodes and books that fi4ure in his most entertainin4 pa4es:.av! Crockett$ Henr! Adams in -ashin4ton$ Bill! Sunda!$ eor4e -ashin4ton 0lunkitt of Tamman!$ Carne4ie$ "anderbilt$ T,R, as *fi4htin4 intellectual$* Robert +, >a%ollette$ the Scopes Trial$ the Brain Trust$ Henr! C, >ink<s The Return to Reli4ion$ Adlai Stevenson:have been heard of before, The evidence marshalled in support of his perceptions often amounts onl! to a lon4 paraphrase of one or another recent$ readil! available stud!, F0rofessor Hofstadter was startled$ presumabl! while readin4 .aniel Aaron<s -riters on the >eft Z#&'#[$ b! the continuit! between traditional business attitudes toward mind and those appearin4 in leftist discourse of the #&D3s and #&(3s, He pieces out this *insi4ht* for seven anecdotal para4raphs in which ever! 5uotation and incident$ as the footnote bri4htl! reports$ is taken *from ZAaron[$ pp, D2$ C#$ '2$ &(9C$ #(Dn$ #'D$ #'(9C$ #'N$ D3&$ D#39D#D$ D#'$ DDT$ DC39D$ D2C$ (3N$ ((T9N (C'$ C3&$ C#3$ C#T$ CD2,*G And impatience$ a force that occasionall! pushes him toward melodrama and awa! from anal!sis$ seems least well controlled precisel! when he approaches the sub7ects:the ps!cholo4! of the elitist withdrawal in the #ND3s for one:that he is best placed to probe, That in spite of these failin4s Anti9 6ntellectualism in American >ife does succeed in recoverin4 a for4otten lan4ua4e is owin4
lar4el! to the author<s ease with comple/it!$ his readiness to present the brain9baitin4 of the past in its full socio9political conte/t, *To be confronted with a simple and un5ualified evil is no doubt a kind of lu/ur!$* sa!s 0rofessor Hofstadter at the outset$ *but such is not the case here8 and if anti9intellectualism has become$ as 6 believe it has$ a broadl! diffused 5ualit! in our civili;ation$ it has become so because it has often been linked to 4ood$ or at least defensible$ causes,* The position has shortcomin4s$ of courseA the writer<s fondness for 5ualification and distaste for morali;in4 fervor prevent the ne4lected truth which he brin4s back into view from becomin4 the center of a passionate ar4ument, Alienated waifs and moon! hipsters on the one hand$ ?stablishment apolo4ists on the other$ will be pi5ued:but not shaken:b! his words8 ordinar! folk will perceive the fatuit! of some modern assumptions about *the situation of the intellectual* without bein4 released from their wei4ht, Yet$ as these remarks impl! materials for a powerful criti5ue of contemporar! cant lie read! at hand for the reader of Anti96ntellectualism$ and at those moments when the author puts them to effective use$ the book rises to the level of a ma7or pro7ect of reclamation, The ne4lected truth reclaimed$ namel! that one man<s anti9intellectualism is another man<s democratic aspiration$ is well9represented in the openin4 chapters$ which e/plain with
admirable clarit! wh! simplicit! needs to be laid b!A ZAnti9intellectualism[ first 4ot its stron4 4rip on our wa!s of thinkin4 because it was fostered b! an evan4elical reli4ion that also purve!ed man! humane and democratic sentiments, 6t made its wa! into our politics because it became associated with our passion for e5ualit!, 6t has become formidable in our education partl! because our educational beliefs are evan4elicall! e4alitarian, Hence$ as far as possible$ our anti9intellectualism must be e/cised from the benevolent impulses upon which it lives b! constant and delicate acts of intellectual sur4er! which spare these impulses themselves, @nl! in this wa! can anti9 intellectualism be checked and contained8 6 do not sa! eliminated alto4ether$ for 6 believe not onl! that this is be!ond our powers but also that an unbridled passion for the total elimination of this or that evil can be as dan4erous as an! of the delusions of our time, But the force of the truth in 5uestion stems less from the flat statements of the author than from the lan4ua4e of the past that he 5uotes, %or it is this lan4ua4e:some of it spoken b! the elite$ some b! the unwashed: which puts the reader in fresh touch with the complicated$ even di4nified$ feelin4s for which the historian offers his defense, 6n the elite voices$ di4nit! is sometimes the
concomitant of a kind of humane pastoral 4enerosit!$ as when )efferson contrasts the moral sense of the plou4hman with that of the professor, FThe contrast$ favorable to the plou4hman$ is made in terms alto4ether free of the vices of self9hatred or sentimentalit! that now unman some men of mind,G And sometimes it is a product of the habit of responsibilit!$ as when reele! remarks that the reason the American !eoman wavers in his natural respect for talent and learnin4 is that talent and learnin4 are too often *directed to the ac5uisition of wealth and lu/ur! b! means which add little to the a44re4ate of human comforts$ and rather subtract from his own special share of them,* The voices of the unwashed$ in contrast$ can be respected because the! are rooted$ as reele! implies$ in a real world:one in which men who cr! out a4ainst ?stablishment selfishness are respondin4 to fact not fantas!$ and are moved b! commendable aspiration for their sons$ not b! ressentiment, The North Billerica$ +ass, farmer whose anti9intellectual$ anti9 ?stablishment pamphlet called The He! of >ibbert! appeared in #T&N was$ as 0rofessor Hofstadter admits$ a crude man$ unworried about *the conse5uence of his polic! for hi4h culture*:but he was no enthusiast of i4norance, His paper opened with the assertion that *>earnin4 P Hnowled4e is essential to the preservation of >ibbert! P unless we have more of it amon4ue us we Cannot Seporte our >ibert!es >on4,* The point of the man<s attack
on ph!sicians$ ministers$ 7ud4es and *all letirar! men P the over 4rown rich* is that their sin4le concern is to elevate the status of the professionsA Jthe few are alwa!s cr!in4 up the advanta4es of costl! colla4es$ national acadim!es and 4ramer schooles$ in order to make places for men to live without work and so stren4then their part!, But are alwa!s opposed to cheep schooles P woman schooles$ the ondl! or prinsaple means b! which larnin4 is spred amon4ue the +an!J, %or if we appl! for a 0reacher or a School +aster$ we are told the price$ So +uch$ P the! can<t 4o under$ for it is a4reed upon P the! shall be dis4rased if the! take less, And the historian$ reviewin4 this char4e in the li4ht of conditions of the a4e:*a time when the vaunted common school s!stem of +assachusetts was bein4 ne4lected*:is obli4ed to assert that *there was a certain rou4h 7ustice in Zit that[ cannot be denied,* As alread! indicated$ Anti96ntellectualism in American >ife has other ends in view besides the pursuit of *rou4h 7ustice* on this model, 0rofessor Hofstadter<s decision about the North Billerica farmer is that his position was ultimatel! dama4in4 to *intellectual culture,* He takes the same view of the N?A and the 4ospel of life ad7ustment$ of Charles randison %inne! and *0resb!4ational* evan4elism$ and
Fat a lower levelG of Cotton ?d Smith$ who told the Senate that Re/ Tu4well was un5ualified to be =ndersecretar! of A4riculture because he had never been a dirt farmer$ hence was *not a 4raduate of od<s reat =niversit!,* At no point does he become an apolo4ist for sunn! mindlessness, But at ever! moment he is conscious that in a democratic societ! effort to appl! fi/ed labels to men in the name of mind or of taste is unrealisticA whom the elite call vul4ar are also to be called brother$ the unwashed are also the unadvanta4ed$ the unreali;ed are never$ flatl!$ the unredeemable, *6t is rare for an American intellectual$* sa!s 0rofessor Hofstadter$ *to confront candidl! the unresolvable conflict between the elite character of his own class and his democratic aspirations,* And it is lar4el! because$ in conductin4 his historical in5uiries$ he himself rarel! shies from such confrontations$ that his book arrives repeatedl! at hitherto ine/pressible truths, He succeeds in definin4 ps!cho9political implications of the contemporar! intellectual<s fascination with mass culture:estran4ement from democratic faith amon4 them, F*TheJnote of inhumanit!$ which often creeps into discussions of mass culture ma! be e/plained in some part b! an underl!in4 sense of 4rievance a4ainst a populace that has not lived up to e/pectations,*G And addressin4 himself to deeper convictions of the same men$ he is able to name the precise shift of assumption that in recent da!s has driven intellectuals on toward
e/trava4ance and cantA The prophets of alienation who speak for the left no doubt aim to create a basis for some kind of responsible politics of protest$ but when the situation of the intellectual is under consideration their tone becomes strident$ and then one hears how much better it is to have *blind unreasonin4 re7ection* rather than to make moral compromises8 the talk is of nostal4ia for *earlier certainties that made resistance eas!$* of the primar! need of the intellectual to dischar4e a44ression$ of the dan4ers of becomin4 a *prostitute* or a *traitor* to the fundamental obli4ations of the intellectual<s role$ of the alle4ed antithesis between social responsibilit!$ which is bad$ and intellectual responsibilit!$ which is 4ood, The point here is that alienation in the intellectual is not simpl! accepted$ as a necessar! conse5uence of the pursuit of truth or of some artistic vision$ but that a ne4ative stance or posture toward societ! is prescribed as the onl! stance productive of artistic creativit! or social insi4ht or moral probit!, Re4rettabl!$ those likel! to be hostile to 0rofessor Hofstadter<s account of the cult of alienation are offered a weapon b! the ran4e of his book<s backward 4lance, The ver! ortho4raph! of the ke! te/ts cited su44ests that intense democratic aspiration$ perfervid labor toward self9reali;ation$ belon4 to the past, Yes$ !es$ in olden times scholars and
artists and professionals were abused in lar4e part because the! seemed determined to prevent others from risin4 to their rank, But what of the last two decadesI -h! does the learned professor not deal directl! with Hiss9 Chambers or with the +cCarth! !earsI 6f he had focussed on these episodes would he have found it possible to establish a relation between anti9intellectualism and *humane and democratic sentimentsI* -ould he still have believed in the appropriateness Fin a mass societ!G of talk about e/cisin4 anti9 intellectualism from benevolent impulses *b! delicate acts of intellectual sur4er!*I 6sn<t it a fact that the professor makes his case b! avoidin4 the 4rittiest episodes in memor!: outbursts that did incomparabl! more dama4e to *intellectual culture* than an! he citesI The 5uestions are not trivial$ and a 7ournalistic notice is hardl! the place to en4a4e them:b! ar4uin4$ sa!$ that the anti9?stablishment furies of the late forties and mid9fifties are themselves as comple/ in ori4in as an! released in the #&th centur!, FThe criti5ue of contemporar! do4ma does indeed seem outra4eous when delivered in contemporar! terms,G Still there is some point in recallin4 that onl! a few !ears before these furies occurred Americans had under4one an e/perience of hierarchical vi4or which ma! well have been for millions stunnin4 in its effect, The voice of privile4e and command of those da!s spoke often in a tone controlled
more b! sniffishness than b! manl! love of the fla4$ or b! the sense of necessities of discipline$ and nobod! could have loved it,: You will not eat our food$ wear our clothes$ enter our clubs8 !ou will not speak until spoken to8 !ou will sir$ salute$ or snivel to !outh$ incompetence$ even apparent stupidit!A for !ou are not a colle4e man, Had the Harvard lieutenants and Bowdoin ensi4ns tipped a universal wink$ *militar! courtes!* would have disappeared and doubtless militar! discipline as well8 but millions would have had a less e/acerbatin4 encounter with *trained minds,* -hat was tau4ht b! the educated 4entlemen whose land and beeves were leaves and bars wasn<t manners alone but the ver! concept of establishmentarianism$ e/clusiveness itself, And how content were these lecturers$ how e/traordinaril! untormented in their separatenessL How remarkabl! comfortable Ffor themG the transition from the rhetoric of e5ualit! to the rhetoric of superiors and inferiorsL 6n the 4lance of brass9browed militar! man there was that which probabl! chilled countless dreams of mobilit! and self9 reali;ation, And conceivabl! the resentment and frustration thus amassed:an4er at universit! smu4ness known at first hand: wasn<t an insi4nificant part of the hu4e capital drawn on b! mind9baiters in the Hiss and +cCarth! !ears, .oes it follow from this that the events of those !ears$ the release of ra4e in persecution$
recreated democratic faith in AmericaI 0erhaps a few who read these words could believe that one man<s e/perience mi4ht lead him to contain his scorn of such a conclusion, There were schoolbo!s 4oin4 off to work in the middle and late thirties$ while others were enthroned as fresh9men$ who learned to env! the rich and the luck!$ and sustained themselves on a smell! broth of feelin4:self9 pit!$ no hope for the ambitious$ B@YS B@YS B@YS in the back pa4e a4enc! ads of the Herald Trib:that was the staple too of the soldier<s life, And there are a few who have acknowled4ed that the 4reat upheaval of #&CT$ the tearin4 down of the 6v! b! the 4rocer<s bo! from -hittier$ meant somethin4A the! could be turned on$ the luck! ones$ the! did not own the worldJ, The reviewer$ a reporter$ husband$ father and vet in his mid9twenties then$ found satisfaction for his i4norance in the ba!in4 of that elite8 he remembers to his shame Fthe latter a belated achievementG that the episode encoura4ed him in his *decision* to turn student, And while there are limits to the personal reference$ the! are not so over9powerin4 as to cancel the relevant possibilit!:namel! that an! moment in American life at which men of ordinar! intelli4ence and powerful desire believe themselves to be blocked off$ anti9 intellectualism is likel! to become impureA a mode for the release of decent aspiration as well as of vicious$ mindless env!, To think of
that discover! as absolution Fever!thin4 understood$ ever!thin4 for4ivenG is$ to be sure$ to become a victim of histor! on the model Niet;sche described, But to think of it as a further snippet tellin4 on 0rofessor Hofstadter<s *side$* supportin4 ar4uments for a complicated understandin4 of anti9 intellectualism$ mi4ht be neither a hopeless error nor an invitation to complacenc!, 6t is true that the 4reat American trick of !ester!ear was that of bein4 oblivious to the defects of virtues:but presentl! the trick is that of bein4 oblivious to the virtues of defects, And both tricks cheat, Never in ?n4land$ sa! some$ could a +cCarth! terrori;e academies$ politicians$ best peopleA there the challen4e would be despised, But the weakness here that could not despise$ that could onl! trim and whine and hide$ was at least a human villain!:evidence that in America men char4ed as fi4ures of privile4e are incapable of retainin4 their e5uipoise$ can actuall! be shamed for li4htin4 each other<s candles$ pa!in4 out to members onl! the soft 7obs$ the eas! chairs$ the solid cots$ the whiske! in the rest area$ the ham and 7am breakfasts$ the coffee and buns at Battalion, And that shame is a potenc! as well as a disaster, To repeatA the reassertion of connections between mind9baitin4 and democratic aspiration creates no 4round for self9 con4ratulation$ no wholl! satisfactor!
vocabular! of 4race, The writer who takes up the task of reviewin4 the links cannot think of himself as en4a4ed in producin4 a work that the communit! of knowled4e will welcome as a necessar! book, And it is possible:despite truisms about the uses of histor!:that the author of Anti96ntellectualism in American >ife would have contributed more had he dared to face the chaos in memor!, The result of his labor$ thou4h$ is far from another piece of production9line AmericanaA coura4eousl! sane at its best$ the book demands praise as a work which not onl! serves truth and the nation simultaneousl!$ but erects a new barrier a4ainst despair, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search NYR Holida! Subscription Special HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( Buechner B! Robert Brustein Complete 0la!s and 0rose b! eor4 Buechner$ translated with an introduction b! Carl Richard +ueller Hill and -an4$ 1#,T2 eor4 Buechner$ the erman dramatist$ died in #N(T$ at the a4e of twent!9three$ leavin4 behind him an inflammator! revolutionar! manifesto$ an unfinished prose narrative$ two complete pla!s and a scramble of disconnected episodes in dialo4ue Fundeciphered and unpublished until #NT&G called -o!;eck, These facts are remarkable when we consider that Buechner is 4enerall! conceded to be one of the 4reat seminal fi4ures of dramatic literatureA even in a centur! notable for untimel! deaths and small leavin4s$ his life seems terribl! brief and his literar! output e/tremel! fra4mentar!, Still$ the reall! astonishin4 thin4 about Buechner is neither the shortness of his career nor the mea4erness of his productionA it is the e/ceptionall! modern 5ualit! of his temperament, Buechner admired oethe8 he adored Shakespeare8 and he made a stron4 personal identification with that obsessed #Nth9centur! dramatist$ )akob
+ichael Reinhold >en;$ who became the feverish hero of Buechner<s uncompleted novel, But althou4h the impact of all three writers can be felt on his work$ Buechner seems to develop independentl! of literar! conditionin4, >ike -illiam Blake$ he is one of those e/traordinar! prodi4ies who occasionall! bursts into the sk! of histor!:une/pected$ unforeseen:and proceeds to cast his illumination over future 4enerations, @ur own a4e$ in fact$ is so heavil! indebted to Buechner that the temptation toda! is to treat him less like a uni5ue artist than like a literar! ancestor, 6n the introduction to his new edition of The Complete 0la!s and 0rose$ for e/ample$ Carl Richard +ueller discovers Buechner lurkin4 behind ever! modern dramatic movement$ and even calls -o!;eck *the 4reat 4randfather of -ill! >oman*L %rom such 4reat oaks do little acorns 4row, 0uttin4 aside the 5uestion whether or not Buechner finds his apotheosis in Arthur +iller$ we must admit +r, +ueller<s claim that there is a kinship between Buechner<s pla!s and the pla!s of Naturalism$ ?/pressionism$ ?/istentialism and the Theater of the Absurd:that is$ from a purel! philosophical standpoint, %or Buechner$ trained as a medical scientist$ clearl! anticipated the revolt of the modern drama a4ainst the earlier$ more flambo!ant Romanticism, Alwa!s s!mpathetic to humbler forms of life$ Buechner was anno!ed b! Schiller$ whose struttin4 heroes struck him as
*nothin4 more than marionettes with sk!9blue noses and affected pathos,* But he was anta4onistic to all the lar4er claims made on sufferin4 mankind$ and especiall! an4r! a4ainst erman idealism$ which his character >en; calls *the most humiliatin4 of insults to human nature,* @nce havin4 scandali;ed a school chum with the pre9Niets;chean observation$ *Christianit! does not please me8 it makes !ou pious$ like a lamb$* Buechner went on to find all theoretical structures and moral s!stems patentl! false$ since the! were abhorrent to Nature, And Nature remained Buechner<s 4oddess$ even as she came to seem an u4l!$ diseased old whore, NYR Holida! Subscription Special %or Nature to Buechner was violent$ accidental and ominous in the e/treme:a 7un4le where man was cau4ht in the underbrush to be torn apart b! wild beasts, Thus$ after a short spell as a radical social revolutionar!$ protestin4 a4ainst the 4reed and inhumanit! of the erman aristocrac!$ Buechner became convinced that all human action was futile$ and that mankind was crushed *beneath the horrible fatalism of histor!,* This conviction$ as +r, +ueller ri4htl! observes$ is thorou4hl! implanted in all Buechner<s central characters8 the! are fro;en into passive immobilit!$ enmeshed in a web of internal and e/ternal forces, .anton$ in that four9act death scene$ .anton<s .eath$ is devoured b! Robespierre$ rendered impotent b! his sense of universal
chaos and human weaknessA *-hat are we but puppets$ manipulated on wires b! unknown powersI* 0rince >eonce$ in that stran4e anti9 romance$ >eonce and >ena$ is consumed b! a soul9destro!in4 indolence$ one of those *who are unhapp!$ and incurabl! so$ simpl! because the! e/ist,* And -o!;eck is the archet!pal victim$ at the merc! of a cold$ unfeelin4 world in which od is dead and man is slowl! d!in4 of a lin4erin4 disease, This$ of course$ is the famous metaph!sical An4st$ the feelin4 behind so much modern art8 and thou4h Buechner occasionall! borrowed the robes of Hamlet and >ear$ it was his prophetic destin! to e/press ?/istential discontent man! !ears in advance of the contemporar! fashion$ durin4 a period of radiant optimism and e/uberant e/pectation, Still$ if Buechner<s art is international in its philosophical attitudes$ it is peculiarl! erman in its st!le and tone, The contemporar! %rench dramatist$ for e/ample$ will usuall! make his nausea and despair an occasion for self9 conscious theori;in4$ but Buechner is alwa!s at one with his sufferin4 characters$ and thereb! invests them with febrile intensit! and hallucinated visions, @nl! .ostoevsk!$ amon4 non9 erman writers$ strikes me as Buechner<s companion spirit$ because Buechner<s characters are all afflicted with brain fever$ and >en; seems ver! much like an earl! sketch for 6van Haramo;ov, @n the other hand$ Buechner has a 4reat man! followers amon4
erman artists$ both literar! and non9literar!, To a certain t!pe of erman mind which found the @l!mpian idealism of Thomas +ann as fake as that of Schiller$ Buechner<s ecstatic nihilism$ his surreal ima4es and his unremittin4 attacks on bour4eois moralit! were ver! con4enial indeed, Buechner$ in short$ was the literar! saint of the -eimar Republic8 one can detect his influence on the satirical drawin4s of eor4 ros;$ the paintin4s of +a/ ?rnst$ the movies of ,-, 0abst$ the music of Alban Ber4 and the pla!s of %rank -edekind and Bertolt Brecht, Brecht$ especiall!$ admired Buechner and modelled his earl! pla!s on Buechner<s work$ e/aminin4 lower forms of life on an abandoned$ second9rate planet where even hell is cold$ and man free;es with loneliness, But the se/ nausea$ the hi4hli4hted despair and the sado9masochistic feelin4s which inform pla!s like Baal$ .rums in the Ni4ht and 6n the )un4le of Cities are t!pical of a whole species of -eimar art in a Buechnerian tradition, %or it is an art which focuses on the deterioration of human bein4s until the! are revealed in all their naked insi4nificance or brutalit!:an art which forecasts the comin4 of the Na;is, Buechner prophesied the Na;i patholo4! a hundred !ears in advance of the event in his masterpiece$ -o!;eck8 there he follows the pro4ress of an anti9hero stripped of morals$
ideals and civili;ed veneer, -o!;eck is based on an actual historical case$ that of a >eip;i4 barber who had murdered his mistress in a fit of 7ealous!, At the time$ a debate had ensued over whether the barber was mad, Buechner handles the problem b! i4norin4 it completel!, -o!;eck is certainl! mad$ but then so is the entire world, +anipulated b! a cold9blooded societ!$ and buffeted b! his own uncontrollable impulses$ -o!;eck seems human onl! in his abilit! to suffer8 but in comparison with his tormentors$ he is humanit! itself, %rustrated and in9articulate$ -o!;eck represents mankind in its crudest form:he is Natural +an$ untau4ht$ unmoral$ incorri4ible, >ectured b! his condescendin4 Captain on the need for virtue$ -o!;eck repliesA *0eople like us can<t be hol! in this world:or the ne/t, 6f we ever did 4et into heaven$ the!<d put us to work on the thunder,* To such born victims$ moralit! is an e/trava4ance and virtue a lu/ur!:or as Brecht is to put it a centur! laterA ?rst kommt die %ressen$ dann kommt die +oral, >ike Brecht<s$ however$ Buechner<s social 7ud4ment has a metaph!sical foundation8 it is not 7ust the s!stem but life itself which inspires -o!;eck<s miser!, To Buechner$ societ! is merel! another form of nature$ and in the state of Nature$ man is simpl! another of the beasts, At the fair4rounds$ -o!;eck observes his natural cousins in a monke! dressed as a man and a trained horse who
*puts societ! to shame,* He becomes the e/perimental ob7ect of a proto9Na;i .octor who feeds him on peas, And thou4h the .octor holds that natural man is superior to the animals because he can control his urine$ -o!;eck urinates a4ainst a wall:like a do4, ?ven the .octor<s 0ela4ian view of human freedom$ ironicall! limited thou4h it is$ is contradicted b! -o!;eck<s wa!ward flesh, The natural man is without control$ and Nature itself is madness and disorderA *-hen Nature 4ives wa!$* observes -o!;eck$ *the world 4ets dark and !ou have to feel around with !our hands$ and ever!thin4 keeps slippin4$ like in a spider<s web,* Buechner further evokes this sense of dislocation throu4h the accidental$ unconnected form of the pla!:-o!;eck moves blindl! from episode to episode like the pre! of a spider bein4 dra44ed down its web, His fren;! increasin4 over his mistress< infidelit!$ -o!;eck falls into a *beautiful aberratio* Fas the .octor 4leefull! calls itG$ and in the 4rip of a lucid$ Shakespearean madness$ he be4ins to visuali;e the se/ual act:the act of Nature:in ima4es of bestialit!$ foulness and defilementA * od$ blow out the sun and let them roll on each other in their lecher!L +an and woman and man and beastL The!<ll do it in the li4ht of the sunL The!<ll do it in the palm of !our hand like fliesL* 6t is the lan4ua4e of Shakespeare<s >ear$ perceivin4 the whole of life dominated b! unrestrained appetite, 6t is the form of Nature
Fanarch! and madnessG discoverin4 the essence of Nature Flust and an4erG, And actin4 on this terrible perception$ -o!;eck cuts his mistress< throat, >ater$ tr!in4 to wash the blood from his hands$ he falls into a lake:most versions have him drown at this point$ thou4h +r, +ueller brin4s him back to stand trial:and as some children heartlessl! flin4 the news F*He!$ !our mother<s dead*G at the woman<s orphaned child$ the c!cle of inhumanit! be4ins anew, The pla! is e/a44erated$ but the e/a44erations of erman art have become the truths of erman histor!A -o!;eck is the first concentration camp man, The pla! is all the more remarkable when we remember the date it was written$ but Buechner<s capacit! for standin4 apart from his own time has made him a part of ours, -hile his contemporaries 4rew drunk on the rich wine of Rousseau$ he looked forward to a harrowin4 future of universal$ social and personal disorder, The poet of isolation and ennul he chronicled the death of the world in ima4es of startlin4 power$ foretellin4 the Second Comin4 in ever! line of his artA *The world is chaos, Nothin4ness is the world94od !et to be born,* email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( Spen4ler B! H, Stuart Hu4hes +an and Technics b! @swald Spen4ler$ translated b! C,%, Atkinson Hnopf$ 1(,23 The Hour of .ecision b! @swald Spen4ler$ translated b! C,%, Atkinson Hnopf$ 12,33 6t is characteristic of Alfred Hnopf<s lo!alt! to authors he has lon4 esteemed to have reissued two of Spen4ler<s minor writin4s which have been out of print for ten !ears, 6n terms either of sales or of intrinsic merit$ 6 5uestion whether the books deserve such attention, The! are dated$ chaotic and intellectuall! disreputable8 it is difficult to see what the public of the #&'3s will make of these tracts written onl! a 4eneration a4o$ !et under such totall! different circumstances, But now that Hnopf has performed his 5ui/otic 4esture$ we can onl! be 4rateful to him, 6t means that the corpus of Spen4ler<s translated work is back in print a4ain and that we can see him in perspective as somethin4 more For lessG than
the author of The .ecline of the -est8 we can rediscover the second role which Spen4ler himself considered as important as his historical writin4:his function as political spokesman and national prophet, After the phenomenal success of The .ecline in the immediate aftermath of the %irst -orld -ar$ Spen4ler faced a difficult choice, %rom a retired !mnasium teacher livin4 in obscurit! in +unich$ he had suddenl! been transformed into a public fi4ure, His ever! utterance commanded attention as a clue to the future of the -estern world whose cultural ossification and political deca! he had alread! delineated, @n one hand$ Spen4ler mi4ht confine himself to the task of enrichin4 the historical perspectives he had presented in The .ecline: takin4 a stand above the da!9to9da! battle as the cool observer of the millenial Fand ineluctableG tendencies of histor!, The other choice was to 4et into the fi4ht and show his own countr!men that all was not lost$ that the erman nation$ if onl! it could or4ani;e itself ari4ht$ mi4ht provide the *Caesar* who would 4ive the -estern world stren4th for a last9 ditch stand in the a4e of iron which it was enterin4, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement B! temperament$ Spen4ler preferred the latter course, He was an activist and a erman patriot$ and for the five !ears of erman!<s post9war turmoil$ he devoted his ma7or
ener4ies to tr!in4 to steer his countr! toward national order and hierarchical discipline, =nfortunatel!$ for this transition period in his writin4 ?n4lish translations are totall! lackin4, -e must 4o to the ori4inal te/ts for the articles and lectures in which Spen4ler preached his own brand of national re4eneration$ and more particularl! to the slim polemical volume$ 0reussentum und So;ialismus$ in which he outlined his prophetic su44estion of a reconciliation between erman socialist ideals and the 0russian militar! tradition, B! #&DC$ Spen4ler<s failure as a polemicist was ampl! evident, -ith the apparent stabili;ation of the erman econom! and of democratic institutions$ authoritarian conservatives of his t!pe went into temporar! eclipse, 6ll and discoura4ed$ Spen4ler returned to historical speculations$ to!in4 for !ears with two vast pro7ects which finall! became one:a *metaph!sical* book and a stud! of prehistor! in the +editerranean basin, 6t was a fra4ment of these broodin4s that he decided to publish in #&(# under the title +an and Technics, As an anthropolo4ical fantas! +an and Technics was distinctl! inferior to such %reudian fli4hts as Totem and Taboo and +oses and +onotheism, The most pessimistic of Spen4ler<s works$ it added little to the warnin4s about the culturall! devastatin4 effects of technolo4! that had become routine
amon4 social critics durin4 the previous 4eneration, +oreover$ b! the time it was published$ its author had once a4ain shifted the focus of his interest, =nemplo!ment$ social strife and the rise of Adolf Hitler had 4iven Spen4ler a second chance to preach to the erman nation, The Hour of .ecision:*Years of .ecision* in the ori4inal erman:was$ as its name implied$ Spen4ler<s final call for action, The circumstances of its publication are a curiosit! of literar! histor!, -hen Hitler came to power in )anuar! #&(($ the book had been printed up to pa4e #3' FSpen4ler apparentl! kept writin4 while the presses were alread! 4rindin4 awa!LG and it was clear that the new rulers of the Reich would find much of it ob7ectionable, So the author decided simpl! to cut the manuscript where it was$ addin4 a conciliator! introduction and promisin4 a second volume to come, The latter never materiali;edA after three months of hesistation$ the Na;i authorities declared the book unacceptable and forbade its further circulation, Spen4ler lived under an official cloud until his death in #&(', These circumstances 4ive The Hour of .ecision its historical and bio4raphical importance, The book provides Spen4ler<s admirers with an irrefutable defense:and a contemporar! and wholl! spontaneous one$ as opposed to a contrived or e/ post facto self97ustification:
a4ainst the char4e of his bein4 a supporter of Hitler<s Reich, 6t is true that he had prepared the wa! for Na;ism b! his harsh nationalist utterances$ his blood9and9soil effusions and his search for a Caesar, But he resisted the e/cesses of anti9Semitism$ and he scorned the Hitlerian rabble, As The Hour of .ecision ampl! documents$ the *condottiere* +ussolini was closer to Spen4ler<s ideal, 0erhaps it was no more than aesthetic fastidiousness that preserved him from bein4 a National Socialist :but$ as eor4e @rwell sa!s of ?n4lish h!pocris!$ that was at least a 4uarantee a4ainst the ver! worst, Both +an and Technics and The Hour of .ecision contain hi4hl! su44estive passa4es on the -est<s relation to the non9?uropean world, .espite their anti5uated terminolo4! of a *colored peril*:which our 4eneration will doubtless find both scientificall! and morall! reprehensible:the! demonstrate that in the last phase of his life Spen4ler<s 4ift for prophetic insi4ht was far from spent, -hatever contemporar! relevance these books possess derives from an understandin4 that is onl! now dawnin4 on bewildered -esterners facin4 a newl! liberated Asia and Africa:the reali;ation that 4ood will is not enou4h$ that under a superficial similarit! of technics and political institutions !awns an ab!ss of cultural misunderstandin4, Yet such passa4es are no more than the
flickerin4s of a profound but clouded intellect, As alwa!s with Spen4ler$ we need to separate out the ma7estic prose and the arrestin4 thou4ht from what is merel! pompous or intellectuall! banal, %ortunatel! we are assisted in this selection b! the translator$ Charles %rancis Atkinson$ who brou4ht to these sli4hter works the same scholarl! care he had lavished on The .ecline, All in all$ it ma! have been a blessin4 that Na;i intolerance forced Spen4ler back on his earlier and more abstract interestsA his last !ears he occupied with another:and more impressive:fra4ment of his metaph!sical and prehistorical speculations which is untranslated and hence far too little known, This amounted to a lon4 footnote to The .ecline:and advisedl! so, %or The .ecline remained Spen4ler<s monument8 nothin4 that he wrote subse5uentl! much increased or diminished the reputation he had ac5uired b! it, %or those of us who have learned to read Spen4ler selectivel!:as literature and poetic su44estion rather than as histor! in the strict sense:The .ecline stands as the supreme achievement in a troublin4 and uncertain 4enre, Harsher$ bolder$ less e5uivocal than To!nbee<s$ it has set its stamp on the cultural pessimism that remains a central and abidin4 element in the intellectual histor! of our era, email icon ?mail to a friend
Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s 0icture Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( A New Beat B! Steven +arcus The Tin .rum b! Xnter rass 0antheon$ 1',&2 @skar +at;erath$ the narrator and prota4onist of Xnter rass< The Tin .rum$ is a thirt!9!ear9 old hump9backed inmate of a mental hospital, Born in the cit! of .an;i4 in #&DC$ @skar was *one of those clairaudient infants whose mental development is completed at birth and after that merel! needs a certain amount of fillin4 in,* The son of pett! bour4eois
shopkeepin4 parents$ @skar hears two thin4s immediatel! after he is bornA first his father<s statement that his son will take over the store when he 4rows up, The ne/t words are his mother<sA *-hen little @skar is three$ he will have a to! drum,* @skar 5uickl! comes to a decision that he *would never under an! circumstances be a 4rocer$ that 6 would stop ri4ht there$ remain as 6 was:and so 6 did,* @n his third birthda!$ he 4ets his to! drum$ flin4s himself down a fli4ht of stairs$ and stops 4rowin4:and for man! !ears thereafter *6 not onl! sta!ed the same si;e but clun4 to the same attire,* 6n order to be *e/empted from the bi4 and little catechism$* in order to *avoid pla!in4 the cash re4ister$* @skar makes the modern 4rand refusalA he refuses to *4row up,* He remains a three9!ear9old drummer: superior$ detached$ demonic$ complete in his deformit!, The Tin .rum is divided into three parts, The first deals with the life and adventures of @skar$ his famil! and their circle of ac5uaintances in .an;i4$ and ends in #&(&, The second part concerns the -ar8 and part three is an account of @skar<s e/periences in post9war erman! and ?urope$ *the middle9 class paradise we are livin4 in toda!,* The central undertakin4 of this novel$ in other words$ is to deal with Na;i erman! from the inside$ a field of e/perience which has thus far proved inaccessible to the literar! ima4ination, And it does so b! takin4 and developin4 as its
point of view that one part of the human constitution which remains least touched b! politics$ most resistant to civili;ation in an! form$ and in its untouchabilit! and resistance incorruptibl! human:the primitive unconscious$ the id, @n one side @skar represents this force:mad$ selfish$ insatiable$ indifferent to the commands and sanctions of societ!, ?/istin4 in a state of anarchic and pre9 moral sava4er!$ he remains peculiarl! remote from the or4ani;ed and post9moral cannibalism into which modern erman civili;ation propelled itself, The dialectic of The Tin .rum consists of the interpla! between the irrational ener4ies of @skar and the irrational ener4ies of the modern social world$ ener4ies which do not merel! ne4ate each other but oddl! act as counterparts as well, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement This account distorts and simplifies and omits a 4ood deal8 The Tin .rum is a lar4e book$ and the conception of @skar is not to be e/hausted b! such a summar!, 6t ma!$ however$ serve to su44est somethin4 of this work<s tone and 5ualit!, The Tin .rum is a novel which has a 4enuine concern for societ!$ but it dramati;es that concern lar4el! b! means of devices which we associate with the ima4ination of the absurd, 6ts s!mbols are not merel! multivalent8 sometimes the! aren<t s!mbols at all$ or are s!mbolic of nothin4 be!ond their arbitrariness and deceit, 6ts point of view is shiftin4 and indeterminate8 it re4ularl!
dissolves into a welter of self9referrin4 rhetoric, 6t describes surreal events in dr!l! dispassionate prose$ and represents such an action as pickin4 up a pencil as if it were the buildin4 of Boulder .am, 6ts episodes are fre5uentl! inconse5uent$ and when the! are not inconse5uent tend to be circular$ the completeness of form embod!in4 the sudden collapse of content, 6t alternates between scenes of the wildest and most scabrous humor and lon4 patches of 4ropin4$ unrelieved tedium, FThe intention of imposin4 a special kind of stupefaction on its audience seems to me:however one wants to 7ud4e it:an inte4ral function of this literature,G +uch of the literature of the absurd uses these devices to speak directl! to *the human condition*8 and its representations of societ! are almost without e/ception abstractl! s!mbolic, -hat is new and interestin4 about rass< work is that it attempts to combine the devices of the absurd$ and the vision of e/perience which the! entail$ with a thick$ detailed and often 5uasinaturalistic account of social realit!, The Tin .rum deals 4enerall! with meanin4lessness and impossibilit! in all directions$ but the absurdit! upon which it most repeatedl! focuses and which finall! constitutes what must pass for its sub7ect is the absurdit! of histor!, The ?urope which @skar inhabits$ for e/ample$ has lost$ destro!ed or absconded with its own past8 and @skar often thinks of 4oin4 to America$ *the
land where people find whatever the! have lost$ even missin4 4randfathers,* Yet @skar Flike his creatorG is a native of .an;i4$ half 0olish$ half erman8 and he is sentimentall! attached to 0olish histor!$ which is itself a fantas! of romantic defeat$ of =hlans attackin4 armored tanks with lances$ of con5uest$ partition$ and cra;!$ admirable patriotism, But then so are the ermans attached to 0oland: 6 look for the land of the 0oles that is lost to the ermans$ for the moment at least, Nowada!s the ermans have started searchin4 for 0oland with credits$ >eicas$ and compasses$ with radar$ divinin4 rods$ dele4ations$ and moth9eaten provincial students< associations in costume, Some carr! Chopin in their hearts$ others thou4hts of reven4e, Condemnin4 the first four partitions of 0oland$ the! are busil! plannin4 a fifth8 in the meantime fl!in4 to -arsaw via Air %rance in order to deposit$ with appropriate remorse$ a wreath on the spot that was once the 4hetto, @ne of these da!s the! will 4o searchin4 for 0oland with rockets, 6$ meanwhile$ con7ure up 0oland on m! drum, And this is what 6 drumA 0oland<s lost$ but not forever$ all<s lost$ but not forever$ 0oland<s not lost forever, These forlorn snatches from the 0olish national anthem$ however$ lead @skar back not so much to the pathos of national histor! as the! do to a particular spot in space and moment in timeA a potato field in Hashubia where one da! in the
distant past a man escapin4 from the police hid for some hours beneath the four capacious skirts of @skar<s 4randmother, .urin4 that interval @skar<s mother was conceived$ all the trouble was be4un$ and @skar<s fondest hope is often to 4et out of all$ preferabl! b! returnin4 with his mother to his 4randmother<s womb8 failin4 that his *aim is to 4et back to the umbilical cord8 that is the sole purpose behind this whole vast verbal effort,* But it is an effort doomed to failure$ for *Histor!$ blarin4 special communi5uQs at the top of its lun4s$ sped like a well94reased amphibious vehicle over the roads and waterwa!s of ?urope and throu4h the air as well$ con5uerin4 ever!thin4 in its path*:its abstractions at least as real as the people it rolls over$ if not more so, The -ar be4ins$ and *The %ree Hanseatic Cit! of .an;i4 celebrated the Anschluss of its brick othic to the reater erman Reich and 4a;ed 7ubilantl! into the blue e!esJof Adolph Hitler$ the %Xhrer and Chancellor$ as he stood in his black +ercedes distributin4 rectan4ular salutes,* The senseless$ ant9like *purposeful industr!* of the -ar comes to a clima/ in the Russian descent on .an;i4, *%or centuries 0omerelians$ Brandenbur4ers$ Teutonic Hni4hts$ 0oles$ Swedes$ and a second time Swedes$ %renchmen$ 0russians$ and Russians$ even Sa/ons$ had made histor! b! decidin4 ever! few !ears that .an;i4 was worth burnin4,* At the si4ht of the still intact cit!$ +arshal
Rokossovski *remembered his 4reat international precursors and set the whole9 place on fire with his artiller! in order that those who came after him mi4ht work off their e/cess ener4ies in rebuildin4,* And while .an;i4 is burnin4 @skar looks out of a window *and was ama;ed to see what a burst of vitalit! our venerable old cit! had been able to summon up,* Yet the absurdities of @skar<s observations are as nothin4 compared with the behavior of his father$ a minor Na;i official$ who while the Russians are blowin4 up the cit! was *as bewildered as a child who can<t make up his mind whether to 4o on believin4 in Santa Claus$ and for the first time e/pressed doubts about the final victor!,* And of the post9war bin4e of prosperit! @skar remarks that ever! bin4e is *followed b! a han4over$ and one s!mptom of this han4over is that the deeds and misdeeds which onl! !esterda! were fresh and alive and real$ are reduced to histor! and e/plained as such,* @skar re7ects histor!$ but he beats on his drum to keep memor! fresh, @ne of the more strikin4 characteristics of the literature of the absurd has to do with its use of displacement, The Tin .rum emplo!s this device to considerable effect8 it maintains a lar4e distance between the events it describes and the emotions ordinaril! *appropriate* to those events, 6ndeed the short circuit of emotion and event is sometimes absolute, Such a maneuver acts to add another
dimension of distortion and ne4ation to the novel<s ima4inative view$ but it also acts as a positive defense a4ainst certain emotions and as a means of controllin4 them, The events with which The Tin .rum mostl! deals normall! elicit the most violent emotions:dis4ust$ ra4e$ horror$ revulsion$ murderous hatred, These violences are mastered$ modulated$ distanced and turned into comed! throu4h the separations$ displacements and dislocations of the absurd, The characteristic tone of The Tin .rum is a cool e/uberance$ and this in itself is somethin4 of an achievement, But at the center of The Tin .rum there is another displacement which both accounts for this novel<s particular interest and e/presses its author<s dilemma, The whole novel is made possible b! the conception of @skar$ a totall! conscious$ totall! irrational$ perpetual three9 !ear9old, But this conception also permits rass to b!pass the most important$ and probabl! insurmountable$ moral 5uestion possible to a !oun4 ermanA -hat$ had 6 been old enou4h$ would 6 have done thenI Had the choice been forced upon me$ what decision would 6 have madeI @skar<s decision not to 4row up permits this confrontation to be avoided$ and this avoidance represents the outer limits of this novel<s moral and ima4inative vision, Yet we must reco4ni;e as well that this evasion is inseparable from its ima4inative achievement and assertion$ and must consider once a4ain that in such stran4e shifts and twists does literar! creation find its
ori4ins, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s 0icture Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( Shakespeare B! Andrew Chiappe Shakespeare Criticism$ #&(29#&'3 Selected with an introduction b! Anne Ridler @/ford =niversit! 0ress F-orld<s ClassicsG$ 1D,T2 Since Ben )onson$ in his commemorative poem in the %irst %olio$ applied his critical theor! to Shakespeare$ stressin4 the *Art* that shaped$ ordered and clarified the copious inventions and intuitions proceedin4 from his *Nature$* Shakespeare<s works have been the proper and central concern of ?n4lish:speakin4 critics, Critical theories and methods have been tested on the pla!s and poems$ confirmed b! them$ or$ in some cases$ have ori4inated from their stud!, F@ne thinks of Heats and ?mpson,G A histor! of Shakespeare criticism would be a basic histor! of criticism in ?n4lish and mi4ht$ in fact$ serve instead of a full account, Since ma7or movements of critical thou4ht$ the shiftin4 fashions and winds of doctrine$ and the wilder aberrations as well$ are usuall! encountered first in the limitless flood of commentar! that Shakespeare provokes$ we must look with more than a specialist<s interest at a volume like +rs, Ridler<s$ which
attempts to select a samplin4 of *principal trends* in the Shakespeare criticism of the past 5uarter centur!, This selection e/tends the previous selection which +rs, Ridler made of the Shakespeare criticism of the !ears #&#& to #&(2 for a -orld<s Classics volume published in #&(', The earlier volume presented new and e/citin4 directions in the D3th9centur! approach to ShakespeareA Caroline Spur4eon<s earl! work on ima4er! and *leadin4 motifs$* ranville9 Barker<s e/aminations of dramatic meanin4s in relation to the mi/ed modes of the ?li;abethan9)acobean theatre$ -ilson Hni4ht<s stud! of s!mbolic and visionar! patterns, Also included were te/tual and historical anal!ses b! -, -, re4 and , B, Harrison$ and more ri4idl! historicist readin4s b! ?, ?, Stoll and ), +, Robertson Fwhose untenable assumptions about the ori4in of Hamlet$ transmitted b! T, S, ?liot$ have confused a whole 4enerationG, +ore 4eneral and impressionistic essa!s were included$ b! ), +, +urr!$ eor4e R!lands and ?dmund Blunden$ as well as T, S, ?llot<s essa! on *Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca,* The theme most central to the collection was borne$ however$ b! those critics$ led b! ranville9Barker$ who saw Shakespeare<s conte/t$ as +rs, Ridler pointed out in her introduction$ as *the theatre$ and ?n4land under ?li;abeth$* thou4h disa4reein4 about the nature of that theatre$ and the assumptions and attitudes of the ?li;abethans,
To this 4eneration of critics$ +rs, Ridler noted$ the *moral approach* of 0ater and Bradle!<s *practice of character e/traction* had 4rown alien, NYRB B Names on the >and Twent!9five !ears later the wheel$ if it has not come full circle$ has swun4 throu4h a measurable arc, An echo of the once9 fashionable re7ection of Bradle! is still heard$ it is true$ in %, R, >eavis< essa! in this volume F*-e have left Bradle! fairl! behind*G which incredibl! fuses Bradle! with -illiam Archer in the h!phenated phrase *the Bradle!9Archer approach,* But elsewhere one critic F), 6, +, StewartG dares to speak of Shakespearean Tra4ed! as *the best book on Shakespeare* and the others treat Bradle!<s work with the respect that has alwa!s marked ma7or Shakespeareans like ranville9Barker and -ilson Hni4ht$ and offer his ma7estical anal!ses no show of violence, +oreA we find ourselves involved re4ularl! in the discussion Fif not the *e/traction*G of Shakespeare<s characters in some of the best of these essa!s Fb! R, -, Chambers$ -ilson Hni4ht$ >, C, Hni4hts$ ), 6, +, Stewart$ Helen ardnerG, The focus is once more on the establishment of the dramatic ima4e of man and the moral implications of that ima4e as Shakespeare<s central activit!, +rs, Ridler$ notin4 this tendenc! in her introduction$ 7ustl! observes that the stud! of characters is now more closel! bound to the whole conte/ts of the
pla!s, This stress on the *or4anic* wholeness of the dramatic poem is stron4 throu4hout the collection, 6ma4es$ ima4e9clusters$ s!mbols$ ideas$ formal patterns$ conventions of thou4ht and sta4ecraft are seen achievin4 their final reali;ation in the human ima4es which move before us on the sta4e For in the ima4inationG and in their ima4ined actions, The force of these elements in the pla!s is wei4hed b! the de4ree to which the! are structured into the characters and their acts$ animatin4 and illuminatin4 those$ as the *enchared flood* becomes part of @thello himself$ the tempest the dark heart of Hin4 >ear, The emphasis$ as )onson insisted$ is on the comple/ art which makes meanin4ful the 4ifts of nature, 6f an! one has been *left fairl! behind* it is the New Critics in their more restricted efforts, +uch of this or4anic sense of the work was implied$ or directl! presented$ b! Bradle!:as it had been earlier b! Colerid4e:and would have been continuousl! available if the rebels had troubled to read them full! and with care For at allG instead of mockin4 triviall! at Bradle!<s notes$ or supposed notes$ out of conte/t, The fineness of Bradle!<s anal!sis of the ima4es of man in action pro7ected b! Shakespeare<s art$ the central substance of an! drama$ was so subtle as to be distractin4 in man! cases8 but it was alwa!s related to a sense of the poetic shape$ massed meanin4s and rh!thms of the whole pla!$ and the vision of a moral universe it implied, There were
moments when Bradle! nodded8 his aberrations are famous$ but the! are ver! few, Yet even Cordelia<s childhood with her evil sisters Fa backward reflection in fact prompted in us b! some lines in the pla!G is more relevant to the full meanin4 of Hin4 >ear than are some of the floatin4 strands of ima4er! we have been asked to 4rasp at b! those critics who have detached s!mbol and ima4e from the central dramatic conte/t, 6n e/treme developments of this criticism disen4a4ed from dramatic action$ one has sometimes the impression that a performance in the vital ?li;abethan9)acobean theatre is ima4ined as a private rite of lan4ua4e celebrated in the presence of a crowd of indifferent 4roundlin4s Fand$ in the better places$ .onne$ ?sse/$ Bacon$ Rale4h$ Sir Henr! -ottonG in which autonomous mechanisms of words$ self9 sustainin4$ self9deli4htin4$ unsullied b! an! relevance to the life words refer to$ went throu4h their intricate motions, Yet the 4roundlin4s$ one suspects$ and even .onne and the others$ continued to ask their vul4ar 5uestionsA -hat is the matter with HamletI .o the vilest thin4s *become* themselves in CleopatraI 6s ripeness reall! allI 6t is cheerin4 therefore to see a reunion of tendencies in the best work in this volumeA an attempt to 4ather the 4reat deal we have come to know about the te/ts$ performances and conventions of the ?li;abethan9)acobean theatre$ the still livin4 but disturbed medieval
tradition$ the 4reat debates of the Renaissance$ ima4er!$ s!mbolism$ ps!cholo4! old and new$ into a sin4le focus on the or4anic and comple/ poetic9dramatic art which animates Shakespeare<s pla!s, The tone:an emphasis on both s!mbol and character and their implications:is set b! the lon4est of the essa!s in the volume$ -ilson Hni4ht<s *The Shakespearean 6nte4rit!$* which e/tends the or4anic sense to the whole of Shakespeare<s mature work$ and presents the coherence of the Shakespearean vision of life as it develops throu4h the particulars of man! dramatic actions, -e ma! not be able to follow 0rofessor Hni4ht in his presentation of Shakespeare as prophet$ but he 4ives us the formula for sound criticismA *S!mbolism blends with iterative ima4er! and that with the persons of the pla! themselves$ so that there is scarcel! an isolated or insatiable heart to the or4anism,* .r, >eavis$ in a rela/ed moment$ shares this wisdomA *-e are aware of the subtle varieties of possibilit! under the head of convention$ and now we must keep a vi4ilant e!e open for the development of theme b! ima4er! and s!mbolism$ and for the bearin4 of all these on the wa! we are to take character$ action$ and plot,* A combination of the approaches of Bradle!$ -ilson Hni4ht and ranville9Barker$ approaches not ultimatel! incompatible$ holds promise for a stud! of Shakespeare which will attend to character$ action$ poetic and
s!mbolic structure$ performance in a realist9 s!mbolist theatre$ all related b! that relentless coherence which is a uni5ue characteristic of Shakespeare<s mature 4enius, The best of the critical essa!s in this collection make such a combinationA >, C, Hni4hts on Hin4 >ear$ %, R, >eavis on Shakespeare<s last pla!s$ Henneth +uir on 0ericles$ -, H, Auden on music in Shakespeare, @ther$ more historical$ essa!s are drawn from that 4rowin4 bod! of studies which relate the works of Shakespeare to the histor! of ideas and dramatic and literar! conventionsA R, -, Chambers on ?li;abethan9)acobean attitudes in +easure for +easure$ Nevill Co4hill on the medieval tradition of the comedies$ and e/cerpts from .over -ilson<s The %ortunes of %lastaff and ?, +, -, Till!ard<s Shakespeare<s Histor! 0la!s, This approach re5uires a constant caveat lest in reco4ni;in4 the continuin4 ener4ies of tradition it overlook the e5uall! 4reat ener4ies of chan4e that marked Shakespeare<s a4e$ and thus fail to value properl! one of his chief accomplishments:the reconstitution in the pla!s of a sense of world and individual order$ in man! aspects traditional$ but an order which has endured the 5uestionin4 of the mature pla!s$ and is transformed b! that 5uestionin4, Some selections from scholars who stress the counter9Renaissance tendencies in Shakespeare:Theodore Spencer$ ), %, .anb!$ 0atrick Cruttwell:would have made this
selection more representative, No volume of this si;e can$ of course$ be trul! representative or 4ive a comprehensive view of the main tendencies of recent Shakespeare criticism, +rs, Ridler acknowled4es this limitation$ and one cannot therefore 5uarrel with her man! omissions, Two or three such collections would be needed to 4ive somethin4 like the full spectrum of work on Shakespeare$ especiall! in the =nited States$ where fashions in criticism proliferate in 4reater abundance than in reat Britain$ and also endure lon4er, FThe colle4es are still full of unreclaimed Stollites$ for e/ample,G 6n a lar4er volume$ or a series of small ones$ one would e/pect to see some of the si4nificant work of Alfred Harba4e$ +ark "an .oren$ ., A, Traversi$ =na ?llis9 %ermor$ all of whom are omitted from +rs, Ridler<s selection, The ritual elements in drama Ftouched upon in this volume in H, ., %, Hitto<s essa! on HamletG could be studied further in the work of %rancis %er4usson and C, >, Barber, The ps!choanal!tic approach$ thou4h it has produced much nonsense$ has been so widespread that it needs to be met with, There is promise in some as !et tentative attempts to link Shakespeare<s pieties to that stud! of the histor! of art forms which the art historians of this centur! have anal!;ed with so much scholarship and brilliance, And one ma! 5uarrel with +rs, Ridler<s reason for omittin4 an! specimen of the work of -illiam ?mpsonA that it re5uires *a comple/ techni5ue of
understandin4*8 his essa!s on %oll! and the %ool in >ear in The Structure of Comple/ -ords$ for e/ample$ are available and illuminatin4 to an! one who brin4s to them a merel! active mind, Yet one must be 4rateful to +rs, Ridler for havin4 4athered to4ether so man! 4ood essa!s$ and for havin4 established firml! in her selections the salutar! direction which is comin4 to dominate Shakespeare criticism, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions Books V ifts Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( Cook<s Tour B! Richard 0oirier ", b! Thomas 0!nchon >ippincott$ 12,&2 Nothin4 more intricatel! conceived than Thomas 0!nchon<s first novel has appeared in American fiction since the work in the thirties b! %aulkner$ Nathanael -est and .7una Barnes$ the last two bein4 amon4 the writers who have 4iven him the coura4e of his artifices and of the assumptions that 4o with them, ", is full of self9m!stified people consistentl! avoidin4 direct relations with one another throu4h dis4uise or evasion$ people livin4 the disrupted e/istences either of the Cook<s Tour$ in one plot$ or$ in the other$ of a kind of contemporar! tourism called *!o9!oin4$* the pointless$ repetitive passa4e and return on an! convenient ferr! or subwa!, Neither of the two interwoven plots is presented in se5uence, @ne involves a self9st!led schlemihl named Benn! 0rofane$ his naval buddies$ and a 4an4 in New Fsometimes *Nueva*G York who call themselves the -hole Sick Crew, The other is an international melodrama of sp!in4 that covers the !ears since #N&N, 6t is reconstructed
b! Herbert Stencil:the name meanin4 that he is a cop! of his father in the effort to keep track of the elusive ", He cannot be sure what ", is$ whether she For itG is not wholl! a fantas!, ?ven the title of the novel is thus cr!pto4raphic, ", comes to stand for an!thin4 to which$ in the absence of love$ one devotes his passion and curiosit!, 6t can refer to a bar called the "9note$ where Benn! and the Crew listen to a 7a;; pla!er named +cClintic Sphere8 to "aletta on +altaA to a sewer rat$ "eronica$ so named b! a %ather %airin4 who wants$ in his efforts to convert the rats of New York to Roman Catholicism$ to make "eronica his first saint and his mistress8 to "enus$ the 4oddess$ the planet$ the mons "eneris:to "ene;uela and Kueen "ictoria$ to "esuvius and other volcanoes$ to the m!thical land of "heissu with its iridescent spider monke!s, So far as Stencil is concerned$ however$ ", is a lad! internationall! renowned as sp!$ lover$ transvestite and impersonator, She has been on the scene of various international crises since her first appearance in Cairo durin4 the %ashoda incident in #N&N, There$ in her nineteenth !ear$ and under the name "ir4inia -ren$ she is deflowered b! a British a4ent, The ne/t !ear she is in %lorence coincident with a manufactured crisis over "heissu Fand$ of course$ "ene;uelaG durin4 which she seduces Stencil<s father at the British consulate$ thereb! becomin4 Stencil<s mother, 6n
subse5uent impersonations$ she is identified in 0aris in #&#( as the >esbian fetishist lover of a dancer named +Qlanie l<Heuremaudit, Still later$ she is placed in erman Southwest Africa durin4 a native rebellion in #&DD$ and in this instance is 4iven two simultaneous identities b! StencilA as a child of si/teen with white9 blond$ hiplen4th hair and the information that *6 am Hedwl4 "o4elsan4$ and m! purpose on earth is to tantali;e and send ravin4 the race of man*8 and as the older$ more subtle "era +erovin4 who sports a 4lass e!e$ the face of which is also a watch$ and a star sapphire sewn into her navel on +alta in #&#&9she was known then as "eronica +an4anese, She makes her last appearance$ in Stencil<s increasin4l! weird dehumani;ation of the fi4ure$ a4ain on +alta in #&(& when$ dis4uised as a priest with a detachable 4old foot$ she is knocked unconscious in a bombin4 raid and disassembled b! a 4roup of children who are less mean than in5uisitive, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement Rou4hl! speakin4$ each stor! involvin4 ", as lad! sp! and seductress is 4iven a chapter$ sometimes narrated b! the author$ sometimes b! Stencil to members of the Crew or to .udle! ?i4envalue$ a *ps!chodontist* who treats patients for such ills as *heterodont confi4uration,* Alternatin4 with these tales are chapters devoted to the career of Benn! 0rofane:as !o9!o$ schlemihl$ hunter of alli4ators in the New York sewers$ or$ as we
first see him$ as assistant to a Bra;ilian salad man at a borscht resort, 6t is here$ at the openin4 of the novel$ that he meets the most humanl! identifiable of the characters$ if that is what the! can be called$ a Rachel @wl4lass$ she who can see wisel! without becomin4 a vo!eur, Thou4h she is to become the moral heroine of the novel$ she is at first presented with a satiric e/trava4ance that puts an e/cessive limit on the possible development of the fi4ures in the books, She is at the time a Bennin4ton 4irl$ full of postures and a 4reater desire for se/ual contact with her + than with Benn!A * <Benn!$< she cried:a little cr! :<be m! friend$ is all,< * An!one readin4 this account of the novel$ insofar as it has been possible to 4ive one$ will probabl! take Rachel<s *little cr!* for friendship with a kind of wr! amusement, And in fact that is what the novel itself seems to ask of us$ especiall! at this particular point where the wei4ht of surroundin4 caricature bears heavil! upon her, But the comic intention is thwarted b! an uncertain pathos$ and one comes to feel even this earl! in the novel a considerable discomfort about its alternations of pace and sensibilit!, 0!nchon<s comic st!le resembles the ;anier writin4s of ?vel!n -au4h or the earl! S,), 0erelman, 6nherent in the dislocations between this st!le and the moments where the author wants to evoke human s!mpath! and tenderness is the 4uess that 0!nchon will not feel that these
comparisons do 7ustice to his book, And in some important wa!s the! do not, His ambitions in ", are prodi4ious$ enou4h to demand comparison less with 0erelman than with the )o!ce of the Circe episode of =l!sses, He shows unusual capacities for philosophical discriminations$ an astonishin4 knowled4eabilit!:of histor!$ medicine$ 4eo4raph!$ se/ual lore:all e/pressed with an authoritative ease especiall! remarkable in a !oun4 writer$ and he has the e!e and ear of a 4reat parodist, -ith such talents$ he is limited now onl! b! his determination to show off, His displa!s of 4enius tend to 7ostle each other out of the wa!8 his comic inventions are alwa!s so active$ his caricature so ea4er$ that he cannot effectivel! allow his characters the seriousness and delicac! his thematic ambitions re5uire of them, The insistent 4rotes5ueness of this novel: literall! of confusin4 human$ animate and inanimate thin4s:is 0!nchon<s wa! of showin4 a world in which 4estures of human warmth$ kindness or love are barel! visible$ and his elaboratel! 7umbled plots make it appear that such 4estures are unable$ even temporaril!$ to brin4 order and se5uence to the lives of his characters, The effect of his 4rotes5ueness is thus e/tremel! pessimistic$ especiall! since the interweavin4 of the two plots makes the decadence of life$ public and private$ seem like a historical development that has been acceleratin4 since the end of the last centur!,
@bviousl!$ 0!nchon<s view of modern e/istence is too speculative to center on an! institutionali;ed villain or to e/pend itself in !et another attack on *conformit!,* His book is about the failure of human bein4s to arouse in one another their potentialities for love and hope, The! choose instead to become$ in a metaphorical sense$ inanimate$ like Benn! 0rofane whom Rachel finall! cannot save from the -hole Sick Crew, @r the! find some hopeless animation in the madl! in4enious orderin4s of life around a phanton like ",$ creatin4 in the process those international situations that have no ob7ective realit! but which e/press an unconscious$ universal ur4e to self9annihilation, The search for ", is not alon4 a path of human victor! but of historical fatalit!$ constructed$ even sou4ht$ b! those characters$ b! far the most numerous$ whose incapacit! for love allows them to see the human ima4e onl! as a thin4 to see in the spread thi4hs of a woman$ for instance$ onl! a ", Bein4 at first a participant in this surrender to the inanimate, Rachel must of necessit! cr! *be m! friend* in a small voice$ even thou4h her later scenes with 0rofane are the most elo5uentl! poi4nant in the book, 0!nchon would obviousl! like to ima4ine some wa! out of the paral!sis toward which his comed! is alwa!s pointin4, And !et wherever he tries an alternative his st!le usuall! betra!s the effort, 6t becomes limp and platitudinous$ especiall! in the treatment of kindl!
bartenders or$ as he rather clo!in4l! alludes to them$ *!oun4 people,* The advice which +cClintic Sphere 4ives himself:*>ove with !our mouth shut$ help without breakin4 !our ass or publici;in4 itA keep cool but care*:is also a kind of stoic coda to the book, But in the conte/t of the startlin4 ener4!$ stress and ima4ination of the prose devoted to the 4rotes5ue shape which life assumes here$ +cClintic<s line$ full of a slo4aneerin4 crispness$ sounds like so much pap, To have therefore mocked it is more$ no doubt$ than this brilliantl! apocal!ptic writer had the heart to do, This means$ 6 think$ that while there are still unmana4eable conflicts in him he is stron4 enou4h to evade them:a most productive tension in a novelist$ who$ in his debut$ earns the ri4ht to be called one of the best we now have, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB B Christmas Classics Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number D )une #$ #&'( >iterar! Realism B! Alfred Ha;in .ocuments of +odern >iterar! Realism edited b! eor4e ), Becker 0rinceton =niversit! 0ress$ 1N,23 *Realism* is a borin4 term now$ fit onl! for te/tbooks, There are people who still use it with interest, But these are either literar! scholars$ who are concerned with the histor! of ideas$ the histor! of forms$ the histor! of a common wa! of seein4 realit! Fwhich is what a literar! movement representsG:or propa4andists for art9with9a9purpose, No intelli4ent novelist worries about *realism* an! more8 what it stood for in the #&th centur! has lon4 since been absorbed into even the most indifferent and machine9produced literar! entertainment for the masses, And when *realism* is used to denote a positive ideal$ as it is b! people more interested in sociolo4! than in literature$ it is difficult to repress one<s indi4nation at the thou4ht of what *realism* in the Soviet =nion$ where it is not a literar! creed but the state reli4ion$ has done to honest writers, -h! then bother with *realism* toda!I -h!
read and review an antholo4! of this bulk$ laden with thou4hts on realism b! all those #&th9centur! writers$ Russian$ %rench$ erman$ 6talian$ Spanish$ ?n4lish$ American$ for whom *realism* was a livel! issueI The answer is that the interest in *realism* has been an interest in the novel, The novel is nothin4 without *real life*8 the novel has alwa!s$ whether supported b! *realistic* doctrine or not$ been s!non!mous with realism8 the novel$ even in our da!$ when so man! literar! minds are e/pressl! a4ainst realism as a doctrine$ seems to break down whenever there is not vital enou4h or consistent enou4h a sense of *realit!,* ?ven the most pretentious and bodin4 epistemolo4ical %rench novelists of the new wave don<t seem to be able to write fiction or even to talk about fiction e/cept in relation to *realism,* %or realism and the novel 4rew out of the same need to describe and indeed to s!stemati;e our literar! ideas of the e/ternal world, Realism and the novel had the same roots in the *modern$* sceptical$ thin49 concerned instrumentalist world, -orks completel! *romantic* are not novels$ the! are romances8 no matter how much there is of romance in a novel b! Cooper or Scott or +elville$ the relationship to the a4reed9upon and sensible e/ternal world is unmistakable, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement 6t is true$ as 0rofessor eor4e Becker sa!s in his comprehensive introduction to realism as a
movement$ that *realism rarel!$ if ever$ dominated and controlled a whole work before the middle of the #&th centur!8 rather it was controlled and its functionin4 directed b! the official aesthetic doctrine of a 4iven time and place$ which was never before realistic,* But the novel with its peculiar openness:to the life of crowds$ 4roups$ streets8 to erotic detail8 to adventures and 7ourne!in4s8 to low life8 to thieves and prostitutes8 to politics$ scandal$ war$ the stock e/chan4e$ the factor!$ the fields$ the labor e/chan4e$ the hirin4 hall: would never have emer4ed as the 4reat modern form$ the almost inevitable destination that prose takes whenever it wants to make thin4s reall! e/plicit b! dramati;in4 them$ if it had not emer4ed from the same interests and beliefs as *realism,* @f course the novel is a form and *realism* is a formula, But the deepest interest of the formula is surel! what certain *sei;in4* ima4inations Fto use a ke! word in Henr! )ames< writin4s on the novelG made of it, )ust as there are te/tbooks of *realism* in American philosoph! which no one not a a professor would ever open if the! didn<t feature -illiam )ames or Santa!ana$ so no one who 7ust cares for literature would toda!$ when there is obviousl! no need for realism as a doctrine to be an e/plicit and fi4htin4 issue$ pa! an! attention to *realism* if it weren<t for the fact that without it Stendhal$ Bal;ac$ Tolsto!$ %laubert$ )ames$ Crane$ .reiser and
other pillars of the modern novel mi4ht never have created their works, .oes it matter$ then$ that .ickens is not a full9 fled4ed realistI That in his preface to >a Comedie Humaine Bal;ac is 4randilo5uent in his conception of it and that Rola$ in >e Roman ?/perimental$ simpl! mechanical and pretentiousI Yes it does:it matters not in relation to the doctrine$ which like all literar! doctrines is simpl! an a4reed wa! of lookin4 at realit!$ a *truth* 4ood for a season$ but in relation to the ima4inations that are inspired b! it, %or me *realism* is somethin4 that Bal;ac believed in$ or thou4ht he believed in$ and made use of as if he believed in it, 6t was a creed$ undeniabl! pretentious$ even in his hands obviousl! stretched to suit his imperial temperament$ but which nevertheless 4ave him a convincin4 picture of thin4s$ an idea with which to unlock the voluminous #&th centur!, The fact that %laubert didn<t reall! consider himself a *realist$* that he indeed resented and despised the doctrines and dictionaries of the movement$ doesn<t remove the fact that if realism hadn<t been in the air$ if %laubert hadn<t forced himself to participate in it *once$* as he said 4riml!$ +adame Bovar! would not e/ist, @f course it is comic now to read the reviews of the time in 0rofessor Becker<s antholo4! and to learn that Bovar! is *arid* and *dr!,* Toda! it is impossible to read
the most beautiful passa4es in the book$ like ?mma unfurlin4 her umbrella in the rain$ without feelin4 a kind of compassion for %laubert$ still hun4r! for *beaut!$* and indul4in4 himself in colors and te/tures as if the! were forbidden sweets, But it is less the inconsistenc! of *realistic* method in %laubert that interests me now than it is the variations in tone, These proceed$ 6 suspect$ from %laubert<s impatience for effect$ from the e/traordinar! personal bitterness from which he was alwa!s tr!in4 to escape into the effects of brutalit! Fwhich he called *ob7ectivit!*G and beaut!, %laubert was never reall! ob7ective at all$ since he despised the public world and wanted either to escape it or to parod! it, Realism9naturalism was a sprin4board to the creative ima4ination, .espite the lack of purpose in the universe that such doctrines announce$ no writer ever feels that a doctrine is without purpose if he can make use of it, -hen a man sa!s that life has no fundamental purpose and that his aim as a writer is *merel!* to show the ob7ective facts of behavior$ he takes advanta4e of the supposed meanin4lessness and ob7ectivit! to show how free$ clever and d!namic he is in discoverin4 these profound truths, So lon4 as men live in time and can anticipate a future$ the! will make use of ideas$ even ideas of purposelessness$ to displa! their discover! of truth, The Count de "o4ue$ a section of whose remarkable book on >e Roman Russe is
included in this antholo4!$ complained$ as so man! thou4htful Christians did in the #&th centur!$ that realism9naturalism was a denial of meanin4 and purpose in the universe, But when a writer himself sa!s$ as Rola did$ that novelists have become scientists$ that the novelist now performs *e/periments* on his characters$ that the *e/perimental* novel$ as he called it$ *is simpl! the record of that e/periment$* that *the whole e/periment consists of takin4 facts from nature$* how can we believe that Rola is a mechanism$ that Rola is an!thin4 but a free and creative human bein4 proud of havin4 found his ke! to the m!ster! of nature and societ!I Niet;sche understood:?rich Heller 5uotes this in his essa! here on *The Realistic %allac!*:that *realism* in art is an illusion$ that all the writers of all the a4es were convinced that the! were realisticJ, *-hat then$* asked Niet;sche$ *is it that the so9called realism of our writers tells us about the happiness of our timeIJ, @ne is indeed led to believe that our particular happiness does not sprin4 from what reall! is$ but from our understandin4 of realit!J, The artists of our centur! will!9nill! 4lorif! the scientific beatitudes,* Niet;sche$ who was more penetratin4 than perhaps an! novelist of his time e/cept Tolsto! and .ostoevsk!$ and despite his private instabilit! actuall! more balanced a mind than either$ was no doubt ri4ht to see *realism* as the artist<s ke! to understandin4$ a form of
intellectual control and master!:indeed$ of overwhelmin4 pride, But Niet;sche$ who even as a philosopher was uni5ue in his disdain of s!stem$ understood better than most philosophers:he was probabl! the most 4ifted *poet* amon4 the philosophers after 0lato:the relationship of an! philosoph! to ima4inative creation, .ante<s cosmo4on!$ which we consider mistaken$ does not keep us from appreciatin4 his poetr!, +an! a point of view which we in our da! consider absolutel! true$ irrefutable$ sensible$ 4oin4 to the heart of thin4s$ nevertheless has not added a 4ood line to a poem$ made a character live in a stor! and shaped a beautiful line in an! piece of writin4, Yet to write at all$ one must see the world in some comprehensive li4ht8 one must see it so for oneself, -hether the character a writer 4ives the world will fit in well with the present a4e or be superseded b! the ne/t$ the writer must 4ive a character to the world he lives in: from its streets to its cosmos, He must believe in the ima4e of realit! he uses, He must reall! see thin4s in its li4ht, *Realism* did this$ passin4l! and scatterin4l!$ for certain novelists in the #&th centur! who wanted to 4ive direct impressions of life, >ife had opened up even more than the novelists had, Realism liberated 4ifted people in the lower class to discover their vocation as novelists, 6f it hadn<t been for realism$ all writers would have had to come out of the old elites8 like the %rench revolution$
industrialism$ democrac!$ bi4 cities$ *realism* opened the wa! to new talents, @f course man! such writers$ notabl! Rola and .reiser$ were intellectuall! pretentious, The! posed as thinkers$ but were merel! novelists, @bviousl! this was not a loss8 and in an! event *realism* as a wa! of interpretin4 realit! soon became banal$ pro4rammatic and even cheap, As an authentic philosoph! it fell apart in the #N&3s$ when ima4inative new thinkers like -illiam )ames$ %reud and Ber4son put a new emphasis on the autonomous and unconscious resources of the individual, B! now this$ too$ as a wa! of seein4 human bein4s for purposes of ima4inative form$ has become so banal and second9hand that it is impossible to ima4ine works like =l!sses and The Sound and the %ur! comin4 out of the %reudian clichQs of our da!, 6t ma! be that *creeds* in 4eneral are now mistaken b! the writer as t!rannical and e/ternal8 chan4es in the e/ternal world$ which in the #Nth and #&th centuries the novelists felt e/actl! suited to describe$ now proceed too fast for ever!bod! e/cept computers, -hen one considers how confidentl! and rh!thmicall! the novelists of the past advanced in order to displa! their master! of *fact* in the e/ternal world$ it is not hard to see wh! novelists do less well than the! used to, The! simpl! don<t know how to put so much chan4e into their books$ and thou4h the! tr! to look back$ now$ to the *a4e of ps!cholo4!* as to a 4olden a4e$ it is clear that the ps!che is
not of limitless interest as a sub7ect for fiction, Yet *realism* as a wa! of thinkin4$ as an approach to what we confidentl! still think of as *realit!*:outside of us !et still embracin4 us in a sin4le order of truth:will remain so lon4 as fiction remains the natural e/tension of an a4e of prose, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ( September D'$ #&'( The 6deal Husband B! Susan Sonta4 Albert CamusAlbert Camus b! .avid >evine Notebooks$ #&(29CD b! Albert Camus$ Translated from the %rench b! 0hilip Thod! Hnopf$ DD2 pp,$ 12,33 reat writers are either husbands or lovers, Some writers suppl! the solid virtues of a husbandA reliabilit!$ intelli4ibilit!$ 4enerosit!$ decenc!, There are other writers in whom one pri;es the 4ifts of a lover$ 4ifts of temperament rather than of moral 4oodness, Notoriousl!$ women tolerate 5ualities in a lover:moodiness$ selfishness$ unreliabilit!$ brutalit!:that the! would never countenance in a husband$ in return for e/citement$ an infusion of intense feelin4, 6n the same wa!$ readers put up with unintelli4ibilit!$ obsessiveness$ painful truths$ lies$ bad 4rammar:if$ in compensation$ the writer allows them to savor rare emotions and dan4erous sensations, And$ as in life$ so in art both are necessar!$ husbands and lovers, 6t<s a 4reat pit! when one is forced to choose between them,
A4ain$ as in life$ so in artA the lover usuall! has to take second place, 6n the 4reat periods of literature$ husbands have been more numerous than lovers8 in all the 4reat periods of literature$ that is$ e/cept our own, 0erversit! is the muse of modern literature, Toda! the house of fiction is full of mad lovers$ 4leeful rapists$ castrated sons:but ver! few husbands, The husbands have a bad conscience$ the! would all like to be lovers, ?ven so husbandl! and solid a writer as Thomas +ann was tormented b! an ambivalence toward virtue$ and was forever carr!in4 on about it in the 4uise of a conflict between the bour4eois and the artist, But most modern writers don<t even allow +ann<s problem, ?ach writer$ each literar! movement vies with its predecessor in a 4reat displa! of temperament$ obsession$ sin4ularit!, +odern literature is oversupplied with madmen of 4enius, No wonder$ then$ that when an immensel! 4ifted writer$ whose talents certainl! fall short of 4enius$ arises who boldl! assumes the responsibilities of sanit!$ he should be acclaimed be!ond his purel! literar! merits, NYR Holida! Subscription Special 6 speak of course$ of Albert Camus$ the ideal husband of contemporar! letters, Bein4 a contemporar!$ he had to traffic in the madmen<s themesA suicide$ affectlessness$ 4uilt$ absolute terror, But he does so with such an air of reasonableness$ mesure$
effortlessness$ 4racious impersonalit!$ as to place him apart from the others, Startin4 from the premises of a popular nihilism$ he moves the reader:solel! b! the power of his own tran5uil voice and tone:to humanist and humanitarian conclusions in no wa! entailed b! his premises, This illo4ical leapin4 of the ab!ss to nihilism is the 4ift for which readers are 4rateful to Camus, This is wh! he evoked feelin4s or real affection on the part of his readers, Hafka arouses pit! and terror$ )o!ce admiration$ 0roust and ide respect$ but no modern writer that 6 can think of$ e/cept Camus$ has aroused love, His death in #&'3 was felt as a personal loss b! the whole literate world, -henever Camus is spoken of there is a min4lin4 of personal$ moral$ and literar! 7ud4ment, No discussion of Camus fails to include$ or at least su44est$ a tribute to his 4oodness and attractiveness as a man, To write about Camus is thus to consider what occurs between the ima4e of a writer and his work$ which is tantamount to the relation between moralit! and literature, %or it is not onl! that Camus himself is alwa!s thrustin4 the moral problem upon his readers, FAll his stories$ pla!s$ and novels relate the career of a responsible sentiment$ or the absence of it,G 6t is because his work$ solel! as a literar! accomplishment$ is not ma7or enou4h to bear the wei4ht of admiration that readers want to 4ive it, @ne wants Camus to be a trul! 4reat
writer$ not 7ust a ver! 4ood one, But he is not, 6t mi4ht be useful here to compare Camus with eor4e @rwell and )ames Baldwin$ two other husbandl! writers who essa! to combine the role of artist with civic conscience, Both @rwell and Baldwin are better writers in their essa!s than the! are in their fiction, This is not true of Camus$ a far more important writer, But what is true is that Camus<s art is alwa!s in the service of certain intellectual conceptions which are more full! stated in the essa!s, Camus<s fiction is illustrative$ philosophical, 6t is not so much about its characters: +eursault$ Cali4ula$ )an$ Clamence$ .r, Rieu/: as it is about the problems of innocence and 4uilt$ responsibilit! and nihilistic indifference, The three novels$ the stories$ and the pla!s have a thin$ somewhat skeletal 5ualit! which makes them less than absolutel! first9rate$ 7ud4ed b! the hi4hest standards of contemporar! art, =nlike Hafka$ whose most illustrative and s!mbolic fictions are at the same time autonomous acts of the ima4ination$ Camus<s fiction continuall! betra!s its source in an intellectual concern, -hat of Camus<s essa!s$ political articles$ addresses$ literar! criticism$ 7ournalismI 6t is e/tremel! distin4uished work, But was Camus a thinker of importanceI The answer is no, Sartre$ however distasteful certain of his political s!mpathies are to his ?n4lish9 speakin4 audience$ brin4s a powerful and ori4inal mind to philosophical$ ps!cholo4ical$
and literar! anal!sis, Camus$ however attractive his political s!mpathies$ does not, The celebrated philosophical essa!s F*The +!th of Sis!phus$* The RebelG are the work of an e/traordinaril! talented and literate epi4one, The same is true of Camus as a historian of ideas and as a literar! critic, Camus is at his best when he disburdens himself of the ba44a4e of e/istentialist culture FNiet;sche$ Hierke4aard$ .osto!evsk!$ Heide44er$ HafkaG and speaks in his own person, This happens in the 4reat essa! a4ainst capital punishment$ *Reflections on the uillotine$* and in the casual writin4s$ like the essa!9portraits of Al4iers$ @ran$ and other +editerranean places, Neither art nor thou4ht of the hi4hest 5ualit! is to be found in Camus, -hat accounts for the e/traordinar! appeal of his work is beaut! of another order$ moral beaut!$ a 5ualit! unsou4ht b! most twentieth9centur! writers, @ther writers have been more en4a4ed$ more moralistic, But none have appeared more beautiful$ more convincin4 in their prefession of moral interest, =nfortunatel!$ moral beaut! in art:like ph!sical beaut! in a person:is e/tremel! perishable, 6t is nowhere so durable as artistic or intellectual beaut!, +oral beaut! has tendenc! to deca! ver! rapidl! into sententiousness or untimeliness, This happens with special fre5uenc! to the writer$ like Camus$ who appeals directl! to a 4eneration<s ima4e of what is e/emplar! in a man in a 4iven
historical situation, =nless he possesses e/traordinar! reserves of artistic ori4inalit!$ his work is likel! to seem suddenl! denuded after his death, %or a few$ this deca! overtook Camus within his own lifetime, Sartre$ in the famous debate that ended their famous friendship$ remarked sava4el! that Camus carried about with him *a portable pedestal,* Then came that deadl! honor$ the Nobel 0ri;e, And shortl! before his death$ one critic was predictin4 for Camus the same fate as that of AristidesA that we would tire of hearin4 him called *the )ust,* 0erhaps it is alwa!s dan4erous for a writer to inspire 4ratitude in his readers$ 4ratitude bein4 one of the most vehement but also the shortest9lived of the sentiments, But one cannot dismiss such unkind remarks simpl! as the reven4e of the 4rateful, 6f Camus<s moral earnestness at times ceased to enthrall and be4an to irritate$ it<s because there was a certain intellectual weakness in it, @ne sensed in Camus$ as one senses in )ames Baldwin$ the presence of an entirel! 4enuine$ and historicall! relevant$ passion, But also$ as with Baldwin$ that passion seemed to transmute itself too readil! into statel! lan4ua4e$ into an ine/haustible self9perpetuatin4 orator!, The moral imperatives:love$ moderation:offered to palliate intolerable historical or metaph!sical dilemmas were too 4eneral$ too abstract$ too rhetorical,
Camus is the writer who for a whole literate 4eneration was the heroic fi4ure of a man livin4 in a state of permanent spiritual revolution, But he is also the man who advocate that parado/A a civili;ed nihilism$ an absolute revolt that acknowled4es limits:and converted the parado/ into a recipe for 4ood citi;enship, -hat intricate 4oodness$ after allL 6n Camus<s writin4$ 4oodness is forced to search simultaneousl! for its appropriate act and for its 7ustif!in4 reason, So is revolt, 6n #&(&$ in the midst of reflections on the war$ which has 7ust be4un$ the !oun4 Camus interrupted himself in his Notebooks to remarkA <6 am seekin4 reasons for m! revolt which nothin4 has so far 7ustified,* His radical stance preceeded the reasons which 7ustified it, +ore than a decade later$ in #&2#$ Camus published The Rebel, The refutation of revolt in that book was$ e5uall!$ a 4esture of temperament$ an act of self9persuasion, -hat is remarkable is that 4iven Camus<s refined temperament$ it was possible for him to act$ to cue into real historical choices$ as wholeheartedl! as he did, 6t should be remembered that Camus had to make no less than three e/emplar! decisions in his brief lifetime:to participate personall! in the %rench Resistance$ to disassociate himself from the Communist 0art!$ and to refuse to take sides in the Al4erian revolt:and that he ac5uitted himself admirabl!$ in m! opinion$ in two out of the three, Camus<s problem in the
last !ears of his life was not that he became reli4ious$ or that he subsided into bour4eois humanitarian seriousness$ or that he lost his socialist nerve, 6t was$ rather$ that he had hoist himself on the petard of his own virtue, A writer who acts as public conscience needs e/traordinar! nerve and fine instincts$ like a bo/er, After a time$ these instincts inevitabl! falter, He also needs to be emotionall! tou4h, Camus was not that tou4h$ not tou4h in the wa! that Sartre is, 6 do not underestimate the coura4e involved in disavowin4 the pro9 Communism of man! %rench intellectuals in the late forties, As a moral 7ud4ment$ Camus<s decision was ri4ht then$ and since the death of Stalin he has been vindicated man! times over in a political sense as well, But moral and political 7ud4ment do not alwa!s so happil! coincide, His a4oni;in4 inabilit! to take a stand on the Al4erian 5uestion:the issue on which he$ as both Al4erian and %renchman$ was uni5uel! 5ualified to speak:was the final and unhapp! testament of his moral virtue, Throu4hout the fifties$ Camus declared that his private lo!alties and s!mpathies made it impossible for him to render decisive political 7ud4ment, -h! is so much demanded of a writer$ he asked plaintivel!, -hile Camus clun4 to his silence$ both +erleau90ont!$ who had followed Camus out of the Temps +odernes 4roup over the issue of Communism$ and Sartre himself$ 4athered influential si4natories for two historic manifestoes protestin4 the continuation of the Al4erian
-ar, 6t is a harsh iron! that both +erleau9 0ont!$ whose 4eneral political and moral outlook was so close to that of Camus and Sartre$ whose political inte4rit! Camus had seemed to demolish a decade before$ were in a position to lead %rench intellectuals of conscience to the inevitable stand$ the onl! stand$ the one ever!one hoped Camus would take, 6n a perceptive review of one of Camus<s books some !ears a4o$ >ionel Abel spoke of him as the man who incarnates the Noble %eelin4$ as distinct from the Noble Act, This is e/actl! ri4ht$ and does not mean that there was some sort of h!pocris! in Camus<s moralit!, 6t means that action is not Camus<s first concern, The abilit! to act$ or to refrain from actin4$ are secondar! to the abilit! or inabilit! to feel, 6t is less an intellectual position which Camus elaborated than an e/hortation to feel:with all the risks of political impotence that this entailed, Camus<s work reveals a temperament in search of a situation$ noble feelin4s in search of noble acts, 6ndeed$ this dis7unction is precisel! the sub7ect of Camus<s fiction and philosophical essa!s, There one finds the prescription of an attitude Fnoble$ stoical$ at the same time detached and compassionateG tacked on to the description of e/cruciatin4 events, The attitude$ the noble feelin4$ is not 4enuinel! linked to the event, 6t is a transendence of the event$ more than a response to it or a solution of it, Camus<s life
and work are not so much about moralit! as the! are about the pathos of moral positions, This pathos is Camus<s modernit!, And his abilit! to suffer this pathos in a di4nified and virile wa! is what made his readers love and admire him, A4ain one comes back to the man$ who was so stron4l! loved and !et so little known, There is somethin4 disembodied in Camus<s fiction8 and in the voice$ cool and serene$ of the famous essa!s, This$ despite the unfor4ettable photo4raphs$ with their beautifull! informal presence, A ci4arette dan4les between the lips$ whether he wears a trench9coat$ a sweater and open shirt$ or a business suit, 6t is in man! wa!s an almost ideal faceA bo!ish$ 4ood9lookin4 but not too 4ood9lookin4$ lean$ rou4h$ the e/pression both intense and modest, @ne wants to know this man, 6n the Notebooks #&(29(C$ the first three volumes to be published comprisin4 the notebooks which Camus kept from #&(2 until his death$ his admirers will naturall! hope to find a 4enerous sense of the man and the work which has moved them, 6 am sorr! to have to sa!$ first of all$ that the translation b! 0hilip Thod! is poor work, 6t is repeatedl! inaccurate$ sometimes to the point of seriousl! miscontinuin4 Camus<s sense, 6t is heav!9 handed$ and 5uite fails to find the e5uivalent in ?n4lish to Camus<s compressed$ off9hand$ and ver! elo5uent st!le, The book also has an
obtrusive academic apparatus which ma! not anno! some readers8 it did anno! me, F%or an idea of how Camus should sound in ?n4lish$ 6 su44est that curious readers look up the accurate and sensitive translation b! Anthon! Hartle! of sections of the Notebooks which appeared in ?ncounter two !ears a4o,G 6t is 4reat pit! about the translation, Yet no translation$ whether faithful or tone9deaf$ can make the Notebooks less interestin4 than the! are$ or more interestin4 either, These are not 4reat literar! 7ournals$ like those of Hafka and ide, The! do not have the white9hot intellectual brilliance of Hafka<s .iaries, The! lack the cultural sophistication$ the artistic dili4ence$ the human densit! of ide<s )ournals, The! are comparable$ sa! to the .iaries of Cesare 0avese$ e/cept that the! lack the element of personal e/posure$ of ps!cholo4ical intimac!, Camus<s Notebooks contain an assortment of thin4s, The! are literar! work9books$ 5uarries for his writin4s$ in which phrases$ scraps of overheard conversation$ ideas for stories$ and sometimes whole para4raphs which were later incorporated into novels and essa!s$ were first 7otted down, These sections of the Notebooks are sketch! stuff$ and for that reason 6 doubt if the! will be terribl! e/citin4 event to aficonados of Camus<s fiction$ despite me ;ealous annotation and correlation with the published works supplied b! +r, Thod!, The Notebooks also contain a miscellan! of readin4
notes FSpen4ler$ Renaissance histor!$ etc,G of a rather limited ran4e:the vast readin4 that went into writin4 The Rebel is certainl! not recorded here:and a number of apercus and reflections on ps!cholo4ical and moral themes, Some of these reflections have a 4reat deal of boldness and finesse, The! are worth readin4$ and the! mi4ht help dispel one current ima4e of Camus:accordin4 to which he was a sort of Ra!mond Aron$ a man deran4ed b! erman philosoph! belatedl! convertin4 to An4lo9 Sa/on empiricism and common sense under the name of *+editerranean* virtue, The Notebooks$ at least this first volume$ e/ude an endearin4 atmosphere of domesticated Niet;scheanism, The !oun4 Camus writes as a %rench Niet;sche$ melanchol! where Niet;sche is sava4e$ stoical where Niet;sche is outra4ed$ impersonal and ob7ective in tone where Niet;sche is personal and sub7ective to the point of mania, And lastl!$ the Notebooks are full of personal comments:declarations and resolutions$ one mi4ht better describe them: of a markedl! impersonal nature, 6mpersonalit! is perhaps the most tellin4 thin4s about Camus<s Notebooks8 the! are so anti9autobio4raphical, 6t is hard to remember$ when readin4 the Notebooks$ that Camus was a mn who had a ver! interestin4 life$ a life Funlike that of man! writersG interestin4 not onl! in an interior but also in an outward sense, There is scarcel! an!thin4 of this life in the Notebooks, There is nothin4 about his
famil!$ to whom he was closel! attached, Neither is there an! mention of the events which took place in this periodA his work with the Theatre de #<?5uipe$ his first and second marria4es$ his membership in the Communist 0art!$ his career as an editor of a leftwin4 Al4erian newspaper, @f course$ a writer<s 7ournal must not be 7ud4ed b! the standards of a diar!, The notebooks of a writer have a ver! special functionA in them he builds up$ piece b! piece$ the identit! of a writer to himself, T!picall!$ writers< notebooks are crammed with statements about the willA the will to write$ the will to love$ the will to renounce love$ the will to 4o on livin4, The 7ournal is where a writer is heroic to himself, 6n it he e/ists solel! as a perceivin4$ sufferin4$ stru44lin4 bein4, That is wh! all the personal comments in Camus<s Notebooks are of so impersonal a nature$ and competel! e/clude the events and the people in his life, Camus writes about himself onl! as a solitar!:a solitar! reader$ vo!eur$ sun9and9 sea worshippers$ and walker in the world, 6n this he is bein4 ver! much the writer, Solitariness is the indispensable metaphor of the modern writer<s consciousness$ not onl! to self9declared emotional misfits like 0avese$ but even to as sociable and sociall! conscientious a man as Camus, Thus the Notebooks$ while absorbin4 readin4$ do not resolve the 5uestion of Camus<s
permanent stature nor deepen our sense of him as a man, Camus was$ in the words of Sartre$ *the admirable con7unction of a man$ of an action$ and of a work,* Toda! onl! the work remains, And whatever that con7unction of man$ action$ and work inspired in the minds and hearts of his thousands of readers and admirers$ cannot be wholl! reconstituted b! the work alone, 6t would have been an important and happ! occurrence if Camus<s Notebooks had survived their author to 4ive us more than the! do of the man$ but unfortunatel! the! do not, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo %rance Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ( September D'$ #&'( The ?ichmann Kuestion B! eor4e >ichtheim The Capture and Trial of Adolf ?ichmann b! +oishe 0earlman Simon Schuster$ ''' pp,$ 1N,&2 The ?ichmann trial has become the focus of a controvers! which transcends national and reli4ious frontiers, 6n erman! the issue has recentl! been 4iven an e/tra dimension b! the storm over Hochhuth<s pla!$ The "icarA an impassioned indictment of the "atican<s wartime polic! of silence$ and especiall! of 0ope 0ius E66$ who is represented as indifferent to the massacre of the )ews and solel! concerned with stemmin4 the menacin4 flood of Communism, -ith the erman ?piscopate up in arms over this pla!$ and a fresh storm promised when The "icar reaches >ondon and New York$ as it soon will$ both the critics and the public have somethin4 bi44er to think about than the controvers! over the alle4ed failure of the various )ewish or4ani;ations to resist or sabota4e Hitler<s *final solution* which has followed$ especiall! in the =nited States$ from the publication of Hannah Arendt<s ?ichmann in )erusalem,Z#[
Cardinal +ontini Fas he then still wasG doubtless knew what he was doin4 last )une when$ in what turned out to be almost his final public act before ascendin4 the papal throne$ he intervened in the columns of the >ondon Catholic weekl!$ The Tablet$ with a pained and an4r! defense of his predecessor, Hochhuth happens to be a >utheran$ but the burden of his char4e:that to the Curia the )ews seemed e/pendable:has alread! evoked an embarrassed echo amon4 some erman Catholic intellectuals, 6t would be a4reeable to be able to add that erman public opinion as a whole was shocked$ but most ermans still remember wartime sermons e/hortin4 both Catholics and 0rotestants to fi4ht the Red menace, Now that Christian .emocrac! is in the saddle all over -estern ?urope$ these memories are both embarrassin4 and sli4htl! unreal$ which ma! be the reason that news of the controvers! came as a surprise to the British public$ and doubtless to the American too, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement >ooked at in this wa!$ the )ewish catastrophe becomes a fairl! t!pical chapter in recent ?uropean histor!$ account bein4 taken of such trial e/ercises as the Turkish massacre of the Armenians durin4 and after the %irst -orld -ar, A4ainst this back4round the 5uestion whether the )ews mi4ht have done more to save themselves falls into place as a problem of the second order, @r so it seems to people
in ?urope FBritain$ for the purpose of this ar4ument$ bein4 part of ?uropeG, The case is evidentl! different for Americans$ and a fortiori for American )ews who have hitherto compensated an uneas! sense of 4uilt b! a resolute attachment to heroic m!ths, At the core of this m!tholo4! one is not surprised to encounter the consolin4 belief that the murder of some four to si/ million )ews:mostl! in ?astern ?urope:was e/perienced as a dreadful crime b! the surroundin4 peoples$ whereas the truth is that most of them welcomed it and did nothin4 whatever to help the victims, Allied to this central piece of m!th9makin4$ there are other bits and pieces$ such as the notion that$ havin4 learned the truth at lon4 last$ the ermans are now trul! sorr!$ whereas in prosaic fact most of them are sorr! onl! for themselves, 6t is to Hannah Arendt<s credit that she has dealt ruthlessl! with these and other sentimental fancies$ thou4h in the process she has occasionall! succumbed to the temptation of empt!in4 the bab! out alon4 with the bath, That$ however$ is not what the row is about, ?ven if she had stuck more closel! to what mi4ht be called her brief: chiefl! the massive documentation provided in Raul Hilber4<s .estruction of the ?uropean )ews:it is certain there would have been an outcr!, The truth$ even minus her e/a44erations$ simpl! does not bear thinkin4 about, -hich is precisel! wh! it should be thou4ht about,
Clearl! this particular debate will have to 4o on for 5uite some time, An outsider such as the present reviewer is not obli4ed to comment on +r, )ustice +usmanno<s pompous rebuke to +iss Arendt in the New York Times and the ensuin4 correspondence, 6t would indeed be difficult to miss the point of her book more completel! than was done b! )ud4e +usmanno$ but then he is in 4ood compan!$ or at an! rate in numerous compan!, @ne ma! suspect that the bien9pensants are not 4oin4 to abandon their traditional ima4e of a world in which terrible thin4s do indeed happen from time to time$ but onl! as ine/plicable departures from the normal, 6n their e!es +iss Arendt<s real crime is her su44estion that ?ichmann ma! indeed have been a fairl! avera4e murder specialist and b! implication a fairl! representative specimen of his 4eneration, Compared with this subversive thou4ht:which millions of people once under the erman heel Fnot to mention the ermans themselvesG know to be substantiall! true:her minor infelicities pale, ?ven the occasional touch of malice$ e,4, in her treatment of the Rionists Fwhich some critics have ri4htl! sin4led out for condemnationG becomes a secondar! matter, There is$ after all$ a more important 5uestion than her even entire 4roups of people$ such as fairness or unfairness to individuals or the )ewish Councils in occupied ?urope, The 5uestion is whether her account of the 4reat catastrophe is substantiall! true to the facts of ?uropean
histor! as the! were e/perienced b! millions of people between #&(( and #&C28 and on this score it seems to the reviewer that she can be faulted onl! for not bein4 harsher on the Allies and certain neutrals, 6n most other respects the indictment stands, To the 5uestion wh! more )ews were not saved$ the simple answer must beA because no one cared sufficientl!$ and because 5uite a number of otherwise respectable people felt in the privac! of their souls that Hitler was doin4 their dirt! work for them, All this is not to den! that +iss Aren<t work e/hibits some characteristic faults of tone and substance, These have been dul! underscored b! her critics$ notabl! b! >ionel Abel in a lon4 and trenchant essa! in the 0artisan Review,ZD[ 6n addition to her s!stematic unfairness to the Rionists$ who were after all simpl! tr!in4 to save lives Fand 4ettin4 precious little help from the AlliesG$ there is her failure to point out that in Southern Russia$ where the )ews were totall! unor4ani;ed$ the disaster was on a scale paralleled onl! in 0oland, 6t thus seems e/trava4ant to su44est that the )ews in ?astern ?urope would have done better had the! possessed no communal or4ani;ation at all, @ne is less inclined to blame her for what she sa!s about some of the )ewish Councils in -estern ?urope, No doubt the! thou4ht the! had no choice but to cooperate, Still$
considerin4 that:to take one e/ample:some twent! thousand )ews survived in Holland b! *4oin4 under4round$* one does not 5uite see wh! the twent! or so officials of the )ewish communit! could not have done the same$ after closin4 their offices and destro!in4 their records$ instead of settin4 themselves up as an utterl! useless buffer between their char4es and the ermans, A *failure of nerve* which helped to brin4 about the total catastrophe of the historic )ewish communities of ?urope must not be passed over in silence$ even thou4h it ma! be said in e/tenuation that the collapse of #&C3 had temporaril! turned most ?uropeans into *collaborators,* 6t took !ears of Na;i sava4er! to produce a reall! violent and widespread popular revulsion$ and b! then Anne %rank and her parents had lon4 been deported, To turn from these considerations to +r, 0earlman<s confections is to descend from tra4ed! to farce, +r, 0earlman$ a hard9workin4 7ournalist and an 6sraeli public9relations officer$ has manufactured an officiall! sponsored account of the ?ichmann trial which combines vul4arit! and trivialit! in about e5ual proportions$ seasoned with occasional fli4hts into pseudo9histor!, His approach to the sub7ect is one familiar to connoisseurs of pulp fiction$ thou4h one ma! suppose that his st!le has been consciousl! formed upon more ambitious models$ such as the thriller9 romances of +r, >eon =ris, Kuite earl! on$ the
reader is introduced to a specimen which ma! stand for all the restA *Adolf ?ichman:that<s the man who must be brou4ht to 7ustice if he is still alive,* The man who thundered these words$ punctuatin4 each with a fist9rap on the table$ was a leader without a state$ head of the )ews in 0alestine and of the -orld Rionist +ovement$ silver9 haloed .avid Ben9 urion$ destined to become 6srael<s first 0rime +inister, The !ear was #&C2$ shortl! after the war, Thus started the search for ?ichmann$ which was to end fifteen !ears later in a South American shant!town, And so on, There are several hundred pa4es of this sort of thin4$ interspersed with bits of potted histor! and carefull! chosen e/tracts from the )erusalem Court proceedin4s, To sa! that +r, 0earlman has succeeded in the almost impossible task of reducin4 the )ewish catastrophe to the level of a Holl!wood scenario$ is to acknowled4e at once his own considerable talents in this 4enre and the help he was indirectl! afforded b! the or4ani;ers of the trial, @ne of his heroes$ not surprisin4l!$ is 6srael<s Attorne! eneral$ +r, Hausner$ whose fatuous rhetoric is here reported with the reverence to be e/pected from a fellow artist, Between the two of them$ the! prett! well succeed in empt!in4 the ?ichmann trial of
whatever sense and di4nit! it mi4ht otherwise have possessed, Hitler<s lineal descent from 0haraoh$ and the conse5uent validation of the Rionist view of )ewish histor! as an unbroken record of disaster providentiall! ended b! the foundin4 of 6srael$ are or them do4mas not to be 5uestioned, That was to be e/pected, -hat we mi4ht have been spared was the artificial inflation of ?ichmann to world9historical proportionsA successor to *those classic fi4ures of barbarism$ Nero Attila$ en4his HhanJ,* F0earlman di/it,G But once the Attorne! eneral had been let loose on this sub7ect there was no holdin4 him$ and the ensuin4 absurdities were lapped up b! a world9wide audience 4rateful for the chance thus offered to unload its own 4uilt9feelin4s upon the monster in the dockA *Jthe one who planned$ initiated and or4ani;ed$ who instructed others to spill this ocean of bloodJ* as +r, Hausner puts it, To the ermans in particular this aspect of the indictment came as a heavensent distraction from the theme of collective responsibilit!, To the rest of the world ?ichmann was that familiar fi4ure$ a criminal mastermind whom it was possible to contemplate with min4led awe and repu4nance, 6n short$ there was no catharis$ merel! stupefaction or indifference, There is material here for reflection on the moralit! of an a4e too numbed b! successive horrors to make more than the ritual obeisance to established standards, @n balance$ the trial
helped a lot of people to 4et over whatever 5ualms the! ma! still have felt, The arch9fiend had been dul! punished$ and life could 4o on, To this end it was important that ?ichmann should be made to bear the lar4est possible load of what mi4ht otherwise have been reco4ni;ed as collective responsibilit!, -hatever the trial ma! have si4nified to 6sraelis$ its meanin4 for the rest of the world: barrin4 those countries outside the )ewish9 Christian96slamie orbit$ where it simpl! failed to have an! resonance at all:5uickl! established itself as an individual<s e/piation for the sins of an entire continent, 6n a moralit! pla! the curtain has to come down on the destruction of evil$ as the 4uillotine comes down on the neck of the evil9doerA onl! then can the audience rise reassured$ safe in the knowled4e that the moral order is still intact, No need to emphasi;e that this reassurance was and is of special importance to a civili;ation va4uel! conscious of its reli4ious roots and of Christianit!<s ambi4uous relationship to its parent reli4ion, 6t was hardl! possible for the Court in )erusalem not to sentence ?ichmann to die, That in so doin4 it missed an opportunit! to transcend its own parochialism must be counted amon4 the ma7or lost opportunities of this a4e, email icon ?mail to a friend Notes Z#[ "ikin4 0ress$ #&'(
ZD[ Summer$ #&'( Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ( September D'$ #&'( The ?ichmann Kuestion B! eor4e >ichtheim The Capture and Trial of Adolf ?ichmann b! +oishe 0earlman Simon Schuster$ ''' pp,$ 1N,&2 The ?ichmann trial has become the focus of a controvers! which transcends national and reli4ious frontiers, 6n erman! the issue has recentl! been 4iven an e/tra dimension b! the storm over Hochhuth<s pla!$ The "icarA an
impassioned indictment of the "atican<s wartime polic! of silence$ and especiall! of 0ope 0ius E66$ who is represented as indifferent to the massacre of the )ews and solel! concerned with stemmin4 the menacin4 flood of Communism, -ith the erman ?piscopate up in arms over this pla!$ and a fresh storm promised when The "icar reaches >ondon and New York$ as it soon will$ both the critics and the public have somethin4 bi44er to think about than the controvers! over the alle4ed failure of the various )ewish or4ani;ations to resist or sabota4e Hitler<s *final solution* which has followed$ especiall! in the =nited States$ from the publication of Hannah Arendt<s ?ichmann in )erusalem,Z#[ Cardinal +ontini Fas he then still wasG doubtless knew what he was doin4 last )une when$ in what turned out to be almost his final public act before ascendin4 the papal throne$ he intervened in the columns of the >ondon Catholic weekl!$ The Tablet$ with a pained and an4r! defense of his predecessor, Hochhuth happens to be a >utheran$ but the burden of his char4e:that to the Curia the )ews seemed e/pendable:has alread! evoked an embarrassed echo amon4 some erman Catholic intellectuals, 6t would be a4reeable to be able to add that erman public opinion as a whole was shocked$ but most ermans still remember wartime sermons e/hortin4 both Catholics and 0rotestants to fi4ht the Red menace, Now that Christian .emocrac! is in
the saddle all over -estern ?urope$ these memories are both embarrassin4 and sli4htl! unreal$ which ma! be the reason that news of the controvers! came as a surprise to the British public$ and doubtless to the American too, %rederick .ou4lass Book 0ri;e Announcement >ooked at in this wa!$ the )ewish catastrophe becomes a fairl! t!pical chapter in recent ?uropean histor!$ account bein4 taken of such trial e/ercises as the Turkish massacre of the Armenians durin4 and after the %irst -orld -ar, A4ainst this back4round the 5uestion whether the )ews mi4ht have done more to save themselves falls into place as a problem of the second order, @r so it seems to people in ?urope FBritain$ for the purpose of this ar4ument$ bein4 part of ?uropeG, The case is evidentl! different for Americans$ and a fortiori for American )ews who have hitherto compensated an uneas! sense of 4uilt b! a resolute attachment to heroic m!ths, At the core of this m!tholo4! one is not surprised to encounter the consolin4 belief that the murder of some four to si/ million )ews:mostl! in ?astern ?urope:was e/perienced as a dreadful crime b! the surroundin4 peoples$ whereas the truth is that most of them welcomed it and did nothin4 whatever to help the victims, Allied to this central piece of m!th9makin4$ there are other bits and pieces$ such as the notion that$ havin4 learned the truth at lon4 last$ the ermans are now trul! sorr!$ whereas in
prosaic fact most of them are sorr! onl! for themselves, 6t is to Hannah Arendt<s credit that she has dealt ruthlessl! with these and other sentimental fancies$ thou4h in the process she has occasionall! succumbed to the temptation of empt!in4 the bab! out alon4 with the bath, That$ however$ is not what the row is about, ?ven if she had stuck more closel! to what mi4ht be called her brief: chiefl! the massive documentation provided in Raul Hilber4<s .estruction of the ?uropean )ews:it is certain there would have been an outcr!, The truth$ even minus her e/a44erations$ simpl! does not bear thinkin4 about, -hich is precisel! wh! it should be thou4ht about, Clearl! this particular debate will have to 4o on for 5uite some time, An outsider such as the present reviewer is not obli4ed to comment on +r, )ustice +usmanno<s pompous rebuke to +iss Arendt in the New York Times and the ensuin4 correspondence, 6t would indeed be difficult to miss the point of her book more completel! than was done b! )ud4e +usmanno$ but then he is in 4ood compan!$ or at an! rate in numerous compan!, @ne ma! suspect that the bien9pensants are not 4oin4 to abandon their traditional ima4e of a world in which terrible thin4s do indeed happen from time to time$ but onl! as ine/plicable departures from the normal, 6n their e!es +iss Arendt<s real crime is her su44estion that ?ichmann ma! indeed have been a fairl!
avera4e murder specialist and b! implication a fairl! representative specimen of his 4eneration, Compared with this subversive thou4ht:which millions of people once under the erman heel Fnot to mention the ermans themselvesG know to be substantiall! true:her minor infelicities pale, ?ven the occasional touch of malice$ e,4, in her treatment of the Rionists Fwhich some critics have ri4htl! sin4led out for condemnationG becomes a secondar! matter, There is$ after all$ a more important 5uestion than her even entire 4roups of people$ such as fairness or unfairness to individuals or the )ewish Councils in occupied ?urope, The 5uestion is whether her account of the 4reat catastrophe is substantiall! true to the facts of ?uropean histor! as the! were e/perienced b! millions of people between #&(( and #&C28 and on this score it seems to the reviewer that she can be faulted onl! for not bein4 harsher on the Allies and certain neutrals, 6n most other respects the indictment stands, To the 5uestion wh! more )ews were not saved$ the simple answer must beA because no one cared sufficientl!$ and because 5uite a number of otherwise respectable people felt in the privac! of their souls that Hitler was doin4 their dirt! work for them, All this is not to den! that +iss Aren<t work e/hibits some characteristic faults of tone and substance, These have been dul! underscored b! her critics$ notabl! b! >ionel Abel in a lon4
and trenchant essa! in the 0artisan Review,ZD[ 6n addition to her s!stematic unfairness to the Rionists$ who were after all simpl! tr!in4 to save lives Fand 4ettin4 precious little help from the AlliesG$ there is her failure to point out that in Southern Russia$ where the )ews were totall! unor4ani;ed$ the disaster was on a scale paralleled onl! in 0oland, 6t thus seems e/trava4ant to su44est that the )ews in ?astern ?urope would have done better had the! possessed no communal or4ani;ation at all, @ne is less inclined to blame her for what she sa!s about some of the )ewish Councils in -estern ?urope, No doubt the! thou4ht the! had no choice but to cooperate, Still$ considerin4 that:to take one e/ample:some twent! thousand )ews survived in Holland b! *4oin4 under4round$* one does not 5uite see wh! the twent! or so officials of the )ewish communit! could not have done the same$ after closin4 their offices and destro!in4 their records$ instead of settin4 themselves up as an utterl! useless buffer between their char4es and the ermans, A *failure of nerve* which helped to brin4 about the total catastrophe of the historic )ewish communities of ?urope must not be passed over in silence$ even thou4h it ma! be said in e/tenuation that the collapse of #&C3 had temporaril! turned most ?uropeans into *collaborators,* 6t took !ears of Na;i sava4er! to produce a reall! violent and widespread popular revulsion$ and
b! then Anne %rank and her parents had lon4 been deported, To turn from these considerations to +r, 0earlman<s confections is to descend from tra4ed! to farce, +r, 0earlman$ a hard9workin4 7ournalist and an 6sraeli public9relations officer$ has manufactured an officiall! sponsored account of the ?ichmann trial which combines vul4arit! and trivialit! in about e5ual proportions$ seasoned with occasional fli4hts into pseudo9histor!, His approach to the sub7ect is one familiar to connoisseurs of pulp fiction$ thou4h one ma! suppose that his st!le has been consciousl! formed upon more ambitious models$ such as the thriller9 romances of +r, >eon =ris, Kuite earl! on$ the reader is introduced to a specimen which ma! stand for all the restA *Adolf ?ichman:that<s the man who must be brou4ht to 7ustice if he is still alive,* The man who thundered these words$ punctuatin4 each with a fist9rap on the table$ was a leader without a state$ head of the )ews in 0alestine and of the -orld Rionist +ovement$ silver9 haloed .avid Ben9 urion$ destined to become 6srael<s first 0rime +inister, The !ear was #&C2$ shortl! after the war, Thus started the search for ?ichmann$ which was to end fifteen !ears later in a South American shant!town,
And so on, There are several hundred pa4es of this sort of thin4$ interspersed with bits of potted histor! and carefull! chosen e/tracts from the )erusalem Court proceedin4s, To sa! that +r, 0earlman has succeeded in the almost impossible task of reducin4 the )ewish catastrophe to the level of a Holl!wood scenario$ is to acknowled4e at once his own considerable talents in this 4enre and the help he was indirectl! afforded b! the or4ani;ers of the trial, @ne of his heroes$ not surprisin4l!$ is 6srael<s Attorne! eneral$ +r, Hausner$ whose fatuous rhetoric is here reported with the reverence to be e/pected from a fellow artist, Between the two of them$ the! prett! well succeed in empt!in4 the ?ichmann trial of whatever sense and di4nit! it mi4ht otherwise have possessed, Hitler<s lineal descent from 0haraoh$ and the conse5uent validation of the Rionist view of )ewish histor! as an unbroken record of disaster providentiall! ended b! the foundin4 of 6srael$ are or them do4mas not to be 5uestioned, That was to be e/pected, -hat we mi4ht have been spared was the artificial inflation of ?ichmann to world9historical proportionsA successor to *those classic fi4ures of barbarism$ Nero Attila$ en4his HhanJ,* F0earlman di/it,G But once the Attorne! eneral had been let loose on this sub7ect there was no holdin4 him$ and the ensuin4 absurdities were lapped up b! a world9wide audience 4rateful for the chance thus offered to unload its own 4uilt9feelin4s upon the
monster in the dockA *Jthe one who planned$ initiated and or4ani;ed$ who instructed others to spill this ocean of bloodJ* as +r, Hausner puts it, To the ermans in particular this aspect of the indictment came as a heavensent distraction from the theme of collective responsibilit!, To the rest of the world ?ichmann was that familiar fi4ure$ a criminal mastermind whom it was possible to contemplate with min4led awe and repu4nance, 6n short$ there was no catharis$ merel! stupefaction or indifference, There is material here for reflection on the moralit! of an a4e too numbed b! successive horrors to make more than the ritual obeisance to established standards, @n balance$ the trial helped a lot of people to 4et over whatever 5ualms the! ma! still have felt, The arch9fiend had been dul! punished$ and life could 4o on, To this end it was important that ?ichmann should be made to bear the lar4est possible load of what mi4ht otherwise have been reco4ni;ed as collective responsibilit!, -hatever the trial ma! have si4nified to 6sraelis$ its meanin4 for the rest of the world: barrin4 those countries outside the )ewish9 Christian96slamie orbit$ where it simpl! failed to have an! resonance at all:5uickl! established itself as an individual<s e/piation for the sins of an entire continent, 6n a moralit! pla! the curtain has to come down on the destruction of evil$ as the 4uillotine comes down on the neck of the evil9doerA onl! then
can the audience rise reassured$ safe in the knowled4e that the moral order is still intact, No need to emphasi;e that this reassurance was and is of special importance to a civili;ation va4uel! conscious of its reli4ious roots and of Christianit!<s ambi4uous relationship to its parent reli4ion, 6t was hardl! possible for the Court in )erusalem not to sentence ?ichmann to die, That in so doin4 it missed an opportunit! to transcend its own parochialism must be counted amon4 the ma7or lost opportunities of this a4e, email icon ?mail to a friend Notes Z#[ "ikin4 0ress$ #&'( ZD[ Summer$ #&'( Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ( September D'$ #&'( 6nside the -hale B! >eonard Schapiro The %uture of Russia b! Harr! Braverman +acmillan$ #&D pp,$ 12,33 The New %ace of Soviet Totalitarianism b! Adam B, =lam Harvard$ D(( pp,$ 1C,&2 How Russia 6s Ruled b! +erle %ainsod Harvard =niversit! 0ress$ 'NC pp,$ 1N,&2 0rediction in politics is a dan4erous pastime, @ne has to be ver! bold to en4a4e in it$ or perhaps the boldness comes from a failure to reali;e all the pitfalls, +r, Braverman is certainl! more coura4eous than most of us, He tells us what Russia is 4oin4 to be like$ and no nonsense about it, -hat pu;;les me is whom he is tr!in4 to convince, *The most characteristic -estern view of the Soviet =nion$* he tells us$ *sees it as a fi/ed and immobile dictatorship which will never chan4e until compelled to do so b! an e/ternal force,* But where is this e/traordinar! view to
be foundI Amon4 millions of readers of tabloid newspapers$ no doubt:but the! are e/tremel! unlikel! to read +r, Braverman<s book, There can be$ after all$ scarcel! an! informed student of the Soviet =nion who is unaware of the ma7or chan4es in the =,S,S,R, in the past ten !ears$ and the! are the most likel! readers of a book of this kind, The! will find a hi4hl! optimistic pro7ection of the Russia of the future$ for +r, Braverman believes$ as do man! others$ that the economic development of the Soviet =nion will inevitabl! brin4 in its train 4reater libert!$ rationalit!$ and 4eneral rela/ation, The trouble with this kind of economic determinism is that fort!9si/ !ears of Soviet rule have conclusivel! proved the primac! of politics over economics:there is no reason to suppose that this primac! will disappear in the future$ so lon4 as the Communist 0art! remains in power, That is not to sa! that there will be no development:after ten !ears of continuous chan4e further modifications of the s!stem can confidentl! be e/pected, The! ma! be in the direction foreseen b! +r, Braverman:or the! ma! not, But the! will depend on 5uite different factors :the need of the part! to adapt to the re5uirements of a modern societ!$ the skill with which it maneuvers to keep the kind of monopol! of power which neither lo4ic nor reason 7ustifies$ and a whole lot of 5uite unpredictable human factors$ which +r, Braverman does not take into account:the personalit! of the ne/t autocrat$ for e/ample$
in a countr! in which this factor has for centuries been predominant in political life, NYRB Holida! Sale 0rofessor =lam$ thou4h also much concerned with the chan4es which are takin4 place in the =,S,S,R,$ more wisel! avoids the pitfalls of seein4$ as he puts it$ *in certain political trends the inevitabilit! of the future,* The seven articles of which this book is composed Fsi/ of them reprinted from previous publicationsG deal with different facets of chan4e or contrast, @ne of the chan4es which he discusses in several essa!s is the decline or even death of ideolo4!A he believes +ar/ism to be a spent force as a doctrine$ but drawin4 new stren4th from practical successes which are$ ri4htl! or wron4l!$ and presumabl! wron4l!$ attributed to it, 6n his last essa! he uses with effect Boccaccio<s stor! of the )ew who is converted to Christianit! b! a visit to RomeA the conditions which he finds there convince him that if an!thin4 so venal and corrupt can survive at all at the head of a reli4ious movement the future must lie with it, This seems to me to be sound political anal!sis, 6t is not +ar/ism9>eninism which produces sputniks$ but sputniks which enhance the reputation of +ar/ism9>eninism, This is indeed sound >eninism:it even has a 4rand name$ the *unit! of theor! and practice,* 6t has led man! scholars Fincludin4 0rofessor =lam in an earlier bookG to the conclusion that >eninism is not so much an adaptation of
+ar/<s anal!sis of societ! as a 4ood s!stem for rapidl! industriali;in4 backward countries, +ost of these sensible and wellwritten essa!s are$ however$ concerned to 4au4e the e/tent to which the Soviet =nion has evolved since the death of Stalin, 0rofessor =lam Funlike +r, BravermanG tries to show the limits within which evolution is possible$ so lon4 as the part! retains the kind of power which it shows ever! intention of retainin4, This is where rationalit! comes into conflict with power:and it is a bold man who is prepared to assume that the part!$ with its e/tended monopol! not onl! of power$ but of administrative techni5ues$ will readil! !ield up power in the interests of a more rational life, Soviet a4riculture is perhaps the most strikin4 e/ample of the wa! in which rationalit! is sacrificed in the interests of power, =nited States farmin4 produces$ with one9fifth of the Soviet a4ricultural labor force$ '3 per cent more products than the Soviet =nion on an area onl! two thirds the Soviet sown acrea4e, +r, Hhrushchev is presumabl! aware of this, But to 4ive the Soviet farms the kind of incentives and freedom which would encoura4e increase of production would be$ accordin4 to deep9rooted Soviet convictions$ to place too much political power in their hands, These and man! other similar dilemmas underlie the new form of Soviet totalitarianism$ and pose the problems which$ from its own point of view$ it faces in 4ropin4$ as 0rofessor =lam sa!s$ *to retain master!
over a chan4in4 societ!,* 0rofessor %ainsod<s classic work is$ without doubt$ the most important sin4le book ever to have been written on the 4overnment of the Soviet =nion, The ori4inal education appeared in #&2C, This revised edition$ enlar4ed b! over a hundred pa4es$ takes account of chan4es up to the end of #&'D, enerations of students in man! countries have been trained on this ma4nificent work$ which has stood impre4nable a4ainst criticism for nine !ears, The merits of the book are so outstandin4 that the! need no praise from me:the anal!sis unfolds with a lucidit! and balance$ with a master! of sources$ with a fairness and a sense of the essential$ which put all other books in this field out of countenance, There must be man! teachers of Soviet 4overnment$ like m!self$ who feel that this new edition has solved a problem for them, 6n public life$ in 7ournalism$ in politics$ the revised %ainsod will take its place as the most up9to9date handbook for reference and$ one hopes$ close stud!, The familiar shape of the book is unchan4ed, The four parts$ dealin4 with histor!$ the part!$ the s!stem of rule$ and the problems which arise in the mana4ement of industr! and a4riculture$ have been supplemented and enlar4ed in the li4ht of new information and sources, The last three parts have been brou4ht up to date b! the inclusion of developments since the death of Stalin, Here$
therefore$ is a complete stud! of the most durable of modern totalitarian s!stems this book$ rather than to prophecies$ that one should turn in search of the answer to the 5uestion which fascinates us all:includin4 its most difficult$ contemporar! phase:the phase of evolution after the sta4nation of naked terror, 6t is to what is 4oin4 to happen in the =,S,S,R,I 0rofessor %ainsod is much too 4ood a political scientist to indul4e in prophec!, But he provides$ especiall! in his last chapter$ entitled *The Soviet 0olitical S!stem: 0roblems and 0rospects$* some of the basic realities which must be taken into account before even intelli4ent 4uesswork Fwhich he leaves to othersG becomes possible, >ike 0rofessor =lam$ 0rofessor %ainsod sees the decline of ideolo4ical fervor:but he warns a4ainst an! facile assumptions that the part! leadership is likel! to cast the whole structure overboard, =nlike +r, Braverman$ he does not see an! necessar! connection between improved economic prosperit! and 4reater libert!, @n the contrar!$ the better the part! succeeds in its materialist promises$ the less risk there will be of erosion of its power, This view$ which is a soberin4 corrective to much facile optimism which is abroad these da!s$ is reall! onl! another aspect of 0rofessor =lam<s view$ that material success is the 4reatest bulwark of the s!stem,
The conclusion with which one emer4es from re9readin4 this book Fapart from a renewed sense of its outstandin4 5ualitiesG is that what matters most in politics is built9in tradition, This tradition in the Soviet =nion is part! rule, This means in practice an indefinable habit of reliance on more or less arbitrar! constant manipulation behind the scenes of the formal and usuall! 5uite chaotic business of 4overnment which appears on the surface, 6t means 4overnment b! the part! secretar!<s telephone$ without which the whole unwield! structure would probabl! 4rind to a standstill, @nce this fact is 4rasped$ speculation about *erosion* of part! power$ and *pressure b! technocrats*$ and the other familiar 4ambits of the man! who speculate on the future of Soviet power be4in to fall into proportion, @f course there will be chan4e:there ma! be 4radual evolution or there ma! be drastic chan4e, A new 4eneration of leaders ma! in time adopt a different tradition$ or lack the skill to maintain the old, All is possible$ and all is lar4el! unpredictable, But speculation which fails to take this basic factor of Soviet political tradition into account i4nores the realit! which 0rofessor %ainsod<s pa4es so elo5uentl! depict, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number C @ctober #T$ #&'( The enius of )ean enet B! >ionel Abel )ean enet)ean enet b! .avid >evine @ur >ad! of the %lowers b! )ean enet$ translated b! Bernard %rechtman rove 0ress$ D2' pp,$ 1',23 6t was from Sartre that 6 first heard of )ean enet, This was some !ears back$ in #&CT$ if 6 remember ri4htl!, Sartre was visitin4 New York$ and the editors of 0artisan Review asked me to a luncheon for him, %or most of the luncheon not much was said$ mainl!$ 6 think$ because of the lan4ua4e difficult!:our %rench was labored and uncertain$ and Sartre did not know ?n4lish at all8 then too$ at the start$ Sartre wanted to feel out what we$ the Americans$ were like:especiall! what our attitude was to him8 and we$ for our part$ were not at all sure about the e/istentialist views he had proclaimed$ or what his philosoph! could mean in this countr!$ or to us, An!wa!$ the conversation went haltin4l! until 6 said somethin4 about Camus$ who was alread! en7o!in4 a 4reat vo4ue here8 Sartre responded swiftl!A *Camus is a ver! fine writer$ but %rance has man! other fine writers, Camus is
not a 4reat writer$ not a 4enius,* He added$ *There is onl! one 4enius in %rance toda!,* -ho was that$ we wanted to know, Sartre<s answer wasA *)ean enet,* After which Sartre went on to speak of enet$ and suddenl! became himself, %or Sartre$ it seems to me$ is himself when he praises or decries8 he needs moral prete/ts to show his wit$ his elo5uence, And there was no 5uestion about his lo!al support of the writer almost none of us knew at the time8 we could not but be impressed when he compared enet to >autrQaumont$ then to Rimbaud$ and even intimated that enet was the 4reatest of the three:also the most *accursed,* F6 see from Sartre<s book$ Saint enet$ 7ust out in ?n4lish translation$ that he has chan4ed his mind about enet<s forerunners and now places him in the line of Baudelaire and +allarmQ,G Sartre talked of enet<s lifeA a foundlin4$ brou4ht up b! foster parents$ he had been sent to a reformator! at a ver! earl! a4e8 after that he had resolutel! embraced a life of crimeA he was a hoodlum$ a thief$ a male whore, F-ith about twent!9seven convictions to his credit$ enet$ under %rench law$ would have been sentenced to prison for life had not %rench writers$ notabl! Sartre himself and )ean Cocteau$ obtained a pardon for him from the 0resident of the Republic,G -e all tend to be incredulous$ 6 suppose$ when told that someone we do not know is 4reat, But Sartre spoke most convincin4l!$ and there was certainl!
somethin4 about enet<s stor! which su44ested that he mi4ht be another >autrQaumont$ even a Rimbaud, But then Sartre made a remark which startled me, @f enet he saidA *He has the st!le of .escartes,* NYR Holida! Subscription Special The st!le of .escartesI Years after that luncheon$ when$ in 0aris$ 6 had read a novel or two b! enet and also seen a pla! of his$ 6 still could not understand wh! Sartre had thou4ht of comparin4 his st!le with that of the seventeenth9centur! philosopher, At a part! 6 repeated Sartre<s mot$ and a witt! %rench priest retortedA *But enet is ver! seventeenth9centur!8 and he has the st!le of its 4reatest writer:who$ mind !ou$ is not .escartes,* -ould 6 have to hear enet compared to 0ascal$ 6 wondered, +! priest did as well$ or even better, @f enet<s st!le he saidA *6t has the tone$ the rh!thm$ the sur4e of Bossuet$* and then went on to compare in detail the prose of the seventeenth9centur! churchman and orator with that of the modern hoodlum$ thief$ and whore, 6 thou4ht people in 0aris were losin4 their heads over enet, The st!le of Bossuet$ no, 6 still see no reason to compare enet with the celebrated churchman, Nor can 6 see an! wit in the comparison$ unless made b! a priest, But 6 am now convinced that Sartre was perfectl! ri4ht in linkin4 enet with .escartesA the insi4ht is one of his most brilliant hits, But b! enet<s
st!le Sartre could not possibl! have meant enet<s prose$ which$ in its sumptuousness$ is utterl! unlike the austere:and so affectin4 because unornamented:prose of the 4reat .escartes, enet<s prose is almost alwa!s dressed up:often in dra4, Sartre himself has called attention to the ornateness with which enet in A Thief<s )ournal writes of Bulkaen<s behindA *Son postQrieur Qtait un reposoir,* F*His behind was an altar,*G 6n fact$ in his book on enet$ Sartre makes a ver! pe7orative 7ud4ment of enet<s prose$ even describin4 it as *false,* -h! falseI Apparentl! because it is interfused with poetr!:accordin4 to Sartre$ its poetr! corrodes and corrupts this prose, 6 think here Sartre has !ielded to a ver! %rench view$ one which 6 personall! do not share, 0erhaps Alain said it best for all who hold this viewA True prose must be *poetr! refused,* 6n an! case$ Sartre could hardl! have meant enet<s *prose$* which he critici;es$ when speakin4 of enet<s *st!le$* which he admires, So Sartre must have had in mind enet<s st!le of thinkin4 when he said of the writerA *He has the st!le of .escartes,* @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ enet<s first novel$ written in the prison of >a %resne$ and certainl! a masterpiece:the 4reatest novel$ 6 should sa!$ since %aulkner was 4reat:is also$ to m! mind$ the book of enet which best reveals his st!le of thinkin4, 6t is a st!le of thinkin4 which derives its order and
assumptions from the *6*:the st!le first tau4ht b! .escartes, 6 have chosen$ thou4h$ to connect enet with .escartes throu4h still another writer:one not too well known in this countr!$ but perhaps the 4reatest and most ori4inal of all Cartesians$ and who has the advanta4e$ for me$ at least$ of bein4$ like enet$ a modernA the philosopher ?dmund Husserl, Now it ma! seem stran4e to compare a purel! theoretical work like Husserl<s Cartesian +editations$ composed mainl! of lectures he 4ave at the Sorbonne$ with an! novel$ let alone a novel apparentl! at such a remove from 5uestions of theor! as the one written b! )ean enet in the prison of >a %resne, However$ the efforts of Husserl and enet are not at all dissimilar, About the +editationsA 6n this work the erman thinker attempted the perhaps impossible task of scaffoldin4 our common world on the structures of the solitar! e4o8 he tried to set up$ within the confines of the self$ a world shared$ or sharable$ with other selves:on which public world$ in turn$ all scientific communication could rest, Now Husserl<s effort has been called a failure, -as not his common world rather like the brothel desi4ned b! >eonardo$ which each client could enter and 5uit without the risk of meetin4 an! other clientI %or there seems little *dan4er* of the e4o<s meetin4 another e4o in the ma;e of Husserl<s +editatious, )ust the same it remains one of the seminal works of this centur!, 6
heard the %rench philosopher )ean -ahl sa! of itA *Husserl<s Cartesian adventure failed,* But then he addedA *>ike all 4reat enterprises,* @ur >ad! of the %lowers is not a failure, But what 6 must e/plain is how this novel about homose/uals and criminals su44ests comparison with Husserl<s +editations, The erman thinker be4an with solipsism, enet$ isolated on his prison bed$ be4ins$ as radicall!$ with narcissismA enet is masturbatin4, And in order to make masturbation effective he calls up ima4es of the pimps$ whores$ and criminals he has known or ima4ined himself to be, Accordin4 to Sartre Z#[ $ so sin4le was enet<s interest in 4ettin4 se/ual satisfaction while writin4 this book that the measure of his interest in each of his characters was solel! whether he could keep an erection, Sartre calls the novel *an epic of masturbation,* 6 cannot a4ree, The novel is purel! l!rical$ and the word *epic* 4ives$ 6 think$ a wron4 impression of itA an erection is brief$ an epic lon49lastin4, +oreover$ the book is not about masturbation8 it is about all those fi4ures enet could make real to himself while masturbatin4, +asturbation was his aim and end8 but it was also his method and means8 b! it he elaborated his personal world into one he could share se/uall! with others$ and finall! into the actual social world of criminals and homose/uals$ male whores and pimps$ which he had known, This world$ to m! knowled4e$ has never before been described b! an! writerA
enet in his novel constitutes it for us almost out of his own substance8 in an! case$ out of the ver! substantial se/ual pleasure he took in rememberin4 and contemplatin4 it, Thus it is that the social world of homose/uals and criminals of @ur >ad! of the %lowers has a freshness$ a spontaneit!:a sweetness$ even: scarcel! approached b! those novelists who describe the world *ob7ectivel!,* But did not 0roust be4in as radicall!$ with his own impressions$ and constitute$ out of his sensations and memories$ the %rench societ! of his timeI 0roust did indeed be4in with his impressions$ but out of these he wrou4ht onl! those characters who could move him deepl!8 the %rench societ! of his time he described ob7ectivel!, @ften 0roust reads like Bal;ac, Now enet:at least in @ur >ad! of the %lowers :never reads like Bal;ac$ but alwa!s like enet8 even when describin4 *ob7ectivel!* the criminal and homose/ual hierarch! he knew$ enet alwa!s seems most intent on rememberin4 his own homose/ualit!$ his own crimes, 6t ma! be askedA 6f Husserl could not make of the private self the architect of a world with others in it$ then how was enet on his narcissist<s couch able to construct such a worldI Can it be said that enet$ the novelist$ succeeded$ where Husserl$ the philosopher failedI >et me make m!self clear on this pointA @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ thou4h a beautiful
book$ does not merit comparison with such works as The Human Comed!$ -ar and 0eace$ and The Red and the Black, And enet<s novel would have to be as inclusive and universal as these to seriousl! challen4e *ob7ective* thinkin4:even in literature, 6 do claim for enet that in @ur >ad! of the %lowers he created out of his narcissism a world with others in it, But this world is sub7ect to a severe limitationA the others whom enet is able to reach out to narcissisticall! are essentiall! narcissists themselves$ as strictl! separated from one another as enet is from them, But enet has this ver! 4reat stren4thA the onl! world he wants to describe is the onl! world he can describe sub7ectivel!$ the world of criminals and pederasts, To deal with an! wider forms of social life he would have to attenuate$ b! ob7ectif!in4$ his method of description, 6 have said that enet<s @ur >ad! is l!ricalA it is necessaril! that$ 4iven its method of composition, The fable or plot of the book is su44ested at the outset b! an ima4eA J6 wanted to swallow m!self b! openin4 m! mouth ver! wide and turnin4 it over m! head so that it would take in m! whole bod!$ and then the universe$ until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thin4 which little b! little would be annihilatedA This is how 6 see the end of the world,
>et me desi4nate enet<s l!ricism more precisel!, 6t is that of the passive homose/ual$ as will be seen if one compares the ima4e cited above with an ima4e from >autrQaumont which e/presses the feelin4 of the homose/ual who is active, @h that the universe were an immense celestial anusL 6 would plun4e m! penis past its blood! sphincter$ rendin4 apart$ with m! impetuous motion$ the ver! bones of the pelvis, The action of the novel is one of reven4eA the reven4e of .ivine$ a passive homose/ual$ on .arlin4 and @ur >ad!$ active pimps .ivine loves:and supports b! whorin4, .arlin4 is a thief as well as a pimp and @ur >ad! has the special 4lamor of bein4 wanted for murder, The motive for reven4e is *normal* 7ealous! made drastic b! .ivine<s feelin4 of inferiorit! at bein4 unable to pla! a male role, .arlin4 finds another whore8 .ivine mana4es to 4et him arrested, And when @ur >ad! une/pectedl! submits to the Ne4ro or4ui in front of .ivine$ the latter$ despairin4 of se/$ attracts the police, @ur >ad! is sentenced to the 4uillotine, But m! point is that the l!rical passa4e about swallowin4 the world$ which e/presses .ivine<s passivit!$ is written into the ver! plot of the narrative$ and is also indistin4uishable from .ivine<s motives, The ima4e can no more be separated from the rh!thm of the stor! than the ima4es of a poem
from what it sa!s, .oes enet succeed in creatin4 real charactersI .ivine$ the baldin4 male whore$ who$ when provoked b! the assembled 5ueens to prove that he is trul! re4al$ takes out his denture and places it on his head F enet remarks that it took much more 4randeur of soul to replace the dentureG is certainl! a true$ and even a 4reat$ character, @f course$ .ivine$ as Sartre has pointed out$ is a pro7ection of enet, But did the novelist create even one character in this book who is not a pro7ection of himselfI -ithout at least one such character$ @ur >ad! of the %lowers would be a failure$ even takin4 into account its limited scope, But @ur >ad!$ the murderer$ is no pro7ection of enet, He is less interestin4 than .ivine$ and has less ps!cholo4ical depth$ but what @ur >ad! sa!s and does has the surprisin4ness of a person we find real$ in fiction or in life, -hen at @ur >ad!<s trial the 7ud4e asks himA *-h! did !ou killI* the murderer repliesA *6 was fabulousl! broke,* This is an answer which was surel! not dictated b! the author to his character, Narcissism does have creative resources$ thou4h enet is probabl! the first author since, Sade to have tapped them full!, No doubt most of enet<s characters are roles the author has pla!ed or wanted to pla!, And here we see the limits of his theater$ which relies not on character as we normall!
understand it$ but on the different roles pla!ed b! persons who apart from their roles would be 5uite interchan4eable, -hat distin4uishes Claire from Solan4e in enet<s pla! The +aidsI @nl! the special roles the! have decided to pla!, The! even e/chan4e names, And are not the )ud4e$ the Bishop$ and the eneral in The Balcon! virtuall! the sameI The! differ onl! when the! have put on their particular costumes and 4otton up on stilts, Sometimes enet writes as if other persons were real onl! when invested b! him with some special authorit!, 6n fact$ 6 think it must be ver! hard for him to think of an!one but himself as real, 6n @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ thou4h$ 6 think enet has made his 4reatest effort to 4ive independent life to others and to treat them as more than actors in his own drama, This is his most realistic work, enet has written three other novelsA The +iracle of the Rose$ %uneral Rites$ and Kuerelle of Brest, All are e/traordinar! and should be translated, But 6 think onl! one of them$ %uneral Rites$ is comparable in 5ualit! to @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ and this is the onl! other novel b! enet in which he relies as radicall! on what 6 have called his *Cartesian* thou4ht, The +iracle of the Rose and Kuerelle of Brest are at times sub7ective$ and at times ob7ective in the manner of other novelists, @nl! in @ur >ad! of the %lowers and in %uneral Rites does enet<s sub7ectivit!$ pushed to the point of paro/!sm$ donate whatever ob7ectivit!
the! have to others$ thin4s$ and the environin4 world, 6 am not 4oin4 to claim that the characters in %uneral Rites are ver! real, The! are essentiall! roles$ more so even than the lesser fi4ures in @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ and in %uneral Rites there is no social world$ not even one like the world of pimps and 5ueens enet described in his first book, But the problem with which %uneral Rites be4ins is a 4enuine$ even a *social* and *ob7ective$* problemA How mourn for the deadI )ean .,$ enet<s lover to whom the novel is dedicated$ was a member of the %rench Resistance and had been killed b! a %rench militiaman, -ith what ceremon! should the livin4 )ean 4rieve for the dead )ean .,I The whole novel$ in fact$ is nothin4 but the elaborate stud! of what such a ceremon! mi4ht be, A ceremon! is a social act, enet in %uneral Rites creates his own ceremon! out of his own sub7ective needs$ 7ust as in @ur >ad! of the %lowers he created a whole social world in order to pleasure himself se/uall!, The ceremon! enet invents for mournin4 his lover is ver! peculiar$ most perverse, )ean$ )ean<s lover$ has been killed$ as 6 said$ b! a %rench militiaman, The funeral has not !et taken place, And the livin4 )ean$ wonderin4 how to mourn for the dead$ 4oes to the cinema and there sees a newsreel fi4ht between members of the %rench Resistance and %rench supporters of 0Qtain, )ean sees a !oun4 %rench patriot killed b! a !oun4 %rench pro9Na;i8 he
ima4ines that the man killed is his lover$ )ean$ and has an immediate impulse to 4ive himself to the killer, This fantas! is pursued throu4hout the novel$ in which there is much about erman pricks, 6n an ima4inative fli4ht$ )ean thinks of the prick of ?ric Seiler$ a particularl! brutal Na;i$ who had be4un his career as the lover of the headsman of Berlin ZD[ $ as the "96 protectin4 Hitler himself, 6n fantas! throu4hout the novel enet is bu44ered in his own person:or in the person of %rench thu4s or pro9Na;is with whom he identifies himself:b! brutal ermans8 at the end of the novel b! ?ric Seiler, 6s this a wa! of mournin4 for a hero of the Resistance$ a man valued for patriotic virtueI @r did enet hate his lover for havin4 this virtue which he himself did not possessI enet identified himself$ as he makes perfectl! clear$ with those %rench supporters of Hitler who took Na;i orders simpl! to 4et revolvers in their hands, So enet could hardl! mourn sincerel! as a %renchman for his lover, +oreover$ enet is a narcissist8 his 4rief to be sincere had to be avowedl! a narcissist<s, And how does a narcissist 4rieve for the death of anotherI -ould he not have to have died himself in order to understand the meanin4 of a funeral riteI But at the end of his book enet makes clear what his ceremon! reall! is and must be, The livin4 )ean will eat the dead )ean$ at least in fantas!8 and the fantastic 4ivin4 of himself to the dead )ean<s killers is a mere preliminar! to the real fantas!A the ceremonial eatin4 of
the dead )ean, This is the 4reat moment of the novel and enet<s description is ma4nificent, 0ersonal$ se/ual$ and reli4ious feelin4$ half hidden from one another in most of us are called up imperiousl! b! the author<s words and united b! them into a mi4ht! spellA @nce more he was swept alon4 b! the 4reen waves of an4er8 which rolled b! in the ni4ht$ under a sk! scratched with summer li4htnin48 the waters were full of alli4ators, @n river banks$ criss9crossed with fern$ sava4e worshippers of the moon danced in the thickets about a fire, The tribe which had been invited to the feast became drunk with the dance and with the thou4ht of the treat in storeA the !oun4 dead man cookin4 in a cauldron, 6t is sweet and consolin4 for me$ here amon4 the men of a dark and 5uakin4 continent$ whose tribes eat their dead kin4s$ to find m!self a4ain with the natives of a countr! like ?ric<s$ so as to eat without risk or remorse$ the most tender flesh of the dead man$ to assimilate it to m! own$ to take the best morsels with their fat in m! fin4ers$ to keep them in m! mouth and on m! ton4ue without dis4ust$ to feel them enter m! stomach and know that their essence will fill the ver! best parts of me, The boredom of cookin4 has been spared me$ while the heat of the dance helped the bod! boil$ e/tractin4 from the flesh its ma4ic essence, +! palate too was sharpened, 6 danced$ blacker than the blacks$ to the beat of the tom9tom, 6 made m!
bod! supple8 6 made it read! to receive the totemic nourishment, 6 was sure that 6 was od, 6 was od, Alone at the wooden table 6 waited for )ean$ naked and dead$ to brin4 me on a platter his own corpse, 6 presided$ knife and fork in hand$ over a sin4ular feast at which 6 would consume his privile4ed flesh, No doubt m! head was aureoled8 there was a nimbus about m! bod!A 6 felt m! splendor 4oin4 forth like a spra!, The blacks pla!ed on flutes of bamboo and on tomtoms, %inall!$ comin4 from 6 do not know where$ )ean$ naked and dead$ walkin4 on his heels$ brou4ht me his corpse well9cooked$ placed it before me on the table$ and disappeared, Alone at that table$ a od whom the Ne4roes dared not look at$ 6 ateJ Thus the death of )ean ., 4ave me roots, 6 finall! belon4ed to that %rance which 6 had cursed$ and so stron4l! desiredJZ([ -hile eatin4 )ean .,$ )ean is at one with erman!$ the countr! of killers8 that is wh! he refers to the African villa4e where the rite takes place as *a countr! like ?ric<s,* Havin4 eaten the victim$ )ean is united$ and for the first time$ with %rance, Certainl! this ima4inar! rite will dis4ust man! readers, But 6 would ask them to consider what wa!s are at their disposal for 4ivin4 ceremon! to their 4rief for the dead, No doubt the funeral ceremonies of the established reli4ions were at one time the result of some 4enuinel! sub7ective thou4ht or feelin4, But our
sensibilities are 5uite different now from the sensibilities of those who invented the rites which we still entrust our feelin4s to, -ho has not wanted to invent his own ceremon!$ be it of 4rief or of 7o!I 6 do not like enet<s wa! of mournin4$ but it does seem to me a real one$ created out of his own substance, All the same$ this creation of a rite$ thou4h somethin4 more than a sub7ective act$ is not e5ual in m! view to the creation of a world shared with others$ a world with the warmth and spontaneit! of a real societ!, So$ remarkable rhetoricall! and spirituall! as is %uneral Rites$ 6 cannot place it on the same level with @ur >ad! of the %lowers, 6 must add$ too$ that enet<s pla!s$ .eathwatch$ The +aids$ The Screens:even The Balcon! and The Blacks:seem inferior to me as intellectual efforts to @ur >ad! of the %lowers and %uneral Rites,ZC[ 0ossibl! the theater and its needs have imposed on enet too man! ob7ective problems8 his thou4ht proceeds most surel! when he be4ins with his intimate feelin4s and out of these tries to construct the world, But who knowsI 0erhaps some da! this writer will 4ive us a thorou4hl! Cartesian pla!, 6n an! case$ is it not remarkable that centuries after the death of .escartes$ a male whore and hoodlum$ speakin4 .escartes<s lan4ua4e and usin4 his method$ should have 4iven life to the novel$ once the chief 4lor! of %rench letters:and which without enet<s efforts would be
moribund in %rance toda!, email icon ?mail to a friend Notes Z#[ Sartre<s introduction to @ur >ad! of the %lowers$ taken for this edition from his vast Saint enet$ can onl! be described in superlativesA it is one of the most ama;in4 pieces of literar! anal!sis 6 have ever read, ZD[ 6n a book on enet$ not !et published but which 6 have in proof$ )oseph +ac+ahon wron4l! refers to the *headsman of Berlin* as the *han4man of Berlin,* This error$ thou4h$ su44ested to me that enet<s pro9 ermanism is$ in one respect at least$ not unlike the pro9 ermanism of 0roust<s character$ the Baron de Charlus, 6n e/plainin4 Charlus<s leanin4 toward the ermans$ 0roust in a messa4e of immense subtlet! notes this detail about his characterA *Now in him se/ual pleasure was accompanied b! a certain cruel idea$ the full force of which 6 did not reali;e at the time:the man he loved seemed to him like an adorable han4man,* F+! italics,G Z([ 0ompes %unebres$ m! translation, ?lsewhere in this piece$ 6 have relied on +r, %rechtman<s translations, About +r, %rechtman<s translations of enet in 4eneralA 6 find them competent and accurate$ thou4h uneven in 5ualit!, -ith The Blacks +r, %rechtman succeeded admirabl!8 his versions of The Balcon! and of The Screens are not
nearl! so 4ood$ and 6 do not think his translation of @ur >ad! of the %lowers catches the music of the ori4inal as well as one would have hoped, @ne difficult!A there is much ar4ot in enet<s novel, %rench ar4ot is not inele4ant and enters unobtrusivel! even into a st!le as convoluted and thrice9refined as enet<s, American slan4 is a44ressivel! inele4ant, +r, %rechtman has not entirel! resolved the difficult!, 6 find his version of The Screens fault! in the same respect, ZC[ 6 reali;e that this contradicts a previousl! published 7ud4ment of mine about the value of enet<s novels in relation to his pla!s, +! mistake came from 7ud4in4 the novels from memor!, Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo %rance Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number C @ctober #T$ #&'( oin4 for Baro5ue B! Crei4hton ilbert 0atrons and 0aintersA A Stud! in the Relations between 6talian Art and Societ! in the A4e of the Baro5ue b! %rancis Haskell Hnopf$ C2C pp,$ 1#2,33 This is a fascinatin4 book$ on a fairl! special sub7ect, To read it$ one has to possess a developed curiosit! about historical causes and effects$ and know somethin4 about artists of seventeenth9centur! 6tal! like Bernini$ 0ietro da Cortona$ 0oussin$ and Claude >orrain, Startin4 from that base$ the author<s 0art @ne ties the careers and the st!les of paintin4 of these artists and others to the interests of the patrons who made them prosperous, The motivations of the 0opes are the chief ke!A the violent shifts of taste when a new 0ope appeared$ the ur4ent need to create ima4es of power 5uickl! durin4 a sin4le rei4n$ the preference for artists from the 0ope<s home town$ the relative submissiveness of the )esuits and other reli4ious orders$ all fall vividl! into place, Some of the trends which +r, Haskell illuminates and most of the facts are known to investi4ators of Baro5ue$ but
man! items are the author<s own finds$ and his s!nthesis offers much that is new to the deepest specialist, ?ach of his criss9cross presentations dovetails beautifull!, Rome in this centur! had far more than its share of the best artists from ever!where$ but its political histor!$ in the lon4 view$ was trivial and therefore is unfamiliar, The opposite is true of Richelieu<s %rance$ Cromwell<s ?n4land$ or the erman! of -allenstein and ustavus Adolphus, To tie those potent fi4ures to the dim art around them would be anticlimatic, But in Rome the historian can illuminate remarkable paintin4s b! their connections with people who made no impact on the future$ but did have tremendous local power and willful and distinctive personalities, This combination of ma7or art and unfamiliar back4round is +r, Haskell<s luck, The deepened understandin4 of the paintin4s occurs in a conte/t of livel! character sketches$ and the paintin4s are worth it, NYR Holida! Subscription Special The onl! si4nificant complaint 6 have about this first part is less the author<s fault than a 4eneral human failin4, 0henomena which he calls t!pical of this seventeenth9centur! societ! often$ in fact$ e/isted a centur! or more before$ in the 6tal! of the Renaissance, There was$ after all$ no bi4 shift in habits of livin4, There are merel! fewer records from the
earlier period$ a lack that happens to be reinforced b! the author<s naturall! 4reater knowled4e of the later period, Thus he sa!s that it was *new* and *most e/ceptional* in the earlier period$ to 4ive artists noble titles$ but without huntin4 6 can increase +r, Haskell<s two earlier e/ceptions to seven$ most of them never held in awe as particularl! 4reat Ffor e/ample$ Baccio BandinelliG, The 4raph does 4o up later$ but not at so steep a rate as he thinks, @n a lar4er point$ he reports that artists$ once the! were assi4ned a sub7ect$ had *surprisin4* freedom in the actual look of the resultin4 paintin4, His conclusion ri4htl! surprises him$ not because it contradicts the data assembled before$ but onl!$ 6 am afraid$ because it contradicts a well9worn convention in art historical research, @ur detailed s!mbolic interpretations of paintin4s lead us to deduce that patrons specified them$ and it is common to assume that this was the standard practice, Yet evidence is ver! sparse$ and cases to the contrar! are perhaps more fre5uent even earlier, Not onl! was +ichelan4elo asked to produce an! theme he liked$ but "asari informed his .uke what the s!mbolic picture would be like that he was preparin4 for him$ and still earlier in "enice iovanni Bellini turned down a commission from a too instinctive .uchess, She seems to have had a more e/ceptional attitude than he, @n another related point$ the author finds it an innovation that certain pictures were not commissioned at all$ but painted and put on
sale to the public, But Carpaccio was doin4 this a centur! before$ and the practice probabl! was 5uite widespread, Such amendments$ thou4h$ do not reall! affect the 5ualit! of this book$ since this is an area outside its particular theme, +r, Haskell has intentionall! written his two main parts in 5uite different wa!s$ because the data are different, This is fittin4$ but it will make the second part less attractive to man! readers, The first is ti4htl! constructed, The focus on the 0opes provides a constant, The 0opes follow one after the other$ without a 4apA most other patrons are affected b! papal attitudes as much as the painters are, But in ei4hteenth9centur! "enice$ the sub7ect of 0art Two$ there are onl! individual private patrons, The! overlap at random$ and mainl! collected what was available instead of influencin4 what was produced, The absence of 4overnment patrona4e creates an unusual condition$ but cannot 4o far as a thematic device, The "enetian patrons formed no network$ but onl! a scatterin4 of more or less connected$ more or less sociall! t!pical or eccentric$ individuals, The situation in 0art Two reminds us more of those more ordinar! books on the histor! of collectin4 that titillate us with characters, About9the patron whom +r, Haskell ri4htl! considers the most important$ the onl! one to rate a whole chapter$ he concludes that he wavered in taste accordin4 to whatever stron4er influences happened to be nearb!, 6n
an! case the stor! is more familiar, -e are more likel! to know about Canaletto<s trip to ?n4land and Tiepolo<s to the 0rince9 Archbishop<s palace in erman! than about the troubles of the Roman )esuit leader$ @liva$ in 4ettin4 artists for his church, Yet if the reader is less impressed here$ it is reall! to the credit of +r, Haskell$ who has told the stor! as it happened$ more full! and with more balance than has been done before, Between these two main parts there is a brief section on patrona4e of 6talian artists in other cities and abroad, 6 would like to take from it a sli4htl! more detailed sample of what +r, Haskell accomplishes$ and use the same point for m! ma7or criticism, He has found one trul! important patron in this area$ the rand 0rince %erdinand of Tuscan!, He was a belated +edici who died at fift! before succeedin4 his father as ruler in %lorence$ but he had$ in almost complete cultural isolation$ discovered modern art$ in the sense of a non9formal$ impressionist$ witt! paintin4$ a prophec! of rococo, 6n particular he brou4ht two painters to %lorence in #T3C93&$ Riccl and Crespi$ 4ivin4 them their first chance and effectivel! drawin4 them out of their provincial surroundin4s, This opportunit! had the effect of stimulatin4 them to do more remarkable work for %erdinand than the! had been doin4 when the! first came to the 0rince<s attention and this stimulus lasted them throu4hout lives in which the! were never to find a patron like him a4ain, He
knew the special kind of paintin4 he was encoura4in4$ and the! have a 4enuine claim to be *the two most interestin4 artists of their period$ both of whom were pioneerin4 a break with late Baro5ue conventions$* and this makes the rand 0rince %erdinand ver! impressive, He was the rare patron who had a positive effect on a whole movement in paintin4$ and +r, Haskell has retrieved him from obscurit!, And !et he ma! have missed some more, +an! people would sa! there is a third most interestin4 !oun4 painter of the period$ +a4nasco$ who also was informal$ impressionist$ and witt!, +a4nasco was in %lorence too in #T3(9#T##$ a peculiar choice for his one venture outside his provincial home territor!$ and for him too %lorence was the 4reat stimulus to his maturation, His bio4rapher in enoa si/t! !ears later said he had worked in %lorence for the .uke ian Castone$ %erdinand<s !oun4er brother who inherited the title, ?ven if he has not confused him with the for4otten rand 0rince$ it establishes a contact, +r, Haskell does not mention +a4nasco at all$ perhaps because the startin4 point of his researches was not the artists but the bu!ers:his book is not called *0ainters and 0atrons,* Yet even if the addition should turn out to be 7ustified$ it would onl! be another consistent item added to the framework he has established,
This is a ver! British book, 6ts attractive t!po4raph! can be spotted at once$ now oddl! encased in the usual Hnopf bindin4$ a sort of heav! eneral rant9t!pe version of Baro5ue, 6t is written with urbane 4race$ thou4h to be sure the occasional error in 4rammar is disconcertin4 in a %ellow of Hin4<s Colle4e$ Cambrid4e, F*The 5ualit! of the drawin4sJ 7ustif! enthusiasm,*G But alto4ether its lack of either evan4elical pleadin4 or mudd! ploddin4 distin4uishes it refreshin4l! from most American books on similar topics, Be!ond that we should cite the ?n4lish publisher$ who was read! to brin4 out a book of such ori4inal investi4ations and not restrict himself to duplicatin4 the usual elementar! primers on reat Artists, He has provided a reall! full inde/$ which doubles the book<s usefulness, He even understood that$ for readers of a book like this$ the footnotes are pleasanter and smoother on the same pa4e than at the back$ not 7ust for pedants but for people, .o American publishers lack such initiative because the! still believe more books are sold per capita in ?n4land$ a belief now revealed in ?n4land as a m!thI 6t is true the British publishers have the special stimulus that >ondon is now filled with bri4ht !oun4 art historians, 6n fact it is the point of most intense focus for such work 7ust now an!where, This book is flanked b! ?llis -aterhouse<s histor! of 6talian paintin4 in the seventeenth centur!$ 7ust issued$ and +ichael
>eve!<s book on ei4hteenth9centur! "enice$ a deserved success about five !ears a4o, +r, Haskell$ who is thirt!9five and whose first book this is$ ma! be studied like the people in his book, He is involved in a competition of brilliance$ focused on Baro5ue 6tal!$ because it was urbanel! brilliant too$ because both cultures show us the phenomenon of art collectin4 as a profession$ and because of the hu4e stores of Baro5ue paintin4s in ?n4land, This conte/t continues to produce new 4enerations of talent, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo %rance NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number C @ctober #T$ #&'( Holmes<s Common >aw B! H,>,A, Hart The Common >aw b! @liver -endell Holmes$ edited b! +ark .e-olfe Howe Harvard$ ((N pp,$ 12,33 This famous book$ now admirabl! re9 introduced to the 4eneral reader b! 0rofessor +ark Howe$ resembles a necklace of splendid diamonds surprisin4l! held to4ether at certain points b! nothin4 better than strin4, The diamonds are the marvelous insi4hts into the 4enius of the Common >aw and the detailed e/plorations of the d!namic of its 4rowth8 the! still flash their illuminatin4 li4ht on the dark areas beneath the clear and apparentl! stable forms of le4al thou4ht, The strin4 is the sometimes obscure and hast! ar4ument$ the contemptuous dismissal of rival views$ and the e/a44erations with which Holmes sou4ht to build up the tendencies which he found actuall! at work in the histor! of the law into a tou4h$ collective philosoph! of societ!, Holmes<s 4enius as displa!ed here is that of a historian especiall! of earl! law$ and his historical work$ thou4h since corrected on man! details$ made$ as +aitland immediatel!
reco4ni;ed$ *an epoch,* B! comparison$ the philosoph! which Holmes drew from his histor! was shallow$ in spite of its interestin4 connections$ noted b! 0rofessor Howe$ with the .arwinism and empiricism of his da!, 6t now seems of value mainl! as a stimulant and to have little claim to finalit!$ even as a criti5ue of the Hantian metaph!sics to which it was opposed, The ran4e of the book is vast8 its topics include the basis of liabilit! for crime and for civil wron4s or torts in earl! and later law$ the nature of contract$ the law<s use of the elusive idea of possession$ and the slow emer4ence of modern ideas of the transferabilit! of le4al ri4hts, But the ran4e is matched b! the scholarship, 6n the first thirt! pa4es$ besides the te/ts of Roman >aw and ?n4lish statutes and cases from the earliest times onwards$ there are references to 0lato$ .emosthenes$ 0lutarch$ 0ausanias$ >iv!$ Cicero$ Aulus ellius$ 0lin!$ and man! others, This learnin4 is alwa!s 4racefull! deplo!ed and never de4enerates into pedantr!$ and it is ama;in4 that so much could have been amassed b! a man of thirt!, NYRB Holida! Sale 6n his 0reface of #NN3 Holmes told his readers that his ob7ect in writin4 the book Fwhich he had delivered as lectures to a partl! la! and surel! somewhat pu;;led audience at the >owell 6nstitute in BostonG was to construct a theor!, *Nous faisons une thQorie et non un
spicile4e,* The theor! was to hold to4ether and render intelli4ible the forests of detail$ some of it ver! ancient lumber$ of which the Common >aw appeared to consist, 0erhaps the boldness of this enterprise appears 4reater toda! than it did then, Sir Henr! +aine$ 4ifted with similar talents for pre4nant epi4ram and historical 4enerali;ation$ thou4h with perhaps less learnin4$ had successfull! attempted somethin4 similar for Roman >aw in his Ancient >aw, The da! had not !et then dawned when a *law book* would mean$ for Americans$ a vast tome constructed in$ and for$ law schools:mainl! with scissors and paste:or$ for ?n4lishmen$ a sli4htl! smaller te/tbook$ uneasil! desi4ned to serve the needs of both practitioners and students, The delineation of first principles was still a respectable speculative enterprise even for a law!er, -hen Holmes first be4an to write in the #NT3<s$ he found that academic law was dominated b! a theor! which had been be4otten b! erman philosoph! on the bod! of Roman >aw, The 4reat names were those of Hant$ He4el$ and Savi4n!$ and the theor!<s focal point was the respect$ indeed the reverence$ due the individual and the individual will, To this$ all that was problematic or in need of 7ustification was referred, 0unishment was to be 7ustified as a return for$ or even a cancellin4 out of$ the blameworth! e/ercise of the will8 contracts were to be enforced because the! were made b! the
meetin4 of human wills which the! e/pressed8 possession:even the possession b! a thief of stolen 4oods:was to be protected b! the law because it was *the ob7ective reali;ation of the will,* To Holmes$ this -illenstheorie seemed either unintelli4ible or a romantic fiction$ incapable of e/plainin4 even the institutions of Roman >aw on which it purported to be a 4loss, Apart from its detailed errors$ the whole metaph!sical approach appeared simpl! to i4nore the practical aims and e/i4encies which shape an! livin4 bod! of law, 6n this rulin4 theor! of his da!$ Holmes discerned two pathetic fallacies and devoted much of this book to their e/posure, The first fallac! was that a le4al s!stem had a simple lo4ical structure and that its comple/ities could all be e/plained as the deductive conse5uences of a few leadin4 principles, The second fallac! was that there was a close affinit!$ if not identit!$ between le4al and moral dut! and le4al and moral wron4, These were the ideas which$ as he wrote elsewhere$ were to be washed$ perhaps washed awa!$ in *c!nical acid$* and he turned to ?n4lish le4al histor! to find it, 6n so doin4 he professed himself convinced that in the Common >aw there was *a s!stem far more civili;ed than the Roman$ framed on a plan irreconcilable with the a priori doctrines of Hant and He4el,* 6n spite of the ori4inalit! and 4eneralit! of its main themes$ none of this book is eas! readin4, 6t is essentiall! the work of a
professional le4al historian in search of a 4eneral theor!$ not that of a social prophet, The most difficult passa4es are in the last chapters which describe the slow$ involved process b! which modern notions of contract$ and of le4al ri4hts as easil! transferable thin4s$ emer4ed from cruder primitive conceptions, Here Holmes probed deep into the technicalities of medieval Common >aw$ and the often rebarbative detail is difficult even for a law!er to follow, But it is precisel! here that Holmes<s 4reatest 4ifts were manifested, He opened up fresh 4round in this area of le4al science because he was so 4reatl! endowed with the abilit! to 5uestion what had lon4 seemed obvious, *The difficult! in dealin4 with a sub7ect$* he observes$ *is to convince the sceptic that there is an!thin4 to e/plain,* So he set about to understand and to e/pound how familiar modern le4al conceptions first became *thinkable in le4al terms,* +ore:more even of philosoph!:is to be learned from followin4 Holmes<s s!mpathetic reconstruction of the difficult birth of modern le4al ideas than from attendin4 to his overt philosophi;in4, To learn how men came$ with the aid of the stran4e fictions and analo4ies depicted here$ to acknowled4e that not onl! concrete thin4s but abstractions like le4al ri4hts mi4ht be transferred from person to person$ is to 4ain a new comprehension of the natural histor! of human thou4ht, 6ndeed Holmes<s touch was ver! much that of the naturalist and was
perhaps influenced b! the biolo4ical theories of his da!, Thou4h he never adulated the past$ he thou4ht recourse to it indispensable to e/plain its remnants still present in modern le4al rules, 6t is$ he said$ *7ust as the clavicle in the cat tells of the e/istence of some earlier creature to which a collar bone was useful,* %rom his historical studies Holmes distilled a number of ma/ims to be used as proph!lactics a4ainst the e/cessive rationali;ation and morali;ation of the law$ which were the occupational diseases of the le4al theorist, Amon4 these ma/ims is the famous warnin4 Ftoo fre5uentl! torn from its conte/t and misappliedG that *the life of the law has not been lo4ic8 it has been e/perience$* and his insistence on the importance to the understandin4 of law on *instinctive preferences and inarticulate convictions,* But his idQe ma\tresse$ which in the end became somethin4 of an obsession$ was the principle that$ thou4h the law often seems to make liabilit! to punishment or to pa! compensation for harm done dependent on the individual<s actual intention to do harm$ this is most often not to be taken at its face value, Here$ he thou4ht$ la! one of the cardinal differences between earl! and modern law, *Thou4h the law starts from the distinctions and uses the lan4ua4e of moralit!$ it necessaril! ends in e/ternal standards not dependent on the actual consciousness of the individual,* @r a4ainA *The law considers what would be
blameworth! in the avera4e man$ the man of ordinar! intelli4ence and prudence$ and determines liabilit! b! that,* These were indeed powerful heuristic ma/ims dissipatin4 much misunderstandin4 in the fields of contract and tort, But Holmes came to re4ard them as more than valuable pointers to ne4lected tendencies in the law, He sometimes treats them as statements of necessar! truths F*b! the ver! necessit! of its nature the law is continuall! transmutin4 moral standards into e/ternal or ob7ective ones*G$ and in the most celebrated chapter in this book he erects these principles into a form of social philosoph! 7ustif!in4 what he describes as *the sacrifice of the individual,* This is Holmes<s 4reatl! debated theor! of ob7ective liabilit!, 6ts central contention is that when the law speaks of an intention to do harm as a necessar! constituent of a crime$ all it does$ and can$ and should$ re5uire FHolmes never ade5uatel! discriminated amon4 these threeG is that the person accused of the crime should have done what an avera4e man would have foreseen would result in harm, 6n spite of its sub7ective and morali;in4 lan4ua4e$ the law does not re5uire proof of the accused<s actual wickedness or actual intention or actual foresi4ht that harm would result, @f course$ for common sense as for the law$ there are important connections between the proposition that a man b! actin4 in a certain wa! intended harm$ and the proposition that
an avera4e man who acted in that wa! would have foreseen it or intended it, %or the latter is 4ood$ thou4h not conclusive$ evidence of the former, Nonetheless the two propositions are distinct, Holmes$ however$ thou4h well aware of the distinction$ thou4ht that in 4eneral the law did not and should not attend to it, This was not because he was a philosophical behaviorist$ or because he thou4ht that sub7ective facts were too elusive for the courts to ascertain, There is no echo in Holmes of the medieval Chief )ustice Brian of the Common 0leas$ *The thou4ht of man is not triable8 the devil alone knoweth the thou4ht of man,* Thou4h man! of Holmes<s followers accepted his theor! of ob7ective liabilit! because of the difficulties of le4al proof of actual knowled4e or intention$ Holmes does not rest his doctrine on these merel! pra4matic 4rounds but on a social theor!, His view was that the function of the criminal law was to protect societ! from harm$ and in pursuit of this ob7ective it did and should set up standards of behavior which individuals must attain at their peril, The law ma! e/empt those who$ like the !oun4 child or lunatic$ are obviousl! 4rossl! incapable$ but apart from this$ if men are too weak in understandin4 or in will power$ the! must be sacrificed to the common 4ood, Certainl! the criminal law bears traces of such ob7ective standards8 indeed the elimination of them has been the aim of man! liberal9minded reformers of the law for man! !ears, But
thou4h Holmes at one point sa!s that he does not need to defend the law<s use of *ob7ective standards* but onl! to record it as a fact$ he devotes much of this chapter to showin4 that the law here is reasonable and even admirable, The ar4uments he uses are the poorest in the book, He considers the ob7ection that the use of e/ternal standards of criminal responsibilit!$ takin4 no account of the incapacities of individuals$ treats men as thin4s$ not as persons$ as means and not as ends, He admits the char4e but thinks it irrelevant, He asserts that societ! fre5uentl! treats men as meansA it does so when it sends conscripts *with ba!onets in their rear* to death, But this repl! is co4ent onl! a4ainst a stupidl! inaccurate version of the Hantian position on which the ob7ection rests, Hant never made the mistake of sa!in4 we must never treat men as means, He insisted that we should never treat them onl! as means *but in ever! case as ends also,* This meant that we are 7ustified in re5uirin4 sacrifices from some men for the 4ood of others onl! in a social s!stem which also reco4ni;es their ri4hts and their interests, 6n the case of punishment$ the ri4ht in 5uestion is the ri4ht of men to be left free and not to be punished for the 4ood of others$ unless the! have broken the law when the! had the capacit! and a fair opportunit! to conform to its re5uirements, Apart from this$ Holmes<s main ar4ument is a fallac! and unfortunatel! an infectious one, He
adopts the acceptable position that the 4eneral aim$ 7ustif!in4 a modern s!stem of criminal punishment$ is not to secure ven4eance or retribution in the sense of a return of pain for an evil done$ but to prevent harmful crime, @n this basis he seeks to prove that there can be no reason wh! the law should concern itself with the actual state of the offender<s mind or en5uire into his actual capacit! to do what the law re5uires, His proof is that since the law onl! re5uires outward conformit! to its prescriptions and does not care$ so lon4 as the law is obe!ed$ what were the intentions or motives of those who obe!ed or whether the! could have done otherwise$ so it should e5uall! disre4ard these sub7ective matters in dealin4 with the offender when the law has been broken, This is$ of course$ a non se5uitur, ?ven if the 4eneral 7ustification of punishment is the utilitarian aim of preventin4 harm$ and not ven4eance or retribution$ it is still perfectl! intelli4ible that we should defer to principles of 7ustice or fairness to individuals and not punish those who lack the capacit! or fair opportunit! to obe!, 6t is simpl! not true that such a concern with the individual onl! makes sense within a s!stem of retribution or ven4eance, 6ndeed$ Holmes himself in discussin4 liabilit! in tort stresses the importance of such principles of 7ustice to individuals$ but thinks their re5uirements are ade5uatel! satisfied if the individual is punished onl! for what would be blameworth! in the avera4e man, No doubt there are
practical difficulties in ascertainin4 the actual knowled4e or intention or capacit! of individuals in ever! case$ but there is no reason in principle wh! a ma/imum effort should not be made to do it, *The law will not en5uire whether he did actuall! foresee this conse5uence or not, The test of foresi4ht is not what this ver! criminal foresaw but what a man of reasonable prudence would have foreseen,* -hen he was a 7ud4e in +assachusetts$ Holmes applied this principle in murder cases at least twice and the influence of his doctrine has been 4reat$ both on the bod! and the theor! of the law, 6n #&'# the ?n4lish House of >ords endorsed it and 5uoted Holmes<s words, But little support for it is now to be found in American le4al opinion and it is firml! re7ected in the +odel 0enal Code of the American >aw 6nstitute, The decision of the House of >ords was 4reeted with a storm of criticism and it is clear that Holmes<s doctrine is unlikel! to be invoked in ?n4lish cases other than murder, But parado/icall! some of Holmes<s opponents even in America have darkened counsel as much as his followers, %or the! have accepted from Holmes the false su44estion implicit in his ar4ument that it is pointless to bother about the individual<s mind or capacit! to conform to law e/cept where the aim of punishment is retribution for moral wickedness, The! have asserted a4ainst Holmes that we should indeed be concerned
with these sub7ective facts about the individual$ but a4reed with him that this is so onl! because it is necessar! to establish the moral wickedness of those who are punished, This is a blindin4 over9simplification of the comple/ issues surroundin4 the institution of punishment$ and it i4nores the claims of those liberal forms of utilitarianism which hold that$ thou4h it is for the protection of societ! that law breakers are to be punished$ no individual is to be punished who lacks the capacit! to obe!, Thou4h there are these and other weaknesses to be found in this book$ almost ever!thin4 which Holmes said in it still reverberates, This is not onl! a tribute to the ma4ic and sonorit! of his st!le, 6t still pa!s handsome dividends in thinkin4 about an! sub7ect on which Holmes touched here$ to be4in with what he said$ even thou4h$ in some cases$ it seems no lon4er possible to sta! with it, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions Books V ifts Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts
reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number 2 @ctober (#$ #&'( The Harlot<s 0ro4ress B! ",S, 0ritchett %ann! Hill%ann! Hill b! .avid >evine +emoirs of a -oman of 0leasure b! )ohn Cleland 0utnam$ (#& pp,$ 1,&2 paperback FpaperG ?ver! a4e 4ets the porno4raph! it deserves, The people who are now makin4 a fuss about %ann! Hill$ )ohn Cleland<s +emoirs of a -oman of 0leasure$ do nothin4 about the real porno4raph! of toda!:the incitement to violence$ torture$ maimin4$ and killin4$ often topped up with se/ual perversit!$ which are presented with a sickenin4 kind of pleasurelessness$ on the screens of television and cinema and in pulp fiction, 6t can be su44ested Fas Havelock ?llis once didG that some kinds of porno4raph! are sociall! useful8 the! ma! alla! evil desires b! actin4 as a sort of ima4inative distraction, The! ma! lead us awa! from action into harmless fantas!, -hether this is so or not$ the real test is not what the avera4e man thinks8 it is the test of artistic merit$ and if he is called upon to 7ud4e$ it is the avera4e man<s dut! to find out what artistic merit is, He will find himself considerin4 man<s often brilliant e/ploration of
his own ima4ination, Nothin4 could be more horrif!in4 and incitin4 to sadistic action than those terrible pictures of o!a<s called The %antasies and The .isasters of -ar8 however$ one sees$ at once$ that o!a<s art transmutes them and places them in that area of our minds where the difficult but indispensable moral and civili;in4 process can operate, The same transmutin4 process can be seen in the treatment of the classical but surel! sordid encounter of >eda with the Swan8 in the brothel paintin4s of Toulouse9>autrec$ in the pathos and lau4hter of +aupassant<s +aison Tellier, 6 believe one can see it also in that minor amator! e/ercise$ +emoirs of a -oman of 0leasure, No one is asked to sa! how meritorious an artist is in these matters$ but it is essential for the transmutin4 element to be reco4ni;ed, NYR Holida! Subscription Special Since #TC& when it was first published in >ondon$ man! sensible people have thou4ht that +emoirs of a -oman of 0leasure$ usuall! known as %ann! Hill$ had this element, 6t has its place in the histor! of literature$ not in the histor! of smut, Smut never lasts, The stor! is obviousl! inflamin4$ but even lane ?!re or >orna .oone inflames, %ann!$ a countr! 4irl abandoned in >ondon$ describes how she enters a select brothel:note the word *select*:and 4oes into prolon4ed$ detailed descriptions of several kinds of se/ual adventure and intercourse, 6n doin4 so$
however$ she never utters an obscene word$ rarel! descends even to collo5uialism$ never to the clinical8 she indeed writes an elaborate literar! lan4ua4e that would do credit to an! master of baro5ue and poetic utterance:shall we sa! Henr! )amesI:spoken in a drawin4 room, And it is not shabb! baro5ue, The disconcertin4 thin4 about the book:as a piece of *porno4raph!*:is that it has charm, +an! have thou4ht the intercourse of the se/es brutal even when blessed b! the Church8 more refined and indeed naturall! sensitive or passionate people have found the ver! opposite, %ann! belon4s to the latter cate4or!, She is health!$ warm9blooded$ deli4hts in her senses$ is unashamed in curiosit!$ and is distinctl! self9aware, She is unrepentant in pleasure or lust8 but she truthfull! perceives: and this$ 6 believe$ without the sort of h!pocris! that 4reater writers like .efoe or Richardson insinuated:that she had ph!sical pleasure in lust but ph!sical and spiritual pleasure in love, Havin4 made a lot of mone! in her enforced profession about which$ in the true practical spirit of the ei4hteenth centur!$ she is complacent$ she marries her first loverA a success stor! that can be said to be a smack in the face for Clarissa or 0amela, No one pretends that )ohn Cleland approaches the ran4e or power of .efoe or Richardson as a novelist, His book is$ on the other hand$ the nearest thin4 we have to an ?n4lish +anon >escaut, But he must be seriousl! discussed
with these writers b! the literar! critic$ for he brin4s to life an important element in ei4hteenth9centur! moralit! and feelin4, Two influences clearl! bear on his mind, The first is accidental, Residence in Sm!rna as British Consul and later in Bomba! appears to have removed from Cleland the morall! ruthless$ brutal$ or comic9brutal attitude to se/ual life which is so stron4 in the a44ressive An4lo9 American traditions, FCharm$ tenderness$ a concern for manners in love are pronounced in @riental works like The Arabian Ni4hts and$ despite the clinical do49>atin of timid translators$ in The olden >otus,G But the stron4est influence on Cleland is that concern for the reform of manners which is the most powerful force in the ?n4lish novel durin4 the ei4hteenth centur!, 0art of this spirit of reform was the e/pression of 0uritan ambition or:more accuratel!:of the be4innin4s of middle9class respectabilit!8 it be4an under -illiam 666 who$ like most .utchmen of that time$ was appalled b! the barbarit! of ?n4lish social life, The other part was directed to polish$ ele4ance$ the refinement of sensibilit!$ and makin4 men and women ph!sicall! clean and conversible, 6n the end$ the former hardened into h!pocris! and the latter into arid artifice and eventuall! false sentiment, ?speciall! does the spirit of reform$ and the social revolution accompan!in4 it$ affect the status of women who be4in to emer4e as the custodians of societ! and$ at
last$ of their own persons, .efoe<s Ro/ana becomes a 4reed! kept mistress$ because she is determined to be as free as an! merchant and to be as much master of her person and propert! as an! man, .efoe<s +oll %landers$ thief and do/! and calculatin4 fornicator$ sins for one motive onl!A to attain respectabilit!, She ends as the first +rs, rund! of "ir4inia, Her moralit! and remorse:like +rs, rund!<s: are amiable but suspect, Thou4h frank about their se/ual e/periences$ these ladies take it as it comes and are incapable of describin4 their inner life, 6t was more profitable$ as +r, 0eter Kuennell sa!s in his e/cellent introduction$ to compare %ann! Hill with Richardson<s heroines 0amela or Clarissa8 and also to compare Cleland<s moral attitude with the Ho4arth of The Harlot<s 0ro4ress, The moral of 0amela is that lovel! woman must not stoop to foll!8 if she does$ she will miss both respectabilit! and propert!, The moral of Clarissa is *Better death*8 and of Ho4arth<s pictorial chronicle$ that a life of libertina4e leads to self9destruction, To these violent and 4eneral views$ %ieldin4 was the aristocratic ob7ector, 6t was notorious Fa lar4e bod! of non90uritan opinion a4reedG that a life of pleasure did not automaticall! lead to disaster8 that the virtuous 0amela was a sham8 and even that Clarissa was one of those peculiar ps!cholo4ical aberrants who are contented with nothin4 short of rape, >ike %ieldin4 Fin this wa! at leastG$ )ohn Cleland
holds to the view that manners can be reformed onl! if one is truthful about private e/perience and cultivates one<s perceptions and 4ood sense, His stor! ma! be shallow$ but its content$ within its limits$ is not, To this attitude Cleland adds his own eccentricit! as a writer, He was a bookish Scot with a Celtic bee in his bonnet, He is eccentric to the point of ridicule, 6t is true he was a down9at9heel Bohemian who wrote his sensational and darin4 %ann! Hill to make a 5uick twent! 4uineas$ when he was bankrupt8 !et his real interests were esoteric and solemn, His hobb!9horse was not se/ but philolo4!, He sou4ht to found a universal lan4ua4e and wrote a Specimen of an ?t!molo4ical "ocabular! or ?ssa! b! means of the Anal!tic +ethod$ to retrieve the Ancient Celtic, +r, Kuennell 5uotes a lon4 passa4e from this obscure essa!$ which is dott! but reveals an obsession with the metaph!sics of the art of description, Here is a sample of Cleland<s 4ropin4 mindA 6f then$ 6 repeat it$ if 6 am not mistaken in this method of anal!sin4 words b! an individuation of ideas$ s!llable b! s!llable$ and throu4h ever! particle that constitutes those ideasJb! means of which the e/istence of thin4s ma! be found in their natural records and repositories$ words satisfactoril!
e/plained so as to conve! undeniable truths b! implicationJ 6f that particular passa4e su44ests an!thin4 it is a fervid preoccupation with metaphor and the associations of words poetic or otherwise: which is not$ when one comes to think of it$ e/traordinar! in an elo5uent Celt:that inspired the florid and indeed the best passa4es of se/ual description in the book, The evocation of what se/ual pleasure is in its particularit! and in the ima4ination$ was his stron4 point, There he succeeded where better and hi4her9minded writers:., H, >awrence amon4 them:have 4rotes5uel! failed, Cleland is 4ood about se/ because he is 4ood about words, ?le4ance$ ener4! and kindness$ he conve!ed, The absurdit! of %ann! Hill lies here also8 where *porno4raph!* does not brutali;e$ it ideali;es, The book is$ in this sense$ an erotic fantas!:and a male fantas!$ at that$ put into the mind of a woman, The male or4an is phenomenal to the point of absurdit!, Cleland is carried awa! b! his se/ual da!dream, So was Casanova$ most of the time$ for eroticism is a kind of into/ication, But we must remember that %ann! Hill was a sensational book$ written as a sensational counterblast from the point of view of privac! to those who were formulatin4 the new public bour4eois attitude to se/, 6n one sense Cleland is en4a4in4l! feminineA the continual reference
to clothes$ to furniture$ to manners is that, But Cleland has the naive male double view that old whores are hardened and corrupt but that !oun4 ones$ thou4h on the make$ are also rescuable:not b! pious interference$ but throu4h the e/perience of love, @n the whole$ one would 4uess that Ho4arth<s view of the ba4nio was the correct one8 for we notice Cleland is a snobA his brothel is that fantas!$ the select brothel with no risk of the ei4hteenth9centur! ni4htmare$ the po/8 but it is odd that Cleland$ who was either wron4$ e/alted$ or c!nical$ should have had a finer and far less 4ross se/ual sensibilit! than Ho4arth: e/cept possibl! in one or two 4or! sadistic metaphors and in the disa4reeable fla4ellation scene, 6f that dis4usts$ it at an! rate shrewdl! e/poses the ps!cholo4ical distress of the neurotic, %ann! Hill ma! bore one:she admirs that an ecstatic stor! like hers ma! become tedious because there is nothin4 so tirin4 as repeated ecstas!:but she leaves no bad taste, 6f we don<t believe her fair! tale$ we believe her feelin4s, 6ndeed she conve!s the sense of pleasure without 4uilt, FThere$ alas$ she is no realist,G After the ei4hteenth centur!$ a book like this could not be written in ?n4land, Romantic moralit! reasserted itself and se/ual happiness retired from print into privac! and$ indeed$ one does not want this private m!ster! to be e/ploited or described too often$ even b! the 4ifted,
After publication$ the real porno4raphers 4ot to work on %ann! Hill, The book was pirated, The pirates supplied obscene illustrations, F@ne set of these b! Cruikshank must have been 4ood$ but it has been lost,G The! dirtied the te/t$ added episodes, The illustrations led to prosecutions, But as a minor fantas!$ deludin4 as a 4uide to conduct$ but respectful of our deli4ht in the bod!$ this halfsl!$ halfin4enuous manual is an interestin4 footnote in the histor! of the ?n4lish novel, 6t reminds one of those improper carvin4s one sometimes finds under the arms of medieval choir stalls, 6mmodestl! the flesh happil! persists, email icon ?mail to a friend >etters .ecember #D$ #&'(A Hans Honin4sber4er$ %ann! Search the Review Advanced search HarperAcademic B @live ?ditions NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number 2 @ctober (#$ #&'( Heats B! Al Alvare; )ohn Heats)ohn Heats b! .avid >evine )ohn Heats b! -alter )ackson Bate Harvard$ T(D pp,$ 1#3,33 )ohn HeatsA The +akin4 of a 0oet b! Aileen -ard "ikin4$ C23 pp,$ 1T,23 A +an<s life of an! worth is a continual alle4or!:and ver! few e!es can see the +!ster! of his life:a life like the scriptures$ fi4urative:>ord B!ron cuts a fi4ure:but he is not fi4urative:Shakespeare led a life of Alle4or!8 his works are the comments on it, Compared with Heats himself$ Shakespeare was luck!, Since we know so little of his life$ we are forced to stick to his work, And that$ mercifull!$ is enou4h to make all the diaries and laundr! bills in the world irrelevant, Not so with HeatsA his bio4raph! is insistent$ inescapable, After all$ he himself contributed so much towards it in his voluminous letters, And what he left out was filled in b! the memoirs of his friends$ their bickerin4 and
4ossip$ which raise a dust that almost chokes the poems, %or his life was$ in pure form$ an alle4or! of the Romantic poet, Cover his faceA mine e!es da;;leA he died !oun4, Had consumption not 4ot him$ the reviewers been kinder$ and he and %ann! settled improbabl! into domesticit!$ the lure of his work would$ 6 think$ be much less:even if he had fulfilled his own most strin4ent ambitions, As it is$ his life$ or rather his death$ somehow completes his poetr!, %or in terms of mere bulk$ there is not all that much there, His ?nd!mion$ as he himself well saw$ is a failure$ and his H!perion$ fine thin4s as it contains$ is not a success, But in shorter thin4s$ where the matured power of moral interpretation$ and the hi4h architectonics which 4o with complete poetic development$ are not re5uired$ he is perfect, However much we would 5ualif! +atthew Arnold<s 7ud4ment$ it remains more or less true, Yet that in itself makes Heats ver! much to the modern taste, Nobod! writes lon4 poems an! more$ and scarcel! an!one reads them$ unless forced, 6ndeed$ in nearl! ever! wa! Heats is the most modern of the RomanticsA as ?liot once ur4ed$ he assimilated the lesson of Shakespeare<s use of lan4ua4e in a wholl! ori4inal wa!8 he commands a thickness of metaphor and even occasional
tricks of s!naesthesia which predate the S!mbolists8 he has a stead! ambivalence to death and the senses which 4oes well be!ond the pleasure principle, Above all$ he is one of us sociall!A not 5uite a 4entleman$ not 5uite properl! educated$ and continuall! willin4 to risk his social poise for his convictions8 *6 alwa!s$* he wrote$ *made an awkward bow,* Add to all that his sharp critical insi4hts into his fellow Romantics$ his belief in the impersonalit! of 4reat art$ his unRomantic vi4or and tou4hness with himself$ and he seems a lon4 wa! from the oversensitive darlin4 of the senses$ *snuffed out b! an article* and then immortali;ed in "ictorian m!th and Severn<s posthumous sketches, *There is$* said his friend -oodhouse$ *a 4reat deal of realit! about all that Heats writes,* NYRB B Chr!salids Holida! The factual realit! and the m!th of Heats<s life are investi4ated a4ain b! his two new bio4raphers$ -alter )ackson Bate and Aileen -ard, 0rofessor Bates massive record will$ 6 ima4ine$ be final until the scholars di4 up substantiall! new material:if an! remains to be du4, He meticulousl! 4oes throu4h ever! provable detail of Heats<s lifeA his da!9to9da! activities$ 7ourne!s$ meetin4s$ dinner parties8 the people he knew$ the books he read8 his dealin4s with his publishers and with the literar! tradition8 the development of his meters$ his ideas and his finances FAbbe!$ his 4uardian$ turns out to be the villain of the
book$ embe;;lin4 the le4acies of the Heats childrenG, ?ver! source is 7ud4ed for its reliabilit!$ ever! rumor wei4hed$ and few not found wantin4, The result is not onl! a monumental scrupulousness$ at times more monumental than readable$ but also a fine scholarl! detachment, %or all the amassed detail$ 0rofessor Bate never priesA he has no theor! to pin on his sub7ect8 as best he can$ he lets the man speak for himself, 0rofessor -ard is not 5uite like that, >ike Bate$ she 4ives a fairl! detailed chronolo4!$ but she is far less insistent on facts, She uses even the chancier rumors$ such as -, +, Rossetti<s theor! of Heats<s s!philis$ and weaves from hints elaborate and sometimes novelettish arabes5uesA As for %ann!$ the ni4htmare of the summer was over, She was now simpl! and trul! herself to him a4ain$ his !oun4 love$ his beaut!$ his own$ no lon4er a fi4ure of bale, The 4ush sorts oddl! with the careful research which 0rofessor -ard has obviousl! put into the book, Still$ e/actitude is not primaril! her business, Her real interest is in the ps!cholo4! of 4enius, -ith Heats$ this means his relationship to his livel!$ seductive mother who$ like Hamlet<s$ remarried too soon after his father<s death$ abandoned her children$ and returned onl! to die8 the 5uestion then is how this conflict worked itself out in the
ps!cho9s!mbolic patterns of his verse and in his behavior, 0rofessor -ard follows this line more or less convincin4l!$ thou4h without 4oin4 ver! deep, @ddl! enou4h$ she is more incisive about Heats<s first poem$ the vapid *6mitation of Spenser$* than about those later 4ifts to the amateur ps!choanal!st$ like *>a Belle .ame Sans +erci* and the *@de to +elanchol!,* Yet despite their differences$ both bio4raphers are concerned with what is$ fundamentall!$ the sheer improbabilit! of Heats<s poetic career, He was not$ like Rimbaud$ a prodi4! from the start, He was almost nineteen before he wrote his first poem$ and for some time after that his development was slow$ his talent uncertain, He was$ as 0rofessor Bate insists$ *surprisin4l!$ refreshin4l! remote from precocit!,* Yet the whole pro4ress$ from the stiff be4innin4$ throu4h the literar! into/ication and >ei4h Hunt9inspired affectations of the first volume$ the strain of ?nd!mion Fin which he was$ said B!ron$ *viciousl! solicitin4 his own ima4ination*G$ to the more assured romances$ and then to the final burst of 4reat poetr!$ all this occupies a span of onl! three !ears, Heats is the supreme e/ample of creative vitalit! and concentration, *The Creature has a purpose and his e!es are bri4ht with it,* Yet this ener4! is onl! a necessar! preliminar! to the 4reat work, His mature verse ma! depend upon this fullness of life$ but it doesn<t
reall! start until the vitalit! was brou4ht up short b! the fact of death, The c!cle of his poetic apprenticeship be4ins and ends with a deathA that of his mother turned him to literature:his almost obsessional readin4 at school dates from then8 that of his brother made him a ma7or poet:he be4an H!perion while Tom was d!in4$ and in the twelve months which followed produced all his most important poems, -h! Tom<s death should have tri44ered such an incredible burst of creativit! is$ of course$ impossible to sa!, No doubt the shock$ the sense of loss$ and the memories which were stirred up of his mother<s and father<s deaths are all part of the process, But what seems to have mattered most was the contrast to his own vital ener4!8 that is$ the impersonalit! of death$ the need to acknowled4e that this thin4 happens despite all the care and love and passionate denial in the world, Criticall!$ Heats had come to understand this when he first outlined his theor! of ne4ative capabilit!, %or that involves somethin4 more than a literar! insi4ht into the impersonalit! of 4reat art, 6t also implies an essential step in ps!cholo4ical maturit!A the acknowled4ement of the independence of life outside oneself$ of the fact that 6a4o and Cordelia e/ist in their own ri4ht$ despite oneself, The sta4e be!ond that is the more difficult acknowled4ement of the fact that the! can e5uall! cease to e/ist$ despite oneself, -illiam ?mpson once remarked that the line
No$ no8 4o not to >ethe$ neither twist *tells !ou that somebod!$ or some force in the poet<s mind$ must have wanted to 4o to >ethe ver! much$ if it took four ne4atives in the first line to stop them,* Yet that passive$ feminine swoon into *easeful death* is onl! one element in Heats<s more comple/ effort to assimilate death into creative power$ to make it$ that is$ part of his most intensel! felt life, But that is precisel! what he seems to have been doin4 when he rewrote H!perion, The epic proper can onl! be4in after the poet has under4one a kind of deathA Slow$ heav!$ deadl! was m! paceA the cold rew stiflin4$ suffocatin4 at the heart8 And when 6 clasp<d m! hands 6 felt them not, @ne minute before death m! ic<d foot touch<d The lowest stair8 and$ as it touch<d$ life seem<d To pour in at the toesJ, *Hol! 0ower$* Cried 6$ approachin4 near the horn9 ed shrine$ *-hat am 6 that should so be saved from deathI* J Then said the veiled shadowA *Thou last felt -hat <tis to die and live a4ain before Th! fated hour, That thou hast power to do so 6s th! own safet!8 thou hast doted on Th! doom,* *Hi4h 0rophetess$* said 6$ *pur4e off$ Beni4n$ if so it please thee$ m! mind<s film,*
*None can usurp this hei4ht$* re9 turned that shade, *But those to whom the miseries of the world Are miser!$ and will not let them rest, All else who find a haven in the world -here the! ma! thou4htless sleep awa! their da!s$ 6f b! a chance into this fane the! come$ Rot on the pavement where thou rot9 ted<st half,* -hat is in 5uestion here is neither sufferin4 nor miser!8 it is$ rather$ the abilit! to understand what death means$ to die$ as it were$ creativel!$ to transform the ne4ative into a capacit!, @ne of the nastier parado/es of art is that$ despite all the effort involved$ it is not essentiall! therapeutic, 6nstead of summin4 up and so disposin4 of past e/perience$ it more often seems to provide a rou4h sketch for what is to come, The poet in writin4 brin4s to the surface the conflicts which are na44in4 him and then finds himself actin4 them out, So thou4h Heats<s letters ma! have foreshadowed his poetr!$ his poetr!$ in turn$ foreshadowed his life, Havin4 4ot to the rare sta4e of bein4 able to use his understandin4 of death for creative ends$ he then found himself d!in4, Revisitin4 the house in -ell -alk$ where he had lived with his brothers$ Heats told Hunt that he was *d!in4 from a broken heart,* 6
think he was lamentin4 more than the deprivation and ruin of his own life:his whole famil! either dead or inaccessible$ and marria4e with %ann! Brawne no lon4er possible:he was also lamentin4 his own death as a poet, %or he wrote nothin4 more, There followed onl! what he called his *posthumous life* in Rome$ and his own horrified attendance at his second death, Yet *That which is creative must create itself,* Heats understood his death all too clearl!$ and he understood the terrible wasta4e it involved, -hat he could not have foreseen is that from these last pointless months the whole le4end of Romantic 4enius should have been born:cold comfort$ perhaps$ but in the end sustainin4, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ' November #C$ #&'( The +e4adeath 6ntellectuals B! +arcus , Raskin The Arms .ebate b! Robert A, >evine Harvard$ (2D pp,$ 1',23 FThe author of this review was formerl! a member of the -hite House National Securit! Council Staff,G The universities have become more and more involved with defense polic! since the be4innin4 of the cold war, Harvard$ 0rinceton$ and Columbia now have si;eable institutes stud!in4 5uestions of defense and so do other universities, The mone! to finance these studies 4enerall! comes from one of the a4encies that make up the National Securit! ?stablishment:the C,6,A,$ the .efense .epartment$ the Atomic ?ner4! Commission$ or the @ffice of ?mer4enc! 0lannin4, @r it ma! come from one of the foundations, +ost of the professors who work at these institutes are also paid as *consultants* b! the .efense .epartment and similar a4encies at the rate of 1 23 to 1 #33 a da!, -hen the! work for corporations which are wholl!
subsidi;ed b! the 4overnment:the missile industr!$ for e/ample:the! ma! receive as much as 1 (33 a da!, A 4ood man! are also awarded handsome contracts to write papers for one 4overnment a4enc! or another, Be!ond this$ there is a stead! e/chan4e of e/perts between the universities and those special or4ani;ations$ like the RAN. Corporation$ the 6nstitute for .efense Anal!sis$ and the @ffice of Naval Research$ which have been set up b! the .efense .epartment or one of its branches, -hat are we to make of these institutes and or4ani;ationsI After e/aminin4 a 4ood deal of their work$ while 6 was in the overnment and now that 6 am out of it, 6 have come to the conclusion that their most important function is to 7ustif! and e/tend the e/istence of their emplo!ers, This is not to sa! that some of the papers the! produce are not valuable contributions to defense polic!, But the fact is that most are not$ and in the last anal!sis it must be doubted that the! are intended to be, NYR Holida! Subscription Special +r, Robert A, >evine$ the author of The Arms .ebate$ is ver! much a part of the world 6 have been describin4, Trained as a professional economist$ he wrote this book while a Research Associate at the Harvard Center for 6nternational Affairs$ and he now works for the RAN. Corporation, His purpose is to compare dispassionatel! the principal public positions
that have been taken on the 5uestion of a desirable armaments polic!:not onl! b! people within the area of officiall! sponsored thinkin4$ but b! those on the ed4e of it$ or outside it alto4ether, He does not accomplish this$ but his wa! of 4oin4 about it is worth e/aminin4, He proceeds b! cate4ori;in4 the *debaters* into Schools of Thou4htA %irst$ we have the s!stematic Anti9-ar School consistin4 of such people as Bertrand Russell$ ?rich %romm$ and 0aul oodman, The! want to disarm unilaterall!:and immediatel!:either because the! don<t view the Soviet threat as real$ or because the! consider that nuclear arms cannot be an answer to a political threat, The! insist that preparation for war results onl! in forms of totalitarianism, Second$ the +ar4inal Anti9-ar School FArnold -askow$ Charles @s4ood$ Amatai ?t;ioniG$ which proposes that the =,S, maintain some nuclear arms for the present but that it take unilateral initiatives leadin4 to ne4otiated 4eneral and complete disarmament, Althou4h >evine does not characteri;e them as such$ the! believe that disarmament$ freedom$ and national securit! are not incompatible, Third$ the +iddle +ar4inal School$ which >evine finds hard to cate4ori;e but in which he includes such people as Herman Hahn$ Sidne!
Hook$ Thomas Schellin4$ +orton Halperin$ ?dward Teller$ and himself, Accordin4 to >evine$ this 4roup wants FaG to prevent nuclear war b! havin4 a so9called *second strike* capabilit! so that an attack on our nuclear forces could be answered b! an attack on the enem!<s nuclear forces8 FbG to ameliorate the effects of war if it occurs b! controllin4 the kinds of thermonuclear weapons used8 and FcG to use the threat of thermonuclear war to accomplish political ob7ectives in the classic manner of Clausewit;, This 4roup is closest to the polic!9makers of the current Administration, %ourth$ Anti9Communist +ar4inalists$ who think that defense a4ainst Communism is more important than the dan4er which mi4ht follow from thermonuclear war, 6n their view all kinds of wars are appropriate to defend ourselves a4ainst Communism$ althou4h the! would like to keep violence down to *low levels,* +embers of this school include Robert Strauss$ -illiam Hinter$ and Stephen 0osson!, And finall!$ the Anti9Communist S!stemists who would use all methods to defeat Communists up to and includin4 thermonuclear war, Here we find For once foundG Barr! oldwater$ +a7or de Seversk!$ and %red Schwart;, >evine tells us that he constructed this spectrum b! 7ud4in4 whether the various
strate4ists consider thermonuclear war or Communism the 4reater threat to the =nited States and the world, -hat he has done$ in fact$ is to manufacture a formula which enables him to classif! the differin4 viewpoints convenientl!, Althou4h much of what he sa!s about the *debaters* is accurate$ his constrictin4 formula leads him into serious distortions, To take onl! one e/ample$ he misstates the position of -askow$ @s4ood$ and ?t;ioni b! su44estin4 that the! value disarmament more than political freedom: somethin4 the! would certainl! den!, Since >evine puts these two values at opposite ends of his spectrum$ it is inevitable that he will have difficult! in dealin4 with a theorist like -askow who believes that the! are inte4rall! related, Be!ond this$ >evine has made a disturbin4 omission, He fails to link the actual weapons of the arms race:bombs$ missiles$ chemical and biolo4ical weapons$ research and development$ etc,:to each polic! position he describes, -e are never told$ for e/ample$ how man! weapons$ of what kind$ are needed to hold the +iddle +ar4inal position$ and what sort of dama4e the! would do, Because such 5uestions are not answered$ the reader is left with the impression that the arms discussion is essentiall! metaph!sical$ with no reference at all to numbers of weapons$ the si;e of the bud4et$ or the power of the militar! establishment itself,
But that is not what reall! offends me about this book, 6 am more concerned with the fact that >evine has created a debate which is more sham than real:and that should not$ in an! le4itimate intellectual or moral sense$ e/ist at all, 6t is as if one were to describe a debate between the proponents of cancer and those who want to cure it, 6ndeed$ until fairl! recentl!$ discussions of nuclear war were 5uite rarified and were not taken ver! seriousl!, +ost of the people who actuall! made hi4h polic! thou4ht that plannin4 for nuclear war was merel! an e/ercise in the theor! of annihilation$ that it could have no practical conse5uences, As late as #&2&$ 0resident ?isenhower said that thermonuclear war was unthinkableA -hat he meant was that in view of Soviet nuclear power it could not be used to accomplish an! political ob7ective of the =nited States, And !et durin4 the ?isenhower administration man! atomic bombs e/isted$ thermonuclear weapons were in production$ and intercontinental missiles were bein4 developed, The various militar! a4encies and their supporters were followin4 their natural inclinations to obtain faster$ stron4er$ and more numerous weapons, At the same time$ however$ it was reasonabl! clear to an!one who knew the facts that the Soviet =nion could be deterred from attackin4 us$ b! a relativel! small number of nuclear weapons and missiles,
6n order to 7ustif! the continued lar4e scale production of these bombs and missiles$ militar! and industrial leaders needed some kind of theor! to rationali;e their useA the! had to prove$ in short$ that nuclear war was a practical enterprise which could serve the political ends of the state, This became particularl! ur4ent durin4 the late #&23<s when econom!9minded members of the ?isenhower administration be4an to wonder wh! so much mone!$ thou4ht$ and resources were bein4 spent on weapons if their use could not be 7ustified, And so be4an a series of rationali;ations b! the *defense intellectuals* in and out of the universities, 6n #&2T and #&2N Henr! Hissin4er of Harvard attempted bravel! but vainl! to rationali;e *tactical* nuclear warfare, Then Herman Hahn of RAN.$ alon4 with Haplan$ Schellin4$ -illiam Haufman of +,6,T,$ amon4 others$ ar4ued that thermonuclear war was indeed practical, The! developed theories of so9called *controlled counterforce war*:that is$ thermonuclear wars which the =,S, would win b! attackin4 specific militar! tar4etsA or b! partiall! disarmin4 the enem!8 or b! *counterforce attacks*A the destruction of all the retaliator! or first9strike forces of the opponent$ but not his cities Feven thou4h the cities and nuclear forces are 4eo4raphicall! ad7oinin4G, The! talked of brandishin4 nuclear weapons in con7unction with an elaborate civil defense pro4ram:a national will9stiffener which the polic!9makers
could use to threaten an opponent at the bar4ainin4 table, B! now all these proposals have been e/posed for one reason or another as useless for the conduct of our defense or our international relations8 this has been 4enerall! reco4ni;ed b! people who are familiar with both the technolo4! of the weapons and the polic! processes of 4overnment, %or e/ample$ eor4e Hisiakowsk!$ 0resident ?isenhower<s science advisor said to the Senate %orei4n Relations CommitteeA 6 do not believe that we or an! other nation can find an! real securit! in a continuin4 arms race, 6t is now evident that the =nited States and the Soviet =nion each have the capabilit! to deliver an utterl! devastatin4 attack on each other, To talk of winnin4 such a conflict is to misuse the lan4ua4e8 onl! a 0!rrhic victor! could be achieved in a nuclear war, =nder the present conditions of unrestrained arms race$ it is certain that the numbers of warheads each side mi4ht deliver will increase$ as will their !ields, 0erhaps even more threatenin4 is the prospect of an increasin4l! lar4e number of countries havin4 nuclear weapons$ with the concomitant increase in the probabilit! that some will be used and that uncontrolled escalation will follow, The same thou4ht was e/pressed b! .r, Herbert York$ former .irector of -eapons
.evelopment for the .epartment of .efenseA 6t is m! view that the problem posed to both sides b! this dilemma of steadil! increasin4 militar! power and steadil! decreasin4 national securit! has no technical solution, 6f we continue to look for solutions in the area of science and technolo4! onl!$ the result will be a stead! and ine/orable worsenin4 of this situation, 6 am optimistic that there is a solution to this dilemmaA 6 am pessimistic onl! insofar as 6 believe that there is absolutel! no solution to be found within the areas of science and technolo4!, But because statements of this kind have been made we should not e/pect that the theorists of the defense establishment will become less active or numerous, +ilitar! procurement will continue to flourish$ and the! will continue to demonstrate wh! it must, 6n this respect the! are no different from the 4reat ma7orit! of modern specialists who accept the assumptions of the or4ani;ations which emplo! them because of the rewards in mone! and power and presti4e, -ashin4ton itself ma! be seen as a cit! of apparentl! cautious and responsible men who have mastered sophisticated techni5ues but rarel! concern themselves with basic principles or ob7ectives, The! know enou4h not to 5uestion their emplo!ers< ri4ht to e/ist, And so it is with most :not all:of the defense specialists who are paid to 7ustif! violence, Because the! have
accepted the premises of their emplo!ers so readil!$ and applied themselves so ener4eticall! to rationali;ation$ the! have done much to insure that the present militar! s!stem will not be challen4ed$ or partiall! dismantled$ b! those outside it, 0romotion of this kind should not surprise us, )ustif!in4$ sellin4$ and rationali;in4 are an important part of American commercial civili;ation$ and we are all involved in it, A comparison can be made between the specialists in violence and the +adison Avenue hucksters about whom we have heard so much, -e are told that advertisin4 people are often bri4ht and decent men8 but the! are wholl! committed to sellin4$ 7ustif!in4$ and repacka4in4 their clients< products$ whatever the! ma! be, 6f we wanted to find out about the products$ we would learn little b! readin4 the contents of their ads, @n the other hand$ a student of social ps!cholo4! mi4ht profitabl! read the ads to understand the audience to which the! are directed$ and he mi4ht well ask to what e/tent certain prevalent American concerns are reflected$ or e/ploited$ in one advertisement or another, Now after readin4 most of the officiall! sponsored literature on arms strate4! 6 have come to the conclusion that$ like most advertisin4$ it cannot be read for its content because ver! little of it has an!, 6t must be read for what it tells us about this societ!$ in much the same wa! that a social scientist mi4ht read a Cadillac ad in the New
Yorker, 6n other words$ most of this literature can be understood onl! b! e/aminin4 the motives of the men who wrote it and the basic political and economic situation which has led to the over9production of armaments, >evine would ob7ect to this, Since he believes that serious debate is 4oin4 on$ he insists that all ad hominem ar4ument is unfair$ if not pernicious, 6 think he shows here a common American reluctance to discuss publicl! that stick! 5uestionA who paid whom to sa! what$ and wh!I FNote the historic importance and current disarra! of our conflict9of9interest laws,G But more than that$ there seems to be a positive an/iet! on >evine<s part to portra! the arms strate4ists:and particularl! those of the +iddle mar4inalist position who are ri4htl! described as bein4 closest to polic! makin4: as people who have important substantive ideas which must be taken seriousl!, There are interestin4 reasons for this, A ma7orit! of those who have drifted into the field of defense strate4! were trained in more traditional disciplines:economics$ applied ph!sics$ mathematics$ en4ineerin4$ and$ to a lesser e/tent$ the behavioral sciences, 6t is understandable that the specialists in violence should want to be taken seriousl! b! their old collea4ues and to prove that there is some intellectual and moral basis for the wa! the! spend their lives, 6f this could be proved$ the defense specialist could become more than a
huckster sellin4 *counterforce* or *minimum deterrence$* and rationali;in4 the weapons his emplo!er has decided to develop, He would be eli4ible to share once a4ain in the ima4e which man! academic men have of themselves as balanced$ independent$ disinterested$ and 4ood, But this can be accomplished in onl! one wa!, The specialist in violence must find an authentic opponent to en4a4e in debate:not a customer to sell$ or a client to please, And for !ears this was difficult since most of the critical opposition came from small 4roups who were not to be taken seriousl! themselves, After all$ it was e/pected that the Kuakers and pacifists would disa4ree, A few !ears a4o$ however$ somethin4 new be4an to happen, A 5uite separate 4roup of theorists includin4 -askow$ @s4ood$ and others:the 4roup >evine calls the +ar4inal Anti9-ar School:emer4ed, None of its members was tied to the branches of the .epartment of .efense or to an! of the officiall! sponsored *think factories,* Seekin4 wa!s to reduce substantiall! the level of armaments$ while increasin4 securit!$ the! were soon able to pick apart man! of the ar4uments of the defense specialists and to e/pose their spurious sense of statecraft, Somethin4 that must have seemed like a debate started to take placeA the abstruse rationali;ations were bein4 challen4ed, The
iron!$ however$ is that$ b! simpl! findin4 people to debate$ the specialists in violence have di4nified their intellectual e/istence, B! assumin4 that there is a real debate$ and b! takin4 seriousl! books like >evine<s$ the academic communit! and the informed public are led to think of the main anta4onists as e5uall! rational and independent in their thinkin4, This is not the case, The debate as >evine has cast it is neither the ri4ht debate nor the interestin4 one, A useful arms debate can take place onl! when we are willin4 to reco4ni;e who is capable of thinkin4 independentl! and who is not$ and wh!8 it will re5uire an almost completel! different cast of characters if it is to produce hopeful solutions, A useful arms debate$ in short$ has not be4un, 6t can onl! be4in when we accept certain stubborn factsA that our defense establishment has swollen to 4rotes5ue proportions and is a menace to the national securit! of a free societ!, email icon ?mail to a friend >etters .ecember D'$ #&'(A Robert A, >evine$ Arms .ebate .ecember D'$ #&'(A Albert -ohlstetter$ Arms .ebate Search the Review
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number ' November #C$ #&'( Aime;9"ous ApollinaireI B! Neal @/enhandler ApollinaireA 0oet Amon4 the 0ainters b! %rancis Stee4muller %arrar$ Straus$ ('2 pp,$ 1',23 There is a certain kind of cultism that is encoura4ed b! the wa! in which +r, Stee4muller has chosen to write this first ?n4lish bio4raph! of uillaume Apollinaire, He be4ins b! discussin4 at considerable len4th the 5uestion of Apollinaire<s paternit!, No doubt this is a le4itimate sub7ect for a bio4rapher$ !et there has alwa!s been an unfortunate tendenc!$ reminiscent of palm9 readin4 and astrolo4!$ to derive Apollinaire<s entire character from his ille4itimac! and his mi/ed Slavic and 6talian temperament, This be4innin4 is$ to m! mind$ unfortunate$ because it leads us at once to the Apollinaire of the cult :the m!sterious Rabelaisian 4iant$ the mal9 aimQ smilin4 throu4h his tears$ the hero and lover and practical 7oker$ etc, This is the Apollinaire perpetuated b! the countless books of memoirs and reminiscences that have emer4ed from the pre9world -ar 6 period$ but one would hope that a bio4rapher of +r, Stee4muller<s 4ifts would 4o be!ond this
stereot!pe, Apollinaire criticism has reached the point where new avenues of e/ploration are possible$ and +r, Stee4muller Fwho sets as his 4oal in this book merel! the establishment of *facts*G has missed an opportunit! in not 4ivin4 us a new Apollinaire, Such a book mi4ht have be4un$ for instance$ with the 5uite new insi4hts into the poet<s character that are to be found in +arie9)eanne .urr!<s stud! of Apollinaire<s reli4ion, +r, Stee4muller has pursued the facts about Apollinaire with scholarl! enthusiasm, He has interviewed 4overnment clerks$ studied old documents$ and 4ives in an appendi/ a movin4 account of an interview with Annie 0la!den$ Apollinaire<s first +use, But 6 find that he does not make sufficient use of a prime bio4raphical source:the poet<s writin4s, There is relativel! little anal!sis of Apollinaire<s prose writin4s$ althou4h +r, Stee4muller has undertaken to challen4e the notion that Apollinaire was an important critic of the arts, 6n fact$ he holds Apollinaire partl! responsible for the barbaric st!le of contemporar! art criticismA *6t F>es 0eintres cubistesG is a curious volume$ much of it written in the tur4id$ pseudo9metaph!sical st!le that Apollinaire seems to have been the first to consider essential to a discussion of avant94arde art but which has since become all too familiar to readers of prefaces to art books and introductions to e/hibitions b! contemporar! artists,* This is a thesis that should be backed up b! te/tual anal!sis$ but
+r, Stee4muller does not undertake his own investi4ation of this 5uestion, 6nstead$ he 5uotes Bra5ue$ )ac5ues "illon$ 0icasso$ and Hahnweiler$ the *impresario* of the Cubists, This constitutes an impressive arra! of witnesses to Apollinaire<s incompetenc! in the arts$ but it leaves the ar4ument a4ainst Apollinaire without content, ?ven if +r, Stee4muller is ri4ht$ there is still much to be said about Apollinaire<s plastic and visual sensitivit!$ as displa!ed in his poetr!$ perhaps especiall! in those poems inspired b! paintin4s$ such as *>es %en]tres* and *>a "iSr4e W la fleur de haricot W Colo4ne,* NYR Holida! Subscription Special The book<s title leads us to e/pect a detailed presentation of Apollinaire<s relations with the %auve and Cubist painters$ but here +r, Stee4muller does not 4o far be!ond the anecdotal, The 4reat 5uestions about this milieu 4o unanswered, %irst of all$ one would like to know what esthetic principles$ if an!$ were shared b! painters and poets alike, As it is$ Cubism seems to rest on 7oie de vivre and heroic povert! which do not help much to e/plain the esthetic consistenc! of the movement, 6sn<t there$ for instance$ some link between the eclecticism of Apollinaire and that of 0icassoI 0ainter and poet share a 4ift for usin4 the *found* ob7ect, Both have the abilit! to span centuries b! an adroit borrowin4: Apollinaire<s medieval inspiration in *>a Chanson du malaimQ* is an e/ample, These
traits point to a 5uite new attitude toward artistic conventions$ an attitude of casual and eclectic appropriations, Such an attitude toward the tradition mi4ht be e/amined in the perspective of Apollinaire<s essa!$ *><?sprit nouveau et les poStes$* of which +r, Stee4muller 4ives us a new translation, There$ Apollinaire sa!sA *Jthe new spirit speaks above all in the name of order and moral responsibilit!$ which are the 4reat classical 5ualities$ the loftiest manifestations of the %rench spirit8 and it complements them with freedom, This freedom and this order$ which in the new spirit are inseparable$ are its hallmark and its stren4th,* But unit! and order$ 5ualities that have been affirmed to e/ist in Apollinaire<s poetr!$ are not to be found there in an! wa! traditionall! reco4ni;able, -e must 5ualif! an! statement about unit! and order in this poetr!$ 7ust as we must 5ualif! the *freedom* of this poet enslaved b! an amorous fatalit!$ this Narcissus who cannot tear his e!es awa! from his own sorrowin4 reflectionA *@h m! shadow in mournin4 for m!self,* .espite the fact that a number of Apollinaire<s poems are based on paintin4s$ there is no eas! e/chan4e between the two arts, The spatial structure of a 0icasso paintin4 has little in common with the essentiall! temporal and emotional structure of an Apollinairian l!ric8 and$ indeed$ the reflective and contemplative 4enius of the Cubist painters has little of the intensel! personal$ lacerated 5ualit! of
Apollinaire<s verse, %urthermore$ Apollinaire and his painter friends did not share a common political$ reli4ious$ or moral doctrine8 one of the characteristics of the period is its absence of intellectual content, All this makes it difficult to define Apollinaire<s relation to the painters8 perhaps$ indeed$ the task would be more appropriate for an esthetician or an art historian than for a bio4rapher, 6n su44estin4 that +r, Stee4muller mi4ht have better defined some of these issues$ 6 do not wish to be un4rateful for the ele4ant book he has actuall! written, He has verified and brou4ht to4ether the rather mea4er information available about Apollinaire, He has done this in an eminentl! readable book$ a book that captures some of the fluenc! and brio of its hero, >et 6 find that in perpetuatin4 the Apollinaire of the cult$ +r, Stee4muller has chosen not to make the ultimate act of involvement and self9identification that is demanded b! a ma7or achievement in bio4raph!, He remains cool$ 7udicious$ friendl!$ amused, %rom time to time$ +r, Stee4muller raises ma7or issues$ then fails to pursue them to ultimatel! illuminatin4 conclusions, Apollinaire<s eroticism is a case in point, Apollinaire<s porno4raphic writin4s$ his edition of Sade$ to4ether with the erotic elements in his letters and poems certainl! offer material for a thorou4h94oin4 stud! of this special
aspect8 indeed$ there is perhaps no other l!ric poet on whose eroticism such complete documentation e/ists, Some technical knowled4e of ps!cholo4ical anal!sis should be part of the e5uipment of a bio4rapher8 especiall! is this true of a bio4rapher who deals with a l!ric poet$ b! nature a man obsessed with erotic fantasies, 6 think +r, Stee4muller must have interestin4 opinions on this topic8 6 wish he had 4one further in e/plorin4 it in his book, -hen one considers the vast amount of scholarship and research e/panded on %rench literature in this countr!$ it seems stran4e that we will leave the writin4 of ma7or works in the field of %rench poetr! and Cubism to the %rench, %ew Americans undertake to write the definitive critical stud! or the definitive bio4raph! of a %rench author, American critics and scholars of thin4s %rench have !et to learn the darin4 of Apollinaire<s esprit nouveau, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search Books V ifts NYRB B Christmas Classics Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts
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The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number T November DN$ #&'( >ives of the 0ainters B! +e!er Schapiro Born =nder Saturn b! Rudolf -ittkower$ b! +ar4ot -ittkower Random House$ (CC$ N& illus, pp,$ 1T,23 6n popular opinion and to the ps!choanal!st artists are a special class of human bein4s with ps!cholo4ical peculiarities connected with their callin4, Have the! become artists because of these traits or have the! ac5uired these traits from their practice of artI Are these peculiarities universal or do the! arise from modern circumstances$ from the aims of art in our societ! and the recentl! developed social situationI 6s the current conception of The Artist perhaps onl! a stereot!pe based on a few painters whose stran4e lives have impressed public ima4inationI @r does it represent an ideolo4! created b! the artists$ a self9picture that sets them apart and 7ustifies certain liberties and demandsI These are some of the 5uestions that the authors of Born =nder Saturn tr! to answer, Their book differs from most approaches to these problems b! their historical method, The! have read the old te/ts about -estern
artists and have e/tracted from the enormous mass of evidence an enthrallin4 stor! of the chan4in4 behavior$ fortunes$ and ideas of artists throu4h the centuries$ and in a sober critical spirit have tested the common notions about artists in the li4ht of these documents, -hatever the value of their conclusions$ the book is fascinatin4 to read because of the abundant 5uotations which brin4 to life so man! remarkable individuals, ?ver since the fifteenth centur! the painters$ sculptors$ and architects have attracted the attention of observers who have left us accounts of artists of e/traordinar! character, And the artists themselves have$ in letters and diaries$ e/posed directl! their intimate thou4hts and feelin4s, Some of the material comes from the records of the 6talian courts:the testimon! concernin4 artist9defendants in lawsuits or criminal trials, Stories of violence$ murder$ rape$ theft$ 7ealous!$ madness$ and suicide8 anecdotes of the most bi;arre eccentricit!8 convincin4 praise of an4elic personalities of a rare serenit! and noble nature8 profound reflections b! artists on the problems of their art:these are reproduced here from the survivin4 te/ts in vi4orous translations, NYR Holida! Subscription Special 6 shall cite one e/ample of the kind of revelation fre5uent in this book, The authors 5uote from a life of Andrea Sacchi$ a Baro5ue master in Rome$ that
Jhe worked with an uneas! mind8 knowin4 perfectl! well the difference between the 4ood and the better$ he was never content, -hen some friends of his reproached him for his la;iness and asked the reason for his bein4 so slow in his work$ he answered, *Because Raphael and Annibale Caracci fri4hten me and make me lose heart,* And he added that it was the 4reat misfortune of his time not to have friends with whom he could discuss the difficulties inherent in the painter<s profession and that this was due to one of two reasonsA men were either unaware of these difficulties or$ bein4 aware$ did not wish to talk about them, %rom another source we learn that *althou4h he spent whole da!s without touchin4 a brush$ he kept on workin4 until the ver! end of his da!s,* At the risk of simplif!in4$ 6 shall summari;e the more important conclusions drawn b! the -ittkowers from their stud! of the records, %or the reeks and Romans and in the +iddle A4es the artist was$ with few e/ceptions$ an artisan and$ as a member of the lower classes$ was not respected even thou4h his work was admired, .urin4 the fifteenth centur!$ when he became somethin4 of a scientist and a scholar$ his situation chan4ed, To reali;e his new
conceptions he had to know anatom!$ 4eometr!$ and perspective as well as classical literature and art, Armed with this knowled4e and aspirin4 to a noble ideal of beaut! and truth$ he came to be re4arded as a free creative mind workin4 from inspiration like the poet, 6deas$ moods$ and wa!s of life connected with the primac! of the ima4ination were cultivated then b! painters and sculptors, =ntil the fifteenth centur! the artist had been classified b! the astrolo4ers with the hi4hl! practical persons born under the si4n of +ercur!:the artisans$ innkeepers and thieves8 durin4 the Renaissance he was placed with the poets and philosophers under the si4n of Saturn and characteri;ed b! the melancholic temperament t!pical for creative spirits, His new status as an intellectual brou4ht man! conflicts with the 4uilds to which he had belon4ed and which had once re4ulated his relations with patrons8 he was increasin4l! a free man and therefore e/posed to the insecurities of his independent position, -e hear much then of his obsessiveness$ his *creative idleness$* solitude$ and introspection$ and the uncertainties of work in contrast to the or4ani;ed bus! life of a 4uild craftsman, No lon4er protected b! a 4uild and not !et admitted to the upper classes$ the artist was a homeless individual in the emer4in4 competitive societ!, His unsatisfied lon4in4 for an honorable place led to rebelliousness and a defensive attitude$ to eccentricities of conduct and a bohemian
disorder, These helped to form the ima4e of the artist in the public mind that has lasted until toda!, But the character9t!pe of the artist has chan4ed from period to period with chan4es in his tasks and patrona4e, So in the seventeenth centur! the model of the aristocratic worldl! artist$ at home in the ro!al courts FBernini$ Rubens$ "an .!ckG$ replaced the precedin4 t!pe of the refractor! and often neurotic painter, But the man! stories of crime do not distin4uish the artist as a t!pe8 when considered with respect to their time and place$ the! are no less common in other 4roups, Similarl!$ the records of artists< suicides fail to confirm the idea that self9 destruction is especiall! fre5uent amon4 them8 in fact$ fewer suicides are reported amon4 artists than in other professions, The -ittkowers 4ive much attention to the belief that the personalities of artists ma! be discerned in their works, -hile admittin4 that ever! work is personal$ the! den! that one can infer the personalit! from the art, There are paintin4s and sculptures b! mad or neurotic artists which seem perfectl! sane$ and b! supposedl! atheist artists which look sincerel! devout, The! distin4uish therefore between what the! call the *4eneric character* of the artists of a time:the 5ualities the! have ac5uired in functionin4 as artists in their time and place$ like the familiar character t!pes of the courtier$ priest$ merchant$ law!er$ and scientist:and the individual personalit! which
includes traits that find no direct e/pression in the art, 6n a chapter on * enius$ +adness and +elanchol!$* the authors e/amine from this point of view$ supported b! close readin4 of the documents$ the late ?rnst Hris<s stud! on the ps!chotic sculptor$ +esserschmidt$ and find it defective in essential details, The! critici;e$ too$ the essa! on Andrea del Sarto b! ?rnest )ones and the books on >eonardo b! %reud and Hurt ?issler, 6n several instances the ps!choanal!st has interpreted as purel! personal some element of the artist<s work or behavior which is t!pical in his milieu, -ithout critici;in4 %reud<s theor! as such$ the! recommend the control of ps!cholo4ical e/planations of art and artists b! a fuller knowled4e of histor! and especiall! of the *4eneric character9t!pes* of each period, 6 a4ree with certain of these criticisms$ but not with all the ar4uments that the authors brin4 in support:for e/ample$ their cate4orical statement that in *the artifacts of ps!choticsJ FtheG structure invariabl! falls to pieces,* 6 do not share their skepticism about the possible contribution of ps!choanal!sis to the knowled4e of art:the! 4o so far as to sa! that ps!choanal!tic stud! *obscures more than it clarifies historical situations,* The 4eneral problem is more comple/ than the! seem to reco4ni;e and ps!choanal!sis is hardl! disposed of b! pointin4 to these failures, 6n
the application of %reud<s ideas to the arts and to histor!$ much depends on the ran4e of the available facts as well as on the culture and personalit! of the anal!st, 6 have found little in ps!choanal!tic literature on the method and lo4ic of these studies of art, 0erhaps a new impulse to self9criticism in this field will come from the thou4htful essa! b! Brian %arrell$ published as an introduction to the new 0elican edition of %reud<s >eonardo:a reprintin4 of the classic work with detailed editorial notes that allow the reader to ac5uaint himself with %reud<s errors of fact and above all with that crucial mistake about the *vulture* that was cau4ht b! an historian of art in #&D( and was stran4el! i4nored b! %reud and his followers until the #&32<s, The concept of *4eneric character9t!pes* which$ the -ittkowers suppose$ correspond to st!le9periods like Renaissance$ +annerism$ and Baro5ue$ is not incompatible with ps!choanal!tic theor!$ at least in some formulations$ even if these darin4 masters of free association with histor! sometimes confuse the personal and the cultural in behavior, The concept leaves une/plained$ however$ the part of e/ceptional individuals in the creation of new norms, -hat the authors describe as the 4eneric t!pe has been constructed from the bio4raphies of a few artists and will hardl! fit man! others of the same time, 6n assertin4 that in our da! *ps!choanal!sis has produced a new t!pe of
artist9personalit! with distinct characteristics of its own$* the! offer as evidence some statements b! painters as different as 0icasso$ Cha4all$ Ba;iotes$ and Rothko on the subconscious or indeterminate source of their art, Conceived in such broad and ideal terms and limited to a few traits$ their notion of character9t!pe does not permit us to 4rasp what is distinctive in either the art or the personalit! of an individual, F%rom the e/amples of Rubens$ Bernini$ and "an .!ck$ how shall one understand the 5uoted te/t about their contemporar!$ SacchiIG @ne will 4rant that there is no *timeless constitutional t!pe of artist$* and that the work of art is not *a mirror ima4e of its creator* Fwhat ps!cholo4ist has maintained that it isIG$ but there remains an important if naive assumption about the correspondences of art and personalit! which the -ittkowers themselves do not hesitate to appl! in their remarks about an artist like 0ontormo and which the! seem to admit in principle when the! writeA *?ver! work of art bears$ of course$ the personal stamp of its maker,* 6t is not clear to what e/tent the! will allow inference from the characteristics of a period st!le to the *4eneric character9t!pe* of the artists of that period, There remains also$ for both the ps!cholo4ist and the historian$ the 5uestion whether there are not special aptitudes of form9construction$ ima4ination$ and e/pression$ which appear in
the works of artists at all times$ whatever the t!pical st!le of the a4e$ and which have been reco4ni;ed even when artists had the social status of manual workers, 6n tracin4 the passa4e from the pre9Renaissance craftsman9 artist to the post9Renaissance 4enius9artist$ the authors have assumed:too readil!$ 6 believe:that artists in the earlier period$ because of their inferior social class$ were rarel! seen as creative personalities different from artisans, Before hiberti$ the! sa!$ the artist was not *conscious of his intellectual and creative powers,* Not onl! was iotto reco4ni;ed durin4 his lifetime as a 4reat artist of soverei4n versatilit!$ but the architects of the %rench cathedrals$ whose effi4ies were sculptured in their imposin4 constructions and inscribed with their names and praises beside the tombs of bishops and kin4s$ were surel! re4arded as ori4inal artists in the modern sense and were paid more than ordinar! craftsmen, 6n 7ud4in4 the culture of artists before the Renaissance$ it is worth recallin4 that the desi4ners of Ha4ia Sophia in Constantinople$ between classic anti5uit! and the +iddle A4es$ have also a place in the histor! of science as writers on mathematics and ph!sics, The phrase of Horace that painters like poets have the audendi potestas :the power to dare:Fhardl! applicable to artisansG was 5uoted in the +iddle A4es, Since earl! times$ 6<m willin4 to believe$ some artists were thou4ht to possess an uncann! 4ift be!ond that of mechanical skills and akin to
that of poets and thinkers$ althou4h the literar! e/pression of this view does not appear until recentl!$ and the description of the artist<s powers chan4es with the character of his art and the prevailin4 ideas about human nature, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search NYRB Children<s 0icture Books NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&, The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number T November DN$ #&'( Cosmic Comics B! R,-, %lint A Sin4ular +an b! ),0, .onleav!
Atlantic9>ittle Brown$ C3D pp,$ 1',33 The +aniac Responsible b! Robert over rove$ DDD pp,$ 1C,23 "isions of erard b! )ack Herouac %arrar$ Straus$ #2D pp,$ 1(,&2 This is a 5ueer trio of books$ damned if it<s not$ two 7oll! fellows and would9be %ieldin4s down with the cultural mumps and Herouac$ wellJ more like Herouac than would seem possible, .onleav! and over were obviousl! pla4ued b! acute cases of the 0roblem of the Second Novel, @ur appetite for comed! has 4rown in harness with the publicit! machiner! that seems to drive a successful comic novelist$ especiall! a ver! !oun4 one$ almost batt! with self9consciousness, No wonder in that either$ when !ou consider the rewards and difficulties of raisin4 a lau4h, Humor alone$ that ma4nificent discover! of those cut short in their callin4 to the hi4hest achievement$ those who fallin4 short of tra4ed! are !et as rich in 4ifts as in sufferin4$ humor alone Fperhaps the most inward and brilliant achievement of the spiritG attains to the impossible and brin4s ever! aspect of human e/istence within the ra!s of its prism,
This little nu44et$ picked at random from Hesse<s Steppenwolf$ 4ives some idea of what the buddin4 comedian is likel! to run into as soon as he be4ins roamin4 the halls of hi4h culture and discovers that while the Tra4ic Sense of >ife can be fairl! neatl! packa4ed and sold across the counter at the universities$ humor remains protean$ indefinable$ the rarest flower of the hi4hest peaks$ or so our culture believes, There was little enou4h in .onleav!<s and over<s first novels to su44est that either of them would develop into Twains or even >ardners$ !et the! can<t be blamed$ 6 suppose$ for the ambition that trips them up this time, 6f !our first successful formula is vulnerable to parod! and condescension$ wh! not stop the do4s< mouths with self9parod!$ relaunchin4 the once irresistible formula on a sea of irresistible cultural chicI That<s about what it comes down to here, NYR Holida! Subscription Special The formula of The in4er +an was more or less irresistibleA a New York 6rishman 4oes to drear! post9war .ublin and 4leefull! re9)o!ces the 7oint, .on9leav! hit on a neat division between .edelean sensitivit!$ most of which went into description$ atmosphere and resistance to dullness$ and a blunt o4art! smokin49room 4usto$ most of which went into action and speech, )oll! se/$ moral anarchism$ male narcissism$ cultural hooli4anism8 this was one kind of antidote to leftist 4loom and the slicker$ blander Herbert old kind of thin4,
.ublin deserved it$ 6reland e/pected it$ New York consecrated it, But there are not man! .ublins left where bein4 Rabelaisian has all that venerable tradition behind it$ all that lovel! 4rim read!9made puritanism to set it off$ and .onleav! wisel! refrained from tr!in4 to flush those pi4eons twice, Back$ then$ to New York Fspirituall! if not 4eo4raphicall!G and a plun4e into the acidulous solvents of the new cool hi4her comed! that flourishes these da!s under the ae4is of enet$ Beckett$ 6onesco et al,$ an atmosphere that +ailer sa!s is best reproduced at its source b! Baldwin<s Another Countr! Fno comed! certainl!G$ to which 6 would add Terr! Southern<s The +a4ic Christian inasmuch as .onleav! seems to have read it rather closel!, To have kept his heart! heterose/ual chastit! in this literar! maelstrom was 5uite a feat$ almost saintl! indeed, A Sin4ular +an takes place in a disembodied cosmopolis of sublimated dreamscapes ran4in4 throu4h all the fantas!9factories from The >adies Home )ournal *up* to 0la!bo! and ?s5uire, -e move between such charmin4 addresses as +err! +ansions Two ?a4le Street$ Thirt! Three olf Street$ .!namo House @wl Street$ # ?lectricit! Street$ ?el Street$ Cool "illa4e$ and the oose oes 6nn$ savorin4 man! such touches of .onleav!<s affectionate 4ift for the simple$ not to mention the inaneA
but make no mistake$ this is still the Bi4 Time in ever! sense of the words$ the in4er +an s!ndrome sk!9written across the blue, eor4e Smith$ our hero$ is the same charmin4 rat with the numinous don4$ now m!steriousl! rich and va4uel! *aristocratic$* cursed with an an4st that makes him spend lavishl! on an armored car and a 4i4antic personal tomb, He has the same na44in4 wife$ now divorced with four kids and 4rown pi44ish$ a pathetic homebod! secretar!9victim$ a scandalousl! lascivious Ne4ro maid Farchaic touch thisG and finall!$ in keepin4 with the 4randiosit! of the proceedin4s$ a 4or4eous$ capable$ c!nical$ simple9hearted insecure doll$ Sall! Tomson alias .i;;! .arlin4$ who is ultimatel! buried at sea$ *November The Twent! %irst$ on Board Sea Shark$ 0iper Seven$ %oot @f @wl Street* the invitation reads, 6 hope !ou 4ather b! now that all this +eans Somethin4$ somethin4 we will probabl! never know$ and displa!s what the 7acket calls *boilin4 creativit!,* And the proseL C3D pa4es of clipped$ manl! tele4raph! modeled on the interior monolo4ue of =l!sses$ like three .avid Nivens reviewin4 their love lives in a hi4h wind on the polar ice9 cap8 occasionall! wonderful in its four9pl! parod!:Amis$ -au4h$ -odehouse$ -aterhouse$ bu4house:sometimes cornil! funn!$ sometimes 7ust infantile sill!, 6n other words$ A Sin4ular +an is like one of those enormous California carnival floats advertisin4 some humble$ une/ceptionable commodit! like
oran4es, -hich commodit!$ to be sure$ is 7oll! se/$ and until the unlikel! da! when *porno4raph!* Flet<s not 5uibble8 6 like it whatever it isG can be safel! classified and reviewed in chunks like science fiction$ ever! so often we can e/pect this pancultural workout$ this class! suspension of all the cate4ories$ in return for our small meed of uncomplicated fun, Robert over<s second novel$ appearin4 so close on the heels of @ne Hundred .ollar +isunderstandin4$ has a fecklessl! bo!ish$ slapped9up 5ualit! that re5uires even less anal!sis than the .onleav!, 6t be4ins$ 5uite well$ as a small9town who9done9it, Someone has sunk a hatchet in the skull of a beautiful !oun4 unprotected housewife and the narrator$ a local reporter$ drives out to her house in the earl! mornin4 after an unsuccessful seduction of the se/9kitten in the ne/t apartment and chews over the crime in manl! an4uish in the compan! of a well9drawn bunch of reporters$ nei4hbors$ and cops, All this is A9@H$ first class movie writin4, But then comes trouble, He drives into the hills to meditate and meets a 4ruesomel! sententious old hermit who addresses him constantl! as *Hiddo$* to his 7ustifiable anno!ance$ and la!s claim to a lar4e tract of metaph!sical territor! out back somewhere$ perhaps at New Thoreau in Saro!an Count!, An!wa!$ our hero returns$ observin4 alon4 the wa! man! si4nificant road9si4ns revealin4 the Hollowness of @ur
Culture$ delivers his stor! to the paper$ and has another 4o at the kitten in a lon4 spic! episode durin4 which one can hear the heav! breathin4 of +r, Barne! Rosset in the back4round, But once more the 4irl funks out$ our man is wretched and is finall! nabbed b! the police on the fire9escape tr!in4 to 4et back into her bedroom, So what does he doI He confesses to the hatchet murder$ which he didn<t commit$ because$ natch$ we are all$ all *the maniac responsible* when it comes to such nast! behavior as murder, Then a sort of fantas! pla!let$ like$ between the hero<s after e4os F%ra4mentation of the SelfG and finall!$ absolved$ a last trip to the old man of the mountains for a concludin4 word on the human condition, 6 hope this summar! has indicated enou4h of the boisterous whirlwind tour of the contemporar! conscience that over has provided in The +aniac Responsible, The 4irl friend is somethin4 like Hitten of @ne Hundred .ollar +isunderstandin4 but not enou4h, The !oun4 man is a nois! rattle, The writin4 shows promise, ?t alorsJHerouac canadien de >owell$ +assachusetts$ which 6 maintain is the best and truest Herouac$ althou4h this tear9soaked monstrosit! of a book seems desi4ned to hide the fact from all but his fellow anointed, Herouac has survived the ni4htmare$ a parod! b! )ohn =pdike antholo4i;ed b! .wi4ht +acdonald$ and has nothin4 more to lose$ no further depths to plumb, To call "isions of
erard a self9parod!$ or even a hilarious take9 off on those creep bio4raphies of wee sainted children cut off in the cradle$ would be wide of the mark, "isions of erard is all9out sentimentalit! of an intensit! 6 believe unmatched in -estern literature, That is a bold claim$ but this is a book that 4oes be!ond an! conceivable definition of coura4e, >ike the 4iraffe$ it 7ust e/ists, -ho$ be!ond Herouac<s friends$ connoisseurs of New ?n4land re4ionalism$ and %rench Canadiana$ will read it 6 can<t 4uess$ but havin4 been brou4ht up a few miles north of >owell and driven throu4h it often$ 6 found the book as fascinatin4 as it certainl! is appallin4, Herouac<s besettin4 handicap in recent !ears has been a certain deadness of ear$ or tonelessness$ 7ust at that m!stic point in his mind where he wants to be most alive$ the karma9kid and dharma9dadd! of all the philosophies$ all the poetries, This has 4rown on him steadil! since the relativel! strai4htforward @n The Road$ so that the sentimentalit! which was prett! well sublimated into the fabric of @n the Road here separates out into child worship on the one hand and near94ibberish on the other$ with a brief but solid core of e/cellent writin4 in the middle, B! now we have a sufficient idea of the Christo9Buddhist9Hindu heaven that beckons him on, He has much to sa! about that in this book$ contritel!$ worriedl!$ rebelliousl!, Sometimes it thins to a diaphanous mist$
sometimes 4athers into black thunderheads of rhetoric, But the circumstances made clear is that this turbulent ps!cholo4! has firm roots in his bo!hood, Canuck life was one e/treme after another in that Nineveh9cit! of >owell$ now one of the eeriest monuments in the countr!$ but in #&D' when this *novel* takes place still a fairl! bus! mill town$ pol!4lot and church9ridden like modern +ontreal, +en who kept their heads above water$ like the 4ood father ?mil of this book$ were as heroic in their wa! as the ?ast Side )ews of +alamud, The section Herouac devotes to ?mil<s Saturda! ni4ht on the town with his vaudeville cronies behind Heith<s Theater is some of the best writin4 he has done$ florid and 4enerous in the best st!le of romantic naturalism, There is a 4ood and a bad sentimentalit!$ and this$ if it is sentimental$ belon4s to the 4ood, And most of the incidental description of the cit!<s people$ winters$ streets$ churches$ funerals and so on$ is tellin4l! real, *-inds all the wa! from the nostril of the moose$ coarse rou4h tou4h needs in potato fieldsJ* Herouac<s Ren Buddhism is often a terrible bore$ but his facult! of sweepin4 down from the fo44! hei4hts and pickin4 up bits of truth like lint throws some li4ht on the oriental e/oticism of life in those almost9abandoned towns on the +errimack, But then there is erard$ and erard is un5uestionabl! the sweetest$ dearest$ sickest and most saintl! tot in fiction since >ittle Nell$ her true bride4room in heaven, 6 hope 6 won<t
ever find out if there was such a child in Herouac<s past, 6n an! case$ he dies at a4e nine of rheumatic fever and his invalidism is the plot of the book, As he lies there makin4 his perfect little drawin4s or pla!in4 with his ?rector set Fa searin4 iron! thereLG or merel! sa!in4 how he hurts$ he provokes e/cruciatin4 bab!9talk from both his chronicler and all the onlookers, 6t ma! have been like that, 0lainl! Herouac doesn<t care, He apolo4i;es for nearl! ever!thin4 but this$ or *his* famil!<s fortitude or the colors$ sounds and smells of >owell, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search Books V ifts NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number T November DN$ #&'( A Hero of our Time B! Susan Sonta4 Structural Anthropolo4! b! Claude >Qvi9Strauss$ Translated from the %rench b! Claire )acobson$ b! Brook rundfest Schoepf Basic Books$ C(D pp,$ 1#3,33 The parado/ is irresolubleA the less one culture communicates with another$ the less likel! the! are to be corrupted$ one b! the other8 but$ on the other hand$ the less likel! it is$ in such conditions$ that the respective emissaries of these cultures will be able to sei;e the richness and si4nificance of their diversit!, The alternative is inescapableA either 6 am a traveller in ancient times$ and faced with a prodi4ious spectacle which would be almost entirel! unintelli4ible to me and mi4ht$ indeed$ provoke me to mocker! or dis4ust8 or 6 am a traveller of m! own da!$ hastenin4 in search of a vanished realit!, 6n either case 6 am the loserJfor toda!$ as 6 4o 4roanin4 amon4 the shadows$ 6 miss$ inevitabl!$ the spectacle that is now takin4 shape, :from Tristes Tropi5ues
Claude >Qvi9Strauss:the man who has created anthropolo4! as a total occupation$ involvin4 a spiritual commitment like that of the creative artist or the adventurer or the ps!choanal!st: is no man of letters, +ost of his writin4s are scholarl!$ and he has alwa!s been associated with the academic world, Since #&'3 he has held a ver! 4rand academic post$ the newl! created chair of social anthropolo4! at the CollS4e de %rance$ and heads a lar4e and richl! endowed research institute, But his academic eminence and abilit! to dispense patrona4e are scarcel! ade5uate measures of the formidable position he occupies in %rench intellectual life toda!, 6n %rance$ where there is more awareness of the adventure$ the risk involved in intelli4ence$ a man can be both a specialist and the sub7ect of 4eneral and intelli4ent interest and controvers!, Hardl! a month passes in %rance without a ma7or article in some serious literar! 7ournal$ or an important public lecture$ e/tollin4 or damnin4 the ideas and influence of >Qvi9Strauss, Apart from the tireless Sartre and the virtuall! silent +alrau/$ he must be the most interestin4 intellectual fi4ure in %rance toda!, NYRB B 0inocchio So far$ >Qvi9Strauss is hardl! known in this countr!, A collection of seventeen previousl! scattered essa!s on the methods and concepts of anthropolo4!$ brou4ht out in #&2N and entitled Structural Anthropolo4!$ has 7ust been published here, Still to appear are another
collection of essa!s$ more philosophical in character$ entitled >a 0ensQe Sauva4e8 a book published b! =N?SC@ in #&2D called Race et histoireA and the brilliant works on the kinship s!stems of primitives, >es Structures QlQmentaires de la parentQ F#&C&G8 and on totemism$ >e Totemism au7ourd<hui F#&'DG, Some of these writin4s suppose more familiarit! with anthropolo4ical literature and with the concepts of lin4uistics$ sociolo4!$ and ps!cholo4! than the ordinar! cultivated reader has, But it would be a 4reat pit! if >Qvi9 Strauss<s work$ when finall! translated$ were to find no more than a specialist audience in this countr!, %or >Qvi9Strauss has assembled$ from the vanta4e point of anthropolo4!$ one of the few interestin4 and possible intellectual positions:in the most 4eneral sense of the phrase, And one of his books is a masterpiece, 6 mean the incomparable Tristes Tropi5ues$ a book which when published in %rance in #&22 became a best seller$ but when translated into ?n4lish and brou4ht out here in #&'# was shamefull! i4nored,Z#[ Tristes Tropi5ues is one of the 4reat books of our centur!, 6t is ri4orous$ subtle$ and bold in thou4ht, 6t is beautifull! written, And$ like all 4reat books$ it bears an absolutel! personal stamp8 it speaks with a human voice, @stensibl! Tristes Tropi5ues is the record$ or memoir rather$ written over fifteen !ears after the event$ of the author<s e/periences in the *field,* Anthropolo4ists are fond of likenin4
field research to the pubert! ordeal which confers status upon members of certain primitive societies, >Qvi9Strauss<s ordeal was in Bra;il$ before the second -orld -ar, Born in #&3N and of the intellectual 4eneration and circle which included Sartre$ de Beauvoir$ +erleau90ont!$ and 0aul Ni;an$ he studied philosoph! in the late Twenties$ and$ like them$ tau4ht for a while in a provincial l!cQe, .issatisfied with philosoph! he soon 4ave up his teachin4 post$ returned to 0aris to stud! law$ then be4an the stud! of anthropolo4!$ and in #&(2 went to S^o 0aolo$ Bra;il$ as 0rofessor of Anthropolo4!, %rom #&(2 to #&(&$ durin4 the lon4 universit! vacations from November to +arch and then for lon4er periods of a !ear or more, >Qvi9Strauss lived amon4 6ndian tribes in the interior of Bra;il, Tristes Tropi5ues offers a record of his encounters with these tribes:the nomadic$ missionar! 9 murderin4 Nambikwara$ the Tupi9 Hawahib whom no white man had ever seen before$ the materiall! splendid Bororo$ the ceremonious Caduveo who produce hu4e amounts of abstract paintin4 and sculpture, But the 4reatness of Tristes Tropi5ues lies not simpl! in this sensitive reporta4e$ but in the wa! >Qvi9Strauss uses his e/perience:to reflect on the nature of landscape$ on the meanin4 of ph!sical hardship$ on the cit! in the @ld -orld and the New$ on the idea of travel$ on sunsets$ on modernit!$ on the connection between literac! and power, The ke! to the book is Chapter Si/$ *How 6 Became
an Anthropolo4ist$* where >Qvi9Strauss finds in the histor! of his own choice a case stud! of the uni5ue spiritual ha;ards to which the anthropolo4ist sub7ects himself, Tristes Tropi5ues is an intensel! personal book, >ike +ontai4ne<s ?ssa!s and %reud<s 6nterpretation of .reams$ it is an intellectual autobio4raph!$ an e/emplar! personal histor! in which a whole view of the human situation$ an entire sensibilit! is elaborated, The profoundl! intelli4ent s!mpath! which informs Tristes Tropi5ues makes all other memoirs about life amon4 preliterate peoples seem ill9at9ease$ defensive$ provincial, Yet s!mpath! is modulated throu4hout b! a hard9 won impassivit!, 6n her autobio4raph! Simone de Beauvoir recalls >Qvi9Strauss as a !oun4 philosoph! student9teacher e/poundin4 *in his detached voice$ and with a deadpan e/pressionJthe foll! of the passions,* Not for nothin4 is Tristes Tropi5ues prefaced b! a motto from >ucretius<s .e Rerum Natura, >Qvi9 Strauss<s aim is ver! much like that of >ucretius$ the raecophile Roman who ur4ed the stud! of the natural sciences as a mode of ethical ps!chotherap!, The aim of >ucretius was not independent scientific knowled4e$ but the reduction of emotional an/iet!, >ucretius saw man as hurled between the pleasure of se/ and the pain of emotional loss$ tormented b! superstitions inspired b! reli4ion$ haunted b! the fear of bodil! deca! and death, He recommended scientific knowled4e$ which
teaches intelli4ent detachment$ e5uanimit!$ ps!cholo4ical 4racefulness$ a wa! of learnin4 to let 4o, >Qvi9Strauss sees man with a >ucretian pessimism$ and a >ucretian feelin4 for knowled4e as both consolation and necessar! disenchantment, But for him the demon is histor!:not the bod! or the appetites, The past$ with its m!steriousl! harmonious structures$ is broken and crumblin4 before our e!es, Hence$ the tropics are tristes, There were nearl! twent! thousand of the naked$ indi4ent$ nomadic$ handsome Nambikwaras in #&#2$ when the! were first visited b! white missionaries8 when >Qvi9Strauss arrived in #&(N there were no more than two thousand of them8 toda! the! are miserable$ u4l!$ s!philitic$ and almost e/tinct, Hopefull!$ anthropolo4! brin4s a reduction of historical an/iet!, 6t is interestin4 that man! of >Qvi9 Strauss<s students are reported to be former +ar/ists$ come as it were to la! their piet! at the altar of the past since it cannot be offered to the future, Anthropolo4! is necrolo4!, *>et<s 4o and stud! the primitives$* sa! >Qvi9Strauss and his pupils$ *before the! disappear,* 6t is stran4e to think of these e/9+ar/ists: philosophical optimists if ever such have e/isted:submittin4 to the melanchol! spectacle of the crumblin4 pre9historic past, The! have moved not onl! from optimism to pessimism$ but from certaint! to s!stematic
doubt, %or$ accordin4 to >Qvi9Strauss$ research in the field$ *where ever! ethnolo4ical career be4ins$ is the mother and nursemaid of doubt$ the philosophical attitude par e/cellence,* 6n >Qvi9Strauss<s pro4ram for the practicin4 anthropolo4ist in Structural Anthropolo4!$ the Cartesian method of doubt is installed as a permanent a4nosticism, *This <anthropolo4ical doubt< consists not merel! in knowin4 that one knows nothin4 but in resolutel! e/posin4 what one knows$ even one<s own i4norance$ to the insults and denials inflicted on one<s dearest ideas and habits b! those ideas and habits which ma! contradict them to the hi4hest de4ree,* To be an anthropolo4ist is thus to adopt a ver! in4enious stance via9W9vis one<s own doubts$ one<s own intellectual uncertainties, >Qvi9 Strauss makes it clear that for him this is an eminentl! philosophical stance, At the same time$ anthropolo4! reconciles a number of diver4ent personal claims, 6t is one of the rare intellectual vocations which do not demand a sacrifice of one<s manhood, Coura4e$ love of adventure$ and ph!sical hardiness:as well as brains:are used b! it, 6t also offers a solution to that distressin4 b!9product of intelli4ence$ alienation, Anthropolo4! con5uers the estran4in4 function of the intellect b! institutionali;in4 it, %or the anthropolo4ist$ the world is professionall! divided into *home* and *out there$* the domestic and the e/otic$ the urban academic world and the tropics, The
anthropolo4ist is not simpl! a neutral observer, He is a man in control of$ and even consciousl! e/ploitin4$ his own intellectual alienation, A techni5ue de dQpa!sement$ >Qvi9 Strauss calls his profession in Structural Anthropolo4!, He takes for 4ranted the philistine formulas of modern scientific *value neutralit!,* -hat he does is to offer an e/5uisite$ aristocratic version of this neutralit!, The anthropolo4ist in the field becomes the ver! model of the twentieth9 centur! consciousnessA a *critic at home* but a *conformist elsewhere,* >Qvi9Strauss acknowled4es that this parado/ical spiritual state makes it impossible for the anthropolo4ist to be a citi;en, The anthropolo4ist$ so far as his own countr! is concerned$ is sterili;ed politicall!, He cannot seek power$ he can onl! be a critical dissentin4 voice, >Qvi9Strauss himself$ althou4h in the most 4eneric and ver! %rench wa! a man of the >eft Fhe si4ned the famous +anifesto of the #D# which recommended civil disobedience in %rance in protest a4ainst the Al4erian warG$ is b! %rench standards an apolitical man, Anthropolo4!$ in >Qvi9Strauss<s conception$ is a techni5ue of political disen4a4ement, Anthropolo4! has alwa!s stru44led with an intense$ fascinated repulsion towards its sub7ect, The horror of the primitive Fnaivel! e/pressed b! %ra;er and >Qv!9BruhlG is never far from the anthropolo4ist<s consciousness, >Qvi9Strauss marks the furthest reach of the
con5uerin4 of the aversion, The anthropolo4ist in the manner of >Qvi9Strauss is a new breed alto4ether, He is not$ like recent 4enerations of American anthropolo4ists$ simpl! a modest data9collectin4 *observer,* Nor does he have an! a/e:Christian$ rationalist$ %reudian$ or otherwise:to 4rind, B! means of e/perience in the field$ the anthropolo4ist under4oes a *ps!cholo4ical revolution*, >ike 0s!choanal!sis$ anthropolo4! cannot be tau4ht *purel! theoreticall!$* >Qvi9Strauss insists in several essa!s on the profession and teachin4 of his sub7ect in Structural Anthropolo4!, A spell in the field is the e/act e5uivalent of the trainin4 anal!sis under4one b! ps!choanal!sis, Not written tests$ but the 7ud4ment of *e/perienced members of the profession* who have under4one the same ps!cholo4ical ordeal$ can determine *if and when* a candidate anthropolo4ist *has$ as a result of field work$ accomplished that inner revolution that will reall! make him into a new man,* However$ it must be emphasi;ed that this literar!9soundin4 conception of the anthropolo4ist<s callin4:the twice9born spiritual adventurer$ pled4ed to a s!stematic dQracinement:is complemented in most of >Qvi9Strauss<s writin4s b! an insistence on the most unliterar! techni5ues of research, His important essa! on m!th in Structural Anthropolo4! outlines a techni5ue for anal!;in4 the elements of m!ths so that these
can be recorded on 6B+ cards, ?uropean contributions to what in America are called the *social sciences* are in e/ceedin4l! low repute in this countr!$ for their insufficient empirical documentation$ for their *humanist* weakness for covert culture criticism$ for their refusal to embrace the techni5ues of 5uantification as an essential tool of research, >Qvi9Strauss<s essa!s in Structural Anthropolo4! certainl! escape these strictures, 6ndeed$ far from disdainin4 the American fondness for precise 5uantitative measurement of all traditional problems$ >QviStrauss finds it not sophisticated or methodolo4icall! ri4orous enou4h, At the e/pense of the %rench school F.urkheim$ +auss$ and their followersG$ to whom one would e/pect him to be allied, >Qvi9 Strauss pa!s lavish tribute throu4hout the essa!s in Structural Anthropolo4! to the work of American anthropolo4ists:particularl! >owie$ Boas$ and Hroeber, But his real affinit! is clearl! to the more avant94arde methodolo4ies of economies$ neurolo4!$ lin4uistics$ and 4ame theor!, %or >Qvi9Strauss$ there is no doubt that anthropolo4! must be a science$ rather than a humanistic stud!, The 5uestion is onl! how, *%or centuries$* he writes$ *the humanities and the social sciences have resi4ned themselves to contemplate the world of the natural and e/act sciences as a kind of paradise where the! will never enter,* But recentl!$ a doorwa! to paradise has been opened b! the lin4uists$ like Roman )akobson and his school, >in4uists now know how to
reformulate their problems so that the! can *have a machine built b! an en4ineer and make a kind of e/periment$ completel! similar to a natural9science e/periment$* which will tell them *if the h!pothesis is worthwhile or not,* >in4uists:as well as economists and 4ame theorists:have shown the anthropolo4ist *a wa! to 4et out of the confusion resultin4 from too much ac5uaintance and familiarit! with concrete data,* Thus the man who submits himself to the e/otic to confirm his own inner alienation as an urban intellectual ends b! aimin4 to van5uish his sub7ect b! translatin4 it into a purel! formal code, The ambivalence toward the e/otic$ the primitive$ is not overcome after all$ but onl! 4iven a comple/ restatement, The anthropolo4ist$ as a man$ is en4a4ed in savin4 his own soul$ b! a curious and ambitious act of intellectual catharsis, But he is also committed to recordin4 and understandin4 his sub7ect b! a ver! hi4h9powered mode of formal anal!sis: what >Qvi9Strauss calls *structural* anthropolo4!:which obliterates all traces of his personal e/perience and trul! effaces the human features of his sub7ect$ a 4iven primitive societ!, 6n >a 0ensQe Sauva4e$ >Qvi9Strauss calls his thou4ht *anecdoti5ue et 4Qometri5ue,* The essa!s in Structural Anthropolo4! show mostl! the 4eometrical side of his thou4htA the! are
applications of a ri4orous formalism to traditional themes:kinship s!stems$ totemism$ pubert! rites$ the relation between m!th and ritual$ and so forth, A 4reat cleansin4 operation is in process$ and the broom that sweeps ever!thin4 clean is the notion of *structure$* >Qvi9Strauss stron4l! dissociates himself from what he calls the *naturalistic* trend of British anthropolo4!$ represented b! such leadin4 fi4ures as +alinowski and Radcliffe9Brown, Accordin4 to +alinowski$ empirical$ observation of a sin4le primitive societ! will make it possible to understand the *universal motivations* present in all societies, Accordin4 to >Qvi9 Strauss$ this is nonsense, Anthropolo4! cannot possibl! 4et complete knowled4e of the societies it studies8 it studies onl! the formal features which differentiate one societ! from another$ Anthropolo4! can neither be a descriptive nor an inductive science, 6t has properl! no interest in the biolo4ical basis$ ps!cholo4ical content$ or social function of institutions and customs, Thus$ while +alinowski and Radcliffe9Brown ar4ue$ for e/ample$ that biolo4ical ties are the ori4in of and the model for ever! kinship tie$ the *structuralists$* like >Qvi9Strauss$ followin4 Hroeber and >owie$ emphasi;e the artificialit! of kinship rules, The! would discuss kinship in terms of notions which admit of mathematical treatment, >QviStrauss and the structuralists$ in short$ would view societ! like a chess 4ame, .ifferent societies assi4n different moves to
the pla!ers8 there is no one ri4ht wa! to pla! chess, Thus$ the anthropolo4ist can view a ritual or a taboo simpl! as a set of rules$ pa!in4 little attention to *the nature of the partners Feither individuals or 4roupsG whose pla! is bein4 patterned after these rules,* The analo4! between anthropolo4! and lin4uistics is the leadin4 theme of the essa!s in Structural Anthropolo4!, All behavior$ accordin4 to >Qvi9 Strauss$ is a lan4ua4e$ a vocabular! and 4rammar of order8 anthropolo4! proves nothin4 about human nature e/cept the need for order itself, There is no universal truth about the relations between$ sa!$ reli4ion and social structure, There are onl! models showin4 the variabilit! of one in relation to the other, To the 4eneral reader of Structural Anthropolo4!$ perhaps the most strikin4 e/ample of >Qvi9Strauss<s theoretical a4nosticism is his view of m!th, He treats m!th as a purel! formal mental operation$ without an! ps!cholo4ical content or an! necessar! connection with rite, Specific narratives are e/posed as lo4ical desi4ns for the description and possibl! the softenin4 of the rules of the social 4ame when the! 4ive rise to a tension or contradiction, %or >Qvi9 Strauss$ the lo4ic of m!thic thou4ht is full! as ri4orous as that of modern science, The onl! difference is that this lo4ic is applied to different problems, Contrar! to +ircea ?liade$ his most distin4uished opponent in the theor!
of primitive reli4ion$ >Qvi9Strauss sees no difference in 5ualit! between the scientific thinkin4 of modern *historical* societies and the m!thic thinkin4 of prehistoric communities, The demonic character which histor! and the notion of historical consciousness has for >Qvi9 Strauss is best e/posed in his brilliant and sava4e attack on Sartre$ in the last chapter of >a 0ensQe Sauva4e, 6 am not convinced b! >Qvi9Strauss<s ar4uments a4ainst Sartre, But 6 should sa! that he is$ since the death of +erleau90ont!$ the onl! interestin4 and challen4in4 critic of Sartrean e/istentialism and phenomenolo4!, Not onl! in his ideas$ but in his entire sensibilit!$ the antithesis of >Qvi9Strauss is Sartre, Sartre$ with his philosophical and political do4matisms$ his ine/haustible in4enuit! and clotted st!le$ alwa!s has the manners Fwhich are often bad mannersG of the enthusiast, 6t is entirel! apt that the writer who has aroused Sartre<s 4reatest enthusiasm is )ean enet$ a baro5ue and didactic and insolent writer whose e4o effaces all ob7ective narrative8 whose characters are sta4es in a masturbator! revel8 who is the master of 4ames and artifices$ of a rich$ over9rich st!le stuffed with metaphors and conceits, But there is another tradition in %rench thou4ht and sensibilit!:the cult of froideur$ l<esprit 4Qometri5ue, This tradition is represented$
amon4 the new novelists$ b! Nathalie Sarraute$ Alain Robbe9 rillet$ and +ichel Butor$ so different from enet in their search for an infinite precision$ their narrow deh!drated sub7ect9matter and cool microscopic st!les and$ amon4 film makers$ b! Alain Resnais$ the director of the 4reat Nuit et Brouillard as well as Hiroshima +on Amour$ ><AnnQe .erniSre W +arienbad$ and +uriel, The formula for this tradition:in which 6 would locate >Qvi9Strauss$ as 6 would put Sartre with enet:is the mi/ture of pathos and coldness, >ike the formalists of the *new novel* and film$ >Qvi9Strauss<s emphasis on *structure$* his e/treme formalism and intellectual a4nosticism$ are the steel! casin4 for an immense but thorou4hl! subdued pathos, Sometimes the result is a masterpiece like Tristes Tropi5ues, The ver! title is an understatement, The tropics are not merel! sad, The! are in a4on!, The horror of the rape$ the final and irrevocable destruction of pre9 literate peoples takin4 place throu4hout the world toda!:which is the true sub7ect of >Qvi9 Strauss<s book:is told at a certain distance$ the distance of a personal e/perience of fifteen !ears a4o$ and with a sureness of feelin4 and fact that allows the readers< emotions more rather than less freedom, But in the rest of these books$ the lucid and brilliantl! compassionate documentarist has been overwhelmed b! the aesthete$ the
formalist, The whole point of the new novels and films comin4 out of %rance toda! is to suppress the stor!$ in its traditional ps!cholo4ical or social meanin4$ in favor of a formal e/ploration of the structure of an emotion, 6t is e/actl! in this spirit that >Qvi9 Strauss applies the methods of *structural anal!sis* to traditional materials of empirical anthropolo4!, Customs$ rites$ m!ths$ and taboo are a lan4ua4e, As in lan4ua4e$ where the sounds which make up words are$ taken in themselves$ meanin4less$ so the parts of a custom or a rite or a m!th Faccordin4 to >Qvi9 StraussG are meanin4less in themselves, -hen anal!;in4 the @edipus m!th$ he insists that the parts of the m!th Fthe lost child$ the old man at the crossroad$ the marria4e with the mother$ the blindin4$ etc,G mean nothin4, @nl! when put to4ether in the total conte/t do the parts have a meanin4:the meanin4 that a lo4ical model has, This de4ree of intellectual a4nosticism is surel! e/traordinar!, And one does not have to espouse a %reudian or a sociolo4ical interpretation of the elements of m!th to contest it, An! serious criti5ue of >Qvi9Strauss$ however$ must deal with the fact that$ ultimatel!$ his e/treme formalism is a moral choice$ and Fmore surprisin4l!G a vision of social perfection, Radicall! anti9historicist$ he refuses to differentiate between *primitive* and *historical* societies, 0rimitives have a histor!8 but it is unknown to us, And historical
consciousness Fwhich the! do not haveG$ he ar4ues in the attack on Sartre$ is not a privile4ed mode of consciousness, There are onl! what he revealin4l! calls *hot* and *cold* societies, The hot societies are the modern ones$ driven b! the demons of historical pro4ress, The cold societies are the primitive ones$ static$ cr!stalline$ harmonious, =topia$ for >Qvi9Strauss$ would be a 4reat lowerin4 of the historical temperature, 6n his inau4ural lecture at the CollS4e de %rance$ >Qvi9Strauss outlined a post9+ar/ist vision of freedom in which man would finall! be freed from the obli4ation to pro4ress$ and from *the a4e9old curse which forced it to enslave men in order to make pro4ress possible,* ThenA histor! would henceforth be 5uite alone$ and societ!$ placed outside and above histor!$ would once a4ain be able to assume that re4ular and 5uasi9cr!stalline structure which$ the best9preserved primitive societies teach us$ is not contradictor! to humanit!, 6t is in this admittedl! =topian view that social anthropolo4! would find its hi4hest 7ustification$ since the forms of life and thou4ht which it studies would no lon4er be of mere historic and comparative interest, The! would correspond to a permanent possibilit! of man$ over which social anthropolo4! would have a mission to stand watch$ especiall! in man<s darkest hours, The anthropolo4ist is thus not onl! the
mourner of the cold world of the primitives$ but its custodian as well, roanin4 amon4 the shadows$ stru44lin4 to distin4uish the archaic from the pseudoarchaic$ he acts out a heroic$ dili4ent$ and comple/ modern pessimism, email icon ?mail to a friend Notes Z#[ 6t is shortl! to be reissued b! Atheneum in paperback, >etters )anuar! D($ #&'CA Arnold Tovell$ >evi9Strauss Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B Budapest NYR Holida! Subscription Special Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number N .ecember #D$ #&'( Brief ?ncounter B! Richmond >attimore The Ancient reeksA An 6ntroduction to their >ife and Thou4ht b! +,6, %inle! "ikin4$ #TT pp,$ 12,33 .r, %inle! has mana4ed to include a 4reat deal in this compact book, He has 4iven a 4eneral account$ part e/position$ part narrative$ of the *classical* reeks from the heroic a4e down to their absorption into the Roman ?mpire$ the rise of the polis or *cit! state$* somethin4 of its variations in politics$ reli4ion$ literature$ philosoph!$ science$ and the arts, There is necessaril! some skimpin4, Throu4h the middle of the book the reader<s attention is fi/ed almost e/clusivel! on Athens, Since for the fifth centur!$ at least$ we know more about Athens than about all the rest of the reek states put to4ether$ writers of 4eneral introductions to reek life tend to 4ive the be4inner an impression that Athens was the onl! state where an!thin4 worth while was 4oin4 on, .r, %inle! is not alwa!s free from this fault, *This is a personal anal!sis$* he sa!s in his preface, @pinions are boldl! and trenchantl! stated, Here is an e/ample Fp, (#GA
Jthe temple was a house for a 4od$ not a place of worship, The rituals b! which one 4ave thanks to the @l!mpic 4ods or pleaded with them or appeased them re5uired no temple but an altar8 and altars e/isted ever!where$ in the homes and fields$ in the places of assembl!$ outside the temples: ever!where$ that is$ but not inside a temple The chapter on reek science and technolo4!$ the latter conspicuous b! its failure$ is brilliant$ perhaps the best in the book, @f course$ in so brief a discussion of vast issues$ this or that reader will find cause for disa4reement, A simple case is on pa4e #'A *he ZHesiod[ tells us all about himself,* He does not$ we don<t even know whether he was married, *The law is kin4* Fp, C#G is not a 4ood renderin4 of nomos ho panton basileus Fif that is what it is meant to represent8 sometimes the absence of specific reference is irritatin4G, 6n 4eneral$ .r, %inle!<s concept of nomos seems to me too narrow8 the nomoi of the reeks include not onl! their laws but the wa! the! dressed and dined and the food the! ate$ the wa! the! married and the wa! the! buried$ their mutual conduct within the famil!$ and the 4ods the! worshipped and how the! did it, Here$ despite their *particularism$* there is a remarkable de4ree of pan9Hellenic homo4eneit! which 6 think .r, %inle! underestimates Fp, (2G, +an! conclusions are bluntl! stated rather than ar4ued$ but despite
m! not infre5uent personal disa4reements$ 6 find this book more than stimulatin4, 6t is enli4htenin4, NYR Holida! Subscription Special email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo Series Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number N .ecember #D$ #&'( NabokovA the 0rose and 0oetr! of 6t All B! %,-, .upee "ladimir Nabokov"ladimir Nabokov b! .avid >evine Readers of >olita ma! recall that Humbert Humbert$ who delivers himself of the contents of the book while in confinement awaitin4 trial for murder$ is somethin4 of a poet, *You can alwa!s count on a murderer for a fanc! prose st!le$* he sa!s$ and !ou can count on this particular murderer for scattered fli4hts of verse as well, His are *occassional poems* in the most invidious sense possible, His muse materiali;es onl! intermittentl!$ and when she does it is in response to situations of a kind that do not$ as a rule$ 4ive rise to la poSsie pure:or whatever we ma! call the opposite of occasional poetr!, Hopin4$ for e/ample$ to calm his restless >olita he improvises a bit of what he tells her is *nonsense verse,* The S5uirl and his S5uirrel$ the Rabs and their Rabbits Have certain obscure and peculiar habits, +ale hummin4 birds make the most e/5uisite rockets,
The snake when he walks holds his hands in his pockets, *Nonsense is correct$* >olita sa!s mockin4l! perhaps 4uessin4 that Humbert<s weakness for n!mphets like herself lends the poem a certain *obscure and peculiar* sense which she would prefer to i4nore, As poet$ Humbert succeeds no better with Rita$ a temporar! replacement for >olita$ and one who knows her time is short, He tries to stop her accusin4 sobs b! e/tempori;in4 some verses about a certain *blue hotel* the! have 7ust motored past, *-h! blue when it is white$ wh! blue for heaven<s sakeI* she protests and starts cr!in4 a4ain, Humbert<s len4thiest effort is a ballad$ full of literar! allusions$ double9entendres$ and strai4ht %rench$ with which he writes to console himself for the loss of >olita, @ne stan;a readsA NYR Holida! Subscription Special Happ!$ happ! is 4narled +c%ate Tourin4 the States with a child wife$ 0lowin4 his +oll! in ever! State Amon4 the protected wild life, Humbert$ like other of Nabokov<s creatures$ forei4n or nutt! or both$ has a flair for knowin4 what is 4oin4 on in the American literar! world$ such as that *li4ht verse* has been made respectable b! +r,-,H, Auden and that poetr! of an! wei4ht lends itself nicel! to depth anal!sis, His own anal!st$ Humbert sa!s
of his balladA *6t is reall! a maniac<s masterpiece, The stark$ stiff$ lurid rh!mes correspond ver! e/actl! to certain perspectiveless and terrible landscapes and fi4uresJas drawn b! ps!chopaths in tests devised b! astute trainers,* He is aware$ too$ of that American specialt!$ the belief that poetr! inheres in phenomena themselves rather than in the poet$ and that to write a poem one need onl! catalo4ue phenomena in impressive numbers, So he pounces upon a mimeo4raphed list of names of >olita<s classmates$ surnames and first names intri4uin4l! reversed for the purpose of alphabeti;ation Fe,4,$ %ANTAR6A$ ST?>>A8 %>ASH+AN$ 6R"6N 8 HAR?$ .@>@R?SG, *A poem$ a poem$ forsoothL* he e/claims$ and 4oes on to ima4ine the occupants of the classroomA *Adorable Stella$ who has let stran4ers touch her8 6rvin4$ for whom 6 am sorr!$ etc,* Nor does Humbert<s muse desert him on the ultimate occasion, -hen$ 4un in hand$ he delivers sentence on his rival Clare Kuilt! prior to shootin4 him dead$ he does so in the accents of a certain poem$ well known to the literar! world$ about sin$ penitence$ and deathA Because !ou took advanta4e of a sinner because !ou took advanta4e because !ou took because !ou took advanta4e of m! disadvanta4eJ
*That<s damned 4ood$* sa!s Kuilt!$ providin4, Humbert with an approvin4$ if captive$ audience at last, %or Humbert$ the uses of poetr! are rather low, He mi4ht even be said to prostitute his muse, The uses of poetr! for Nabokov are hi4h$ thou4h not so hi4h as to rule out the efforts of those who are compelled into son4 b! mi/ed motives$ includin4 lust$ reven4e$ and the hope of a check from The New Yorker, >ike that other master of prose$ )ames )o!ce$ Nabokov aspired in !outh to be a poet, +ore than )o!ce did$ he has continued to write verse and to fill his novels with reflections on poetr!, The reflections are of ma7or importance8 the verse:the verse in ?n4lish at least:is minor$ as minor as verse could be and still remain interestin4, His forthcomin4 translation of 0ushkin<s ?u4ene @ne4in will conceivabl! stand as his main poetic achievement, %or !ears he has been 4oin4 on about 0ushkin F*the 4old reserve of our literature*G$ meanwhile preparin4 us for the ma4num opus b! translatin4 other Russian poets, He brin4s to poetr! and the informal criticism of poetr! the same spirit of connoisseurship which fills his work as a whole:an impassioned connoisseurship that unites the naturalist in him with the literar! artist and does dut!$ it would seem$ for doctrine, He has a mind too rich to be impoverished b! ideas, Before #&(&$ when he came to live in the =nited States and started publishin4 in ?n4lish$ he contributed a
number of poems to Russian Qmi4rQ periodicals in ?urope, Between #&C( and #&2T he wrote the fourteen poems which$ described as *his complete poetic works in ?n4lish$* were collected in a miniature volume succinctl! entitled 0oems F#&2&G, 0ale %ire$ his most recent novel in ?n4lish F#&'DG$ consists of a lon4 poem$ or 5uasi9poem$ ostensibl! written b! an American poet$ and of len4th! notes ostensibl! supplied b! a ?uropean9born editor, The last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian has latel! come out in ?n4lish:authentic Nabokovian ?n4lish, The ift is a deli4htful novel, 6t is also invaluable for what it tells us about its author<s relation to poetr! and to prose$ in the past as$ 6 venture$ at present, -ith The ift as a main te/t$ let us in5uire into those relations$ to the e/tent that we can do so in short space and with no knowled4e of Russian, The ift has been widel! and pleasantl! reviewed durin4 the months since it appeared, So far as 6 am aware$ however$ no one has pointed out that the book is a sort of hail and farewell to the poetic muse considered as a full time companion, A !oun4 poet formidabl! named %!odor odunov9Cherd!ntsev is the hero, F@ne of The ift<s best reviewers$ +r, Stanle! ?d4ar H!man$ tells us this was Nabokov<s own pen name as a poet:he si4ned his novels ", Sirin,G An Qmi4rQ Russian who has forfeited much to the Bolsheviks:a countr!
estate$ a St, 0etersbur4 town house$ probabl! a father$ possibl! a future as a native writer$ %!odor lives an e/ile<s desultor! life in Berlin$ movin4 from furnished room to furnished room$ 4ivin4 stupid ermans reluctant Russian lessons$ writin4 verses$ ima4inin4 the fine reviews his recentl! published book of poems will 4et$ recallin4 his Russian childhood$ min4lin4 diffidentl! with his 5uarrelsome fellow e/iles$ losin4 his ke!s$ 4ettin4 his clothes stolen at the rXnewald swimmin4 lake, His life is almost as unreal as the phenomenon we find him scrutini;in4 on the novel<s first pa4eA a movin4 van with *the name of the movin4 compan! in !ard9hi4h blue letters$ each of which Fincludin4 a s5uare dotG was shaded laterall! with black paint:a dishonest attempt to climb into the ne/t dimension,* %!odor seeks to climb into the ne/t dimension b! the frail but not dishonest ladder of poetr! alone, True$ he has a distinct *4ift* for it$ a charmin4 cra;e for words$ and a capacit! for hallucination which ver4es on secular m!sticism, The first chapter is$ amon4 other thin4s$ a little antholo4! of his poems, The! are about thin4s remembered from his childhood in Russia, +! ball has rolled under Nurse<s commode, @n the floor a candle Tu4s at the ends of the shadows This wa! and that$ but the ball is 4oneJ Hnocked from its hidin4 place b! a poker$ the
ball *Crosses the whole room and promptl! 4oes underBThe impre4nable sofa,* The lon4 line nicel! reproduces the effect of the ball<s trip across the room, But the ball remains lost, As the novel unfolds$ we see %!odor<s situation :which resembles the ball<s:reflected back at him in various wa!s b! people around him, There is the tra4ed! For tra4ic farceG of the !oun4 poet Yasha$ a recent suicide$ whose hopeless attachment to a erman !outh of the blond and blue9e!ed t!pe forms$ incidentall!$ a 4rim parod! of Thomas +ann, There is the pure farce of +r, Busch$ a >atvian with pretensions to poetr!, Before an audience chokin4 with stifled lau4hter$ he reads his *new$ philosophical tra4ed!,* 6t is %aust out of Brand out of Busch$ and includes the followin4 conversation in a *Street of Sin*A %6RST 0R@ST6T=T? All is water, That is what m! client 0halesZ_[ sa!s, S?C@N. 0R@ST6T=T? All is air$ !oun4 Ana/imines told me, TH6R. 0R@ST6T=T? All is number, +! bald 0!tha4oras cannot be wron4, %@=RTH 0R@ST6T=T? HeraclesZ_[ caresses me whisperin4 *All is fire,*
>@N? C@+0AN6@N FentersG All is fate, *There is no 4reat poetr! without parod!$* %!odor e/plains8 and in The ift the parodies tend to be better than the poems, So %!odor be4ins to feel that he will eventuall! want *to speak in 5uite another wa!$ not in miniature verse with charms and chimes$ but in ver!$ ver! different manl! wordsJ* 6ndeed$ durin4 an ima4inar! conversation with an older poet he respects$ he hears the man sa!A *B! the wa!$ 6<ve read !our ver! remarkable volume of poems, Actuall!$ of course$ the! are but models of !our future novels,* He stops tr!in4 to recapture his own childhood and undertakes to recreate in words$ first the final da!s of his beloved father$ a celebrated naturalist who has vanished on a scientific e/pedition to Asia$ the victim of an accident or of the Bolsheviks8 second$ the life of Chern!shevski$ the celebrated social critic of the #N'3<s$ father of Russian utilitarianism$ >enin<s mentor, %or these pro7ects$ %!odor abandons verse$ wooin4 instead *the +use of Russian prose9rh!thms,* His assault on Chern!shevski<s crude version of the liberal ima4ination stran4el! foreshadows the assault that 0roust$ at the start of his career as a serious writer$ made for similar reasons on Sainte9Beuve, But Contre Sainte9Beuve Fwhich$ incidentall!$ is of recent discover! and could not therefore have been in Nabokov<s mind durin4 the !ears #&(29(T
when The ift was writtenG is the tirade of t!ro when compared to Nabokov9%!odor<s e/plosive !et touchin4 portrait of Chern!shevski, Re7ected b! a publisher as *a s!rin4e of sulphuric acid$* the portrait is reall! part of %!odor<s attempt to contemplate Russian histor! without nostal4ia:that nostal4ia$ which$ in Nabokov<s view$ so often ends in paranoia, *-h!$* he asks$ *had ever!thin4 in Russia become so shodd!$ so crabbed and 4ra!$ how could she have become so befooled and befuddledI @r had the old <ur4e toward the li4ht< concealed a fatal flaw$ which in the course of pro4ress toward the ob7ective had 4rown more and more evident$ until it was revealed that this <li4ht< was burnin4 in the window of a prison overseer$ and that was allI* But %!odor<s attempt to climb into the ne/t dimension depends on other thin4s than writin4, He must unite himself$ as he does after man! false steps$ with a prett!$ intelli4ent$ hardworkin4 4irl who loves him and his poems$ her name bein4 Rina +ert;, Rina embodies$ alon4 with a poetic sensibilit!$ the advanta4es of 4ood prose, 6s this puttin4 it too neatl!I The novel itself has a rather pat wa! of makin4 its points$ a somewhat mechanical wa! of contrivin4 its 4ames of realit! and appearance, After all$ The ift is a comparativel! earl! work, 6n most respects$ thou4h$ the mature Nabokov is in command, %!odor and Rina meet in a settin4 that is prosaic with a ven4eance, 6t is one of those superlativel! drear! interiors$ epitomi;ed b!
the communal bathroom and the communal bar of soap with the sin4le hair in it$ which Nabokov loves to swoop down on$ whether in Berlin or the =,S,A,$ from the hi4h9wire of fantas!, This feelin4 for the commonplace at its commonest shows that his affinit! with )o!ce e5uals his affinit! Fmore obvious in The iftG with 0roust, %!odor writes a poem addressed to Rina but printed in prose, *>ook at that street:it runs to China strai4ht$ and !onder star above the "ol4a 4lowsL* Thus$ in a fashion$ the man and the woman$ the e/ile and his homeland$ the poet and the prose writer come to4ether, Need we conclude that Nabokov has *sacrificed* poetr! to proseI 6 doubt it, The ?n4lish poems$ all but two of them first printed in The New Yorker$ are$ it is true$ of a kind called *lapidar!,* Nevertheless$ as +r, Nathaniel Reicheck has su44ested$ *the poet 4oes be!ond the limits of his art without violatin4 its canon, This enlar4ement of a traditional form is made possible b! his campai4n to re9desi4n the ?n4lish lan4ua4e, His prosod! is a uni5ue and subtle parod! of the ori4inal,* This$ a4ain$ ma! be overstatin4 thin4s$ but not b! much, The ?n4lish poems do have a peculiar small e/cellenceA perfect lucidit!$ precise wit$ the 4low of a li4hted candle cupped in an e/pert hand a4ainst the wind! verse roundabout, *A >iterar! .inner* is Charles Addams 4lorified, The poem turns on a misunderstandin4 such as mi4ht occur
between a hostess whose enunciation was unclear and a forei4n 4uest whose ear was imperfectl! tuned to slurred ?n4lish, *6 want !ou$ she murmured$ to eat .r, )ames,* And so$ amid dull talk at the table$ he does eat .r, )ames, All was 4ood and well9cooked$ but the tastiest part was his nut9flavored$ crisp cerebellum lum, The heart resembled a shin! brown date$ and 6 stowed all his studs on the ed4e of m! plate, Such a nice forei4n 4uest$ obli4in4$ hun4r!$ and neat, %or wit min4led with l!rical deli4ht$ *An ?venin4 of Russian 0oetr!* comes closest to bein4 *4reat*:besides bein4 a helpful treatise on versification, Referrin4 to the Russian poets< *passion for e/pansion$* the lecturer 4oes on to e/emplif! it in several asides$ b! turns paranoiac and nostal4ic in mood, +! back is Ar4us9e!ed, 6 live in dan4er, %alse shadows turn to track me as 6 passJ Be!ond the seas where 6 have lost a sceptre 6 hear the nei4hin4 of m! dappled nouns$ soft participles comin4 down the steps$ treadin4 on leaves$ trailin4 their rustlin4 4owns$ and li5uid verbs in ahla and in ili$
Aonian 4rottoes$ ni4hts in the Altal$ black pools of sound with *6*s for water lilies, The empt! 4lass 6 touched is tink9 lin4 still$ but now <tis covered b! a hand and diesJ -hile writin4 these verses Nabokov was elaboratin4 the ?n4lish prose which$ somewhat subdued in Sebastian Hni4ht$ sometimes out of hand in Bend Sinister$ would culminate in the controlled sinuosities of >olita$ the almost paranoid elo5uence of 0ale %ire, Hinbote<s elo5uence$ 6 mean$ for the point of the novel$ rhetoricall! speakin4$ seems to lie in the inflamed !et often beautiful writin4 of Hinbote<s editorial notes and the paler fires$ the intermittent beauties$ of )ohn Shade<s poem, +ar! +cCarth! has said much about the book in her remarkable anal!sis and pane4!ric in The New Republic, @ne need onl! add a few words on Shade<s poem, .istressed b! his dau4hter<s suicide$ the father tries to conve! his 4rief$ his thou4hts on death in 4eneral$ in a kind of 0opian four9part epistle constructed of the appropriate couplets, But he cannot rise either to 0ope<s scarif!in4 realism or to the dashin4 architectonics of 0ope<s verse, Shade starts to 5uote the 4reat lines from the ?ssa! on +anA See the blind be44ar dance$ the cripple sin4$ The sot a hero$ lunatic a kin4, But he breaks the lines midwa!$ addin4 that
*the! smack of a heartless a4e,* The poem has an inner sub7ect that 4oes unperceived b! either Shade or his editor$ who ima4ines the poem is about him and his *lost sceptre$* his livin4 *in dan4er,* The inner sub7ect is the blindness of Shade<s 4rief$ his helplessness before the e/tremities of passion and death$ the spiritual deformit! which was his dau4hter<s sole inheritance from him but which the sin4in4 cripple and the crippled 0ope do not share, So the poem maunders alon4$ lovel! in spots$ penetratin4 in other spots$ now ele4iac$ now cheer!, 6t clothes itself in a simulacrum of 0opian couplets without attainin4 to the hard antitheses$ the decisive pauses$ which are the prosodic mirror of 0ope<s tou4her mind, Shade is a portrait of the poet as rustic American, The rustic American poet could use some of Hinbote<s passion:but instead 4ets the bullet intended for Hinbote, As so often in our author<s books$ it takes two men to make a Nabokovian man:two men who$ however$ rarel! 4et to4ether, -ith a writer$ if he is a 4enius$ the dualit! ma! be made to work for him$ 7ust as the Siamese twins in the stor!$ *Scenes from the >ife of a .ouble +onster$* are finall! put to work b! =ncle Novus, Nabokov has done the same with the poet9novelist in him$ made of them a team, Thus he has been able to perfect an ?n4lish prose medium whose fle/ibilit! is adapted to the astonishin4 ran4e$ the endless contradictions$ of his nature$ of Nature itself, Some of those future novels of which %!odor<s
poems were the models have$ we know$ alread! come into bein4, After the translation of 0ushkin<s novel in verse$ others ma! follow, email icon ?mail to a friend Notes Z_[ 6t is Busch<s fault$ not the proofreader<s$ that Thales becomes 0hales and Heraclitus becomes Heracles, Search the Review Advanced search NYR Holida! Subscription Special NYRB Children<s 0icture Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number N .ecember #D$ #&'( Bo4us To4as B! +,6, %inle! The Civili;ation of Rome b! 0ierre rimal$ translated b! -,S, +a4uiness Simon and Schuster$ 2(# pp,$ 1##,23 The Revolutions of Ancient Rome b! %,R, Cowell 0rae4er$ DDN pp,$ 12,T2 Towards the middle of the second centur! B,C,$ Cato the Censor wrote a manual$ .e A4ricultura$ on the mana4ement of lar4e estates operated with slave labor, *Sell the old work o/en$* he recommended$ *the wool$ the skins$ the old wa4on$ the worn9out iron tools$ the a4ed slave$ the slave that is diseased$ and ever!thin4 else that Z!ou do[ not need,* This passa4e evoked in 0lutarch several an4r! pa4esA this is not mere miserliness$ he insisted$ but e/cessive meanness of character, 0rofessor rimal$ on the other hand$ finds no room for the passa4e in the five pa4es he devotes to Cato<s book, He acknowled4es that some of the slaves lived and worked in chains$ but$ he adds$ *we are not to suppose that the master emplo!ed such methods because he liked them,* ?lsewhere Fin reviewin4 +ichael
rant<s The -orld of RomeG he e/panded that point in a most revealin4 wa!A 6s it 7ust to state that *there is no trace of humanit! in Cato*JI The book on A4riculture is 7ust a handbook about the best wa! to make mone!, Cato has no intention of passin4 7ud4ment on the human values of a s!stem firml! established around him:and it is conceivable that even a 4ood businessman mi4ht be humane in his private lifeJ -e are told that some of the most bloodthirst! 7urists of the past have been kind men$ devoted to their friends and 5uite amiable, 6t is b! such special pleadin4 alone that it is possible to reach the remarkable conclusion that *Rome was the most marvelousl! humane societ! that the world had hitherto known,* -hat about the proscriptions under +arius and Sulla$ in which both sides butchered thousands of their opponents in the streets of RomeI The! 4et a sin4le sentence and the word *proscription* does not appear in the inde/, The 4ladiatorial showsI Yes$ that was prett! shockin4$ but: NYR Holida! Subscription Special it would be un7ust to denounce it as a fault peculiar to the >atins of Rome, As we have alread! said$ 4ladiatorial contests were of forei4n ori4inJ The best of the Romans are unlikel! to have derived an! pleasure from them, The spectators consisted mainl! of the
cit! plebs$ packed with men from all the +editerranean lands, The 4reat popularit! of 4ladiatorial contests dates precisel! from the period when the plebs had ceased to be$ properl! speakin4$ RomanJ This racist defence:let us not mince wordsA that is what it is in its purest form:is an old stor! in the writin4 of Roman histor!, +r, Cowell shares it with 0rofessor rimal thou4h he 7ud4es Rome throu4h spectacles of another tint, +arius had a *coarse foul nature*8 Sulla *was worse*8 Caesar ma! not have been *mentall! diseased$ personall! contemptible$ beastl! or ruthless* like *dictators of our recent memor!$* but his sei;ure of power was a *personal revolution* in which *constructive measures were few*8 after Caesar$ *never a4ain were free institutions to flourish in Rome$* !et his assassination was *irresponsible foll!,* All that +r, Cowell can offer in e/planation of the mess is a chan4e in *the 4eneral <set< and direction of mind* behind the process b! which freedmen and their descendants 4rew in numbers to swamp the descendants of free Romans, Here was a silent revolution which did more to alter the whole tone and 5ualit! of Roman civili;ation than all the political revolutions put to4ether, +r, Cowell has read his >iv!, .oes he reall! believe that the pure9blooded senators of the
earl! books were less ruthless$ less brutal$ more humane than Cato or +arius or Sulla$ all of whom were$ so far as we know$ untainted *descendants of free Romans*I @r that 0lutarch$ a reek like man! of the Roman slaves and freedmen$ had a weaker moral fiber than the foul +ariusI These are not useful cate4ories of historical anal!sis in this naked form, *The 4eneral <set< and direction of mind* is not somethin4 which 7ust lives or dies or chan4es in m!sterious wa!s all b! itself$ *Caesar was not Rome$* proclaims 0rofessor, rimal8 the *conspirators who smote him in the name of freedomJwere obedient to the ver! lo4ic of Rome,* -ith that wholl! meanin4less remark we have attained a new kind of Nirvana$ the state of complete emptiness, 6 cannot rest there$ however$ without raisin4 the 5uestion of what is happenin4 to reputable publishin4, 0rofessor rimal<s te/t occupies less than (33 pa4es, There are 4ood maps and charts and a lar4e number of useful pictures, The translation from the %rench is 4ood, Then comes the paddin4, No fewer than CN pa4es are occupied b! chronolo4ical tables in si/ columns$ the 5ualit! of which ma! be illustrated b! the fact that the column headed *Cultural ?vents outside 6tal!* has e/actl! ei4ht entries between D33 B,C, and #2 A,., Fe/tendin4 between pp,(TT and (&2G$ of which five record the erection of buildin4s and a
si/th is the absurd entr! under the !ear #33 B,C,$ *so9called >a Tene 666 Celtic civili;ation,* 6n place of a traditional inde/ there is a *historical and bio4raphical dictionar!* of nearl! #33 pa4es$ some of which is useful but much of which merel! repeats information alread! 4iven in the main bod! of the book, The len4th! biblio4raph! is alto4ether useless for the audience to which the book is directed, +ost of the books are in %rench$ erman and 6talian$ man! completel! outdated8 some of the most useful ?n4lish works$ such as +ichael rant<s or Rostovt;eff<s Rome or -estermann<s book on ancient slaver! are omitted8 available ?n4lish translations are sometimes indicated but usuall! not8 no serious effort has been made to check the latest editions, The notes on the plates are e5uall! shodd!A dates are sometimes 4iven$ sometimes not$ and the same is true of dimensions, 6 do not know who prepared all this apparatus but the final responsibilit! is the publisher<s Fin this case$ 6 should sa!$ an ?n4lish firm in the first instanceG, These are chiefl! technical matters that an! 4ood research assistant could cope with, At 1##,23 a bu!er is entitled to some consideration and even some e/pense, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search
Books V ifts NYRB B Christmas Classics Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number N .ecember #D$ #&'( Science %iction B! )ohn Hollander A "o!a4e To Arcturus b! .avid >indsa! +acmillan$ DCC pp,$ 1C,&2 Russian Science %iction An Antholo4!$ ed, b! Robert +a4idoff New York =niversit!$ DN3 pp,$ 12,33 The distinctions between true science fiction and what is called fantas! literature are ;ealousl! 4uarded even b! consumers of the ma4a;ines which publish both sorts of material, 6n 4eneral$ science fiction appears to be more tou4hminded$ and its aficionados tend to think of the fantas! product as bein4 somehow intellectuall! inferior, And !et the evidence is stron4 that the same sort of people like both sorts of thin48 it would be hard to tell whether a rather t!pical kind of anti9literar!$ know9nothin4$ do9it9!ourself American intelli4ence$ that of an en4ineer or a technician$ would 4ravitate more towards one than another, FNast! footnote on the two culturesA 6t is said that +,6,T, decided to start up a decent humanities pro4ram when a shockin4l! hi4h percenta4e of a 4roup of
students interviewed declared that the book that had been most important to them was The RobeG, 6ndeed$ it is a moot point whether never havin4 read an!thin4 4ood would make one prefer science fiction<s 4immickr! or fantas!<s romantic corn, The two 4enres are easil! distin4uished, Hin4sle! Amis has remarked that *while science fiction maintains a respect for fact or presumptive fact$ fantas! makes a point of floutin4 these8 for a furniture of robots$ space9 ships$ techni5ues and e5uations it substitutes elves$ broomsticks$ occult powers and incantations,* %rom another point of view it mi4ht appear that fantas! uses the traditional ima4inative materials of romance and 4host9 stor!$ inheritin4 alon4 with these a moral climate in which beaut! is virtue$ and an =nnatural 0resence is, b! and lar4e, a Bad Thin4, %antas! is ima4inativel! *softer* than science fiction$ and ver! often weaker$ despite its literar! sources:the m!thopoeia of the ?n4lish romantic poets$ for e/ample, Sometimes$ in a writer like H, 0, >ovecraft$ there will be a conscious effort to create such a m!tholo4ical cosmos, But in 4eneral$ fantas! literature$ unlike much 4ood science fiction$ never stra!s too far from the "ictorian9 othic world shadowed b! latent se/ualit!$ and shrill! defiant of science, 6n 4eneral$ too$ mood is favored over the structural 4immick of science fiction$ 7ust as$ in the writin4$ ima4e triumphs over idea, So that while$ at worst$ a science
fiction stor! will be a bun4led bit of slick9 ma4a;ine drivel$ creakin4 alon4 on some traditional science fiction donnQe invented b! a writer back in the Thirties$ a fantas! stor! will usuall! end up as a bad poem, NYRB B Chr!salids Holida! The sub9literar! 4enre of science fiction has contributed to the histor! of the novel b! providin4 models for @rwell$ ?u4ene Ramiatin before him$ Hu/le! and$ more recentl!$ -illiam oldin4, The le4itimate pro7ections of fantas! would perhaps be in the novels of Charles -illiams$ in the Tolkien trilo4!$ or in The +an -ho was Thursda!, oldin4$ as a matter of fact$ seems to have more in common$ in a book like The 6nheritors$ with this latter 4roupA tra4ed! and its moral world$ for e/ample$ are illuminated b! means of the technical devices of science fiction$ but for vastl! different ends, The basic science fiction narrative and dramatic method involves pro7ectin4 the reader directl! into a h!pothetical world$ startin4 out in medias res with somethin4 like *>opp looked up at the moons$ decided it was time to leave$ and turned on the m<;or4;abber* and allowin4 the donnQe or 4immick 4raduall! to dawn upon him, -hat @rwell and particularl! oldin4 reali;ed was that this discover! on the reader<s part about 7ust what in heaven was 4oin4 on$ could be turned into a complicated kind of ana4norisis for ver! different purposes, A fictional counterpart of this is the use b! Conrad$ and
%aulkner followin4 him$ of narrative murk$ the device that causes the reader to keep flippin4 back throu4h the previous twent! pa4es to find out if he<s missed an earlier reference, But here the effect is melodrama, 6n science fiction pure and simple$ the effect is to allow the reader<s 4radual dopin49out of the pu;;le to stand for the transition from naturalism to the world of the stor!A a coathook on which to han4 his disbelief$ in short, But in fantas! fiction$ all that the fo4 of improbabilit! can 4enerate is somethin4 its contemporar! authors can think of as *mood*, A "o!a4e to Arcturus$ first published in #&D3 and written b! someone its American publishers inade5uatel! represent on the 7acket as *.avid >indsa!$ the ?n4lish author* Fthis sounds like a prank of S, ), 0erelmanG looks at first like an inept borderline case, The openin4 is un5uestionabl! that of fantas! kitsch Fand havin4 mentioned 0erelman$ 6 can<t help 5uotin4 the first sentenceA *@n a +arch evenin4 at ei4ht o<clock$ Backhouse$ the medium:a fast9risin4 star in the ps!chic world :was ushered into the stud! at 0rolands$ the Hampstead residence of +onta4ue %aull,*G After a chapter of this Sa/ Rohmer9minus nonsense$ we 4et some substandard science fiction$ in which the stor!<s prota4onist$ +askull$ a companion named Ni4htspore and an interstellar visitor named Hra4 head toward one of the planets of Arcturus in a ship powered b! the pull of li4ht Fa reciprocal of its
pressureG and e/ceedin4$ one must assume$ even its tractor in velocit!, But after landin4 on the planet Tormance and meetin4 its ?n4lish9speakin4 humanoid inhabitants$ +askull$ now alone$ enters another literar! realm, %or a bit of ludicrous rubbish is transformed into a rather movin4 heroic poem$ a prose romance deepl! rooted in an ?n4lish poetic tradition embracin4 Spenser$ +ilton and the Romantics, The world throu4h which +askull moves has a basicall! earthlike 4eo4raph! and its inhabitants are individuals rather than tribal 4roups or societies, The! inhabit a spiritual universe apparentl! divided b! a +anichaean stru44le for swa! between one +uspel and one Cr!stalman, As the prota4onist 7ourne!s toward understandin4 of his predicament$ ac5uirin4 new or4ans of perception at various sta4es of his 7ourne!$ the inhabitants become more and more confusin4 about the nature of the two deities$ or forces, This is no Charles -illiams world$ where the blacks and whites of eschatolo4ical li4ht blot out the muted colors of the li4ht of common da!, Rather it is an ori4inal m!thical landscape$ loosel! alle4ori;in4 states of human consciousness rather than ethical abstractions, @ne wonders what readers accustomed to science fiction or fantas!$ in which !ou can alwa!s tell the 4ood 4u!s from the bad 4u!s$ will make of a 7ourne! amon4 unfallen men over a landscape havin4 more in common with parts of The %ail of H!perion and
The %our Roas FBlake is$ 6 think$ an e/tremel! stron4 influence hereG$ with colors and shapes taken from 0rometheus =nbound, The final resolution$ in which the comple/ identit! relations between +uspel$ Cr!stalman$ +askull$ Ni4htspore$ and Hra4 are all resolved$ is far from bein4 a traditional Christian one, 6 don<t think that such a book could have been written in the 4uise of science fiction after the Second -orld -ar, The 4enre developed to such a de4ree that the inept openin4 would have dis5ualified it$ and the mi/ture of fantas! and science fiction would be considered passQ, Not so in the Soviet =nion$ however, Robert +a4idoff has compiled and .oris )ohnson has edited an antholo4! of Russian science fiction stories that certainl! include elements of both traditions, 6t is a little hard to 7ud4e some of these a4ainst An4lo9American standards$ for we are 4iven no dates of appearance of these tales, Nor is +r, +a4idoff<s introduction of much help on this or an! score$ bein4 far less shrewd and ineisive than those of 6ssac Asimov Fdespite their unfortunate prose mannerismsG to a similar pair of antholo4ies available in Collier Books paper format, There appears to be a chronolo4ical span from a stor! b! Ale/ander Bel!aev$ which wouldn<t hold up ver! well a4ainst what was bein4 written here in the late Thirties$ throu4h two e/cellent pieces b! 6van Yefremov$ which could appear$ mutatis mutandis$ in an! respectable
American periodical Fthe ideolo4! is troped in rather ele4antl!$ and the appropriate American lib9lab material could easil! be substitutedG, The most recent stor! in the collection is .udintsev<s *New Year<s %able$* which doesn<t belon4 there at all, But if one can 4uess about dates from the technolo4ical advances in the stories$ the Russians seem to be closin4 the sophistication 4ap at last$ with respect to this literar! form an!wa!, email icon ?mail to a friend >etters )anuar! D($ #&'CA @skar Anderson$ Science %iction Search the Review Advanced search NYR Holida! Subscription Special Books V ifts Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number & .ecember D'$ #&'( The Habit B! -illiam St!ron The Consumers =nion Report on Smokin4 and the 0ublic 6nterest b! Ruth Brecher$ b! ?dward Brecher et al, Consumers =nion of the =,S,$ 6nc,8 distributed b! Simon and Schuster$ DDD pp,$ 1#,23 FpaperG The lamentable histor! of the ci4arette is that of a mortall! corruptin4 addiction havin4 been embraced b! millions of people in the spirit of childlike innocence, 6t is a histor! which is also strikin4l! briet, Ci4arettes be4an to be manufactured e/tensivel! around the turn of the centur!$ but it was not until as recentl! as #&D# that ci4arettes overtook chewin4 tobacco$ as well as pipes and ci4ars$ in per capita consumption$ and the #&(3s were well alon4 before ci4arette smokin4 became the accepted thin4 for ladies, The popularit! of ci4arettes was inevitable and overwhelmin4, The! were not offensive in close 5uarters$ nor mess! like pipes and ci4ars, The! were easil! portable, The! did not look 4ross and unseeml! in a lad!<s mouth, The! were cheap to manufacture$ and the! were inhalable, =nlike the 4reat ma7orit! of
pipe and ci4ar smokers$ whose pleasure is predominentl! oral and contemplative$ most ci4arette smokers inhale deep into their lun4s with bladelike$ rh!thmic sava4er!$ inflictin4 upon themselves in miniature a particularl! abrasive form of air pollution, %urther$ the ver! fact of inhalation seems to enhance the ci4arette<s addictive power, =nhappil!$ few suspected the conse5uences in terms of health until lon4 after ci4arette smokin4 had 4ained its colossal momentum, That this t!pe of auto9 contamination is a ma7or cause of lun4 cancer :that it is also a prime causative factor in deaths from coronar! arter! disease$ bronchitis$ asthma$ emph!sema$ amon4 other afflictions:was established$ and for the first time well9publici;ed$ onl! a decade a4o, The effect this knowled4e has had upon the public consciousness ma! be su44ested b! the fact that sales this !ear reached the 4alactic sum of one9half trillion ci4arettes:one hundred billion more than in #&2(, There is somethin4 historicall! intimidatin4 in the idea that ci4arette smokin4 as a mass diversion and a ra4in4 increase in lun4 cancer have both come about durin4 the lifetime of those who are now no more than fift! !ears old, 6t is the ver! recentness of the phenomenon which helps make it so shockin4, The hard truth is that human bein4s have never in such a brief space of time$ and in so 4rand and 4uileless a multitude$ embraced a habit whose unwholesome effects would not onl! totall! outwei4h the mea4er satisfactions$ but would
hasten the deaths of a lar4e proportion of the people who indul4ed in it, Certainl! Fand there seems little doubt that the Sur4eon eneral<s report$ bein4 released this month$ will make this clearG onl! nuclear fall9out e/ceeds ci4arette smokin4 in 4ravit! as a public health problem, NYRB B Names on the >and %or its lucid presentation of the medical evidence alone$ The Consumers =nion Report on Smokin4 would be a valuable document, *The conclusion is inescapable$* the Report be4ins$ *and even spokesmen for the ci4arette industr! rarel! seek to escape itA we are livin4 in the midst of a ma7or lun4 cancer epidemic, This epidemic hit men first and hardest$ but has affected women as well, 6t cannot be e/plained awa! b! such factors as improved dia4nosis, And there is reason to believe that the worst is !et to come,* Yet despite this minator! be4innin4 the tone throu4hout is one of caution and reasonableness$ and the authors:who mana4e an accomplished prose st!le rare in such collective undertakin4s: marshal their facts with such efficienc! and persuasion that it is hard to ima4ine an!one but a fool or a tobacco lobb!ist den!in4 the close association between smokin4 and lun4 cancer, Yet$ of course$ not onl! lun4 cancer, The Report 5uotes$ for instance$ data based on an e/tensive stud! of smokers and non9 smokers amon4 ?n4lish ph!sicians$ where the death rate from all causes was found to be
doubled amon4 heav! ci4arette smokers in the 4roup of men past '2$ and 5uadrupled in the 4roup (2 to CC, And the Report adds$ with the modest and constructive iron! that makes the book$ if not e/actl! a 7o!$ then a4reeable to readA *These death rates amon4 smokers are perhaps the least controversial of all the findin4s to date, %or with respect to an! particular disease there is alwa!s the possibilit!$ however remote$ that mistaken dia4nosis and other conceivable errors ma! cast doubt on the statistics, But death is easil! dia4nosed,* 6n the end$ however$ what makes the Report<s messa4e supportable to those distracted souls amon4 the millions of American smokers who ma! wish to kick the habit:or who$ havin4 kicked the habit$ ma! wonder if it is not too late:is a kind of muted optimism, %or all present evidence seems to indicate that the common cocktail part! rationali;ation F*6<ve smoked too lon4 to stop now$ the dama4e is done*G has no real basis in fact, 6n research carried out b! the American Cancer Societ!$ microscopic studies of the lun4 tissues of e/9 smokers have shown a process in which precancerous cells are d!in4 out instead of flourishin4 and reproducin4 as in the tissues of continuin4 smokers, Here the Report states$ in re4ard to a carefull! matched 4roup composed in e5ual numbers of non9smokers$ e/9smokers$ and smokersA *+etaplastic cells with altered nucici Zi,e,$ precancerous cells[ were found in
#,D per cent of the slides from the lun4s of non9smokers$ as compared with ',3 for e/9 smokers:and &(,D per cent for current smokers,* Certainl! such evidence$ combined with the fact that e/9smokers have a lun4 cancer death rate which ran4es down to one9fifth of that of smokers who continue to smoke$ should be of the 4reatest practical interest to an!one who ponders whether it ma! be worthwhile abandonin4 what is$ after all$ a cheerless$ 4rubb!$ fumblin4 addiction, F@nl! the passion of a convert could provoke these last words, The Report was an aid to m! stoppin4 a two9 pack9a9da! habit which commenced in earl! infanc!, @f course stoppin4 smokin4 ma! be in itself a ma7or problem$ one of ps!cholo4ical comple/it!, %or m!self$ after two or three da!s of 4reat flaccidit! of spirit$ an aimless oral !earnin4$ achin4 moments of hun4er at the pit of the stomach$ and an awful intermittent ur4e to burst into tears$ the problem resolved itself$ and in less than a week all cravin4 vanished, Curiousl!$ for the first time in m! life$ 6 developed a rackin4 cou4h$ but this$ too$ disappeared, A sense of smu4ness$ a kind of fatness of soul$ is the reward for such a stru44le, The intensit! of the addiction varies$ however$ and some people find the ordeal fearfull! difficult$ if not ne/t to impossible, 6 do have an ur4ent suspicion$ thou4h$ that the 4reatest barrier to a termination of the habit is the dread of some %austian upheaval$ when in
fact the deprivation$ while momentaril! oppressive$ is apt to prove not reall! cruel at all,G But it the Report is splendidl! effective as a caveat$ it ma! be read for its sociolo4ical insi4hts as well, Certainl! the histor! of commerce has few instances of such shameful abdication of responsibilit! as that displa!ed b! the ci4arette industr! when in #&2D the *health scare$* as it is so winsomel! known in the trade$ brou4ht about the crisis which will reach a head in this month<s report b! the Sur4eon eneral, 6t seems clear that the industr!$ instead of tr!in4 to forestall the inevitable with its lies and evasions$ mi4ht have ac5uitted itself with some honor had it made what the Report calls the onl! feasible choicesA to have ur4ed caution on smokers$ to have 4iven mone! to independent research or4ani;ations$ to have avoided propa4anda and controvers! in favour of unbiased in5uir!, At the ver! least the industr! mi4ht have soft9 pedalled or$ indeed$ silenced its pitch to !oun4 people, But panic and 4reed dominated the reaction$ and durin4 the decade since the smokin49lun4 cancer link was made public$ the official position of the industr! has been that$ in the matter of lun4 cancer$ the villain is an! and ever!thin4 but the ci4arette, ?ven the American Cancer Societ! is in on the evil plot and$ in the words of one industr! spokesman$ *relies almost whol! upon health scare propa4anda to raise millions of dollars from a
4ullible public,* +eanwhile$ 1D33 million was spent last !ear on ci4arette ball!hoo$ and durin4 these last crucial ten !ears the annual advertisin4 e/penditure has increased #(C per cent:a vast amount of it$ of course$ 4oin4 to entice the ver! !oun4, @ne million of these !oun4 people$ accordin4 to the American 0ublic Health Association$ will die of smokin49induced lun4 cancer before the! reach the a4e of sevent! !ears, *Between the time a kid is ei4hteen and twent!9one$ he<s 4oin4 to make the basic decision to smoke or not to smoke$* sa!s >, -, Bruff$ advertisin4 director of >i44ett and +!ers, *6f he does decide to smoke we want to 4et him,* 6 have never met +r, Bruff$ but in m! mind<s e!e 6 see him$ poised like a cormorant above those doomed minnows$ and 6 am amused b! the refinement$ the wei4ht of conscience$ the delicate interpla! of intellectual and moral alternatives$ which 4o into the makin4 of such a prodi4ious thou4ht, As the report demonstrates$ however$ +r, Bruff is onl! t!pical of the leaders of an industr! which last !ear received a bount! of 1T billion from '( million American smokers, 0erhaps the tra4ic realit! is that neither this estimable report nor that of the Sur4eon eneral can measureabl! affect$ much less reall! chan4e$ such awesome fi4ures, email icon ?mail to a friend
Search the Review Advanced search >ittle Bookroom B Riviera >ittle Bookroom B 0udlo %rance Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,
The New York Review of Books Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books "olume #$ Number & .ecember D'$ #&'( .ark +ission B! ),H, 0lumb >ivin4stone<s African )ournals #N2(92' edited with an 6ntroduction b! 6, Schapera California$ two volumes FD(' P D2&G pp,$ 1##,23 African e/plorers are at a discount:at least in Africa, Their statues are bein4 broken up or removed to obscure suburbs, As one native of N!asaland remarked about >ivin4stone$ *How could he have discovered usI -e were alwa!s hereL* %or !oun4 nations stru44lin4 towards independence$ the recent past is often best for4otten in order to obliterate the shame$ the frustration$ the sense of inade5uac! which e/ploitation and submission alwa!s create, So the stature of the 4reat e/plorers:+un4o 0ark$ H, +, Stanle!$ Heinrich Barth$ Richard Burton and the rest will diminish, The! will be reduced to cos! adventure9readin4 a la +oorehead$ or buried in meticulous scholarship W la Schapera, The careful annotation of >ivin4stone<s diaries and 7ournals$ however$ needed to be done and +r, Schapera has done it as well as it can be done :minute variations between the 7ournals and the final published version$ +issionar! Travels
and Researches$ are correct to a thousandth of a comma$ the failure to track down obscure place names in the Barotseland a;eteer unfla44in4l! recorded$ and plants$ animals$ fishes described in the splendid rotundit! of their scientific nomenclatureA for the addict of editorial virtuosit! this book could become an obsession8 but most readers mi4ht doubt whether these rou4h notes deserved such Herculean labors, However$ the! have been performed$ and this edition will last$ awaitin4 the historian$ black or white$ who will finall! 7ud4e the missionar! factor in African histor!$ doubtless as a part of that 4reater and more difficult evaluation of the role of the white man in the development of Africa, -hatever the color of the historian$ the assessment will be difficult$ for ambi4uities of motive are as commonplace as the African atrocities perpetrated b! Arabs and ?uropeans, NYR Holida! Subscription Special 6n #N23$ the condition of Africa was appallin4 b! an! standards, Rarel! in the histor! of the world had human life been held in such contempt, The Habaka of =4anda had no hesitation in shootin4 a pa4e to see how a rifle worked$ but so low a view of the worth of life ever!where abounded, Time and time a4ain in his sad$ cool$ compassionate wa! >ivin4stone reports the terrible treatment meted out b! African chiefs and traders to their slaves, Yesterda! mornin4 a man was deliberatel!
beatin4 a poor captive from the east for havin4 endeavored to escape, She was 5uite naked$ and holdin4 up her poor dress in both hands as a sort of shield a4ainst the fre5uent blows of hippopotamus hide, At other times sick captives were left to die8 !oun4 children$ wanted for sale$ were fre5uentl! torn from their families8 tribal war flourished as vi4orousl! as disease, And disease$ in some wa!s$ was a 4reater horror than slaver!, Animals as well as men were full of it, 0estilence of ever! kind flourished with a tropical lu/uriance:partl! because of climate and h!4ienic conditions but also because the vast ma7orit! of Africans$ then as now$ lived on the threshhold of starvation, So life was desperatel! cheap$ and !oun4 and old$ male and female$ were 4iven awa!$ driven awa!$ at times 7ust thrown awa!, Althou4h >ivin4stone had 4rown up in the harsh and brutal conditions of industrial Scotland$ he could never 4row callous to the desperate pli4ht of ordinar! Africans, And these 7ournals possess a ni4htmare 5ualit!, >ivin4stone came to believe that there was but one solution to Africa<s pli4ht:trade, Conversion without economic development seemed to him a hopeless crusade, >ivin4stone saw od as workin4 for man<s future not onl! throu4h missionaries but also throu4h sanitar! en4ineers,
The si4ht made m! heart sick and soreJ6t is distressin4$ besides$ to see poor bo!s 4oin4 about pickin4 up 4rains of corn which have fallen in the Hotla:almost skeletons, Their masters$ bein4 ni44ardl!$ !et retain them in starvation$ thou4h their parents would 4ladl! feed them if onl! allowed, -e are parts of the machiner! He emplo!s but not e/clusive parts$ for all who are en4a4ed in amelioratin4 the condition of our race are fellow9workers$ co9operators with od :sanitar! reformers and cler4! of all sorts$ the soldiers at Sebastopol and sailors of the coast of Africa$ inventors of tele4raphs and steam en4ines$ promoters of emi4ration and of prison reform, -herever he traveled in Africa$ he was on the look9out for commodities to e/ploit$ trade routes to develop$ for land on which white men mi4ht settle$ or Africans improve with new crops, The salvation of the African la! throu4h Birmin4ham and +anchester$ and >ivin4stone and his fellow missionaries re4arded philanthrop! at ten per cent as a natural$ reasonable$ and entirel! honorable act of benevolence$ particularl! if conducted b! the British rather than the Boers or 0ortu4uese, About such an attitude it is eas! to be c!nical$ but in #N23 there was no other wa!, .ark and blood! thou4h the paths of colonial e/ploitation have been$ the! have led towards a future of human di4nit! for the AfricanA and$
e/cept for the vile re4ime of >eopold in the Con4o and a few other pockets of depravit!$ the ni4ht of terror for the ordinar! African was first dispelled b! colonial administration, And succulent thou4h the British pickin4s ma! have been in Africa$ Britons not onl! stamped out the slave trade$ but also launched Africa into the twentieth centur!$ and then 5uit with a better 4race and a better sense than most, Throu4hout British involvement in Africa$ stron4 streaks of altruism la! side b! side with fatter la!ers of cupidit!$ but the! were alwa!s discernable, The British were at an! rate honorable, >ivin4stone was not alone in wantin4 to end the bestialit!$ povert!$ disease$ and brutalit! that was most Africans< lot$ or to stop the Arabs$ who were makin4 it worse$ b! white control, His panacea was trade$ industr!$ better a4ricultureA in fact that self9same economic 4rowth which is still seen to be Africa<s salvation, To >ivin4stone this was the ke! to the future, He had no illusions about his own missionar! effortsA so lon4 as African conditions remained barbarous$ Christianit! was unlikel! to flourish, 6ndeed in these 7ournals$ as in all that >ivin4stone wrote$ there is a sense of social despair that wells up from the ver! depths of his nature, He suffered endlessl! from fever and d!senter!8 he derived no sense of personal triumph from his immense 7ourne!s$ for these were in the >ord<s hands, He lacked the satisfaction that most e/plorers derive
from their own competence in the details of their e/peditions:>ivin4stone handled porters badl!$ lost stores$ moved at the wron4 times$ and was the pre! of ever! rascal$ African or Arab$ whom he encountered, 6ndeed$ at times$ it seems as if >ivin4stone were almost deliberatel! makin4 conditions worse for himselfA lettin4 the worst happen so that he mi4ht suffer it, His coura4e to endure his endless tribulations$ ph!sical and spiritual$ spran4 from the ver! depths of his personalit!8 it la! deeper than his beliefs$ deeper even than his Christian convictions, He needed to test his endurance$ to e/ercise his will in the vast isolation of Africa$ amidst sickness$ loneliness$ pain$ and$ at the end of his life$ in helpless despair, He was seekin4 some m!sterious finalit! within himself, And so there could be no success8 the triumphant 7ourne! across the continent$ the hero<s welcome in Britain$ were all meanin4less, His path la! back into the wilds of Africa$ as he followed that wa! of coura4e throu4h which he had willed himself in search of his identit! as a man, 6t is this inte4rit! of will that 4ives >ivin4stone such stature, email icon ?mail to a friend Search the Review Advanced search NYRB Children<s %antas!BTravel Books NYRB Children<s 0icture Books
Home Your account Current issue Archives Subscriptions Calendar Classifieds Newsletters aller! NYR Books Cop!ri4ht M #&'(9D33N$ NYR?"$ 6nc, All ri4hts reserved, Nothin4 in this publication ma! be reproduced without the permission of the publisher, 0lease contact webOn!books,com with an! 5uestions about this site, The cover date of the ne/t issue will be )anuar! #2$ D33&,

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