THE AMERICAN PROSCENIUMnTransatlantic ChatsnIn January the Committee for the FreenWorld held a conference in Washington,nD.C. at which debaters from both sidesnof the Atlantic pondered our commonnpresent dangers. The CFW is a worthynoutfit dedicated to the restoration of rationalitynin an age of neoscholasticism,nwhen dogmas determine intellectual effortsnrather than vice versa. The generalntheme of the meeting could...

conceptually, however, they are mostlynlowbrows who seem to scorn any ideologicalnapproach to man, society, democracy,ncountry, civilization, social responsibilities—keynnotions in our precariousnhistorical situation. If Mr. Reagan hadnbeen elected simply as a Republican, wenwould have little quarrel with him. Butnhe is on record as being a conservativenbearer oi conservative values, and henseems to be mauling those values...

juana, and 16 percent said they favorednlegalizing it. Six years ago, 25npercent said they used it, and 33npercent favored legalization . . .n—75 percent said they were membersnof an organized religion, and morenthan 50 percent said they attendnweekly services.n—68 percent favored the use of nuclearnpower for energy.nWhat we have been saying all the time isnthat...

JOURNALISMnHere We Go AgainnAs if there were not already enoughnevidence that American press coveragenhelped North Vietnam and the Vietcongnto achieve their goals in Indochina, nowncomes the ultimate proof. Somewhere innthe highest reaches of the communists’nstrategic global command a decision hasnbeen made: let in American reporters.nEXiring the Vietnam War, only declarednsupporters—we call them traitors—andnwell-checked Soviet sympathizers...

history will vindicate our intuition.nIn a section of a recent New YorknTimes Sunday Magazine, Mr. Middletonnelaborated on why the Vietnam Warnwent the way it did and why it left a lastingnand ominous scar on the collectivenconsciousness of the entire professionalnAmerican military. The article consists ofnlots of well-measured, calm, evenhanded,nobjective, introspective observations,nresponsible reporting andnmature conclusions—but there...

LIBERAL CULTUREnSiskelnEverybody has his Siskel andnso do we—without whom wenmight be deprived of our right tona bit of merriment amid the allpervadingngloom of high interestnrates, communist propagandanmovies receiving Oscar nominationsnand Jesuits working fornSoviet imperialism in LatinnAmerica. Our Siskel happens tonbe a film reviewer for the ChicagonTribune, a newspaper thatncalls itself conservative in its editorialsnbut simultaneously...

a movie so abominably gory thatneven Wcame to the conclusionnthat it may be time for somenalteration of its own nihilisticnmessage:nMy own view, however, isnthat the book, the movie,nthe genre, have all outlivednany social or artistic purpose.n. . . Now in the ’80s it is thensociopath who sells newspapersnand movie tickets. . , .nAnyone who breaks...

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Americans have probably wearied of things Southern, andnwho can blame them? The Carter-inspired wave of Southernnchic did little to enhance the South’s reputation. The boorishnessnof Ham and Billy, the chicanery of Bert, the cloyingncuteness of Jody, the oratorical ineptitude of Jimmy and thentight-lipped rigidity of Rosalyn exemplified all the worstnfeatures of the South and none...

eously about those barbaric rednecks. It was not easy to be anwhite Southerner in those days; the role of a scapegoat isna painful one.nHe L ow long ago all that seems now. In a mere decade ornso the turmoil has subsided, the worst elements of an oldernSouth have been rejected or substantially mitigated, the bestnaspects...

QpiMONS & Vii:ws TnThe Age of CriticismnPaul Hollander: Political Pilgrims:nTravels of Western Intellectuals tonthe Soviet Union, China, and Cuba,n1928-1978; Oxford University Press;nNew York.nby Lee CongdonnWe live in the age of criticism.nCritics of literature, art, drama andnfilm enjoy enormous prestige, andnschools of criticism sometimes overshadownthe creative work itself. Innphilosophy the heirs of Descartes arenubiquitous; still determined...

oratory: “Hitler is Germany, Germanynis Hitler.” Simone de Beauvoir andnothers report that the verbose jefe hasndone far more than simply establishingnsocial justice; he has communicated tonhis people a new sense of purpose.nRather like Ho Chi Minh, the kindlynfather of unspoiled children who, fornreasons unknown to the likes of RamseynClark, Jane Fonda, Staughton Lynd andn”Father” Berrigan,...

ness for themselves—here one thinks ofnRaskolnikov and Stavrogin—they couldnnot extend it to others. Hence their extremensensitivity to injustice, a sensitivitynthat was itself grounded in Christiannteachings—but it was not mitigatednby compassion. In the end, they came tondespise not only the czar and his government,nbut also the people in whose namenthey claimed to speak. So fierce wasntheir...

On Soft Determinism & Ambivalent AppeasementnThomas Sowell: Ethnic America: AnHistory; Basic Books; New York.nAnne Wortham: The Other Side ofnRacism: A Philosophical Study ofnBlack Race Consciousness; OhionState University Press; Columbus,nOhio.nby John C. CaiazzanIn the political and ideological climatenwhich currently surrounds the issuenof ethnicity in America, this booknis a bombshell. The issues of race, discriminationnand welfare have...

to note, because Sowell’s is a “soft” denterminism) by the social whole of whichnhe is a member, in this case his ethnicngroup. For example, if a man is of Italiannextraction, according to Sowell, it isnlikely that he shares the behavioral characteristicsnof Italians as a group, e.g. henis devoted to his family, a winedrinkernbut not an...

for other activities which might seem toncompensate for the lack of political activity—namely,norganized crime and reliancenon the nuclear family. Indeed, thentwo seem to reinforce each other and tonintermingle, a fact fixed indelibly innthe national consciousness by the twonGodfather films. The Mafia, however,nthough present in southern Italy, wasnnot, Sowell maintains, something thenItalians brought with them, for...

which Ms. Wortham calls “spiritual separatism,”nare revealed, as in the casenwhere blacks assert the superiority ofnblack culture while at the same time contendingnthat they deserve compensatoryntreatment because they have been victimizednby white society. Ms. Worthamnalso points out that many blacks andnmembers of ethnic groups inflatentheir own sense of self-esteem and hidentheir individual inadequacies by identifyingnthemselves...

Curricula of Malice and MistakenDavid E. Shi: Matthew Josephson,nBourgeois Bohemian; Yale UniversitynPress; New Haven, Connecticut.nBertram D. Wolfe: A Life in TwonCenturies; Stein & Day Publishers;nNevif York.nby Paul GottfriednOf these two biographies one shows,nalthough unwittingly, the cruelty ofnbeing afflicted by the divine curse ofnmadness, while the other demonstratesnthe possibility of redemption for atnleast the fortunate few....

ice. When the Party at last appeared tonhim to be the instrument of a foreignntyranny, Wolfe abandoned it even at thenrisk of his life and transferred his supportnto rival radical groups which werenthen still fighting the communists forncontrol of the far left.nJosephson, by contrast, dabbled innpolitics as he did in adultery and learning.nSpending most of...

W(t Sartm0uttj EemeuinP.O. Box 343nHanover, N.H. 03755nVery impressive.nA significant development.nThe Dartmouth Review.n4iian^emo me ttniiune laceBBttn®I980 TheDartmaulh Rtumn All Rights Reseroedn—Ronald Reagannhave followed with interest the trend ofn-George WillnThe Dartmouth Review is a vibrant, joyful, provocative challenge to thenregnant but brittle liberalism for which American colleges are renowned.nIt is serious, in the best sense of the...

mean that 129,000 are charging theirnclients for what amounts to injuringntheir cases. Mr. Cohn beHeves that thennumber of incompetents is even highernthan half of all the lawyers in practice.nBeing a top-notch lawyer himself, Mr.nCohn refuses to use fuzzy examples ornto water his arguments by makingnsweeping societal observations. Hisnview of human nature, as befits a courtroomnlawyer,...

is a perfect blind behind which a writernwho doesn’t understand his charactersnor the world, and therefore has nothingnof interest to reveal about them, cannhide. Because sex is an expression ofnthe inner passions of the soul a character’snsex acts are assumed to be significantnin themselves—to reveal somethingnimportant about the character. Actually,nin the hands of our mindless...

two clearly illustrates what is missingnin Agee and writers like him. Agee:nIt is painful for me to write aboutnStefan’s very sad childhood in any detailnbecause I contributed to it, bothnactively and by default, out of jealousynand out of a need to dominate. I excludednhim from my games with mynfriends, insisting that he was toonyoung for...

4^v6d •- J ‘lass *nhelp for-. luum Mexico ag. “‘«*nThe factot it “^ „ot ecoiiomicnSalvadoran governmertan. ., n ^Pnior editor 0/ thenPaul Gottfried, a senm ^^jynconsen^ati^c f Jjtnge on thenModem Age. «« “” -o^jfy in the con-nSe 0/ the Moral Mgnty^ p,,„,ieiesnof culture, a pubwa ^^^.n;U institute, Bocfc/or ,nSe-‘sss^^fcroSnEs^^^S-‘SS’npersonal hopes of couni ^^^nNot well-honed logic...

The Frolics of Psyche & IntellectnGuy Davenport: Eclogues; NorthnPoint Press; San Francisco.nGuy Davenport: The Geography ofnthe Imagination; North Point Press;nSan Francisco.nby Maura DalynOome critics have called Guy Davenportnthe last of the Modernists—groupingnhim with the most illustrious writersnof our century (Joyce, Eliot andnPound among others). Davenport’s recentnpublication, The Geography ofnthe Imagination, a delightful series ofnrefined, scholarly...

port’s proclivity for changing verbs intonnouns and his obsessive preoccupationnwith homosexuality. Neither the repeatednallusions to genitalia and theirnrespective sizes and uses, nor the plethoranof terms which Davenport findsnto describe them, particularly in “OnnSome Lines of Virgil,” seem to have anynparticular relevance to the stories innwhich they appear. In fact, most of thensexual relations which Davenport...

then one must also abandon the doctrinairenconclusion that acceptancenof homosexuality represents a declinenin Christian morality simply becausenit departs from such a position. Onenmust begin to examine whether tolerationnof gay sexuality in fact accompaniesnmoral decadence within thenChristian community and is associatednwith the abandonment of Christiannethics in general, or whether it is simplynpart of a softening of...

were the only species to demonstratenhomosexual desires and behavior, thisnwould hardly be grounds for categorizingnthem as ‘unnatural.’ Most of the behaviornwhich human societies most admirenis unique to humans: this is indeednthe main reason it is respected. No onenimagines that human society ‘naturally’nresists literacy because it is unknownnamong other animals.”*nWithout an accurate understanding ofnCatholic morality, Mr....

ual” implication, preferably illicit, wherenthose of sound mind know it is not. G. K.nChesterton encountered this on an afternoonnouting with someone who saw anphallic symbol in church steeples. I recallnbeing taught by some woebegonenpsychologist that when athletes slap eachnother on the butt they are expressing theirnhomosexuality. Victims of such thoughtnpatterns have a favorite story in...

Mr. Boswell’s errors and muddlednthinking about Catholic morality leadnhim to list various “condemnations”nwithout making essential distinctions.nFor example, we read: “Lending at interest,nsexual intercourse during thenmenstrual period, jewelry or dyed fabrics,nshaving, regular bathing, wearingnwigs, serving in the civil government ornarmy, performing manual labor on feastndays, eating kosher food, practicing circumcision—allnwere condemned absolutelynby various fathers of the...

Claire, a Wasp crusader for the rightsnof man, are all suffering from whatnthreatens to be a terminal inability tongrow up and a concomitant incapacitynto love. But Sophie does not seem tonspeak for herself alone when she saysn”Have I been in love? That’s been thendisaster of my life.” Indeed, she seemsnto speak for a whole chorus...

ing at home were going mad from beingntoo much in the world.nThe ritual that Edmund invents andnadheres to throughout his life is onenthat centers on devotion to the householdngods, as it were. From the timenthat he is an adolescent, he returns tonNantucket in the summers and watchesnthe ferry unload, trying to pick the mostnperfect family....

wage and investment levels would be setnby local political authorities. Thus thenproduction of goods and services wouldnbe severely discouraged under a plannrequiring producers to pay off all sortsnof racial minorities, the poor and thenenvironmentally affected. This plannwould subject producers to severe criminalnsanctions for any violation of safety,nhealth and consumer-protection standards,nand then dispose of any residualnprofit...

ers, who also remain unidentified. Hisncomparison of international rates ofngrowth and taxation is completely pointless;nhe flounders about in a morass ofnrandomly selected statistics without thenassistance of either the theory or thenevidence which more extensive referencento the academic sources wouldnhave provided. This aversion to evidencenis all the more peculiar in that ansubstantial proportion of the publicfinancenliterature...

is that most Islamic countries remainnbarbaric and backward in the middle ofnthe 20th century. And, contrary tonpopular enlightened sentiment (bestndemonstrated by the United Nations),nthis has not been caused by the West.nIn fact, anyone with a shred of intellectualnhonesty realizes that whatever dengree of modern civilization has been attainednin these countries has come fromnoutside.nThe meager development...

What better example of this is therenthan the garish homes of oil-rich sheiks?nThrough it all, the people remainnpoor, with very little real hope for thenfuture. Yet failure does not weaken thenfaith. On the contrary, failure is portrayednas its strength, confirming thenwidespread belief that the West succeedsnmaterially because it is unspiritual andnmaterialistic, while the Islamic peoplenfail...

Of Human CommonplacesnSally George: Frog Salad; CharlesnScribner’s Sons; New York.nFaith Sullivan: Repent, Lanny Merkel;nMcGraw-Hill; New York.nRob Forman Dew: Dale Loves Sophiento Death; Farrar, Straus & Giroux;nNew York.nby Barbara WordennA he characters in all three of thesennovels have fixations on their pasts;nthey differ radically in what they choosento do with their obsessions in order tonenrich the...

callousness, shallowness, and ineptnessnof both characters and existences. Ms.nGeorge obviously perceives humor innthe cheapest sexual symbolism and findsncrude genital obsessions subtly amusing.ntjy comparison, Dale Loves Sophiento Death emerges aS’ the story of realnliving, breathing, bleeding people. Asnthe novel opens, the wife of a New Englandncollege professor still tends to seenlife in terms of the graffiti...

cheap seats) it takes to sell tickets.nAnother industrial city, Hollywood,nis suffering, too. Or so claims DavidnThomson in Overexposures: The Crisisnin American Filmmaking. Economicsnare at the bottom of the illness. Thomsonnperforms a valuable service with hisnexploratory surgery of the L.A.-basednfilm industry when he details the costsnof making a Hollywood feature. Thomsonnuses the example of what it...

NEXT in The Rockford PapersnKURT VONNEGUTnor TRUTHS of a SLEAZO PAPERBACKnIs Kurt Vonnegut a great writer or a great fabrication?nA young critic, Gary Vasilash, sets the record straight.nHis expose leads off our new series on “The MonumentalnLiterature of Dwarfs” — a series which will try to undonwhat the liberal culture has done to contemporarynAmerican literature.nVasilash...

making money, to say nothing of thenfact that Mailer constantly laments hisnlack of lucre. Sex, gambling, blood—nthese are the things that Thomson indicatesnToback has on his mind, and thenfilming of them is presented as an honorablenexercise which Toback should benpermitted, without the restrictions ofnminor things like money worries. Andnif he desires to cook swill, we...

COMMENDABLESnWistful MemoriesnMark Girouard: The Returnnto Camelot: Chivalry and thenEnglish Gentleman; Yale UniversitynPress; New Haven.nIn 1790, with the “sophisters,neconomists, and calculators”nholding sway in revolutionarynFrance, Edmund Burke lamentednthat “the age of chivalry is gone.”nFor once, Burke’s powers of discernmentnfailed him, for as MarknGirouard notes in The Return tonCamelot, when Burke uttered hisnrequiescat over the grave, chivalrynhad already...

seus or Achilles, possessing specialnpowers which are couplednwith deeply human frailties. Asnsuch, he is a great trapper andnpathfinder not only of pelts andnroutes but also of matters to donwith those men and women whonlived in the great wilderness thatnis no more.nOne evening several years agonBill Hotchkiss pulled off thenroad at the top of BeckwourthnPass in...

S( Ki:i nO, What a Lovely Revolution! or Springtime for LeninnMan of Iron; Written and directed by Andrzej Wajda; United Artists Classics.nReds; Written by Warren Beatty and Trevor Griffiths; Directed by WarrennBeatty; Paramount Pictures.nby Eric ShapearonMan of Iron is both flawed and monumental, deficient and outstanding, disorderlynand memorable. Its script is uneven and often sloppy,...

through alterations within the existingnsociahst system. Can we reaHsticallynexpect the characters in Man of Ironnto extol the glories of free-marketncapitalism?nThe rejection of communist totalitarianism,nnot the adoption of capitalism,nis the crucial issue at stake innPoland. The Polish workers know this:nthey have pitched their fight in the realmnof the spirit, not in the arena of competingneconomic systems....

Man of Ironncontinued from page 40nof Soviet literature is structured on an”boy-meets-tractor” pattern. Certainlyna few magnificent works of drama andnliterature have originated in the socialistnphilosophy—one recalls And QuietnFlows the Don or, in the movies,nPatomkin, The magnitude of Man ofnIron is that it is the first socialist-realistnmovie to carry a clear, fierce, unequivocalnand fully intentional antisocialistnmessage....

erupted among the Russians who sawnthe movie. Yet Zhivago, even in itsnWestern version, at least succeeded innconveying Boris Pasternak’s knowledgenand sense of evil, which exuded evennfrom the cosmeticized Hollywood renditionnof the revolution. Reds, in whichncomrade Zinoviev looks like an Englishnbookie from the 1930’s, and revolutionarynsoldiers, with a change of costume,ncould fit into a production of...

foolish.” It seems to us, however, thatnanyone who was instrumental in erectingneither Auschwitz or Kolyma ultimatelynamounts to the same historicalnand moral worth.nTo the left-liberal critics who populatenthe cultural sections of the media.nReds is an El Dorado of cherished, ifnspecious, homilies: revolution is God’sngift (dragged through the mud by careeristsnand bureaucrats); those who dreamnof social paradises...

equaled relaxation and po^(er.nLike Kenton, Basic had an ability tonhear greatness in young, relatively unknownnplayers and, like Kenton’s, hisnband was a hothouse for new talent.nForemost among his proteges was LesternYoung, the tenor saxophonist whoncarried jazz improvisation a step beyondnLouis Armstrong and ColemannHawkins. Dance’s chapter on Youngnmakes one understand why he needednthe loose power of Basic’s...

has little surface attraction; it is starknand demanding. It reminds one of modernnScandinavian music, but without itsnlyrical relief. “In my work there has alwaysnbeen some evidence of violence,”nsays Mennin, “and the element of contrast.nHere they come out with a vengeance.”nA fair description of a turbulent,nhighly dramatic work. This is also anresurrected recording (from 1967), originallynmade...