The one saving grace of Kundera’snbook is that it is not pretentious andnthat he at least makes a sincere effortnto examine issues and paradoxes thatnothers may find interesting. The samencannot be said for W. M. Spackman’s AnPresence with Secrets. Spackman’snnovel reads like a Barbara Cartlandndimestore romance, yet it is dottednwith foreign phrases, literary allusionsnto exceedingly...

responds. “I do not know why.”nWe have an answer.nHard-nosed analysts and experiencednpolicy-makers refuse to draw the unavoidablenconclusion from incontrovertiblenevidence because this conclusionnseems incompatible with their assessmentnof current Soviet leaders as rationalnhuman beings. Miss Sterling’s conclusionndoes not appear to make senseneven from the Soviets’ own point ofnview. Are the Soviets backing internationalnterrorism in order to bring...

of 1956 and 1968.nEast Germany, outwardly the mostnloyal and docile of all the satellites, isnparticularly unreliable. Here is a countrynwhose inhabitants refer to the currencynof neighboring West Germany asnWirkliches GeW—Real Money. “Whatnis that in real money.”” they ask whennthe price of some scarce and costly itemnis quoted in East German marks. It isnoften claimed that...

sion to bring terrorism to Europe wasnmade in 1968. The date is significant.nIt was a year in wiiich it was easy to findnrecruits for terrorist gangs on the universityncampuses, among naive and disorientednmiddle- and upper-class youth.nIt was also the year in which the Sovietnempire faced one of its recurrent crises:nthe threatened defection of Czechoslovakia,nwhere even...

belongs to Mrs. Schlafly—the ability ton”take life’s lemons and make lemonade.”n:o make the best of things, not in a passive,nresigned sense but in an almost aggressivenfashion. Where a feministnwould sit. Victorian fashion, and bewailnlife’s cruelty, Phyllis Schlafly turns disadvantageninto asset. Of her working/ncollege stint, she comments:n… the most wonderful two years ofnmy life—a unique experience.nI...

How to Be Selective with Ideas?nMary McCarthy: Ideas and thenNovel; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich;nNew York.nby Stephen L. Tannernrle had a mind so fine that no ideancould violate it.” This reference to HenrynJames by T. S. Eliot is offered bynMary McCarthy as a countermotto fornthis transcription of the NorthcliffenLectures she delivered last year at UniversitynCollege. London. Her...

stitute formal or aesthetic values forncultural values. In other words, the formalisticncharacter of modern fiction,nthe impulse toward “pure art.” whichnMcCarthy finds so repellent, is closelynrelated to a divorce between literary andncultural values.nW. J. Harvey treats the same phenomenonnin Character and the Novelnwhen he discusses the individual’s sensenof insecurity when his relation to hisnworld is no...

What Faulkner’s Life Was All AboutnDavid Minter: William Faulkner:nHis Life and Work; The Johns HopkinsnUniversity Press; Baltimore.nby Earl HiltonnWne’s first reaction to yet anothernbook about Faulkner is likely to ben”Why?” But as one reads Minter’s booknseveral points become evident. He writesnwith clarity and even grace. He largelynavoids those convoluted sentences intonwhich literary critics seem to...

suggestion to explain the apparent sudden.nbreatcthrough in his Yoknapatawphannovels. His concept of poetry,nstressing finish and perfection, was restrictive.nBut oral stories were nevernfinished or definitive. Each teller wasnexpected to make his own changes andnadditions, and they offered Faulkner thensame freedom. Perhaps, too, hearingnand telling such stories had as much tondo with his emphasis upon the tellernand...

Pedlar Without CustomersnMadelon Bedell: The Akotts, Biographynof a Family; Clarkson N. Potter;nNew York.nby Robert C. SteensmanHmerson called him “the most extraordinarynman and highest genius of thentime” and “a God-made priest,” whilenThoreau saw him as “a King of Men .. .none of the last of the philosophers.”nBut Bronson Alcott perhaps describednhimself best as a “Pedlar …...

With its roots in New England Puritanism.nEuropean phiilosophy and Orientalnmysticism, transcendentalism was,nas Van Wyck Brooks put it. a floweringnof New England, a view of life whichnrejected both rationalism and traditionalnChristianity in favor of an intuitive perceptionnof God and nature which was tonvitalize American art and literature innthe middle third of the 19th century andnreaffirm the...

of male prowess and female incompentence. and by unwritten rules that encouragenmen to be seemingly callous,naggressive tycoons and women to benapparently silly, seductive sirens.nGrowing Up Free is both thoroughnand exhaustive, and sometimes thoroughlynexhausting. The exhaustion resultsnnot only from the size of the book,nits unabating feminist fervor and thenblind absolutism of the author’s, pronouncements,nbut also from...

must also realize that the refusal toninculcate values along with sexual informationnimplies a judgment: that studentsncan make of this information whatnthey will. Such a procedure is not onlynpedagogically unsound but also unwisenand immoral. In no other subject is anstudent given the facts or the materialsnfor an experiment without any “judgmental”ninstructions as to how theynshould be...

Wodehouse that all other Britishnhumor falls slightly flat. In anynevent, it is a tale of three Englishngentlemen who decide to rent anboat and row up the Thames forna short vacation. Their misadventuresnare amusing, and theirnvarious fantasies about themselvesnand their respective abilitiesncertainly need little psycho-nDope, Inc.nPatrick Anderson: High InnAmerica; Viking Press; NewnYork.nThis mind-boggling report onnNORML (The...

In Pulitzer Prize’s TraditionnJ. C. Louis and Harvey Z.nYazijian: The Cola Wars;nEverest House Publishers; NewnYork.nby Gavin D. ArbucklenJournalists are different fromnother proiessionai writers in thatnno one really expects them tonknow what they are talkingnabout. Newspapers remain infested,nyear after year, by economicnjournalists who thinknhigh interest rates are inflationary,nby business journalists whonhave difficulty understandingnbasic accounting principles, andnby...

f^ jo^^ .-df^ .v^^ „p(^”_t»o« „-•= ^0^* _j^ ‘n ” »^””^,»-^i^°*-«*”’r’n^ U**^I*^’T”^^»’^CJ’^-n ,.–s-‘-.t„»-‘;-^’:x..n’iS-^^^S^.’S^.”,^n”‘^^^f^'””n^^^„,nMost Businessmen Havena Fairly Accurate Readingnof Their Competition.nHow About Their Opposition?nThe magazines and activist groupsnwhich moid and manipulate publicnopinion toward anticapitaUst goals arennow big business. Their impact innrecent years has grown more potent throughna network of multinational support groups. Thenlast election has given...

SCREEN TnLet’s Hope for More Indiana JonesesnRaiders of the Lost Ark; Written bynLawrence Kasdan: Directed by StevennSpielberg; Produced by GeorgenLucas; Paramount Pictures.nMel Brooks’ History of the World;nWritten and directed by Mel Brooks;n20th Century-Fox.nby Eric ShapearonUnwittingly (or perhaps not) Raiders,nthe current ultimate in pulp entertainmentnand suspense, makes a statementnabout modern history which wouldnbe refreshing and amusing...

RecordsnMUSICnby Robert R. ReiliynBohuslav Martinu’s music is undergoingna recording renaissance, thanksnmainly to Supraphon. the Czech recordncompany whose discs are generallynavailable in the larger classical outletsnin major American cities. Supraphonnhas recently issued a newly recorded setnof Martinu’s six symphonies (played bynthe Czech Philharmonic Orchestranunder conductor Vaclav Neumann!.nRCA Gold Seal has also reissued a performancenof the Symphony...

~inA thoughtful and often cheekynmonthly^’ whose “‘chompionnis Pope John Poul H/’ — HewsweeknYes, that’s the New Oxford Review! Wenstrongly support the Polish Pope’s valiantnefforts to protect Poland from the Sovietnimperialists and to enhance social justice,nboth in Poland and throughout the world.nMoreover, we unabashedly champion thenPope in his struggle tosave Christian ortliodoxynfrom Hans Kung and all...

a good recording on DG 138954)nFour recent releases of modernnAmerican music range from great tonmiddling interest. The finest of the fournis a rescue operation by Composers Recordings,nInc. They have reissued anninexplicably absent Columbia recordingnof Harold Shapiro’s ”Symphony fornClassical Orchestra'”! 1947). The albumncover (CRI-SRD 424) is marked “AmericannHistoric” (good heavens, even Inwas alive in 1947 and...

terrible, shocked audiences in 1927 withnhis “Ballet Mecanique,” scored for airplanenpropeller, siren, elearic bells, etc.nThe notoriety of this early music has unfortunatelyneclipsed interest in his later,ntamer efforts. My only acquaintance withnhis music came from an Everest recordingnof his Symphony No. 4 (1942), nownapparently deleted. The Symphony No. 5nI enjoy not quite as much, but grownfonder...

some who produce the material needsnthat she will share with others. Gilder,nin his several studies ot modern society,nhas acknowledged that true wealth dependsnupon more than material riches.nDespite their common threads.nMother Teresa and George Gilder arencut from very different cloth. PresidentnReagan speaks easily and publicly thenlanguage of supply-side economics,nmuch of which has been coined bynGeorge Gilder....

heart and mind, and that the “God” ofnTorquemada or Khomeini fits our notionnof the Supreme Being and His willnto which we are all subject. PresidentnReagan and Secretary Haig may graspnthe notion of human rights at this stagenof our history—how it should serve ournfreedom, our welfare and our missionn—but we wish that their understandingnwere rooted in...

From our observation point near the end of the 20th century,nit looks as if the economic vision of the future is goingnto be determined not by a struggle between the haves and thenhave-nots—a widespread belief 100 years ago—but by anmore complex and perverse, tripartite conflict between haves,nhave-nots and have-somes. It will be a murky contention...

stands that Penthouse is not merely a successful businessnventure but also a source of capitalism’s demise, and that profitnmade on selling deadly technology to the Soviets is not profitnat all—will we be able to discuss the renaissance of capitalism.nClass consciousness did not work for the worker, but it maynwork for the businessman.nSome would label such...

i OPINIONS & Vii;ws^nNixon Is the One or The Giant Clash of EthicsnGodfrey Hodgson: All Things to AllnMen: The False Promise of the ModernnAmerican Presidency; Simon &nSchuster; New York.nby John C. CaiazzanJL his is an interesting, informed andnwell-written book about the problemsnthat beset the American Presidency; unfortunately,nit is also a myopic and tendentiousnbook, amounting to...

that liberal ideology with the conservativenone fashionable in Washington today.nNeither liberals nor conservatives,nhowever, want to recognize that thenbreakdown of the old and the triumph ofnthe new took place not in 1980, but inn1968, for it was in that year that thenghost of Franklin Roosevelt was laid tonrest at the Democratic Convention innChicago —dividing the DemocraticnParty...

few passing references to “the twilightnof authority” and “the crisis of legitimacy,”nhe does not press the point. Thenroots of the pervasive crisis are buriednSalvation by, of & for the SelfnMary Gordon: The Company ofnWomen; Random House; New York.nIris Murdoch: Nuns and Soldiers;nViking Press; New York.nby Stephen L. Tannern-/ he Company of Women is MarynGordon’s second...

ular romance? Or is she a skillfulnpopular writer producing high-gradenHarlequin romances? Maybe such questionsndon’t need to be answered. ThenHouse of Fiction is large and has roomnfor blended forms. In any case, Murdochnis a fascinating storyteller, inventivento a remarkable degree and uncommonlynintelligent.nThe nuns and soldiers of the titlenare metaphorical, with one exception,nAnne, a woman who has...

in or commitment to it, their relationshipnis portrayed as redemption throughnsymbohc baptisms, ritual ordeals, repentancenand being true to an inextinguishablenhigher self. It is as thoughnMurdoch recognizes the power and appealnof religious impulses and patternsnand uses them without concern fornwhether God really exists. Whethernthere is a God or not, the enduringnframework of religion—its patterns,nvalues, conflicts—provides the...

tions, commonsensical as they may be,nhave called down showers of abuse uponnGilder. But Gilder provokes even greaterncontroversy when he unveils the centerpiecenof his vision for national renewal.nQuite simply, Gilder believes that risk,nchance and choice form the bedrock ofnthe existence of free men. Freedomnbrings anxiety, for the free man mustnface unflinchingly the bewildering andnofttimes frightening exigencies...

bold vision and coruscating brilliancencapable of dazzling and inspiring anwhole generation of young Americans.nBut at the risk of dampening the jubilationnthat swirls about this book as itnmakes its rounds in conservative circles,nI must raise an objection or two,nif for no other reason than to help Mr.nGilder keep his feet firmly planted innreality as he reads...

American history. Amidst the babblingnof the doomsayers and in the face of anmassive failure of nerve among liberals,nGeorge Gilder has emerged as a boldnvisionary, unafraid of the future andnconvinced that the American experimentnlaunched two hundred years agonhas not yet played itself out. We neednmore George Gilders, men who grapplenThe Melancholy of IdealismnMonica Furlong: Merton: A...

misery in Latin America and decidednthey were doing God’s work. He sawnevil, in short, and pronounced it wrong.nBut never, once he began dispensingnmoral judgments on political questions,ndid he consider that nuclear war wouldnnever be possible if the Soviet Unionndid not threaten it, or that Marxistsnmight prove to be cruder than any set ofnLatin oligarchs when...

his journey to the East, where he died,nhis death surrounded by mystery and ambiguity,nbut also, to his admirers, bynpeace. Thomas Merton was a humble,nloving man who was in some ways misunderstood,nand who misunderstoodnsome things himself. His bequest of misbegottenncauses has been promulgatednand mutated until it is unrecognizablenas the wistful thinking of a meditativenman in the...

peals to ascetic and scholarly ideals andnthe liberal culture’s hedonism, Epsteinnnotes a thematic continuity betweennthem. They all attack the allegedly dehumanizingneffect of men’s ceaselessnstriving for worldly advancement andnsingle out their own country for specialnblame. Because of a success fixation,nAmericans, it is claimed, have ignorednhigher cultural values and have lostnsight of any nobler end beyond “makingnit.”...

to see. A woman ostensibly placid andnobedient, whose obeisance could be describednas “the spineless calm thatnsometimes accompanies doing what isnexpected of one.” A woman cognizantnof her husband’s involvement with thennazis yet choosing to maintain the treasurednfamily illusion that father is anlocksmith, though he works too manynhours of the day and night for such anprofession and...

of evil, etc., etc., have floated away,ndrifted away after the first third of thenbook to be replaced by stories of work atnthe office, Andy’s Bar Mitzvah andnmother-daughter reunions. All of thisnwandering away from topics or themesnof any significance makes Ghost Waltzna flawed and limited work. Rather thanna reflection on history, human valuesnor human motivations. Ghost...

What do The Lincoln Review, Saturday Review,nContinuity, Education, Harper’s,nThe American Journal of Jurisprudence, Renascence,nModern Age, Interpretation, The Cultural Watchdog,nPolicy Review and Manufacturing Engineeringnhave in common?nTheir editors contribute to Chronicles of Culture.’^nSome of our most frequent contributors are editors of a variety ofnrespected publications. They bring to our pages their views on a culturenthey have made...

the community” rather than merely bynpower, including majorities that mightnbase their rule on power rather thannright.nPublius has been given sufficientncredit for the “new science of politics”nthat he developed following the guidancenof David Hume. In passages thatnhave commonly been cited as examplesnof political physics, Publius showed thenmethod of separating powers betweennthe branches of the legislature (andnWills...

lieve that the American founders soughtna physics that would make democracyndesirable, even for a vicious people.nOur founders were idealists; they werennot dreamers. The Federalist No. 55,namong other papers, noted that republicanngovernment, more than any othernform, presupposed the domination ofnthe decent instincts of the people.nWills avoids the superficial mistakesnthat have flawed most discussions ofnThe Federalist. He...

fore Wills.nWills’s theme unifying the assessmentnof Jefferson’s Declaration of Independencenand this analysis of ThenFederalist is an argument that the politicalnthought of the American foundingnis more properly traced to the “commonnsense” philosophy of the Scottishnenlightenment than to the natural-rightnphilosophy of John Locke. The Federalistnclearly reflects the influence of somethingnbeyond John Locke, but thatnsomething is not limited...

politics, and he evades questions of internationalnconduct. This is to say thatnthe concentration on the local necessarilynleaves less time for the national.nBoyte’s omission of international politicsnmerely indicates that the concernsnof the large republic are beyond the spannof those who address the concerns ofnthe small republic. If Americans organizenfor decent purposes, they might sustainnthe civic virtue...

socialist ideal treats us as a nation ofnkibitzers and contends that those whonhave been making decisions owe thenkibitzers a respectful hearing on thenoccasions that they do not get involved.nSuch openness to kibitzing presupposesna future without much accomplishment.nWith each proposal for actionncomes another round of debate, anothernround of studies, a consideration ofncounterproposals and a new decision,nfollowed...

Counterfeiting Scholarship & IdealismnWilliam Appleman Williams: Empirenas a Way of Life; Oxford UniversitynPress; New York.nby Charles R. KeslernJ-ast August The Nation devoted anspecial issue to William Appleman Williams’sn”astonishing analysis” of thencourse of American imperialism. Thenissue was distributed to delegates tonthe Democratic National Conventionnas a “history lesson” proving that bothn”internal reconstruction” and a “democratic”nforeign policy require...

nial peoples to rise up against an imperialnpower. A people has a right tonindependence not because of a nationalnright to self-determination but becausenof the natural rights of men—rightsnbased on the fundamental truth “thatnall men are created equal.” This rightnestablishes that the just powers of governmentnderive from the consent ofnthe governed and exist to secure thenrights...

Kiddycult & NewsensenMaurice Girodias: The Frog Prince:nAn Autobiography; Crown Publishers;nNew York.nJohn Mosedale: The Men Who InventednBroadway: Damon Runyon,nWalter Winchell and Their World;nRichard Marek Publishers; NewnYork.nby Gary S. VasilashnThe facts of infancy may be vitalnwhen they refer to a prodigy such asnMozart, interesting when relevant tona rebel such as Shelley, valuable whennthey show the growth of...

of women would like to emulate them.nIn effect, then, the Brooke Shields adnholds her up as such a model. She isndecidedly not a 15-year-old here, fornwhat adult woman would take the advicenof a 15-year-old about anything othernthan the efficacy of an acne medication.”nThere is something not quite rightnin a society that increasingly turns itsnattention to...

year-old like a 24- or 34-year-old (thenblurring of kiddycult). He gives Mauricena copy of Celine’s Journey to thenEnd of the Night to read, then followsnthat up with the galley proofs of HenrynMiller’s Tropic of Cancer. Perhaps Inhave a low gag level, but a novel aboutnMiller’s anatomy, which seems to havenmore in common with the Alaskan...

Runyon and Walter Winchell, it reallynisn’t. Second, although Broadway figuresnin the title and runs through thenbook, it is only a convenient thoroughfare.nMosedale does provide a fairnamount of information about the twonmen. Actors, actresses, gangsters, thenStork Club and other fixtures of Broadwaynare all there. But the men, thenstreet and the people are in the foregroundnof the...