pion Athletics runless for eight wonderfulninnings at the Polo Grounds yesterdaynafternoon. . . .’ “) and versen{” ‘Never his like again—/Never anhandy/Guy like Sande/Bootin’ themnbabies in!’ “) But Runyon didn’t staynon the sports page. He didn’t leave it,nbut he was assigned to straight newsnstories, too. For example, when GeneralnJohn J. Pershing went after PanchonVilla, Runyon...

potboiler meant either to praise or toncondemn. It is, rather, a cold-bloodedninquiry closer to a dissection than eitherna dissertation or a diatribe. The firstnpage of the preface states: “When Inbegan my research in August of 1976,nthere were no listings for Jimmy Carternin the Library of Congress card catalogue.nThough stories about Carter’snpast and his character had...

Of Randomly Savage Human MoleculesnJoyce Carol Oates: A SentimentalnEducation; E. P. Button; New York.nby Betsy Clarkenxiducation of any kind would seem tonbe the last thing Miss Oates’s charactersnneed. By and large extensively degreed,neven at the beginning of these six storiesnthey have already experienced their sharenof emotional trauma. Middle-aged ClairenFalk, a Friends-of-the-Symphony type inn”Queen of the...

It puzzles me why reviewers complainnthat Miss Oates’s characters allnsound alike. Obviously, to Miss Oates,npeople are all alike. She frequently revealsnthis theory by ironic juxtapositionnof social classes. In the title story,nDuncan’s mother, a doctor’s wife, callsnthe police to her Maine summer home toncomplain about local vandals. ” ‘As fornthe girls,’ Mrs. Sargent says later tonfamily...

NEXTnin The Rockford PapersnOne of the results of the IndustrialnRevolution in a free society suchnas characterized much of the Westernnworld was a rapid rise in the standardnof living. Specifically, this meant angrowing abundance of goodsnand services at reasonable andneven cheap prices. This .. • •ngrowth of material welfarenwas even more remarkable innthe setting of the...

before him, as a leader who createdn”no lasting spiritual or institutionalnforms,” the reader tends to wonder whynDjilas nevertheless proclaims him tonhave been a “politician of staggeringnproportions and of great independence.”nPerhaps a partial answer to thatnquestion lies in a linkage between thesentwo books indicated by the title of AnQuestion of Reality: the relationshipnbetween art (Brandys’s narrator...

consistent position on this issue thannBrandys. On the one hand, he arguesnthat “without power, ideas are Httlenmore than a pipe dream”; he also recognizesnthat the symbiotic relationshipnbetween ideas and reality means that an”monopoly of power inevitably imposesna monopoly of ideas.” He freely admitsnthat during the period when he assistednthe communists in the consolidation ofntheir rule,...

of an antinazi network which he hasnconstructed to keep a zealous but untrustworthynwoman away from the genuinenresistance is the cause of an actualnmurder. Fictions may have serious consequencesnin reality. But reality maynalso turn out to be more stubborn thannthe “idealists” believe. Brandys’s heronbitterly criticizes the regime’s monopolynover information, but recent Polishnexperience demonstrates that peoplenmay retain...

us a questionable and damning interpretationnof actual historical figures.nUnlike Josephson, the author ofnPower and Morality believes that anhierarchy of moral development existednamong the era’s business titans. Withnadherence to the law as the minimumnstandard of morality, Engelbourg identifiesnseveral patterns of behavior.nAmong the lawbreakers, he distinguishesnthose who acted illegallynwhenever it was desirable and safe fromnothers who did...

Most Businessmen Have a Fairly Accurate Reading of Their CompetitionnHow About Their Opposition?nThe magazines and activist groups which mold and manipulate public opinion toward anticapitalistngoals are now big business. Their impact in recent years has grown more potentnthrough a network of multinational support groups. The last election has given this activity anvibrant new impetus, with...

COMMENDABLESnA RespectablenEffortnRobert Hughes: The Shocknof the New; Alfred A. Knopf; NewnYork.nIn that kitchen of pretentiousnbanahty in the West Fifties thatnis Time magazine, one mannstands out as a bona-fide criticnamidst reviewers who only callnthemselves critics. His name isnRobert Hughes, and he is a sortnof Australian sophisticate, whichnmany people would consider ancontradiction in terms. Amongnthe newest brand...

S( UI:I:NnPasolini’s RetrospectivenThe Decameron, Canterbury Tales,nArabian Nights; Written and directednby Pier Paolo Pasolini; UnitednArtists Classics.nby Eric ShapearonPier Paolo Pasolini was an Italianndirector who was murdered a few yearsnago in a sordid homosexual incident.nHe, his life and his work can serve asna sort of flattened emblem of what hasnhappened to art cinema in the clutchesnof European...

THE AMERICAN PROSCENIUMnEl Salvador or AnalogiesnThe El Salvador story brings backnmemories of Vietnam—so goes thenstereotypical ditty in countless commentsnby the minigurus that are massproducednby the American press. ThenReagan administration vehementlyndenies that either their reminiscencesnor their analogies have any validity. Andnboth sides do what they always do: theynignore the historical perspective andninstead pursue succinct simplificationsnin the...

quisite, fake objectivity, a gem withna factitiously “impartial” tone and cool,npseudoscholarly reasoning. It was writtennby a certain Richard J. Barnet,nco-founder of the Institute for PolicynStudies, an overtly procommunist publishingncenter in Washington, D.C. thatnhas for two decades engaged in the subtlenpromotion of Soviet geopoliticalngoals by means of allegedly apoliticalnactivities. Here is what Mr. Barnet attemptednto drive...

JOIRVMISMnApologia Pro Domo SuanWe at the Chronicles of Culturenhave repeated it from our birth. Perhapsnat the beginning of the century thenHberal in the universe of the Americannpress represented the pursuit of truthnand justice. But once he achieved power,nhe was on the moral skids until henhit bottom around the end of the 1960’s.nThat was the triumphant...

•^,Jniit . in’•l i AnTWO CULTURESn.it^n%n^-T’^^’-kfynp-‘j • f^ f’ifn.V-,n>nrn«.-<‘ •nTHE PEOPLEn••,£nVIn•Mnan• >n•>•’•n•>. •n«=. .V jj; • .^iiiin•-•i:*, . • •>nrfnirsn.,^’-n^S^n,>nA /nNORMALCY—OUR SIXTH SENSEn( Normalcy-Our Sixth SensenClirofiidcsn, in•J!.,-‘ ;f:nPOLITICS & HATREDn’^•-^r-li ;n^•^*’-‘i»V y^M-F*nHOUR OF TRIAL THE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLEnjj -*nTOWARD CONSERVATISMnWITH A HUMAN FACEn’ •’ t. (IiroiiiclesnCttliuren”04 .n”^n|[|| ((iN-,IKMHI CKIMir-irnON PATRIOTISMnw -.> ‘*»’ v^n^>n!ni*’!’ -s^inV :;•niiL^’ntf^fvMntfiLjn AMONG...

nn^1^nK^nB^n3’e.n2.»nt/) C/5nCN Htn^ rt)n!z! f^nO r^nOJnH^ntrnftin7ino ons “^ ^ trnon(^nITTnHKn0ni-inD-nH-HnC/)nh-i.nrircn Add to Favorites

On the third of January 1981, the great scholar EricnVoegelin passed his eighth decade. The event was discreetlyncelebrated by the “inside circle” and by a second Festschriftnwhich collects more than twenty essays in his honor. Yet,ndespite the general acclaim of his oeuvre, Voegelin is annambiguous philosopher, which is not rare among Germannscholars and thinkers: Hegel,...

the “order of being,” on whicli ‘ocgi.’lin places the wliolenweight of his speculation, could be lost and found again, andntherefore we do not continually approach it.nThis is the Voegelinian dilemma, a source of ambiguity innhis thinking that is visible in The Ecumenic Age. Voegelinnspeaks there of Paul’s and the disciples’ experience of Jesus,nnot of Jesus...

OlMMONS & IIWS InPrefabricated Self-Irony & Pneumatic PraisenWoody Allen: Side Effects; RandomnHouse; New York.nJerome Charyn: Darlin’Bill: ALovenStory of the Wild West; ArbornHouse; New York.nby Gary S. VasilashnWo ‘oody Allen is a very engagingncharacter. I suspect that upon meetingnhim for the first time, even the mostnardent admirer wouldn’t address him asnMr. Allen, but, rather, knowingly nudgenhim...

of the Woody Allen that you don’t payn13.75 to see or $8.95 to read sound justnas brisk as the celluloid and printed ones.nWhen the Academy Awards are presented,nthe nominees are typically there,nbreathlessly awaiting the announcement,nor else they are on-location innsome godforsaken spot filming stillnanother Hollywood masterpiece. Regrets,nnaturally, are extended to thenAcademy. (This scenario depicts onlynthe...

new suspense thriller, Hitchcock rotatesna few degrees in his grave as his name isncited; by now, he’s completed a circuit.nTyro director Michael Cimino is hailednfor his work on The Deer Hunter, sonhe’s given Carte Blanche, AmericannExpress and Diners’ Club on Heaven’snGate, amasses a tremendous debt, andncreates a film that is pulled from distributionnthe day after...

cably dressed, nerveless.. . .”* Hickok’snactual exploits make puffery superfluous.nCharyn can’t leave well enoughnalone. He may be using Hickok to hisnown ends, but what those ends are isnnever made clear, and the means whichnhe employs are childish, pointlessnramblings.nxJarlin’ Bill is a tale told by SallynOvenshine, who meets Hickok in Galveston,nTexas, where he was serving asn*The...

furter, because they were always tryingnto convince others on the Court to gonalong with them. Apparently Frankfurternbelieved that the purpose of judicialnpositions was to elicit the truth ofnthe law rather than to affirm the prejudicesnof the judges. Douglas used hisnopinions to assert his reading of thenConstitution and the laws, and carednlittle about discussing how his...

i *’ * 1-..nTWO CULTURESnflf»:nI ‘” V ‘• t’ii’in^r t;ln’ s’.’.’nc.nii ‘^nrf 9 -I,n• i’^ • is • * « -^n’MvW -..-ivV.,.’n::-^VnJ t vnTHE PEOPLEn• • ;i !n’I’n5^:, »• • <•:n* . .!n’». ‘nuv?^n.-.rn•,i’, A^’h-J.’^n*• P ” >S ..’P- nTHE THIRD PARTYn•> ynNORMALCY—OUR SIXTH SENSEn'”^ Normalcy-Our Sixth Sense ^nClirwiidcsn^•1nHOUR OF TRIALnTOWARD CONSERVATISMnWITH A HUMAN FACEnVf’^...

might violate the principles of equalitynthat sustain the democratic form ofnour government.nJJouglas emerges as a truly paradoxicalnjurist. Intensely devoted to the ideanthat freedom of “expression” is essentialnto American society, he wound up contributingnto the conditions that diminishnrespect for political speech. Intenselyndevoted to the democratic impulse tonprotect the little man, he wound up subvertingnthe principle of...

by Sokolov’s obsequious descriptions ofnLiebling’s political leftism, which arenrather ineptly concealed praise. He tellsnus that Liebling in his “Wayward Press”ncolumns “wrote more freely and pointedlynabout the evils of monopolisticnnewspaper publishers and of right-wingnwitch-hunting anti-communists [a recordnfor consecutive hyphenated nouns,nI think], of anti-labor reactionaries andnof threats from all sides to freedom ofnthe press and other First...

he was an admirer of Cardinal Gibbon,nprelate of Maryland. Was there somethingnin his personal constitution, andneven in his writing, that suggested hendid not mean what he said—at leastnwhen he sounded malicious? He wasnnever spiteful or small-minded or deliberatelyncruel. Carl Bode, a contributornto On Mencken and founder of thenMencken Society, calls him an Aristotelian:nhe admired moderation...

She Who Can’t Stop TalkingnSusan Sontag: Under the Sign ofnSaturn; Farrar, Straus & Giroux;nNew York.nby Joseph SchwartznIt was a happy accident to havenConstance Folger do the jacket designnfor this latest collection of Susan Sontag’snessays. Her inspired drawing ofna baobab tree is a wickedly accuratenimage of Sontag’s work. Everyone whonhas read Saint Exupery’s The LittlenPrince knows...

enough to let his reading interferenwith his writing.” Maybe that is whynArtaud so fascinates her; he is “relevantnand understandable as long as onenmainly refers to his ideas without readingnmuch of his work.”nAnother rhetorical abuse characterizesnher prose: the grandiose commentnon the relatively minor figure, the commentndefying debate since it is utterednso confidently as fixed dogma. Fornexample,...

despised. Veneration of the family isnpart of fascist aesthetics. Therefore,nveneration of the family is to benfeared and despised.nThe cautionary enthymeme becomes:nbe suspicious of those who veneratenfamily, since they are probably fascistsnat heart.nJixamining, even briefly, why PaulnGoodman and Walter Benjamin are thentwo greatest influences on her can sufficenfor a summary. Goodman is thenonly American writer, she...

son to support the rampant collectivismnof 1950. Instead, Chodorov suggested,nindependent lecturers should be broughtnto the campus from outside. They wouldnnot indoctrinate, he thought; insteadnthey would truly “educate for liberty.”nSince, Chodorov had concluded, libertariansnand socialists were born withninclinations toward their respectivencreeds, “the libertarian teaches not ton’make’ libertarians, but to find them.”nISI has existed since the 1950’s,...

Most Businessmen Have a Fairly Accurate Reading of Their CompetitionnHow About Their Opposition?nThe magazines and activist groups which mold and manipulate public opinion toward anticapitalistngoals are now big business. Their impact in recent years has grown more potentnthrough a network of multinational support groups. The last election has given this activity anvibrant new impetus, with...

Chodorov’s thought is not pious at all,nbut rather tinnily rationalistic when hendefines the state as “a number of personsnwho are up to no good.” If onenlooks at the state in this light, one isnjustified in seeing the solution of ourncurrent difficulties in its abolition.nIhe Libertarian Party program ofn1980 embraces just such an anarchistnprescription. For example,...

mination of all American military alliancesneverywhere, and to “condemn thengrowing alliance between the UnitednStates government and the People’snRepublic of China, just as we condemnnthe previous alliance with the Republicnof China on Taiwan.”nA political philosophy which generatesnfaulty positions must have somenbasic flaws. Two of these may be worthndwelling upon.nThe first is what might be termedn”atomism,” or...

Solzhenitsyn at LargenEdward E. Ericson, Jr.: Solzhenitsyn:nThe Moral Vision; Wm. B.nEerdmans; Grand Rapids, Michigan.nVladimir Lakshin: Solzhenitsyn,nTvardovsky and ‘Novy Mir’; MITnPress; Cambridge, Massachusetts.nby John W. CoopernWh en the pagan Mongols sweptninto Russia in the 13th century, RussiannChristianity already had a three-hundred-year-oldnheritage rich in piety,nmonastic charity and missionary spirit.nInstead of discouraging the faith, thenMongol conquest deepened the...

lished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,nlashed out at Solzhenitsyn forninsulting “the memory of a man whonwas very dear to me,” AleksandrnTvardovsky.nTvardovsky, the talented editor whon”discovered” Solzhenitsyn, died in 1971nwithout telling his own story. Lakshinnis cut to the quick by Solzhenitsyn’sn”accusations and reproaches” directednat Tvardovsky. In fact, Solzhenitsyn hasnexplained his reasons for criticizing...

bravely and sensibly, a life of exceptionalndifficulty.nCord Meyer lost his twin brother,nand an eye, in the Pacific War. Notnsurprisingly, he was even more franticallynconcerned than most people aboutnpreventing another world war. Servingnas an assistant to the United States delegationnat the San Francisco Conferencenin 1945, he sensed much earlier thanndid most the futility of the Unitedn•”....

both the left and the right. Only briefly,nin 1970, as a result of an “hysterical”ndecision by Nixon (whose attention tonthe Chilean problem was erratic) did thenCIA ever become involved in a plot tonoverthrow the Chilean government.nMeyer’s account is similar to thosenwritten by such Chile experts as PaulnSigmund and Robert J. Alexander, albeitnmore favorable to the...

Era, its main issues seem to be rathernastonishingly like those of 20th-centurynAmerica. To see why this is so incongruousnit is necessary to know somethingnof the novel’s setting.nThe Clan of the Cave Bear is an attemptnto reconstruct what might haventranspired when some of the earliestnmodern people came in contact withnthe last survivors of an earlier groupnof...

hunters and gatherers) and mysteryn(there is still not complete agreementneven among experts about their evolutionarynfate, whether they became extinctnor were gradually transformed byngenetic changes into the modern formsnwho succeeded them). Although somenof the facts noted here are used in thensetting provided by Auel, they are rarelynused persuasively. The net result is verynmuch as if the...

being fashioned from Adam’s rib,nMethuselah living for nine hundrednsixty-nine years, and so on. This latternalternative is not required even for thosenwho are religious in the conventionalnsense; witness, for example, the intelligentlynwritten entry on evolution innthe Catholic Encyclopedia. With Neanderthalsnneither on the theological blacklistnnor implausible as a link to stillnearlier ancestors, on what grounds doesnAuel relegate...

acters, plots and themes have incisivelyndiagnosed the 20th-century spiritualnmalaise and its symptoms: crime, totalitarianism,nrevolution, corruption. Hisnfiction describes a world that wants tonbelieve that God is dead and tries tonfunction without aspirations or values,nall the while complaining about the unfairnessnof it all. Most of his charactersnare caught in a cosmic tragedy they arentoo spiritually blind to...

painful and hung around with associations,nlike the cobwebs in a room whosenoccupant left many years ago.” His fictionnderives from his experience; henspeaks of a restlessness “which hasnnever been quite allayed: a desire to bena spectator of history, history in whichnI found I was concerned myself.”nGreene’s vision of a corrupted humanitynwill never comfort the romancersnand sentimentalists...

my Christian friends didn’t believe innJewish valor. . . . But I also knew, innmy heart, that they were wrong.” Indeednthey were. When the nazis triednto destroy the Warsaw ghetto in 1943,nEisner was there. They “entered thenghetto in their usual way, firing gunsnin the air and screaming for all Jews toncome out of their buildings.”...

Living Within Our MeansnDavid Kennedy: Over Here: ThenFirst World War and AmericannSociety; Oxford University Press;nNew York.nby Gordon M. Pradlnxhe existential dilemma characteristicnof “modernism” is not so muchnthe disruptive desire immediately tonhave it all, outwardly to experience allnthings simultaneously, gallivantingnthrough yet-unimagined boundaries ofncultural space; rather, it is the fact that,nseemingly, everyone in our “advanced”nsociety has finally...

liberty was sacrificed. But the real issuenwas initiative, not liberty. The “emergency”nreplacement of the “schoolndistrict-county-state-federal” decisionmakingnpyramid by the widening cobwebnof federal agencies not only representedna real shift in power and authority,nbut it also came to mean that sourcesnoutside the immediate experience ofnthe citizen began their gradual strangleholdnon his life. America’s view ofnEurope at this time...

Real Romance and Bogus TheologynJudith Rossner: Emmeline; Simonn& Schuster; New York.nby Becki KlutenAlthough God was pronounced deadnsomewhere in the 1960’s, He has recentlynbeen making a rather remarkablencomeback. Various concepts of God, ornreligion, are more and more in thenpublic eye, and a phenomenon callednthe “religious right” is sometimesncredited with having political influence.nChurches of all denominations are...

and the rooming-house landlady isncoarse and snoopy. Bereft, Emmelinenturns to the only obvious, easy sourcenof comfort—a supervisor in the mill.nAt this point Ms. Rossner temporarilynabandons her religious theme innfavor of the tried-and-true combinationnof the country innocent and the dastardlynrake. A pregnant, disgracednEmmeline is banished, and the implicationnis that the supervisor suffers onlyna little censure and...

more—a pariah.nMs. Rossner gives the reader goodncause to despise the behavior of thenGod-fearing New Englanders as they trynto force Emmeline to leave town. Butnshe cannot, will not, and one wondersnif it is a 19th-century version of thenwoman who was stoned, whom Christnforgave, saying, “Go, and sin no more.”nIndeed, Emmeline Mosher Gurneynseems to become more saintly...