audience’s response to such crudenschlock.nThe movie is immensely popular withnteenagers who seem in the throes of nostalgianfor the ’50s. They mob movienhouses and appear to be uproariouslynamused by the contraceptive mishap. Anynmention of crotch or menstruation isngreeted with joy and a burst of applause.nAt the same time, however, every hint atncorniness, as it is remembered...

Liberal CulturenLove and VenerationnVicki Witt from Lansing, Michigan,nthe August Playboy centerfold special,ndisplays there the treasures of femininitynonce considered precious by dint ofntheir exclusivity. She also has a fiance,nwho—it could be imagined—cherishesnher gifts of love, as everybody so blessednwould do. However, he does it in a peculiarnway, as a partisan to collectivism ofnemotions and shared troves.n”He...

This is chutzpah. Ms. Baez paid nothingnfor what she did. During the war,nMs. Baez was a fierce supporter of communistnaggression, sang in tune withnHanoi and rendered it invaluable services.nFor opposing and sabotaging thenAmerican war effort she became annAmerican millionaire. Her songs, expressingnproletarian and pro-communistnmessages, acquired her chic apparel andnluxury cars.nOne wonders what the Baezes, Chomskys,nSontags,...

were all so happy just to be able tonmake films.”nHe then muses in an intellectuallynexquisite style:n”We the filmmakers have let ournaudience down. The adult films beingnmade today appeal only to the lowestncommon denominator. The people innthe industry don’t realize that thenaudience has some intelligence. That’snPolemics & ExchangesnThat’s Bigotry, Gentlemen …nWhen Herbert Croly founded ThenNew Republic...

Such a sortie makes it unnecessarynfor TNR to explain why almost all of thenprint medium giants have been savagelynvilifying the business community forndecades, while an overwhelming numbernof American intellectuals teaches thennewspapers how to do it. Which bringsnus to another TNR abuse of truth andndecency, perhaps not quite so gross, butncertainly more devious.nNot long ago, in...

About the Chronicles of Culturen”… Rockford College is not your ordinary midwestern college. Itnpublishes something called Chronicles of Culture, and by rare lucknI have come upon [it]. . .”n—Richard Gordon, The Cincinnati Postn”In its brief existence Chronicles of Culture has rapidly crystallizedninto a strikingly attractive little journal, typographically pleasing,nand entirely free of ‘padding.’n”These materials would...

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CommentnThe ambient incoherence of our reality is discounted bynmany as the classic illusion of changing times. The past alwaysnappears ordered, they say, the present chaotic. Astigmaticnperspectives are certainly a fact of life, but I can rememberntimes when things fell into congruity when someone honestlyntried to arrange them. Epochs of all-encompassing incoherencenare a part of history,...

and state laws that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex,nnot to mention an entire library of interpretative regulationsndaily enforced in every nook and cranny of the Americannactuality.nIs this a matter of intellectual and ethical fairness? Far fromnit. And this unfairness is at the heart of the liberal concept ofnAmerican pluralism. America is now more...

opinions & ViewsnLet Us Listen to the Silence of the DeadnAleksander I. Solzhenitsyn: ThenGulag Archipelago, Volume III, PartsnV-VII; Harper & Row; New York.nby Leo RaditsanWe ^e have to learn we do not knownhow to read. This is a good book to startnwith. It is hard to read. It has to be readnat its own pace...

1 feel like an intruder when I readnthis book. This has to do with itsn”secrecy,” with the fact that Solzhenitsynnwrote it without intending to publish it.nIt is also because in some important sensenit is written not for the whole world, butnfor Russians and the other nationalitiesnsubjected to the Soviet regime. Whennhe wrote this work, Solzhenitsyn...

in charge appeared to yield to theirndemands, they were crushed with gratitude.nThey grew gullible. When commissionsncame from the outside to ask themnwhere they would like to go upon theirnrelease, they were astonished but theyntrusted. They believed things had actuallynchanged. When they grew off their guard,nthe “authorities” turned on them andntook their leaders away to punishmentncells...

Fellow Traveling to ParadisenChristopher Hill: Milton and thenEnglish Revolution; Viking; NewnYork.nby Albert C. LabriolanJLong admired as one of the foremostnscholars of the causes and consequencesnof the English Revolution,nChristopher Hill has recently been attackednby other historians, notably J.H.nHexter, for alleged distortions of evidence,nbiased opinions and views, andnnarrow-minded interpretations of thenevents and personages of the period aboutnwhich...

of the people to overthrow an unjustnmonarch is defended by St. ThomasnAquinas. Indeed, the intolerance andnrepression that Milton saw and experiencednin the state and in its officiallynsanctioned religion were manifestationsnin his culture and era of the same enemiesnagainst liberty and conscience that hadnbeen present earlier, elsewhere, and innother guises. The intellectual libertariansnwho fought, sacrificed, and...

America Sweat-Drenched in FearnDavid Caute: The Great Fear; Simonnand Schuster; New York.nby Alan J. LevinenDa ‘avid Caute, a well-known Britishnintellectual historian, has produced annear-encyclopedic account of the issuenof domestic anti-Communism innAmerica during the Truman and Eisenhowernadministrations. But The GreatnFear is not just another liberal diatribenagainst Senator Joe McCarthy. It is anrelentless distortion of the history...

impairment of the people’s freedom tonelect the representatives of their choice.”nPresumably Caute would burn with indignationnif he contemplated the monstrousnrestriction on the freedom of the WestnGermans, who are not permitted to votenfor Nazi candidates.nV- Add to Favorites

Memoirs of a Mistress-MartyrnOlga Ivinskaya: A Captive of Time:nMy Years with Pasternak; Doubledayn& Co., Inc.; Garden City, New York.nby Lev Navrozovn”My beloved, my shame, my scourge . . .”n—Alexander Blok: Black BloodnJjoris Pasternak burst forth as then20th-century Mozart of poetry when thenGolden Age of Russian poetry was at itsnzenith, in 1912, five years before thenorigin...

leave the country if he wished. OlganIvinskaya says: “The question whethernto go or not never seriously arose,” fornPasternak “deeply loved the country.” Shenrepeats beautiful Soviet cliches. ErnestnHemingway adds his sickening mite tonthe pious stereotype: “I know how deeply,nwith all his heart, he [Pasternak] is attachednto Russia. For a genius such asnPasternak, separation from his countrynwould...

Nixon. According to this account,nRichard Helms and other leaders of thenintelligence service, had actually plannednthe failure of the Plumbers’ operations.nSupposedly Howard Hunt, JamesnMcCord, and several of their Cubannaccomplices were taking orders from thenCIA at the very time they were committingnthe Watergate break-in. Haldemanncontrasts the conspicuous record ofnbotched operations left by the Plumbersnfrom their organization in...

cessful war against the federal civilnservice. Surrounded by surly and mischievousngovernment workers who resentednhis intrusion into their affairs,nthis Republican president looked for waysnto run his administration without them.nHe assigned responsibilities to such confidentialnadvisors as Kissinger and Haldeman;nat other times, as in slowing downnschool desegregation plans, Nixon appealedndirectly to the people to gainnleverage against the HEW....

The Facts of Guilt and Myths of InnocencenAllen Weinstein: Perjury: The Hiss-nChambers Case; Alfred A. Knopf;nNew York.nby Harold C. GordonnXhe Hiss-Chambers case hasnnagged the American conscience fornthirty years. Who lied? Was it WhittakernChambers, when he accused Alger Hissnof transmitting secret documentsnthrough him to the Soviets? Or was itnHiss, when he denied Chambers’ accusations?nA federal jury...

in turn led to his being “eased out” of thenState Department the following year.nWeinstein cites recently declassifiednmemoranda indicating that by the springnof 1946, nearly all of the Department’snsecurity people suspected Hiss of involvementnin some sort of Communist undercovernwork.nOne of Weinstein’s biggest finds, however,ncame from his interview with Czechnhistorian Karel Kaplan. Kaplan had beenna member of...

wisdom, follies, triviality and grandeur—na universal phenomenon of prime magnitudenand overwhelming attractiveness.nMr. Fecher renders justice to such anconception of Mencken’s presence in thenAmerican culture. DnDevine’s WarningnDonald J. Devine: Does FreedomnWark? Liberty & Justice in America;nGreen Hill Publishers, Inc; Ottawa, Illinois,nRallying from Irving Kristol’s admonitionnthat the intellectual battle overncapitalism’s moral legitimacy will decidenits fate, Donald Devine...

“By then Carter had no choice. Like hisrnpredecessors, he had become poHticallyrncommitted to a course over which he nornlonger had control . . . the specifics ofrnthe program . . . went out of his handsrnand into those of the HEW professionals.”rnThese professionals, in turn, are thernsame bureaucrats who served up thernradical welfare plans of...

his need to tell a very personal story. Butnthat the sage and measured tones of thentalk-show moguls and evening newsnmagnates arbitrarily elevate Woods to anheroic rating while relegating the rest ofnthe truth—about 997° of the story—tonthe cutting-room floor, really enhancesnthe agony involved in the African dilemma:nWoods, a white opponent of thenwhite regime, receives a welcoming...

StagenA Ballet Ensemble on a CouchnA Chorus Line; conceived, choreographednand directed by MichaelnBennett; written by James Kirkwoodnand Nicholas Dante; music by MarvinnHamlisch.nAnalyzing individuals—one of thenmagic ablutions of our pseudo-rationalnage—is old hat by now. The same Voodoonritual, allegedly scientific, but onlynupdated, when applied to a collectivenseems something new, thus interestingnor exciting by the standards of modernntheatrical...

way. Childishly inane and mimickednlasciviousness looks different through thentreacherous intermediary of the camera,nand finds its way to immature impulsesnand aspirations. Couched in the stunningnartistry of photographer Sven Nykvist—anvisual fiesta of lushness and depth, thenNew Orleans background flora renderednin the images of a latter-day DouaniernRousseau—it will have no difficulty innfinding aping followers who later in lifenwill...

more Erica becomes unmarried, ttie morencluclsish she looks to us.nWith each reel we flounder morendeeply in the jelly-like reality of poses—nNew York, contemporary, metropolitan,nEast Side—also called lifestyles thesendays. The movie brings no news aboutnthem, except, perhaps, it makes theirnoverwhelming shallowness more perceptible.nOnce again it’s Blondie, this timenputting the blame for an everyday flopnon menstruation or...

journalism in which precision is neverndivorced from knowledge. This traditionnran into an existential trap with the arrivalnof Joseph Goebbels on the German publishingnscene: as we remember, severalnyears of welding the sense of precisionnto the most vicious mythomania ensued—andnthe rest is history.nPeriodicals like Criticon contributenimmensely to erasing these sorrowfulnLiberal CulturenPublishersnE.P. Button Co., a New York publishingnhouse...

CommentnI believe that a substantial, but nondescript, part of ournworldview comes from a few books of fiction read on thenthreshold of adolescence. These, most often, are entertainmentnnovels. Usually they are hardly what parents, teachers, ornadult well-wishers, would be inclined to put into our hands atnthat time in our lives. The literary value of these books...

JL he basic narrative device which distinguished betweenntrash writing and Hterature is found in the motivating force ofnthe characters. In the past, entertainment’s Hterary figuresnwere moved through pages by sentimentaHty or the survivalninstinct; these two ingredients fused nicely into melodrama.nToday, satiation seems the only reason for survival, which, ofncourse, eliminates melodrama. The drive for satiation...

opinions & ViewsnThe Soul of a Fast WriternHoward Fast: The Immigrants;nHoughton Mifflin Company; Boston.nby Otto J. ScottnH oward Fast is back on the bestnseller lists. The jacket blurb of ThenImmigrants describes it as “the story ofnthree California families in the course ofnthe twentieth century.” Another namenfrom the pro-Communist Thirties—nLouis Untermeyer—adds his blessing tonthe offering. “More...

Hollywood. In The Immigrants, that soulnis bared for the world to see.nXhe novel opens with the arrivalnin America of an Italian couple, who, inna few opening pages, are cheated, subjectednto brutal conditions and movednthrough a number of years to SannFrancisco. The husband eventually becomesna fisherman and wants his son tonfollow his trade. His wife objects....

An Australian Saga about a Girl’snSpecial SomethingnColleen McCuUough: The ThornnBirds; Harper & Row; New York.nby Whit StillmanntUoUeen McCullough’s The ThornnBirds is probably the biggest novel aboutnfarming since So Big by Edna Ferber. It’snpossibly even bigger.nTo gauge this achievement accuratelynit must be mentioned that in 1924 MissnFerber was considered, in the words ofnone major literary review,...

Justine O’Neill, Meggie’s legitimatenchild, breaks the unhappy tradition ofnthe Drogheda Women. She falls in lovenwith a man whose intentions are honorable,neven tedious. He waits years beforenventuring a kiss, but then: “Thoughtsnand senses merged at last, but her crynwas smothered soundless, an unutterednwail of gladness which shook her sondeeply she lost awareness of everythingnbeyond impulse, the...

ever again register above lukewarm.” Hasnshe learned anything except “that mynsensation thermostat has been thrownnout of whack”? Not that I can see.nMcNeill’s inability to see the implicationsnof her affair, her complicity, is the mostnhorrifying aspect of her story.nIhe Irish novelist Edna O’Briennfails badly with I Hardly Knew You,nwhich probably never would have seennthe light of...

becomes Gareth’s employee and accountantnin the sex-magazine empire.nMoney is another element in the mystiquenof control and dominance thatnpervades the world of the pornographer.nThe gushing blurb-writer of Robbins’nnovel tells us that Gareth lives in “a worldnof total pleasure and hedonism, in whichnmoney and sex are almost indistinguishable;na world that includes drugs, far-outnsex and violence; a world...

The title “Bloodline” refers to thenfamily-owned nature of the businessnfounded by a Jewish chemist fromnPoland. Intrigue centers around thenefforts to influence Elizabeth Roffe, thenheiress, to make the company stock publicnso various relatives can convert theirnstock into more liquid assets. Most ofnthe book is taken up with flashbacksnwhich reveal why many of the familynmembers on the...

Church and the anti-communist massesnseem to crystallize under the totalitariannpressures. Thus, Malachi Martin’s premonition,nthough often simplisticallynformulated, that the acute danger of ancompromise between the Kremlin andnVatican is to be looked for in the West,nnot the East, makes sense. There arenmore perils in the pseudo-socio-ideologynof a Graham Greene, the antic “Christiannidealism” of the Berrigans, the supraemotionalismnof...

Why does a movie such as “LookingnFor Mr. Goodbar” feature a scene innwhich each measured thrust of a studnpickup’s wand evokes the ecstatic cryn”Oh God!” from star Diane Keatonn(whose lower middle class, Catholic backgroundnhas carefully—excuse the expression—beennlaid out)? Did the condomnreference in “Saturday Night Fever” elicitna great, knee-slapping guffaw when younsaw it? Did you expect...

Dukes. So pitifully and pathetically farnin the direction of the open-raincoatnroutines. The sadness, for me, is thatnthis meretricious assault on personalnprivacy—especially when it assumesnsexual or anti-sexual forms—attacksnsomething sacred and profanes whilenexploiting.nWe are firehosed by mass media withnspiritless flesh (even the pimps, whores,naddicts and sadists of network TV’s seriesnlook like heartless, featureless mannequins)nand cozzened into pursuits...

ScreennAn Upright Farce and a Cheerful FibnHouse Calls; directed by HowardnZieff; written by Schulman &nEpstein; Universal Studios.nAmerican Hot Wax; directed bynFloyd Mutrux; written by John Kaye;nParamount Picturesnby Eric ShapearonA . trifle of a movie about a widowednsurgeon (Walter Matthau) whonfinds happiness with a divorcee (GlendanJackson) loaded with human and femininenvirtues. It doesn’t fare too well...

Chicago Tribune’snOfficiatingnJ ane Fonda, a talented movie actressnand an attractive woman, is a self-avowednpro-communist who is more effective atnengineering pro-communist sympathiesnat large than any Marxist book, proletariannmovie or revolutionary lecture.nShe once served the communist authoritiesnin Vietnam by giving credibility andnrespectability to Hanoi’s most atrociousnlies. No one knows what motivated her;ndoltishness or anti-American venom. Shenherself would...

smarmy TV soap). Rolling Stone’s reviewernpointed out the myopia and sentimentalismnof Davidson’s view of thensixties, as well as her plain inaccuracynin a review more severe even than thatnof the Chronicles. In the same way, thenNew York Review of Books which seemsna regular whipping boy for the Chroniclesn(is it only something in me that bringsnmetaphors of...

ON THE ROCKFORD COLLEGE INSTITUTE’S PUBLICATIONSnIf you would like to read an opinion that is different from that of thenManhattan publishers, Los Angeles producers and San Francisconhedonists on:n— moral and existential responsibilitiesn— Vladimir Nabokov and William Faulknern—the quandaries of honest thinkingn— TV’s assault on human valuesn— the Liberal Culture’s trampling of American pluralismn—Madison Avenue’s sex...

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CommentnI see the Liberal Culture as resting on many mighty pillars,none of the most powerful of which is the cult of deficientnthinking.nThe symptoms of the latter are everywhere. Its effect is thenerosion of the American ethos, that is of the set of principlesnand values by which this nation wishes to live. Even if America’snefforts have...

man to be achieved through equating every possible wickednessnand derangement with the common-sensical desire for normalcynand order. The result of their domination of culture is thatnvice and sin are among us to a degree unknown to previousngenerations. Many of them now have second thoughts, butnthey will still crucify anyone who would say that evil andndecency...

opinions & ViewsnThose Dying GenerationsnMichael Herr: Dispatches; Alfred A.nKnopf Co.; New York, 1977.nby Stephen R. MaloneynThe Scottish poet and critic EdwinnMuir observed that one could almost saynthat Troy fell so that a poem—the Iliad—nmight be written. On the evidence ofnMichael Herr’s Dispatches and othernworks dealing with the recent debacle innSoutheast Asia, one almost imagines thatnSaigon...

community, Herr asks, “Who could youndiscuss politics with, except a colleague?”nThese (self-) chosen ones even sharednthe sacraments of the time, “grass,nwhiskey, girls . . . sources, information,nhunches, tips, prestige.”nThe image of the young sharing ansecret knowledge is reinforced by a statementnTim Page makes to Sean Flynn, “Inask you, would William C. Westmorelandndig the Mothers [of...