Author: The Archive (The Archive)

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Italyrnby Andrea SciffornThe Gay Nihilism ofrnUmberto EcornSimone Weil wrote, with respect to literature,rnthat “nothing is more beautiful,rnwonderful, ever new, ever more surprising,rnmore sweetly and lastingly intoxicatingrnthan the good. Nothing is more arid,rnsad, monotonous and cranky than thernhad. Such are authentic goodness andrnevil. The fictional good and bad are opposite.rnThe fictional good is cranky...

Umberto Eco took Ileraclitus at his wordrnand perhaps “moved” some pages fromrnL. Pawel and J. Bergier’s Le matin desrnMagiciens (1960) to his Foucault’s Pendulumrn(1989), appropriating them (PartrnII. Chapter VII) in not too discreet arnmanner.rnThese arc not merely insinuations.rnOriginality moves to the second floorrnwhen the intent of artistic creation is tornreduce the multiplicitv of reality’s phenomenarnto...

ican left such as Telos. It is a display of intolerancernnot out of character for suchrnenlightened ironists as Eeo and Derrida.rnAndrea Sciffo is a poet and journalistrnin Monza. This article was translated byrnNino Langiulli, a professor of philosophyrnat St. Francis College in Brooklyn andrnauthor, most recently, of Possibility,rnNecessity, and Existence: Abbagnanornand his Predecessors {TemplernUniversity Press).rnLetter...

tempting to put out the fire and indulgernin an orgv of drunken looting.rnGiven the Soviet state’s initial effortsrnto destroy Russian identity and the immeasurablerndamage done to the Russianrnlandseape by foreed industrializationrnand collectivization, it is not surprisingrnthat environmentalist, conservationist,rnand preservationist efforts became anrnimportant part of the program of the nationalistrndissident movement thatrnemerged in the 1960’s. In...

VITAL SIGNSrnErato in the Throesrnby Ralph de Toledanornii The future of poetry is immense,rnbecause in poetry, wliere it isrnworthy of its high destinies, our race, asrntime goes on, will find an ever surer andrnsurer stay. . . . Our religion . . . has attachedrnits emotion to the fact, and nowrnthe fact is failing. Poetry...

istries of culture to take note. Howeverrnfew eopies were sold of these germinalrnworks, they were reviewed and discussed,rnmaking their impact on literary discoursernand the literary consciousness of theirrntime. No writer after that could ignorernEliot or Stevens or Conrad Aiken—orrneven Floyd Dell’s hijinks in issuing arnsatirical manifesto. They were injectedrninto the bloodstream of contemporaryrnliterature, were part...

characters—a character who was to berntied by her hair to a ceiling fan, tortured,rnmutilated, sodomized with a hot curlingrniron, and eventually killed in the story.rnAs for why he chose the name of this particularrngirl, with whom he shared arnJapanese class the previous term, Bakerrnhas only stated, “because she was anrnattractive young woman and I needed...

RELIGIONrnDescent into thernEpiscopal Churchrnby The Rev. FT.rnGene GeromelrnEffective January 1, 1994, the rightrnReverend Clarence Pope, EpiscopalrnBishop of Fort Worth, not only retiredrnbut left the Episcopal Church for Rome.rnHe is the highest-ranking Episcopalianrnto leave the denomination. Bishop Popernwas one of a handful of bishops willing tornstand against a liberal hierarchy. As isrntrue of many Episcopalians, he...

and promote the new policy. All this despiternthe fact that Scripture, tradition,rnand even the canons of the EpiscopalrnChurch are not value-neutral on the subjectrnof homosexual behavior. It is a sin.rnIndividual sin, however, is not part ofrntheir vocabulary (although “corporaternsin” is a popular term).rnOne cannot help but wonder if wernare not still experiencing echoes ofrnthe Chicago...

The Hundredth Meridianrnbv Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnPapagueria: IIrnPast Robles Junction where the roadrncoming north from Sasabe meets Highwayrn86 we crossed onto the Papago reservationrnheading west toward the Indianrncapital of Sells, no lights ahead save thernconstellation of the Kitt Peak Observatoryrnlifted high against the night sky byrnthe bulk of the Baboquivari Mountains,rnand almost no traffic. Saguaros stoodrnlike...

place. He disappeared into the night,rnand at once a tribal patrol car slippedrnfrom behind us and proceeded to thernend of the street, made a U-turn, andrndrove by the house again. Albert returnedrnempty-handed and got back inrnthe Land Cruiser. “Drive away now,” hernwhispered. “Hurry—hurryl” When wernhad gone a couple of hundred yards hernsaid, still whispering, “Now...

Subscribe to SOBRAN’SrnA MONTHLY NEWSLETTER BYrnJoe SobranrnJoe Sobran,..rn• former CBS ^’Spectrum”rnCommentatorrn• former Senior Editor,rnNational Review magazinern• Columnist for UniversalrnPress syndicate andrnThe Wandererrn• and America’s SharpestrnCommentatorrn12 pages ofuncensoredrnSobran with new material notrnavailable anywhere else! Don’t missrnhis insights on the collapse of thernChristian culture, Rush Limbaugh,rnNewt Gingrich & Company,rnNorman Podhoretz, Bill & Hillary,rnmarginalizing religion, and defendersrnof the...

W^ Mmmill _ _ _ _ _ p _ _rnNATIONAL CONSERVATIVErnSTUDENTrnCOHF£[<£Narn”The conference will send you back to your campuses better informed, motivated and trained. Your work isrnvital to the future of the nation.” — Ronald Reaganrn• Learn the Principles of Activismrn• Private Congressional Reception andrnBriefingrn• Meet Conservative Leadersrn• Conservative Academic Lecturesrn• Dinner Banquets with FamousrnConservativesrnFor...

EL)[TORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.j. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnE. Christian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, ]acob Neusner,rnJohn Shelton Reed, Momcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn934 North Main Street. Rockford,...

the “gender gap.”rnCongratulations, Chronicles, you’verntextualized it. Even if you had made thernprudent decision to throw in an essay byrna token woman or two, your plans reealrnthe basic mentality at work. And it’srnthat mentalitv that the women I knowrnreally do not want.rnLike Chronicles, Freud had amplernopportunities to get good answers to hisrnfamous question. He ignored them,...

done several newspaper and radio interviewsrnby phone, they immediately faxedrnback; “We will pay all expenses for arnweek’s visit, to deal with you and yourrncritics.” (Evidently in their first invitationrnthey’d imagined that I would payrnmy own way!) Meanwhile, back at thernUniversity of South Florida, my mailboxrnand even my voice mail got crowdedrnwith letters, phone calls, and...

appear on Sixty Minutes in Auckland.rnNext case.rn—Jacob NeusnerrnTHE NEH has provided me with severalrnsubstantial (and highly coiTipetiti’e)rngrants, and so perhaps I should maintainrna discreet silence in the current debaternover the proposed abolition of the NationalrnEndowment for the Humanitiesrnand the National Endowment for thernArts. (Strictly speaking, I am not thernrecipient, but rather the Principal hivestigatorrnfor grants...

office, entitlements constituted 45 percentrnof the budget. Net interest wasrn11.1 percent. Now entitlements consumern47 percent of the budget, with interestrnon the debt pulling down anotherrn14.1 percent. “Mandatory spending” isrnnow 61.4 percent of the federal budget.rnBy 2030, according to one estimate, thernannual deficit will reach $4.1 trillion,rnthe size of the national debt today.rnScared for your kids...

BACK to the BASICSrn(Or, if you prefer, FORWARD with the BASICS)rnClarence Carson began his work on basic texts for history, politics, and economics in 1982. With the publicationrnof BASIC AMERICAN GOVERNMENT in 1993, the work has been completed for the coverage of the UnitedrnStates. The Basic History was completed in 1986. Even before then—as the...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnVoices in the AirrnBy the middle of the second month ofrnthe Repubhean Revolution, acute observersrnwere beginning to see that thernrevolution might actually go somewherernif only the Republicans were not inrncharge of it. Aside from such irritatingrncontretemps as the revelations of SpeakerrnNewt Gingrich’s book deal, his instantaneousrndumping of historian ChristinarnJeffrey when her...

eating out of a bucket.)rnIn the case of Republicans, almost allrnof the principal contents of the Contractrnwith America have to do with explicitlyrneconomic issues—the balanced budgetrnamendment, the line item veto, unfundedrnmandates, welfare reform, tax reform,rnand even the proposal to alter thernaccounting method by which the costrnof American participation in U.N.rnpeacekeeping missions is calculated.rnPopular discontent with...

PERSPECTIVErnWhat Do Women Want?rnby Thomas FlemingrnWas wollen die Frauen? Freud’s questions are always betterrnthan his answers, and even his questions usually betrayrnthe diseased mind which poisoned this century with itsrnsexual obsessions. In a healthier age, the question of whatrnwomen wanted would not have been asked, but as we look outrnacross the wreckage of human social...

Florence Nightingale, eager to console the sick at heart, and hernconfessed to her all his failures, weaknesses, and self-doubts.rnHe was neck-and-neck with his rival until Gargantua announcedrnthat his father had died. My friend resigned the field,rndeclaring one night in the graduate seminar room, “I can’t toprnthat.”rnI am not sure I know what it means when...

liberal—who sees both sides of the case, arguing first againstrnthe folly of letting the girl throw herself away on the tailor andrnlater against excessive severity, once it is clear she has made uprnher mind. The Countess is, undoubtedly, a harsh motherrnwhose obstinate pride has made matters worse, but the snakernin this garden is not a...

market of bestsellers had to be created—fast literature to bernconsumed along with fast food. Even hunting and fishing havernbeen almost completelv commercialized. The sign you see inrntackle shops says it all: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”rnWell, even I am not immune to the thrill of a well-made rodrnor the allure of a...

Iv dependent (as the Lady and the Woman never were) on therngood opinion of others. That is true even if you are at the toprnof a hierarchy, as a British prime minister discovered to her bitterrncost in November 1990, when her own party (mostly men)rnthrew her out, and as a French prime minister, Edith Cresson,rndiscovered...

not happening in many—possibly more than many—rninstances. Instead, something far more dangerous is afoot.rnIn almost all the cases receiving media publicity—and manyrnthat are not—the women bringing the complaints are in’okingrna clause in their schools’ sexual harassment policy that has torndo with the work (or study) place. If, in a woman’s opinion, arnmale superior’s behavior creates...

through the motions, anyway. And matters are usually handledrn”by the book,” even though the accused usually findsrnhimself completely alone and without reliable advice.rnVery few universities provide counsel or legal representationrnto an accused faculty member. It is more efficient to proceedrnfrom the point where the prima facie evidence is offered. It isrna reductive process: the faculty...

for as long as half a decade. The school does not mind waiting.rnIt has bags of mone’ to spend on defense and all the time inrnthe wodd.rnAnother Dallas attorney points out that most schools wouldrnfar rather risk a “wrongful dismissal” suit than “take a federalrnhit.” The former could cost the school hundreds of thousands,rnbut the...

spare the men their commute and the evening frustrations of arnhouseliold with children. If practicable, this would be fine, Irnremarked. “But since it is not,” I went on, “let us begin by clarifyingrnour problem in the starkest possible terms: it comesrndown to not getting enough sex and having to do too much ofrnthe work.” At...

When it came to the major role of women in society—rncaring for children—the rising divorce rate brought on by thernsexual revolution provided the opportunity to keep womenrnemployed. Many children now needed to be looked after inrngroups while their mothers worked. Who better to care forrnthem than . . . women? It was necessary only to...

I therefore went on to point out that marital infidehty,rnwhich according to pop sociologists has reached 50 percent,rnwas actually at onl- 3 to 4 percent a year, and the total numberrnof married people who had ever strayed was no higher than 15rnpercent, and not rising. Nor had female responses changed asrnmuch as advertised. “Women have...

usually bv making sardonic comments about the “boys,”rnand—the lowest and cheapest shot—talking about our privyrnmembers. What a hypocrite. This is the same talking nail-filernwho can sniff “sexual harassment” at 50 paces, and for whomrnnormal male behavior is deeply suspect. She dreams of daterapernso that she can have something to feel indignant about.rnWhat is sad about...

the young Kate Bush, even Blondie, with nostalgia; I miss theirrnsweet voices, charming melodies, and apparent innocence.rnNow there are no more tunes and the voices are turned tornshrieks, and the absolute lack of any discernible musical talentrnis covered over with a thick mucous layer of MTV attitude. Forrnthis is the 90’s; the great era of...

Higgledy Figaro: A Few Nights at the Operarnby Katheiine McAlpinernTerrible parable:rnLucy di Lammermoorrnmust marry Arthur butrnhungers for Ed.rnAfter a murder, arnsuperspectacularrnmad scene and suicide,rneveryone’s dead.rnAwfully coughily.rnCourtesan Valery,rnloving Alfredo butrnheeding his Pop,rndrops him, convinced of herrnunsuitability,rndies of consumption whilernsinging nonstop.rnWhorily, florally.rnCarmen the Gypsy Girlrncoyly and craftilyrntoys with Jose.rnHe, driven wild by herrninsensitivity,rnfinally stabs her, tornshouts of...

OPINIONSrnGreat Expectationsrnby Frederick Turnerrn’There is only one step from fanaticism to barbarism.”rn—DiderotrnI t I ‘rnJ ilrn1rnIn Defense of Elitismrnby William A. Henry HIrnNew York: Doubleday; 212 pp., $20.00rnJn Defense of Elitism joins what is nowrna spate of books documenting thernmadness of contemporary “pohticalrncorrectness.” It is an amusing, readable,rnand journalistic work, full of the mostrndelightful anecdotes...

words “modernitv,” “modernism,”rn”postmodernitv,” and “postmodernism.”rn”Modernitv” can be defined asrnthe period within which the followingrnconditions obtain: science establishesrnmatters of fact; political theory, the leftrightrnpolitical axis, and the nation-staterndetermine collective social organization;rntechnological progress drives the conditionsrnof life; secular values override allrnothers; and the fundamental unit ofrnpolitical reality is the individual. “Modernism”rnis a movement in the arts,rnhumanities, and...

leader teams, local craftspeople, storytellers,rnand folk poets continue to be arnvital source of cultural material. Thernfolk churches are flourishing and full,rnand the exposed peccadilloes of theirrnpastors testify, oddly, to the vitality ofrnthe cultural energies they exploit. Localrnand regional peculiarities and dialectsrnpersist. The popular culture is also relativelyrnsound, despite or perhaps becausernof its inherent limitations—the compromisesrnrequired...

belong fully to the commonwealth butrndo not share fully the privileges of citizenship.rnFor at least a generation it hasrnbeen fashionable to stigmatize Romanrnfamily relationships for their coldnessrnand to condemn the severity of Romanrnfathers in the exercise of their authorityrn(the patria potestas). The most importantrnscholar to take this view (derived,rnapparenriy, from Philippe Aries’ entirelyrnerroneous theory of...

ed final proof until modern timesrnbrought the invention of DNA testing.rnIt seems likely that most of them, likernmore common but similar claims to noblerndescent, have been false. In the casernof Savage, he was probably the child of arnnurse or servant employed by LadyrnMacclesfield or someone close to her,rnwho knew about her illegitimate childrenrnand passed the...