Interest in Barnes probably also stemsnfrom the fact that her novels aid shortnstories and plays consistently present anradically pessimistic, drearily deterministicnview of life that still squares nicelynwith the prevailing Zeitgeist. Accordingnto Barnes, man lives amid bewilderingnflux in a backwater constellation, in anninterminable limbo where there is neithernjoy nor light nor certitude nor peace.nMan is himself...

animal imagery and death symbolism,nand is packed witii bizarre supportingncharacters borrowed from the NathanaelnWest Repertory Company, includingnone Dr. Matthew-Mighty-grain-of-salt-nDante O’Connor, whose ramblingnmonologues on religion and ethnologynand hygiene and God knows what elsengo on for pages and pages and pages.nField thinks Dr. O’Connor is “of Shakespeariannstature and certainly one of thenmost memorable characters in our century.”nHe...

formula still exist, who really cares?nMillions of average Americans regularlynpurchase these books, but how many willnever reread them for their subtlety or insight?nLiterature (to use the term loosely)ngenerated within such a constrictednparadigm is, as novelist John Barth putsnit, “exhausted.” For Barth and other avantgardenwriters like him the way out ofnthis exhaustion is the sweeping repudiationnof...

ing power of the free will a sacrosanctntenet. Because he abhorred all aestheticnor political theories which denigratedneither of these doctrines, Dostoevskinparted company with the leading Russianncritic Vissarion Belinsky, a materialist,nand unsuccessfljlly warned his countrymennin The Possessed about the spiritualnemptiness of political radicalism. EvennTolstoy’s professed belief in the determinismnof historical “forms” should not,nRzhevsky demonstrates, obscure his...

Life. Written in the imperative mood ofna street-comer harangue, this prefacenenjoins jvoM to: “Encourage virtue innwhatever heart it may have been drivenninto secrecy and sorrovi’ by the shamenand terror of the world.” In such a worldnyou should have “no shame in beingnkindly and gentle, but if the time comesnin the time of your life to...

that his anti-Semitism was more a fianctionnof Armenian pride than of racenhatred, it is a hit more difficult to rationalizenSaroyan’s characterization of Hitlernas “a great zealot.” Indeed, this liberalnhumanist, whose typewriter was so innwriting. It may be that his incrediblenprolixity was an attempt to cheat deathnof its final victory. In The Time of YournLife, a...

Bicycling Through Europe Wearing BlindersnWright Morris: Solo: An AmericannDreamer in Europe: 1933-34; Harpern& Row; New York.nby James H. BowdennX hose unfamiliar with Wright Morris’snfiction probably won’t read this book; ifnthey do, they no doubt will be puzzlednby a vision that could be called nonjudgmentalnby educationists, laid-back bynthe intellectually lazy, sketchy by a writingnteacher, and any...

Ami WlMt Will Oct the OoMfisb?nI’i’iiiii (;jlirni-iii:i. llii’ >liili- which lalnIhi’ W:L IO pi-rs()n:il riillillninil aiul lilu-r-nhe does not rtiention post-FY34 events:nin the moment are the past and presentnfound, wrote Eliot, but that was poetq?nand this is fiction.nNonetheless, that is how he does it,nleaping into being ex nihilo, like a culturallynignorant Martian. And yet, onengets...

must be handled with some delicacy.nFor reasons that are inexplicable fromneither her photographs or her poetry,nRiding exercised a magnetic appeal toncertain personalities that has given her anlegendary stature out of proportion tonher artistic achievements. But she cannotnbe dismissed simply as the archetypalnOther Woman. Although married at thentime, Riding apparentiy descended onnthe Nashville group with all...

the difficult craft to which he had committednhimself, he began to look at languagenin the wrong way. Rather thannseeing it for what it is, a means, he begannto regard it as an end in itself—^not an unusualnreaction of people who, for whatevernreason, come to lose faith in thenreal, people who make a vocation out ofndoubting....

that he would have scornfully disownednfor all their sentimental socialist fervor.”nHook dissects the “existentialist,” Frankfurtn(Marcusian), and other schools ofn”Marxism” which base themselves notnon what Marx considered his lifework,nbut on his 1844 “Economic and PhilosophicalnManuscripts,” whose ideas henspecifically repudiated, or on even morenarcane sources. While Marx’s acmal viewsnhave been demolished by events andnthe march of social...

from attack. Above all, the urban humoristsnwere characterized by a sophisticatednsense of literary form which only a cosmopolitan,neducated culture could support.nOften their comic method was displayednin extravagant parody or burlesque,nas in this version of “Jack and Jill”nin the manner of Whitman: “Jack, broadshouldered,ndeep-chested, and merry/nlike the rocks prehistoric—gigantic….”nOr Mike Royko’s modem version of CarlnSandburg’s poem...

ing the perspective of the common mannand criticizing any who did not live upnto their standards. The flight of the middlenclass into the suburbs left the Americanncity with the odd conjunction of welferestatenpoor and hedonistic rich; thenhumorists, already dulled by ideology,nfound little in the city to inspire them.nThe mild Horatian humor which had becomentraditional, however,...

selves, native and newcomer alike wouldnfall within the varying degrees of successnor failures that attend us all. Thenjustification for government’s coercivenpower is to prevent one individual, innthe exercise of his fi-eedom, kotn infringingnupon the freedom of others. Whenngovernment uses that power to set onengroup above another group, to give onengroup an advantage at the expense...

returned, as Karl Wittfogel proved. Wittfogel was a Marxistnwho changed his mind in the concentration camps of Hitler:nMy final thoughts go to those who, like myself, were passingnthrough that great inferno of terror. Among them, some hopednfor a great turning of the tables which would make themnguards and masters where formerly they had been inmatesnand...

narrator meets are intended to representnparticular figures in Polish intellectualncircles (often ones with whom Konwicki,na filmmaker as well as a writer, has disagreements).nYet the identities of thesenpeople and the precise nature of thenquarrels will remain closed to mostnreaders. A longer introduction thannRichard Lourie’s two pages of useftil commentsnwould help Konwicki’s work receiventhe wider readership it...

Europe which had slain itself.”nFound throughout the book, moreover,nis the figure of Winston Churchill,nserving at once as Paul Johnson’s altern^o and as the conscience of the WesternnChristian World, challenging the dominantnforces of the age (“You might asnwell legalize sodomy as recognize thenBolsheviks,” he exclaimed in 1919),nstru^Jing—often alone—^to hold backnthe apocalypse, always managing to benpresent at...

This jiuirii.i! ni npininnni> Iviiiii hriMiLilii 111 ‘iiinhv ‘1 lu- KIVUIITJ liisiiiiiiL’.nli vi’U .iiv JIUMJV .1 •^iilNcribcr.nVMii .IJL- .I»A;HV ihai \k- M.iiiJ I’liir-n»:(iu.iiv .iii.iiriM iijj.iv’.s l.ihiT.il I’lilliiivnjiivi IIK- [M^vi^-‘j piilili.sliiiip y’uh ‘it incnluiii’^n!.nII ihiN i.s i)ui tir.si isMk ii| i’/IMM/V/I..- i)/nC’lj/ri/fi- (‘T yiui’>.- IKVII lidmrAiiii; .1 cnpvn.ii.J Ly wluit wc LIFL- .ulJi”i.”»siiii^ mi ilii.-nMiruiiiiiviiiiL’ piiiii”*,...

views. A party is a part of a class, itsnmost advanced part. Several parties,nand consequently, freedom for parties,ncan exist only in a society in whichnthere are ant^onistic classes whoseninterests are mutually hostile and irreconcilable.n. . . But in the U.S.S.R.nthere are no longer such classes Innthe U.S.S.R. there are only two classes,nworkers and peasants, whose...

have disappeared down the “memory hole.” At no time hasnany government in the West, above all the United States, attemptednanything remotely resembling this official attempt tonrewrite the past. When World War II broke out and the earliernpolicy of appeasement was totally discredited, no one attemptednto claim that it had never existed. There was, in fact,...

“The center of a literary and political squall.”n— The New York Timesn”An extraordinarily readable journal of ideas.n— FortunenOleg Prokofiev on his father’s music • A. L.nRowse on Edmund Wilson • Leonid Pasternalcnon the Pasternak family • The diaries of RoynFuller • Malcohn Cormack on the art of GeorgenStubbs • E. M. Cioran on himself •...

multiplicity of meanings which henmust hunt for and find. Indeed, accordingnto how he feels at one particularnmoment, the reader might choose anpossible interpretative key whichnstrikes him as exemplary of thisnspiritual state.nFrom the standpoint of semiotics, it cannbe said that the reader in the Middle Ages,nwho was undoubtedly a member of thenclergy, as the characters in...

to Mr. Eco’s use of the forms of the MiddlenAges and the Renaissance.nMr. Eco’s narrator, Adso, is a participantnin the events that he describes,nwhich is another characteristic of thenearly Italian tales and novellas. Aboutnthe authors of these works Ms. Smarrnnotes, “They seem to be aware of freezingnonto paper the previously variablenflow of narration and to...

pointed, for it is apparent that oncenO’Keefe departs from purely technicalnpoints or personal experiences, he exhaustsnhis expertise. This is a problemnwith many scientists. They are accordednwide attention because of their ability tonperform laboratory feats that, to the layman,nborder on magic, but their politicalnand strategic acumen is often embarrassinglynnaive. One gets the impression thatnO’Keefe wrote his...

opportunity O’Keefe postulates is notnthere; the need for the U.S. to redress thenimbalance is.nProbably his most naive position is onninternational terrorism. He wants strongnantiterrorist measures because he fearsnthat terrorism may escalate to the nuclearnlevel and might even trigger a nuclearnwar through overreaction. This is fine,nalbeit overdrawn. His problem is in believingnthat the Soviets are likely...

ment theology at the University of NotrenDame. Even more fentastic, the acknowledgmentnpages of both works list numerousnother church colleges and divinitynschools who have courteously invitednthese women to their lecture halls, theren”In Memory of Her is an intense, scholarly study a huge and complicated task, herenundertaken courageously.”n—Commonwealnto put Christ to public shame by crucifyingnHim afresh on...

Give your favoritena gift subscription tonyour favoritenjournal of opinion.nAha! The perfect gift for that friend whonshares your outlook—and ought to be enjoyingnCHRONICLES OF CULTURE.nHere’s your chance to provide a gift thatnengages, enrages, challenges, piques, posits,nreviews, critiques, essays and observes—in andecidedly non-liberal manner.nThe perfect match: your friend and thennext 12 monthly issues of CHRONICLES OFnCULTURE.nAnd we’ve...

eo-Salvatif>nnLIBERAL CULTUREnAt a recent gathering in Sin fTanti.soj,nthe National Council of Churches considerednan application for mcnilicr^hip fromnthe Univeisal Fellowship ol’Miiro|i()IitaanCommunity’ Churches, which teachi’snthat homosexuality is “a jjilit from (iod.”‘nMost of the 27,000 members c if this churchnarc so gifted In championing Ihc cause ofnthis denomination, liberal Methodistntheologian Roy Sano calletl i.l< AMI tire andnbrimstone, warning...

flict in her fiction, but, according to AIdridge,nthere are insufl&cient moral prohibitionsnin the society she describes;nconsequently, her treatment of adulterynis trivialized and suffers from “arbitrarinessnand inconsequence.”nThe preoccupation with the processnof narration can be similarly counterproductive.nHe remarks that John Barth,ninLost in theFunhouse, “emerges as then”a surfeit of negation and an apparentnfailure of understanding of just what...

of spice that Ms. Wolitzer sprinkles innnow and then (usually in the form ofnsexual intermezzos) don’t help much.nThis tale of an aimless young womannand a man bored and frustrated withnmarriage is soporific rather than poignant.nCollege student Daphne has no discerniblengoals until she becomes involvednwith Kenny; her aims then seem merelynto be rationalizing their relationship andnbecoming...

in its most sadistic terms, was the truen(but unadmitted) inner purpose of thenSoviet and nazi regimes. The rulers ofnOceania, however, no longer hide thisnfrom themselves. Third, Orwell soughtnto explore both the future of surveillancen(through the “telescreen”) andnwhat was later to become known asnbrainwashing. It was commonly thoughtnin the late 1930’s and the 1940’s that thenvictims...

ing the founding principle and replacingnit with a new cornerstone: a doctrine ofnracial superiority ^^iiich led some to concoctnthe notion that slavery could be an”positive good.”nThe Northern victory in the Civil Warncannot be fiilly and properly understoodnas the result of a superior industrial basenand a larger population prevailing over anpeople who had remained true to...

ence at the University of North Carolinanallowed Reed and a colleague to insertnsome questions measuring sectionalismnin a survey of North Carolinians done inn1971. Reed sustained several impressionsnof things he would like to say aboutnthe region in the decade since that survey,nand this book is an attempt to usenthe data from this survey to say them.nOne...

haps Mitterrand thought that he couldnwmt a few years until the sixty-eight-yearoldnde Gaulle vanished and the traditionalnpolitical forces re-emerged.” Indeed,nMitterrand lost his seat in the NationalnAssembly but soon reappeared,nrunning as de Gaulle’s main opponent innthe 1965 presidential election. A yearnlater, Le Monde’s editor wrote, “One doesnnot believe in his sincerity so much asnhis agility.”nThe same...

done is to appeal to those whom henknows, and who, presumably, knownhim. “I am Martin, not Pansette,” he essentiallynclaims, “for if I were Pansette, Inwould not be Martin, yet I can only benMartin in order to know what I knownand for you to know me.” Indeed, hisnwife says that she knoivs that he is Martin.nYet...

for wind sextet, whose title translates asn”youth,” and which was written by a 70year-oldnJanacek. The freshness, infectiousness,nand rhythmic bounce bespeaknthe title. The performances by GerardnSchwartz and the Los Angeles ChambernOrchestra are beguiling.nFor those who know only the Janaceknof blazing horns, thundering timpani,nand crying voices, his piano oeuvre,nwith its intimacy and modest scale, willncome as a...

. C()HRi:spoM)i:( i: |nLetter from Hilton Head Island: Enjoy & Reflectnby E. Stake SalisburynDinah…nIs there anyone finernIn the State of Carolinan—An old standardnAn obscure and inexorably forgottennCanadian author by the name of Curwoodnonce wrote a short story entitled “GreatnWhite Silence”; it was about snowcoverednexpanses in Alaska, or somewherenaround the North Pole. The nounn”silence” stood, of...

County coastal archipelago. When thennews about Napoleon’s irrevocable exUenarrived in Savannah and Charleston, itnwas immediately assumed that the deposednemperor would come there. Annavalanche of social activities, parties,nballs, and festivities was planned—althoughnthe sentiments about Bonapartenmight have been somewhat mixed bynthat time. Preppies would have understoodnboth the excitement and the neednfor some pluralistic equanimity. Joggers,nas they mostly...

In its present, i.e., “modem,” meaning, conservatism is anrather new notion in America. Many will object to the descriptionnof conservatism as a novelty; others wiU see it as some sort ofnwordplay, solecism, or incoherence. Yet even a cursory overviewnof American history will bear me out. American historynoriginated with the exploration of the new, and, actually,...

sities that had been built by two centuries oiour toil and thrift.nSome sinister forces were at work, not openly but hidden insteadnbeneath the sordid and abstruse propensities of peoplenwe trusted, people who were supposed to be the finest crop ofnour civilization—scholars, artists, writers, newsmen, celebritiesnof our public glamor. Suddenly, those people began tonteach us that...

OPINIONS & VIEWSnThe Road with 111 IntentionsnNicholas Gage: Elent; Random House;nNew York.nby Daniel OTVeUnJH.OW numerous are the stories ofnunrecognized heroism. G^e’s Eleni isnsuch a story. A peasant woman risks hernlife to save her children from abductionnduring the Greek Civil War. As a resultnshe is tortured and murdered by the communistnrevolutionaries. Thirty yearsnlater her American-educated son...

destruction of a culture? Political pilgrimsnonce cited official government claims ofnuniversal literacy and improved healthncare. (Such unsubstantiated claims havenalso blossomed in Castro’s Cuba and arennow being spewed by the camp followersnof the Nicaraguan junta.) Russia hadnher revolution and slid into Orientalndespotism.nWhen one turns from the major revolutionsnto some of the more interestingnsideshows, a similar picture...

affluent contributes to revolution. Revolutionnoffers the affluent excitement andnpurpose, and, should it feiil, the rich cannseek pleasant exile or even reintegrationnwith the old regime. (Most traditionalnsystems tolerate a bit of youthAil radicalism.n) It is the bored affluent, not the poor,nwho initially sponsor revolution. Thenpeople currendy in power in Nicaraguandisproportionately are children ofnfemilies that enriched themselves...

by those who like to glean infonnationnby reading rather than by sitting in frontnof the matrix that is Dan Rather. However,none of the arguments that used tonbe raised in the days when the videonchallenge emerged was that newspapersncould go in depth while the televisednnews shows could only stay on the surface.nUSA Today shows that that...

years, so there is no reason to expectnone at any time in the near future. AsnMoss shows through case studies, isolatedngroups of urban guerrillas are ineffectivenwith regard to achieving their goals andnsometimes have the effect of achievingncontrary ends as counterrevolutionarynmeasures are taken. He also points outnthat the general acceptance of the existingnsystems in the West...

otage… the real battlefield of the urbannguerrilla is in men’s minds.” In Monimbonthere are several givens, none of whichnis implausible. One is that the Cubansnwant to cause instability in the U.S.nAnother is that ghettos in places likenMiami have a very low flash point. Finally,nthat the high-tech infrastructure innthis country is open to breakdowns thatnwould have...

who knew FDR personally at the timenwould have agreed. How could such anman have proven to have within him thenstuff of unusual leadership?nPart of the answer may be found innanother’s brief assessment of him, madenshortly after he entered the WhitenHouse in 1933- Breaking with tradition,nRoosevelt called on the 92-year-oldnOliver Wendell Holmes to seek his advicenin...

Ihis sentimentalized oollectivist viewpointnwas no doubt behind Roosevelt’sninsistence on choosing a man with evenna more muddled mind, Henry Wallace,nas his running mate in 1940. And in hisnState of the Union message for 1944nRoosevelt enunciated an Economic Billnof Rigjits which granted everyone a rigjitnto everything: job, food, clothing, recreation,na home, adequate medical care,neducation, a secure old...

turn excqpt the White House. The flavornof these letters comes through, for example,nin one written in 1935 by anMissouri woman to Mrs. Roosevelt askingnfor money to purchase eyeglasses fornher son, who otherwise cannot attendnschool: “if I wasnt so poor I wouldnt asknyou for a favor,” she says. These letters innfact paint a touching if rather...

ularist approach more readily than doesnpoetry and drama, both of which henseems to have missed almost altogether.nH is second career is more difl&cultnto assess. Some feel that Patriotic Gorenis his greatest work, but only time willntell if his methodology is of any value. Tonthe Finland Station was dated before itnwas published. The Scrolls fmm the...