pledge of faith, not the City of God ornof Marx, but the city called Peace ofnMind.” But having rejected Christianitynand politics, they are, like Querrynin A Burnt-Out Case, neverthelessntroubled by their own faithlessness andn”keep fingering it like a sore.” Theynmove through a desolate moral landscape,nunable to understand, as the priestntells Rosie at the end of...

no clear answers, and the allegorical obscuritynof the book may well account fornits failure to reach the best-seller lists.nRegardless of any precise meaning,nthe novel reinforces the observation ofnthe failed priest in The Power and thenGlory: “the world’s unhappy whethernyou are rich or poor—unless you are ansaint, and there aren’t many of those.”nEach of the Toads...

In FocusnSymons’s ScholarshipnDonald Symons: The Evolutionnof Human Sexuality;nOxford University Press; New York.nby Becki KlutenMr. Symons, professor of anthropologynat the University ofnCalifornia, has written a scholarlyntreatise primarily for thosenin the anthropology field. Psychologists,nfeminists and socialnengineers will be sorely disappointednif they turn to The Evolutionnof Human Sexuality tonprove any of their theories ofnequality.nDeclaring for total value-neutralitynand forcibly...

is built on wide discontent basednon often genuine grievances,nwhich inspire grandiose illusions,nwhich are, in turn, fed byndemogogic speeches of leadersnwho are themselves deluded,ncynical and monomaniacal. Thenbrief spasm of revolt was characterizednby wholesale, mercilessnkilling that startles the readernwith its savagery. There arenno heroes in The Year of thenFrench, only sad intimations ofnlike years to come, elsewhere.n(EJW)...

ScreennThe Portrait of an Artist as a Kvetch and Other TrivianStardust Memories; Written andndirected by Woody Allen; UnitednArtists.nMy Bodyguard; Written by AlannOrmsby; Directed by Tony Bill;n20th-century Fox.nHopscotch; Written by Bryan Forbesnand Brian Garfield; Directed bynRonald Neame; Avco EmbassynPictures.nby Eric ShapearonWoody Allen has a sense of irony.nHe has neither a sense of compassionnnor a sense of...

humanness. Faced with unprepossessingnplatitudes of looks and behavior, Mr.nAllen does not know how to generatenpainful sarcasm; instead, he begins tonkvetch that life has sentenced him toncoexist with triviality. The movie beginsnwith a sequence in which Mr. Allen isnin a railway coach filled with appallinglynsordid human faces; he seems very, verynill at ease. He seems not...

ArtnChina’s Treasures in BronzenDoes the nature of the creative impulsenremain the same as it wanders,nfrom artifacts in bronze, jade and terrancotta made by those artisan-artists whonlived along the Yellow River under thenXia dynasty (21st century B.C.) throughnEgyptian architects, Greek sculptors,nTrecento painters, Dutch masters,nFrench impressionists, the Bauhaus, allnthe way down the line to the—excusez lancomparaison—Wsih Disney...

MusicnRecordsnby Doug RamseynFreddy Hubbard, once an enfant terriblenof jazz trumpet, is now 42 and formidable.nHubbard is more impressivenon other people’s records than on hisnown, but there are indications, even onnhis commercially bland Columbia albums,nthat he is shedding his jazz-rocknfusion persona. His most recent recording,n”Skagly” (Columbia FC 36418),nbreaks away from the synthesized routinesnof his four previous...

came from Oklahoma), Wiley did to bigcitynblues what Edward Hopper did tonAmerican urban realism in the arts:nshe imbued it with unexpectedly subtlenemotionalities.nCommodore Records Company recentlynrendered a great service to allnincorrigible sentimentalists: they issuednthe album /. Stacy and Friends.nFriends on the disc include Bud Freeman,nMuggsy Spanier, Specs Powellnand, of course, Lee Wiley. Her “Downnto Steamboat Tennessee”...

America’s history, which is in part thenhistory of the Americas. Western culturentook centuries to seek roots here,nand the settling-in is not yet complete.nA short visit to the region teaches onlynthat a rich heritage is at stake, as communistnencroachment continues and increases.nFour hundred years of nearlynunrelenting violent changes have taughtnCentral Americans to look at the futurenwith...

ous shelter for independent art, the onlynasylum for the human and intellectualnsubstances that communist totalitarianismndeems its most lethal enemies andnis resolved to eradicate.nThe Religious Heritage AwardnProbably in a moment of contritionnor nostalgia, President Carter namednOctober 6, 1980 as a National Day ofnPrayer. Religious Heritage of America,nInc. took him at his word and, under thenleadership of...

Editor^s Commentn1.nThe grand show of our Hfetime is the half-a-century-oldndebate about the American promise and American power—nand what we have done to and with both. Soon after WorldnWar II, something clicked in the American culture, and,never since, Americans have been supposed to react mentallynonly to preordained liberal stimuli. Academia, the opinionshapingnindustries and Hollywood have joined...

proved rationally and empirically wrong. The contemporarynconservative is a descendant of Whig liberalism, whose coatnof arms was antiabsolutism—in thinking, political conduct,nsocial affairs. In point of fact, so is the contemporary liberal.nHowever, the latter has perverted Whiggism and corruptednit with European doctrines of moral coercion. As thingsnstand now, the American liberal is firmly dedicated to thenidea...

opinions &. ViewsnThat Hollow CorenRichard Sennett: Authority; AlfrednA. Knopf; New York.nby Edward J. LynchnWi, ‘ithin what used to be called WesternnCivilization philosophers have developedntwo justifications for authority.nBroadly construed, they are explanationsnbased upon revelation and explanationsnbased upon reason.nThe Bible is the most profound statementnof the tradition of revelationnknown to Western people, but the Biblenoffers little prospect...

for this inequality; thus his version ofnauthority has as many potential basesnas there are grounds of human differentiation.nAge, wealth, sex and variousnforms of status (elected office, worknrole, family ties and credentials, fornexample) all form potential bases fornthose pursuing some form of dominationnover others.nOennett has a desire to display hisnown claim to authority, of course, andnthat...

Sunken SouffleesnJohn Kenneth Galbraith: Annals ofnan Abiding Liberal; Houghton MifflinnCo.; Boston.nby James Hitchcockn-A.11 authors must be more than anlittle egotistical, assuming as they donthat there are people who will pay moneynfor what they have to say. How muchnmore egotistical is the author who collectsnhis stray essays into a single volume,nassuming that there are peoplenwho will...

even recognizes the question.nIn India, Galbraith was asked by anreporter liow he and his wife had stayednmarried so long and how they had raisedntheir children. The question itself saidnmuch about the perceived state of thenWestern societies which liberalism hasncreated. Galbraith’s reply: “I enlargednon the need to devote as little time asnpossible to one’s offspring lest...

Sixty years ago J. B. IJury, the eminentnEnglish historian of classical antiquity,nwrote The Idea of Progress.nBury’s book surveyed the history of thatnenergizing idea in the West and, at thensame time, marked the end of the idea’snreign, for the Great Depression of then1930’s, the Holocaust, the SecondnWorld War, the Gulag and the specternof nuclear annihilation dealt...

this impulse today than the advocates ofnHberation theology and those leadersnof the World Council of Churches whonbestowed blessings—and money—uponnthe black butchers of Rhodesia? Progressivenas it may be, millennialismnforms a volatile and potentially destructivenstrain within Christianity.nRobert Nisbet longs to bolster Americans’nsagging confidence in the ideanof progress. But should we not thinkntwice before undertaking this task.”nWithout siding...

intensity of the new coloration. But letnus recall that Mr. Salisbury has alwaysnbeen the most chameleonic of thenTimes s editors. He was the first to jumpnon the left-wing bandwagon of the 60’s,nand he has now changed his coloring sonquickly and drastically that it rendersnthe observer dizzy and breathless. I havenno doubt that the New York...

and-chowder society … spoke of Rosenthalnwith awe as a ‘terrific anti-Communist.’n”nSo William F. Buckley, Jr. was overawed.nIs this why his magazine becamenanticommunist too.-‘ “Richard Clurman,nanother friend and club member, feltnthat Abe’s political roots lay in the coldnwar.” A real anticommunist cold warriornat the helm of the New York Times.nBut who was more rigorously anticommunist,nthe New...

objective criterion the most thorough,nmost complete, most responsiblennewspaper that time, money,ntalent and technology in the secondnhalf of the twentieth century hadnbeen able to produce.nAs I Studied Mr. Salisbury’s book, Infound only one accusation that he failednto hurl in the face of the New YorknTimes: that all the female employeesnare the most beautiful women on earth,nwhile...

old friend and a stepdaughter. The imagenof FeUx Leitner which emerges fromnthese sources is contradictory. Everyonenacknowledges his brilliance andnability; some admire his charm and humanenprinciples; but others find himncrafty, calculating, cold, inhumanly objective,nmonstrously egotistical. Roger,nthe would-be biographer, faces a dilemmanconcerning his subject: “The issuenhas to be, Did he care more for truthnor for the fame...

is skillful and imaginative in using figurativenlanguage, her sentences arensometimes weakened by vague or abstractnelements: “Experience wasnbanked up around the room, a hugenwave about to break,” or “as to pleasure,nhe was suspicious of anything that relievednhis feelings.” With Auchinclossnone is unaware of style; with Hazzardnone cannot be unaware of it because itnis constantly in the...

Our BettersnRobert Stephen Spitz: Barefoot innBabylon; Viking Press; New York.nTony Sanchez: Up and Down withnthe Rolling Stones; Morrow QuillnPaperbacks; New York.nby John O’SullivannA famous slogan of the late 60’snboasted that a million people had gatherednfor love, peace and music at thenWoodstock pop festival and yet nobodynhad been killed. Until I read these twonbooks, that had...

Lawyer Avarice and Parson Sly of thenRestoration comedy—he withheld hisnsignature, needed for a financial settlementnwith the bank, until his partners,nMr. Roberts and Mr. Rosenmann,nwhose financial straits made the settlementnimperative, had paid each of themnf31,250 to dissolve the partnership.nAnd when the company they had leftnclambered eventually, and unexpectedly,ninto the black. Avarice and Sly wentnahead and sued...

ditional trousers and ties, writes racynand readable gossip. But a question atnonce arises: can an untrustworthy valetnbe a reliable witness? Three clues suggestnso. Much of what he reveals isnconfirmed by occasional interviews withnthe Rolling Stones themselves, by othernjournalistic accounts and by the proceedingsnof police courts. Mr. Sanchez,nsecondly, does not fail to confess his ownnsins. And,...

taking—none of them treated with conventionalndistaste, some with the ambiguitynthat dare not speak its name. Annatmosphere of lurking violence and unrestrainednsexuality hangs about theirnconcerts, which often conclude withnriots, assaults on the stage and injuriesnto the police. Indeed, at the notoriousnAltamont concert (where our old friend,nMr. Michael Lang, popped up as a “consultant”),namid the general mayhem...

devices as the granting of academic degrees:na decision-maker has some justificationnfor considering the holders ofndegrees on the whole superior to collegendropouts. Though the generalizationnmay not be valid in individual cases, itnis usually not worth the additional costnof discovering which ones these are.nIdeologies, Sowell notes, are anotherninstrument by which a society mayneconomize on the costs of...

Warren Court’s ruling against schoolnsegregation, for example, was based innlarge part upon a “study subsequentlyndevastated as invalid, if not fraudulent.”nBut since Brown v. Board of Educationnwrought such a profound revolutionnin our jurisprudence, it is almost unthinkablento question the validity of then”knowledge” which underlay that particularndecision. Policy is more importantnthan truth.nOowell argues that intellectual manipulatorsnof ideas...

Ariadne Without a Clew of ThreadnNina Schneider: The Woman WhonLived in a Prologue; Houghton MifflinnCo.; Boston.nby Edward J. WalshnA oward the end of this flamboyantntestament to contemporary feminismnas the source of spice in a woman’s life,nthe narrator, now an elderly woman, isnsitting in the garden of her estatenin May, apparently enjoying the sightsnand sounds of...

narration, is by now trite, suggesting asnit does a waif crying out for est or holisticnego immolation. By the time the dotingnAriadne reaches for her VillagenVoice, she is more a caricature than annaspiring author who can’t find the timento write. As a woman who seems tonknow less about life as she grows older,nAriadne finally admits...

style, tone and manner, to replay thenmelodies of brotherhood, peace and goodnwill that once beguiled a generation. Tondo this, Cowley has had to restore thenfeeling of the Depression—the crushingnsense that people were going hungrynacross the land, a third of the nation’snwork force rendered idle—when mostnAmericans were bewildered and bereft.nHe does this hypnotically well; nonenwho recall...

social experiment” and efforts to “takencommunism away from tlie communists.”nIf that was the goal, however, itnwas obliquely approached, for whatnCowley actually did was to join the partynin spirit and deed—at least in terms ofnspeaking, signing ads and petitions andnin his agreement with its principles andntactics—without actually accepting ancard and paying dues. This technicalitynmaintained, it is...

age. Most, with no illustrious exceptionnthat comes readily to mind, honestlynadmitted their error and warned othersnagainst taking their former path. Cowleynhas chosen, instead, to use all hisnskills to gild himself in retrospect.nSince he obviously has more to say, onenlooks forward to further volumes ofnBridge over the River WhynMortimer J. Adler: How to ThinknAbout God: A...

changes, that it could be otherwise, it isnpossible but not necessary that this ornsome other universe exists. On thisnquestion of many possible universes,nAdler sounds like no one so much asnC. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien in theirntravel and space stories. The comparisonnis not merely playful; I sometimesnwonder if, on this account, Adler wasnas...

Wien, Wien, nur Du alleinnCarl E. Schorske: Fin-de-Si^clenVienna; Politics and Culture; AlfrednA. Knopf; New York.nby Paul GottfriednCarl Schorske, an historian of the pre-nWorld War 1 German Socialist Party, hasnnever hidden his radical-left sympathies.nDuring the Reagan administration, henleft a professorship at Berkeley to take anmore lucrative post at Princeton; the reasonnhe loudly proclaimed for the jobnchange...

Nonetheless, they all perceived theirnclass and its verities as threatened, evenndoomed, and searched for their own alternativesnand solutions to the existingnorder. Perhaps it is impossible to do justicenin a brief review to Schorske’s analysis,nwhich is rich in illustrations andnfar removed from the simplistic reductionismnso often endemic to Marxistsnand radical historians. Its one limitation,nhowever, is implicit...

ably, of course, without alliance withnthe Devil.nYet Freddy errs in naming his booknKing Gustav and the Devil. The centernof the book is the Devil’s view of lifenand the varying degrees and forms ofnsubmission or opposition men offer tonthat view. And King Gustav offers littlenopposition. The characters who standnout are Lars-Goren, a nobleman of goodnheart and...

America Through the Funhouse MirrornHoward Zinn: A People’s History ofnthe United States; Harper & Row;nNew York.nLa^vrence Lader: Power on the Left;nW. W. Norton & Co.; New York.nby Alan J. LevinenXloward Zinn and Lawrence Ladernhave written two books which attemptnto recast American history into a formnthat will extract murmurs of delectationnfrom the extreme American left.nZinn’s book...

American support of the French revolution.n) White women are treated, quitenseriously, as slaves. Abraham Lincoln isnabused for not freeing all the slaves withnthe Emancipation Proclamation; thenlegal and practical problems facing thenpresident, such as the danger of alienatingnthe Union slave states in the midstnof the Civil War, are not even mentioned.nZinn attributes the defeat ofnthe Confederacy...

blacks. No expression of stupidity andnbigotry by black nationalists inspiresnserious criticism.nOne part of Lader’s book that mightnbe of some scholarly interest is his treatmentnof the new left. But even here henis not always trustworthy. The trial ofnthe Chicago Seven is portrayed as a mar­ntyrdom of innocents, though some ofnthe defendants later admitted they hadnaimed at...

of the novel as a viable form may be annecessary consequence of the prevalencenof the collectivist ethos. More broadly,nhowever, the novel cannot carry thenweight of ideological rectitude. The successfulnnovel depends not only upon literarynskills but also upon a depth of insightninto man and life and upon anrigorous honesty in depicting them^-Nonman with great depth of...

How True …nArnaud de Borchgrave and RobertnMoss: The Spike; Crown Publishers;nNew York.nby Philip F. Lawlern1 ruth is stranger than fiction; that’snwhy fiction is more realistic, even whennit’s used as a polemical tool. Argue allnyou want about the perils of parenthood;nKing Lear makes the point more forcefully.nNo one who has read Orwell, ornSteinbeck, can remain innocent...

co4ne away from The Spike having feltnthe real an^er and injustice that an abstractnargument can never convey. Fictionnbrings immediacy. As Coleridgenpointed out, imagination can yield logicalnconclusions much faster than painstakingnreason can deduce them.nAlthough The Spike is now perchednnear the top of the best-seller lists, fewnof the country’s major newspapers havencarried reviews of the book. Perhaps...

lief in sleaziness as a publicity advantage?nAn attempt to avoid head-on identifications,nan assumption that a romanna clef could safely accuse and expose?nWe do not know the answers, but wentend to believe that it would have hadna far more lasting effect, importance andnimpact if it had been published as anpolemical or investigative tract.nTo list some of...

CommendablesnChappell on PrintingnWarren Chappell: A ShortnHistory of the Printed Word;nNonpareil Books; Boston.nWarren Chappell’s sense ofnthe visual metaphor is wellnknown to our readers. His vignettesngrace these pages withnan expressiveness that has distinguishednMr. Chappell as annAmerican artist and illustratornpar excellence.nThis proves to be only onenfacet of Mr. Chappell’s talents.nMoreover, he is one of the mostnerudite and prolific...

his activity as a “critic” and theninhumanity that is spreadingnaround us via pop culture. LilcenPresident Carter, he blames thenAmerican people for what hasnhappened to them under hisnguidance of their cinematicntastes. He chooses not to remembernwhat he himself wrotenabout his reviewing:nThis column has routinelynsupported the new permissivenessnin movies . . .nHe, of course, is not guilty....

»creennPercussive Expressionism, L/7^/e Women Updaten& the Triumph of IdiocynThe Tin Drum; Written by VolkernSchlondorff, Jean-Claude Carrierenand Franz Seitz; Directed by VolkernSchlondorff; from the novel bynGiinter Grass; a Nev^^ World Picturesnrelease.nFoxes; Written by Gerald Ayres; Directednby Adrian Lyne; UnitednArtists.nBeing There; Based on the novel bynJerry Kosinski; A Hal Ashby Film;nUnited Artists.nCoal Miner’s Daughter; Based on thenautobiography...

and elucidate on the weirdness of existence.nIn this respect, Mr. Schlondorffnmatches Grass perfectly. Like most Germanndirectors since the time of DoctornMabuse, Schlondorff believes that truthnand aesthetic fulfillment lie with thenlugubrious and the nauseating. Henbrings an abhorrent imagery to thenscreen: eels writhing in a dead horse’snhead, the death wish of Oscar’s mothernarticulated in disgusting eating compulsions,na...