cause they were not black, and could notnimagine that they terrified white peoplenbecause white people are not white …”nJOaldwin has been living in self-imposednexile in the south of France fornmany years. His comparison of Birmingham,nAlabama, to Sodom and Gomorrahncould hardly come from onenwho has observed the dramatic changesnin race relations in the American Southnin recent...

als, The Dogs of March would be anrather typical antipastoral creation detailingnthe struggles of a man who livesnby instinct and the feel of things againstnthe civilized mentality and its passionnfor abstractions, rules of law and powerngames. Hebert’s experience of the worldnis an insightful and convincing journeynthrough the consciousness of a characternin the process of a...

two—it made no difference. A goodnman was by turns old and young.”nGertrude Stein has commented thatnthere are no true characters, only characterntypes. True artistic vision isnachieved when a character type is soncarefully and precisely drawn that hentranscends the limits of thematics andnreveals insight into the self and thenhuman condition. While the themes ofnRegulation BluesnMurray L....

Dr. Weidenbaum has some harshnwords for corporate executives who paynlip service to the idea of free enterprisenbut regularly seek subsidies, tariffs andnother special privileges from Washington.nHe also suggests that trade associationsnset standards of ethical conductnfor member companies.nWith regard to communicating withnthe public, Dr. Weidenbaum sharesnMilton Friedman’s skepticism of thosencommercials that portray oil companiesnas being in...

his reaction to Franklin Roosevelt. Hisnantipathy to “that man in the WhitenHouse” was open and boundless. Asnthe 1936 election approached, thenTribune ran such headlines as “Onlyn217 days remain to save your country.nWhat are you doing to save it.”” andntelephone operators at the newspaperngreeted incredulous callers with thensame salutation.nAnd as Roosevelt slowly maneuverednthe nation into World...

tant information about the determinantsnof success or it may have more than itsnshare of nonsense. What Jencks and hisnfellow authors have omitted almostncompletely is any theoretical underpinningnfor all of their laborious statisticalnwork. Without adequate theoreticalnunderpinning, we are simply at anloss to say whether the statistics meannanything. For example, among thosenwho teach statistics, a story has...

for ignoring nonrational sources ofnhostility to the market. They reduceneverything to economic self-interest,nand cannot understand the “irrationalnpseudoreasoning” and “chiliastic longing”nwhich are often the basis of hostility.nHe then criticizes noneconomistnintellectuals, such as psychologists andnsociologists, for being reluctant to explorenthe sources of their own hostilenideology. Why is it hard for intellectualsnto explore their own ideologies? Presumablynbecause in...

no more than a car.nMircea Eliade, world-renowned historiannof religion, constructs each symbolnhalf-consciously, knowing that allnexistence has a share of the universalnyet is irrevocably particular, with itsnhapless loves and often pathetic painsn—more hopeless for its limitations butnalso, of course, more beautiful.nThe political dimensions of this novelnare rather complex, as befits a complexnsituation: during the Second World...

statement about that fact. Unfortunately,nhe seems to be unable to definenwhat he wants to say. (BK) DnWaste of MoneynPride andnLiberal PrejudicenJames Aldridge: Goodbye Un-nAfnerica;Little, Brown & Co.; Boston.nby Becki KlutenA man denounces his best friend asnun-American, marries his ex-wife andnadopts his son. This is the plot of JamesnAldridge’s propaganda tract disguisednas a novel; his real...

Puny, but How Great.nHugh Leonard: Da; A Hudson GuildnTheatre-Craig Anderson Production;nDirected by Melvin Bernhardt.nThis is a play about an Irish ArchienBunker who has infinitely larger ambitions:nto symbolize the traps of paternalnlove. Since he is also infinitely lessncharming, witty, comical and richlyndesigned than Archie—while at thensame time attempting to solve some ofnthe weightiest dilemmas of human...

he deserves an Oscar.nThe movie is a minimasterpiece innwhich, for the first time in years, annAmerican film tries to balance contentnand form, substance and technique. Itnis shot in a style of sparse but meaningfulndialogue which successfully delineatesnand interconnects the characters,neven secondary ones, instead of carelesslynsplashing their images on thenscreen. Its very inner tension is an...

goes: “I want to f— you.”nAside from that, the movie, a grimntale about a male whore, is midway betweenna roman de moeurs and a thriller.nSuch a theme, in order to succeed asneither realism or parable, must be saturatednwith wise cynicism and subduedneroticism. However, Mr. Schrader, thencreator of American Gigolo, demonstratesnan awe-inspiring talent for evisceratingneven the...

and commercialized, it does not elicitnthe slightest feeling of the sacred, althoughnpilgrims swarm around it. Andnon the very steps where pilgrimsnapproach the Living Buddha, monkeysnare copulating.nThe Grand Hotel in Taipei is the firstnmajor object to leap to the eye—annenormous, red-columned building, 14nstories high, made to look even tallernas it stands on a hill. It has...

The American ProsceniumnThe OlympicsnAlmost every student of Soviet affairsn—on both the right and left, and in thencenter—agrees that the boycott of thenMoscow Olympics will be a tremendousnblow to the Soviets in terms of realnpolitics, prestige, image, economics andninternal stability.nIn retrospect, only an utterly limitednmind would object to the statement thatnthe world’s participation in the Berlinn1936...

OtcOKnAbout us:n’,,.^fcS«»S8n,/5 in.’> ^.WT”* “7n”Is it possible to create a review of thought and artnthat is distinctive? Chronicles of Culture, a forty-page,nbimonthly review . . . thinks it has the recipe.”n—National Reviewn”Reviews, written primarily by professors of a strongnconservative persuasion, are refreshing in that theynusually go entirely against current popular opinion.nThe comments are well written,...

And the Times reporter adds:n”James Stewart still believes, quitensimply, in God and America. He nonlonger swims in the winter, because,nwith the energy crisis, he thinks it isnunfair to heat his pool.” DnTournalistnnHistory by WSJnTo inaugurate the 1980’s, the WallnStreet Journal ran an editorial by itsnpublisher, Mr. Warren Phillips, innwhich he informed his readers that, andnThe...

Editor’s CommentnWe write these words on the 60th day of the calamity andnhumiliation known as the Iranian crisis. This crisis seems tonus to be more an hour of trial whose magnitude and complexityntranscend the dilemmas of Korea and Vietnam. Thenrudiments of a livable planet are involved; the world ordernwhich may emerge from our lack of...

When, where, and how cosmopolitan terrorism becamenthe client of the Soviet Union is not easy to generalize.nActually, most of the terrorist movements consider thencommunist state an enemy, and with good reason. Nonetheless,nan alliance has been concluded. The cosmopolitannterrorist, whenever he acts against the U.S., Israel, WesternnEurope, prosperous Japan, or just peace and stability aroundnthe noncommunist...

provided the Teheran “students” with arms, instruction,nhandboolfs of subversion and invigilation. The Islamicncommunity within the Soviet Union is the only reHgiousngroup which seems to cooperate smoothly with the Sovietnregime.nSuch an abyss of confusion may spell a catastrophe. It isna source of incoherent hatred toward us as successors tonthe medieval Crusaders and colonialists; the Islamic orthodoxynsees...

American liberal of the Andrew Young brand openly andninsistently wants to assist power-hungry political hoodlumsnall over the Third World: he not only wants tolerance andnhelp for them but also association with them, and is pushingnour country toward some rather smelly friendships. ThenAmerican liberal has refused to listen to the arguments ofnChileans or Israelis or black...

opinions & ViewsnLa Ronde, or the Dance of LabelsnPeter Steinfels: The Neoconservatives:nMen Who Are ChangingnAmerica’s Politics; Simon & Schuster;nNew York,nby Paul GottfriednJne of the most frustrating situationsnfor modern traditionalists is thatnthe political spectrum and the thrust ofntopical issues are always moving awaynfrom them. The left not only sets thenagenda for its own discussion, but, evennmore...

effects of minority quotas, an obviousnpolitical demarcation, nonetheless,nexists between the two camps. For conservatives,nespecially traditionalists likenmyself, the new left and its liberal imitatorsnrepresent more than a mere wartnon the idea structure that the left hasnerected. Cultural nihilism, leveling egalitarianism,nand self-mortifying attachmentnto the cult of the downtroddennhave all fueled the leftist struggle againstnprivilege and traditional social...

utterly incompatible with traditionalnmoral and social values. Whatever thenmerits of this analysis, it seems unlikelynthat the McGovern-Kennedy coalitionnof feminists, abortion advocates, andncounterculture intellectuals can currentlynoutbid the right in accommodatingntraditionalists. As Irving Kristol andnMichael Novak have realized, the capitalistnright is the only place wherentraditional morality and religion arentaken at all seriously in contemporarynAmerican politics.nThe most thoughtful...

fact (or history) and fiction, illusionnand reality. One game is with cycles innmyth, history, individual lives. The universitynin which two members of thencast teach is built on an Indian burialnground; its Latin motto is variouslyntranslated as “The past fertilizes thenfuture” or “The past craps up the future.”nThe Cook-Burlingame family alternatesnbetween names with each newngeneration and...

to grow and change for these characters.nThey represent a failure of insight andnsympathy. Barth has an abundance ofnwhat the Romantics called fancy, a lacknof what Romantics called imagination.nAbove all, the novel needed, but didnnot get, a cutting such as Maxwell Perkinsngave the manuscripts of ThomasnWolfe. Earth’s early story “Lost in thenFunhouse” is one of the...

days. Their Right Stuff glowed beforenthe nation.nWolfe pays the astronauts honest,ngenerous homage. But he is a stylistnfirst, and hero worship is not his style.nWe learn from him that test pilots andnastronauts were and are quite human,nand therefore they occasionally requestednearly landing times in order to hustlenover to the Officers Club for somenrighteous Drinking, to be...

nedys support, in mid-1963- The fearnof the Russians’ “putting a red spot onnthe moon” was gone. A few monthsnlater, so was Kennedy. There werenPolitical LiterarinessnV. S. Naipaul: A Bend in the River;nAlfred A. Knopf; New York.nKurt Vonneguf: Jailbird; SeymournLawrence/Delacorte Press; NewnYork.nby Dain A. TraftonnA good political novelist, like anynnovelist, must keep his art and his...

nation, the Big Man is hidden, knownnonly at second hand through his publicnactions and the stories that circulatenabout him.nMuch of the second half of the novelndescribes an affair between Salim andnYvette, the Belgian wife of a professornat the new “university city and researchncenter.” Through this affair, Naipaulnexposes the way in which the new Africanpoisons not...

the book. Sometimes he simply digressesnin order to make a point. Vonnegut’sncase against America requires persuasivenimages of violence and injustice, butnhe fails to invent them in his fiction. Insteadnhe simply refers to Sacco andnVanzetti from time to time; they providenhim with ready-made means for the evocationnof political outrage. A similarndigression is the story of the...

reason for bringing forth these frivolousnexamples is to shed some light on thenmeaning of “arbitrary and capricious.”nIt helps me, too, to back into the pointnthat only like things should be comparednwith one another. In order to substantiatenthe claim that decisions to executenare arbitrary and capricious we need tonhave those decisions compared with likenones. Before proceeding...

bounds. It cannot defend its citizensneffectively when tfiey go abroad. Thengovernment that is unprepared to killnis living on borrowed time, borrowedneither from its own past, when it wasnprepared to kill, or borrowed from protectivenneighbors ready to take upnweapons in its behalf. That those nationsnof Western Europe, hailed asnprogressive by Mr. Gettinger, whichnhave abolished capital punishment,nmake...

to write a biographical remembrancenof her late husband, always declined,nin part, she said, because of her “lacknof any gift as a writer.” She did, however,nagree to write some “random notes”non the composer and his works. Theynare, for the most part, as schoolgirlishnas this one:n”When he returned to America thenextraordinary difference he found inna New England...

metaphors of growth and fertility buihninto the story (and heavy-handedly correspondingnto Caroline’s finally achievingnfeminine maturity, at age thirty),nCaroline still casts about for an imagento better describe her lover. She finallynfinds it: “soft spring rain.” Incidentally,nin order that outward events chime wellnwith what is, after all, a mawkishlynpraise-filled account, Anna is a devoutnCatholic, trudging off to...

tively, to its feminine, and political,nmode. Thus, Robert’s homosexuality isnfurtive, introverted, tasted but once, asnif out of profound guilt, and paid for forna lifetime, in the suffering his wife experiencesnat neglect, sexually and emotionally,nand in the literal symbol ofnthe burden of wrong, the disease whichnreduces him to the most pathetic ofnphysical specimens before killing him.nIn...

attempts to reform basic doctrine. Evennbefore the Council had ended, then, then”spirit of Vatican 11″ was manufacturednby the partisans of reform and radicalnchange in the Church. In the followingnyears, this “spirit” was much more operativenin many quarters than the actualnCouncil documents, whose careful andnmeasured formulations were oftenneschewed by those with a preference fornmore innovative pronouncements.nHitchcock...

than in the response to the visits of PopenJohn Paul II to Mexico and the UnitednStates this past year. At Puebla, JohnnPaul forcefully rejected the notion thatnman could be reduced to the Marxistncategories of “liberation theology,” andnoffered instead the teachings of thenChurch, which proclaim the liberationnof man’s spirit from the wages of sin. Nonsooner had...

Church by having the theological articlenwritten by a psychologist) in termsnwhich celebrated the rise of “liberationntheology,” relied on John Updike for thendefinition of theology, and attributed thenacclaim with which the faithful havenreceived the forthright teachings of thenPontiff to his “winning instincts fornpublic relations.” (Time magazine alsoninsisfted on reducing him to a mediasizednphenomenon, “John Paul Super­nBetween...

“novel.” It is filler, padding, waste paper.nWhat is it about.” Nothing. Or perhapsnit’s about certain irrelevant,ndesultory episodes in a country whichnwe may call Phony land.nIn Russia many writers draw theirnpropaganda novels not from life, butnfrom previous propaganda novels. Notnunsimilarly, Irwin Shaw draws thesen340 pages from mass culture—bad Hollywoodnmovies, pulp novels, sugarynmagazine stories.nIn Soviet Phonyland a...

and-“African passions” Phonyland isnnaturally peopled by handsome heroesnand beautiful heroines.nMike’s wife (Tracy) is a beauty. Asnhe leaves her and has never-ending lovenaffairs (of course) amid magazine-gourmet-columnnfood (to be sure) and drinksn(how else?), every mistress of his is asnbeautiful as he is handsome: “He paidnthe bill and they got up and walked towardnthe door, the other...

possible uses of only one resource,nchanging tastes, preferences, and technologynwould all work to make our listnobsolete in short order.nHow, then, does an economy run? Itnruns—and runs efficiently—only to thenextent that a market system is used tonallocate resources. No government official,nregardless of position or power,ncould efficiently allocate just one resource.nNo single businessman couldnmake all the decisions...

favor of increased government involvementnin the energy field, even suggestingnthat energy prices be kept low asnpart of our national energy policy. Thatnis analogous to a prescription for a pintnof arsenic if a cupful didn’t do the job.nIt will undoubtedly take more than Dr.nReisman s work to eliminate the ignorancenwhich must be at the base of...

studies of Dylan Thomas. Like Kerouac,nThomas killed himself with the bottlenbecause he was unable to resolve thenhurts and conflicts of his youth. In Onnthe Road, Kerouac unwittingly revealsnthis dilemma, “The one thing that wenyearn for in our living days, that makesnus sigh and groan and undergo sweetnnauseas of all kinds, is the remembrancenof some lost...

represent the mad dash for inner truthnas a know-nothing attack on conventionnand rationaHty. Thus the Beats werenheld up to ridicule while at the samentime their plastic image was safely beingnembraced in the slogans printed onnendless T-shirts. In sterilizing the Beatnprotest, liberal culture once again establishednits inaccessibility, its imperviousnessnto intellectual dialogue fromnoutside itself.nMcNally’ ‘s service is...

beautiful and sexually kinky than thennext. Schultz might well have been subtitled,n”Suffocated by Sperm.” On thenother hand, that gesture toward ribaldrynis taken care of in the name of the companynSchultz hopes will bankroll him—nSperm Productions. The odd thing isnthat all these sexual hijinks are neithernfunny nor witty nor farcical nor angry,nbut instead dully pornographic andnwearisome....

ComtnendablesnA ConvincingnReglementndes ComptesnPhilip Roth: The Ghost Writer;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; New York.nThis is a novel (actually a novella)nabout dilemmas. Big dilemmas, smallndilemmas, and those peculiar dilemmasnthat fit neither category. It’s about thenimpossibility of choices, which arenneither small nor big but inexpressiblenand unsolvable to the extent that it’sneven impossible to form a judgmentnabout them.nWith this novel,...

ScreennA Big Bang and Small ChangenApocalypse Now; Directed by FrancisnCoppola; Written by John Milius;nUnited Artists.nStarting Ofer; An Alan J. PakulanFilm; Paramount Pictures.n10; Written and Directed by BlakenEdwards; An OrionPictures Release.nYanks; A John Schlesinger Film;nUniversal.nLe Cage aux Folles; A Film by EdouardnMolinaro; United Artists.nby Eric ShapearonIn the end, Coppola’s ApocalypsenNow makes an impression of mythologynby computerization....

Conrad’s Kurtz is a man who failed in anmysterious way: we cannot penetrate thenprofundity of his defeat for we are notnsubjected to his fate. Coppola’s Kurtz is ansort of habitue of horror, and the wordndoes not sound altogether inscrutablenwhen he finally pronounces it. It soundsnmerely pompous and pathetic.n* * *nWith that typical, darling, feministninsouciance for...

Cops running around in the buff. As thenhero is an “elevator music” composer,nthe score has been duly provided by Mr.nHenry Mancini, the ultimate giant in thenMuzak department.nYanks is an aborted exercise in sentimentalitynon a singularly attractive andnprolific theme: American troops in England,nduring World War II, preparing fornD-day. One would assume that one of thenmost selfless...

There is almost no evidence in thisnbook that he is able to step back andnenjoy the musical architecture. Possiblynhe can, but if so he can’t write about it.nHe devotes a few pages to performancesnof Bach’s Goldberg Variations andnBeethoven’s Missa Solemnis, two of thengreatest works of Western music. Then,nabout Bach: “What can still be saidnabout the...

Underwriters was holding its annualnnational seminar. The concert was repletenwith ironies and coincidences.nHere in New Orleans, possibly thenbirthplace of jazz, a band of New Yorknmusicians had been imported to payntribute to America s Mozart, the NewnOrleanian who virtually created jazznas a soloist’s art. Why bring a crew ofnNew Yorkers, none of them from NewnOrleans, here...