f41 CHRONICLESnthe male image of God as the biggest disappointment in hernlife, etc. Why these wild speculations which all but strip thenpoet of her essential and mysterious humanity? It is thentheme of a book just out. Lunacy of Light (Southern IllinoisnUniversity Press), by one Wendy Baker, that in the poetry ofnEmily Dickinson all references to...

18 / CHRONICLESnBARBARA PYM’S UNSENTIMENTAL EYEnby fane S. ShawnAdmirers of Barbara Pym have several regrets. Thengreatest is that there aren’t more of her novels. Pymnwould undoubtedly have written more had she lived longer,nfor her death in 1980 occurred at a time of renewednproductivity. She certainly would have written more had shennot suffered 14 years of...

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE FAMILYnby Edward M. LevinenFor nearly two decades, homosexuals and their sympathizersnhave increased their efforts to persuade opinionnleaders, educators, clergy, government officials, and thenpublic that their sexual lives, though different, are as normalnand natural as the heterosexuals’. Since some heterosexualsnalso engage in sodomy, the homosexuals have claimed that itnis only their same-sex orientation...

VIEWSnTHE PRESENT AGE AND THE STATEnOF COMMUNITY by Robert NisbetnThe Present Age begins with the First World War, thenGreat War as it is deservedly still known. No war evernbegan more jubilantly, among all classes and generations,nthe last including the young generation that had to fight it. Itnis said that when Viscount Grey, British Foreign Minister,nuttered...

probably be very dead by this time. I didn’t know thenVietnam War was coming.nBell: With all the irritations and frustrations that comenwith being a full-time professional writer, do you still thinknit’s worth it?nGarrett: Nobody chooses. There’s a poem by DavidnSlavitt, “The Calf and the Ox,” based on a fable of Avianus,nwhere a frisky little calf...

BRIBEMASTERS by Michael Wardern’The devil’s boots don’t creak.’n— Scottish proverbnMany who take money from him, attend his conferences,nor publish their articles in his publications willnpoint to his anti-Communism. Others support the civilnliberty issues he seems to embody. Some reassure themselvesnby seeing the influential people with whom he travels.nA few employ the rationale of the lesser...

341 CHROMCLESnindividual as they are understood in the West. WhilenMoon’s theology borrows from Christianity, in an admittedlynunusual manner, Moon’s concepts of leadership andnsociety are Confucian with a strong emphasis on socialnconformity and loyalty. Rational criticism or internal disagreementnon methods causes the Korean leadership to losenface and is tantamount to sedition or revolution. As is truenfor...

VIEWSnPLURALISM IN MINIATURE by Harold O.J. BrownnScience was a sacred cow in the United States in then1950’s. The words “Science says …” came with allnthe force of an imperial command. Pluralism has taken onnthe same status in the late 1980’s. As soon as the wordsn”Our pluralistic society will not permit …” are uttered,nNativity scenes are...

IB I CHRONICLESnceuticals, office equipment, and the like are manufactured.nImagine that diversity of productivity in Chicagoland (Chicagonand its suburbs), with its slightly larger population, orneven in the entire state of Illinois. Swiss, wherever possible,nbuy Swiss, whatever it may cost, “for the quality,” but alsonout of a clear sense of self-preservation.nThe Swiss do not believe in...

THE CULT OF DR. KING by Samuel FrancisnThe third annual observance of the birthday of MartinnLuther King Jr. passed happily enough in the nation’sncapital, with the local merchants unloading their assortednjunk into the hands of an eager public. It is hardly surprisingnthat “King Day,” observed as a federal legal public holidaynsince 1986, has already become...

301 CHRONICLESnA DIRGE FOR BOSNIAn”Whom I served—by him I was buried!”n— 14th-Century Bosnian Inscriptionn^ ^ XT’ or now I began to get the news from Croatia,” wrotenv. Mrs. Ruth Mitchell, an American in Dubrovnik, innMay of 1941. “I could not believe a quarter of them.nUnfortunately, I was soon to know that they were a weaknunderstatement...

101 CHRONICLESnVIEWSnCEREMONIES IN THE CATACOMBSnby Octavio PaznThe following is the text of Mr. Paz’s address at then1987 IngersoU Prizes Awards Banquet.nIt moves me to be the recipient of the T.S. Eliot Award,nestablished by The IngersoU Foundation to honor poetsnand writers of different languages. The emotion I feel isnonly natural. Primarily because of the award itself...

12 / CHRONICLESnON CLARITY by Josef PiepernThe following is the text of Dr. Pieper’s address atnthe 1987 Ingersoll Prizes Awards Banquet.nIt seems to be rather easy to translate “Scholarly Letters”nadequately into German. Every year the German Academynfor Language and Poetry awards a prize forn”wissenschaftliche prosa,” and what this phrase means isnprecisely identical with the meaning...

‘X onlif /^^sii3Sf ,nf f,^Z^ £>/^ UlCn”^^’^^nTHE SCANDAL IN T.S. ELIOT’S LIFEnby James W. TuttletonnTS. Eliot (1888-1965), dead now for more than 20n, years, continues to vex those for whom his poetry isnnot complete — or is not completely to be understood—nwithout an intimate knowledge of his biography. At the timenof his death, of course,...

WHO WAS VLADIMIR NABOKOV?nby Leon SteinmetznVladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is not one of my mostnfavorite writers, but then my most favorite writers arenPope and Swift, Dante and Corneille, Goethe and Tolstoyn(not mentioning Theocritus, Vergil, and Marcus Aurelius)ncompared to whom any modern writer looks rather like anpeculiarly dressed dwarf; however, when Nabokov is accusednof some artistic or...

201 CHRONICLBSnREINTERPRETING PHILOSOPHYnby Thomas MolnarnTo paraphrase a well-known saying, We are all revisionistsnnow! Yet somehow even our revisionists arentimid—they wait for favorable winds before they “revise”nhistory, economics, philosophy, and science, then writenbooks about “how it really started,” “how it really happened.”nI suspect that revisionism is a branch of popularizednhermeneutics whose self-assigned function is to place...

EXECUTION a story by Momcilo Selicnukota Vlahovic said to his mother, “I am a grownnV But his mother just smiled. “You are a boy until younmarry. Even then you will be my son.”n”God be with you,” she said, as he walked away withoutnlooking back.nHis pouch filled with bread and cheese, Vukota Vlahovicnwent down Trmanje, watching...

w<ndinbenexncenciingr:nth.nnonwilnpanerenen>nKainYornTHnShadows in thenLimeUghtnby Bryce J. ChdstensennAn American television viewer will witnessnmore violence in a single eveningnthan an Athenian would have seennduring a lifetime of theatergoing. Actsnof violence were virtually prohibited innGreek drama, and Aristotle goes so farnas to argue against the use of “merenspectacle” to produce the desired catharsisnof pity and fear; “Those whonemploy spectacular...

8 I CHRONICLESnVIEWSnTHE (POLITICALLY) SUPREME COURTnby Jack D. DouglasnThe great sound and fury over the nomination of RobertnBork to the U.S. Supreme Court included many grandnproclamations from all sides concerning the original intentionsnof the constitutionalists and the relevance of thosenintentions to our society today. It is clear to anyone with anmodicum of knowledge about the...

12 I CHRONICLESnWHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? by Samuel FrancisnAmerica, in case you haven’t noticed, is lost in the throesnof celebrating the writing of its Constitution, which isnnow two centuries old. The somewhat labored efforts to fixnpublic attention on the historic document are largely thenwork of former Chief Justice Warren Burger and his ownnprivate bureaucracy in...

tB I CHRONICLESnTHE FEAR OF CRISIS by John P. SisknIn the November 1986 Encounter, the Princeton Universityneconomist Harold James sets out to tell us “Why WenShould Learn to Love a Crisis.” His explanation is not quitenwhat we would expect from a champion of a marketneconomy. In that economy, he says, crises serve a necessarynfunction; states...

201 CHRONICLESnTHE POLITICS OF AIDS RESEARCHnby Irving Louis HorowitznThe epidemic of AIDS highlights a crisis in policy onnwhich the social sciences may shed some light. In thenprocess, it may also move the study of policymaking to somensubstantial higher ground. Whenever we pose a question innterms of understanding rather than resolving, we run thenrisk of hearing...

101 CHRONICLESnVIEWSnMUTINY IN PARADISE by John ChodesnIn December 1787 His Majesty’s armed transport Bountyncrept out of Portsmouth harbor on a clandestine mission,nheading for the vast and largely uncharted South Pacific.nTahiti, a tiny pinpoint of land in the Polynesian Islands, wasnthe goal. In October 1788, the Bounty dropped anchor innTahiti’s spectacular Matavai Bay. In April 1789,...

14 I CHRONICLESnTECHNOLOGY AND THE ETHICALnIMPERATIVE by Thomas MolnarnThere is a very interesting article by Professor DavidnLevy in the February 1987 The World & J, whichndeserves a further meditation on the issue it raises. Twonthinkers provide Levy with his point of speculative take-off:nArnold Gehlen {Man in the Age of Technology) and HansnJonas (The Imperative of...

16 I CHRONICLESnWHY SOULS FLY AWAY by Stephen J. Bodion”Some parrots are legale but why cage exoticnbirds at all?”n— Chris WiUe, NASnDon’t ask me, was my first thought. The last parrot Inowned was — I swear—killed 10 years ago by annex-friend who, with Joseph Krutch, believed that huntingnwas the ultimate evil. He left the bird...

which — I have come to think — is more of a crime thannhaving taken them home, though not one punishable bynlaw.nBut, puritans object, people would trade in feathers!nThough I doubt it, I might allow that trade in authenticallynendangered species parts be under heavy license. As fornother things, if your bureaucratic mind demands tidiness,nwhy not...

based on the Roman concept of exclusive and absolutenrights to property. As such, this concept of rights is seen innconflict with the Christian view of a property right being anlimited, stewardship right. However, transferable privatenproperty rights are actually more a way of keeping propertynuse dependent upon the desires and needs of others. Undernpublic ownership, resource...

301 CHRONICLESnand he was always an ardent defender of it, never attemptingnto disguise his admiration of its most hideous aspects,nlike the slave labor camps, in his numerous books, pamphlets,nand newsletter. When he moved to Vermont in then1930’s, he became an early Country Fake, publishing booksnon that, too. Throughout his career, as people who knewnhim and...

8/ CHRONICLESnVIEWSnTHOUGHTS ON MIKHAIL BULGAKOVnby Leon SteinmetznIalways think of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov with tenderness,nas if he were my relative, and a very close and dear onenat that. Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was not my relative. Inwas not even fortunate to know him personally — he died a fewnyears before I was born.nOnce, in a conversation with...

STOPPING THE LONG MARCHnTHROUGH THE UNIVERSITY by Arnold Beichmann”A Leninist cannot simply be a specialist in hisnfavorite branch of science. . . . He must be annactive participant in the political leadership of hisncountry.”n— Slogan of Moscow UniversitynSubstitute “professor” for “Leninist” and the quotationnwould appear almost a cliche to many American academicians.nYet such corollary Leninist...

informed.nThe work of the Institute for Educational Affairs in subventioningnand sponsoring pro-democratic and anti-Marxist campusnnewspapers is of crucial importance and should benencouraged and broadened. A dissident voice in the age ofncampus Marxist conformity is a sine qua non in beating backnthe Marxist tide.nWherever possible, the dissident campus newspaper shouldnbe sent to the families of students...

That is why, in resisting that idealistic view of the mind andnits education, I have insisted that an educator can only teachnwhat seems known about the truth of things; what men havensaid of virtue one may teach, but it will not follow that thenstudent will therefore become virtuous, even when he makesnan A in the...

28 / CHRONICLESnAN ELEGY TO A WRITER by Mildred HardingnPearl Craigie, the long forgotten novelist and playwrightn”John Oliver Hobbes,” who died in 1906, is due fornresurrection.nShe has haunted me for over 40 years. It was through mynstudy of the Anglo-Irish novelist George Moore in the 1940’sn(particularly through Joseph Hone’s biography of him), thatnMrs. Craigie first...

VIEWSnWHAT THE FOUNDERS DIDN’TnCOUNT ON by Clyde Wilsonn”I assert that the people of the United Statesn. . . have sufficient patriotism and intelligencento sit in judgment on every question which hasnarisen or which will arise no matter how long ourngovernment will endure.”n—William Jennings BryannAs citizens it is fitting that we engage in acts of civic...

16 / CHRONICLESndemurred from this proposition. But is it not obviously truenthat the intent of the Constitution is a historical question?nThat is to say, questions of “original intent” are mostnproperly answered, not by legal reasoning and legal tradition,nnor by abstract speculation on democratic philosophynor individual “rights,” but by reference to the historicalnrecord.nIn emphasizing the historical...

can be restrained only by well-planned cooperation, andntheir application is unmistakable. The natural state is notnone to be desired. Nor even the tribal state. The liberty tonbe found there is forever in question—if the sword-arm fail.nYet human society is so frail a shelter as to be constantlynthreatened by the encroachments of depravity. Earlier innthe convention...

28 / CHRONICLESnEugene Debs a penitentiary sentence); as outrageous asndefiance of FDR’s policies in 1940 (which earned a trial fornsedition for the Trotskyites).nOur Congress, moreover, as well as our courts andnprosecutors, has diminished Fifth Amendment rights innremarkable fashion. First, any witness or defendant claimingnthe right to remain silent under the Fifth can give onlynhis name....

A NEW LOGIC OF HUMAN STUDIESnby Frederick TurnernConsider the following paradoxes. A welfare systemndesigned by well-meaning politicians guided by thenadvice of the wisest sociologists and economists available,ncosting billions of dollars, whose net effect is radically tonincrease the numbers of the poor, especially women andnchildren, and to deepen their misery, incapacity, andndespair. A stock market which...

38 / CHRONICLESnvital and creative popular movement. Historians should paynclose attention; the experience of the “soldiers” is apparentlynextraordinarily intense and often not what one wouldnexpect. Of course reenactment need not be confined tonmilitary events.nSecond, ethnodrama, which is a new technique designednby anthropologists and performance experts to enact centralnritual or social activities from other cultures and...

72 / CHRONICLESnVIEWSnTHE EMPIRE AT EUROPE’S ENDnby Erik von Kuehnelt-LeddihnnIn the German name for Austria, Osterreich, Reichndenotes more than “empire” in the sense of territorialnextension; there is also a certain spiritual content. In thenMiddle Ages, empire meant the Eastern Roman Empire ofnByzantium, and after Christmas Day 800, when Charle-nErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn is the European correspondentnfor...

IB I CHRONICLESnTHE WAR YEARS by Anthony HarrigannWorld War II seems both near and far away. In onensense, it seems like only yesterday that I was 17 yearsnold, in uniform, and in Georgia and California. In anothernsense, that period is ancient history. We have traversed ancentury or more in human experience since the earlyn1940’s.nThe conflict...

20 I CHRONICLESnof our concern. Those of us who were safe in camps innCalifornia hardly thought of combat, except once, when ancontingent of Tarawa survivors were assigned to our camp.nTheir ghastly appearance woke us, temporarily at least, tonthe grim reality across the Pacific. Given the fact thatnAmericans fought from Normandy to Okinawa, it is amazingnthat...

10 I CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnTHE PRICE OF FREE VERSE by Thomas FlemingnA post in our times,” wrote Thomas Love Peacock,niV “is a semi-barbarian in a civilized community.”nWhat Peacock meant by civilized community is not toonhard to guess: that rational, humane, progressive society ofnBritain and Northern Europe, which Peacock’s eccentricnfriends—Shelley, Coleridge, and Byron—all seemed bentnon destroying. Poets were...

VIEWSnA MOUSE OR A PROMETHEUS by Gojko DjogonIt is said that whatever theme a poet chooses to dealnwith—the insignificance of a mouse or Prometheus’nheroic deed—what really matters is the ways in which ancertain reality, certain feelings, and certain events arentransposed into a poetic image. There are few objechons tonthis opinion—it is supported by many works...

re / CHRONICLESn”unconscious,” such poetic testimony certainly would notngenerate the excitement that Milosz’s poetry offers. And thisnis yet another proof that a poet has to deal with crucialnmoments in history, with what determines the “pulse” of ancertain age. The value of his testimony and the value of thenpoetic work itself depend on that.nTherefore it seems...

20 I CHRONICLESnetc. Whatever they may be, it doesn’t always work out innPoirier’s equations. He will say rather haughtily, for example,nthat Emersonians have little or no interest in the novelsnof Catholic violence by Francois Mauriac, GrahamnGreene, and Flannery O’Connor. Moreover, he calls thisn”theatrical spirituality,” without for a moment acknowledgingnEmerson’s pathetic incapacity to recognize the presencenof...

16 I CHRONICLESnVIEWSnA (PARDON THE EXPRESSION)nBACCALAUREATE ADDRESS by George GarrettnThe irrepressible John Towne tells us what he really thinksnof higher education. Something to oSfend nearly everyone.nI want you to know I share your disappointment thatnnobody you really care about and wanted could be herento make this speech. Sorry that Gary Hart is indisposed.nAlan Alda was...

26 I CHRONICLESnreform society, and redeem the world. But we could notneven save ourselves and our own ideals when the barbariansncame. And come they surely did.nUniversity leadership has now found its definition not innthe particular requirements of the tasks of the academy:nscholarship and research. Now what the campus needednwas what other large institutions—deemed no differentnfrom...

DOGGEREL IN A GOOD CAUSE by Auberon WaughnAs editor of the Literary Review, I am afraid I havenformed rather a low opinion of the nation’s poets.nEvery week 20 or 30 offerings arrive through the post, and Inoften glance at them before handing them over to thenmagazine’s saintly, long-suffering poetry editor. Withnamazingly few exceptions, these “poems”...

12 / CHRONICLESnVIEWSnTHE WAR OF MEXICAN AGGRESSIONnby Odie B. Faulkn” … As honest men it behooves us to learn thenextent of our inheritance, and as brave ones not tonwhimper if it should prove less than we hadnsupposed.”n—John TyndallnMuch in the news recently, especially in the Southwest,nis the problem of illegal immigration fromnsouth of the border....