QpiMONS & Vii:ws~TnAfter MidcenturynJay Cantor: The Space Between: Literaturenand Politics; The Johns HopkinsnUniversity Press; Bahimore.nRobert C. Rosen:/o/&« Dos Passes: Politicsnand the Writer; University ofnNebraska Press; Lincoln.nby Lee Congdonn<<1nIjliss was it in that dawn to benalive,” Wordsworth rhapsodized aboutnthe French Revolution, “But to be youngnwas very heaven!” Similarly, manynAmericans who came of age during then1960’s look back upon the dawn of thenAge of Aquarius as the seed time of theirnhopes and dreams, years of liberationnfrom, among other things, “repressed”nsexuality and “hypocrisy.” Out of thencrucible of war, assassination and violentnconfrontation, they still believe that annew nation—some called it Woodstockn—^was then being forged. Its foundingnfathers were not Washington, Madisonnand Jefferson, but Herbert Marcuse andnNorman O. Brown. Its national heroesnwere Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin andnTom Hay den, or, if one was black, HueynP. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver and BobbynScale. Its citizens were virtuous and sensitive—annation of Holden Caulficlds.nNaturally, these sensitive people hatednwar—unless it was fought against oppressivengovernments of the sort that representednthe United States. They wantednto make love or, more precisely, to havensex. They hated vulgar commercialismnbut spent lavishly on stereos, drugs, fastncars and records. They demanded unrestrictednfreedom of speech but shoutedndown those few who refused to pander tontheir enthusiasms and prejudices. Fromnmembers of the preceding generation,nparticularly their parents, they were irreconcilablynalienated. It was in a suburbnDr. Congdon is professor of history atnJames Madison University in Harrisonburg,nVirginia.n6 ^ B ^ H ^ B ^ i ^nChronicles of Cttlturenof Chicago that a shy, intelligent girl, thendaughter of a pharmacist, grew upnalmost unnoticed. After graduatingnfrom a Christian college, she went tonstudy in Berlin, where she met and marriedn”Red Rudy” Dutschke. SheandRednRudy called their son “Che,” to signalntheir solidarity with the Argentine-bornnrevolutionary.nJay Cantor was studying at Harvardnduring those tumultuous years. He knewnhis Marcuse and Brown and “was happynto be alive in such an exciting time.”nWhen he was not amusing himself withnhis kaleidoscope, comic books and drugsnor exchanging ideas with friends, he wasnsearching for a political literature thatnwould be “an instrument of the struggle.”nAfter graduation, he accepted anninvitation to teach English at Tufts University,nbut, to his chagrin, he soon discoverednthat his students were not nearlynso sensitive as his classmates had been.nThe revolution would have to be postponed,nperhaps indefinitely. Cantor begannto ponder the implications of thatndepressing fact, and in the essays thatncomprise The Space Between he exhibitsnfor our consideration a kind of annotatednstream of consciousness.nTo begin with, he concluded that itnhad been a mistake to suppose that anyonenor any party could simply plan andnthen execute a revolution; history wasnnot so easily shaped. Just so, he could nonlonget accept the idea that one might in­nnnterpret a work of literature by employingnprescribed ideological categories. He resolvedntherefore to set aside all preconceivednsolutions to the world’s ills, convincednthat a deeper and more searchingnanalysis was required. In a moment ofnrevelatory inspiration, he saw that it wasnnot merely, or even principally, the outsidenworld that needed to be changed; itnwas the self. True revolution wouldnbegin in his own consciousness, and itnwould never end. Literature was politicalnafter all, but only insofar as it pointed thenway to overcoming the self. Freed fromnthe shackles of ideology, literature (andnart in general) could at last perform itsnauthentic task. Exit Marcuse (the philosopher-ideologue)nand enter Norman O.nBrown, who inttoduced Cantor to “anothernidea ofpolitics,” which was, brieflynstated, that politics is art—“they are thensame activity.” By means of art/politics,none might create value and thus effect anrevolution in human consciousness, anrevolution that would be permanent andngoalless. Like William Carlos Williams,nCantor came to believe that” a new worldnis only a new mind.”nAJecause of this conception of politics.nCantor focused his attention onnYeats and Joyce, sons of Eire who are notngenerally noted for their political writingnand who have never been lionized by thenleft. He believed that these great modernistsn”were constmcting and celebratingnworlds that could be recaptured onlynwithin the mind.” Just as he aspired tondo, they “wrote songs of survivors,”nelegies for fallen comrades who live innour collective memory. This is one reasonnwhy Cantor’s taste runs to poetry andnpoetic prose and why he ignores politicalnnovels such as The Possessed, UndernWestern Eyes, Bread and Wine, Darknessnat Noon and Man’s Fate. It may alsonbe that he perfers not to confront thenprofound ambivalence of political behaviornthat the distinguished authors ofnthese books dramatized so unforget-n