a “political pilgrim.” He did not describenin only “positive” terms thenNew Soviet Man. His description ofnthe director of the publication Atheistnis hardly suitable propaganda, and hisnvision of Baku, the petroleum capital,npierces through the repetitive chatter ofnthe Soviet guides: “It was raining, anbiting cold. We waded in the mud,ninside a forest of drilling towers. Thenair was greasy, the earth vomited oil.nBlack-green bogs everywhere . . .nHere in this contemporary inferno,nblackened workers, oiled like rats,nstruggled to earn their daily bread,nsmeared by fumes and petroleum.” Bynthe late 1930’s Kazantzakis held thenbelief that Communism was more exploitativenand materialistic than capitalism.nHe likened it to a forest fire thatnhad to run its course in order to build annew society. Nor did his Soviet hostsnever publish any of his books, or allownthem to be sold.nPerhaps the lasting significance ofnthe trips to Russia lies in the thoughtnand experience it provided for Kazantzakis’nmasterpiece, the Odyssey. Henbegan drafting it before his Russianntours and devoted himself to it immediatelynafterwards, completing the worknin 1938 at the age of 55. Most of thenother fiction for which he has receivednworld acclaim was written after WorldnWar II, in a remarkable spurt of crea­nLIBERAL ARTSnTHE HOLY BLIPnMT. Holly, NJ, August 1, 1989 —nFranklin Computer is proud tonannounce the wodd’s first publication ofnthe Holy Bible in truly hand-held electronicnform for Christmas. Available innthe King James version and RevisednStandard Version, Franklin’s ElectronicnHOLY BIBLE contains both Old andnNew Testament in a form that offersnunparalleled reader accessibility. Withnthe touch of a button, any passage can benlocated instantly.n. . . Franklin’s Electronic HOLY BI­nBLE finds passages with unprecedentednease and speed. The reader can easilynfind texts by typing in just several wordsnof a passage. For example, typing “valley,”n”shadow,” “death” will give yountivity that seems to have required, asnwith Odysseus, a lifetime of soulnsearching, and many travels.nMichael Warder is executive vicenpresident of The Rockford Institute.nDionysus in thenTrenchesnby Gregory J. SullivannThe Rites of Spring:nThe Great War and the Birthnof the Modern Agenby Modris EksteinsnBoston and New York: HoughtonnMifflin Co.; 396 pp., $24.95nIn his masterly Ideas Have Consequences,nRichard Weaver (who wasnfond of the long view) marked thendecline of the West from the late 14thncentury with the development of Williamnof Occam’s doctrine of nominalism.nIn the short view, though, it isnobvious that the Great War was thenwatershed of modernity: what remainednof the center was destroyednforever. The role of modernism in thenculture that plunged into the trenchesnis a relatively unexamined one. Modrisnthe 23 rd Psalm and you’ll discover thatn”meek” and “inherit” appear close togethernonly two times in the Bible.n. . . Exquisitely styled, with burgundynexterior and sculptured keys, the FranklinnHOLY BIBLE fits comfortably in thenpalm of your hand. . . . The FranklinnElectronic BIBLES are designed to benused by anyone—not just computernbufiFs. A HELP key and a printed instructionnpanel on the reverse side givenquick assistance and make getting startedneasy. And the rich structure of the Biblenis easy to see because the names of all ofnits 66 books are etched onto the display.nThere’s even an electronic bookmark fornquick returns to favorite passages . . .n—from Franklin Computer NewsnnnEksteins argues in Rites of Spring thatninasmuch as modernism representsn”the principal urge of our time,” itnfigures prominently in the orgy ofnslaughter that has given this century itsnnightrriarish quality.nOn May 29, 1913, at the Theatrendes Ghamps-Elysees, the Stravinsky-nDiaghilev-Nijinsky ballet Le Sacre dunprintemps opened. Eksteins’ thesis isnthat this ballet, which Stravinsky hadnoriginally titled The Victim, constitutesn”One of the supreme symbols of ourncentrifugal and paradosical century . . .nwith its rebellious energy and its celebrationnof life through sacrificial death,n[it is] perhaps the emblematic oeuvre ofna twentieth-century world that, in itsnpursuit of life, had killed off millions ofnits best human beings.” Le Sacre dunprintemps, moreover, tokened the radicalnshift in artistic intention that wenhave come to associate with modernism;nwith this work, Eksteins says, “Artnhas transcended reason, didacticism,nand a moral purpose: art has becomenprovocation and event,” and thus centralnto the turbulence of the age.nEksteins traces the avant-garde’s obsessionnwith the life-through-death motifninto the German soul. Germany—n”the modernist nation par excellence,”nas he puts it—craved war to affirm life,nvitality; war, in fact, was seen as “anspiritual necessity.” The war, then, wasnnot merely a war of territorial conquest.nDrawing extensively on letters andndiaries, Eksteins is able to take thenreader into the trenches, so to speak,nvividly recreating their appalling horror,nmud, and tedium. Men perished innmass numbers in this mass war (60,000nBritish troops were killed on the firstndays at the Somme); so, too, did thenabstractions that motivated them tonfight dutifully for God and country. AsnHemingway’s Lt. Frederic Henry remarksnin A Farewell to Arms: “Abstractnwords such as glory, honor, courage, ornhallow were obscene beside the concretennames of villages, the numbers ofnroads, the names of rivers, the numbersnof regiments and the dates.” And withnlanguage went “Reality, a sense ofnproportion, and reason,” which Eksteinsnmaintains “were the major casualtiesnof the war.”nDepicting the ethos of this time isnnot easy, but Eksteins isolates two keynevents that are highly illustrative. First,nhe provides a fine interpretation of thenNOVEMBER 1989/41n