52
PARTISAN REVIEW
that it proves the validity of the Marxian principle of cultural continuity.
In accepting the proletarian view Rollins has not made the mistake of dis-
carding the literary heritage, as many writers have done with grave damage
to their creative power. He has written a novel devoid of that communist
self-consciousness that results in formula, rather than in the imaginative
re-creation of life.
I can discern one major fault in the book. The character of Marvin,
the chief organizer of the strike, is not fully realized; he is seen somewhat
statically, and is given only a minor part in the psychological ramifica-
tions of the novel. This is connected with the impression of spontaneity
in the description of the strike's organization.
The conscious element in
the leadership is not sufficiently stressed
j
the guiding hand is seen through
a mist.
PHILIP RAHV
ELIOT TAKES HIS STAND
THE USE OF POETRY AND THE USE OF CRITICISM
by T.
S.
Eliot.
Harvard University Press.
1933. $2.
AFTER STRANGE GODS,
by T.
S.
Eliot.
Faber and Faber, Limited.
London.
1934.
"And reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number
of free-thinking Jews undesirable," says Eliot in
After Strange Gods,
a
volume of three lectures delivered at the University of Virginia.
Eliot's
zest for stumping on every reactionary platform at hand has led us to
await some precise pronouncement of allegiance to fascism. Though he has
subtly avoided any such open exposure, the evolution of his views toward
the right, the implicit reactionary politics throughout his writing, and his
latest medley of feudal and Catholic themes in
After Strange Gods
leave
no doubt as to his position. Only the blind would hesitate to call Eliot
a fascist.
The cryptic and lucid insights of Eliot's early criticism into many
English writers won him a large following among young Amencan and
English writers.
But this influence is rapidly thinning down, as the ex-
pansions of his views in his later writing shows a shocking confusion on
fundamental questions, an evasion of the major critical problems of our
time, and an ever more ecstatic espousal of the church, the state, an
aristocracy of intellect, racial purity-in short, of most of the forces and
myths which foster fascism.
In
After Strange Gods,
Eliot subscribes to the feudal agraria11lsm and
regional patriotism championed by the contributors to
I'll Take My Stand.
Foreign immigration into the North, and especially the Northeast,
re-
presents to Eliot a dangerous threat to the racial and cultural traditions
of the South. Even the Civil War, says Eliot, disturbed that nice balance
