102
PARTISAN REVIEW
'discipline' which by the cumui"'uve logic of Stalinism's
incre~~g
hypocritical betrayals of communism, can less and less penrut 1ts
artistis even adumbrations of truth or semblances of independence.
Yet for the unconsciously venal, the perquisites are hard to give up;
and, however, profound their satisfaction at the recovery of integrity
and liberty, the reception awaiting them in the revolutionary camp
looks to contain more of justice than of coddling, of slightly distrustful
forgiveness than of wildly enthusiastic acclaim. Considering that
what is needed in FIARI is the broadest possible base, it is unfortu–
nate, though probably not fatal, that Breton, long the pope of sur–
realisme, slightly confused the issue by attempting to transfer into the
new organization some of the special tenets of the old, plumping in the
manifesto for the Vienna Dreambook school of psychology. For
not only will outright Gestaltists and Behaviorists look askance, but
many honest writers whom the ignorant asinities of Otto Rank have
reminded of the magnetism, hypnotism, and Christian Science ex–
cesses of the past century, will hesitate to sign a manifesto which seems
to imply adhesion, not only to revolutionary liberties, but also to cult
limitations. Yet despite this disadvantage, the admirable FIARI has al–
ready made excellent progress: more than 50 signatures of leading
artists have already come in. The Moscow Frame-up Trials are
having their delayed but certain result.
A second stage has now been reached. The Stalirrists' self-expo–
sure as unprincipled war-mongers during the recent Czech crisis has
broken down another unit in their art-machine; this time it is the paci–
fist cogs that commence to fly out.
R~main
Rolland, author of
]
ean–
Christophe
and dean of French leftist letters ,whom even the Moscow
Trials could not apparently awaken, was the first to sign the strongly
anti-war manifesto put out jointly by the Teachers' Union and the
Post Telegraph and Telephone Union issued the first of October, thus
marking his definitive break with the war-policy of 'collective se–
curity'. In view of the extent of his moral influence, it is to be sup–
posed his example will be followed by many French artists.
Such breaks in France, where art clusters in schools and groups,
show a special courage. It is difficult, when one has been 'taken care
of' by an efficient international machine, to set out on one's own
again as an independent artist, and, slanderously abused from one
·side for one's political honesty, to be as roundly damned from the
other for one's· literary style. Andre Gide is a case in
poi~
Every–
one praises Gide's honesty in writing
Retour de l'U. R. S. S.
and
its sequels; yet, because of their dislike of his literary qualities, the
literary ultra-left regard this self-appointed president of the republic
of letters with a deep distrust, suggesting that, his sensitive nose
having warned him of the imminent decomposition of Stalinism, he
is profiting as much from his espousal of the revolutionary cause as
is
the cause from him. There is still quoted with much gusto in such
