SEVEN QUESTIONS
27
very special world. I think they are more influenced by the ebb and flow
of headlined fashions, and by the varying standards in social prestige of
that world than by any direct advertising pressure. Advertising probably
determines the space given a hook, and in the long run I think it will he
found that the various publishers' lists get respectful attention in direct
relation to the financial position of the concerns. After all, what do you
want for three cents? Current newspaper criticisms are interesting to the
social historian just as fashion notes are interesting. I doubt very much
if
they will take their place in the "usable past." There's not enough, hut
there is some first rate literary criticism around that, naturally, is very
useful to a writer.
\
4. I've managed to do it so far, hut it's nip and tuck.
5. Isn't an individual just a variant in a group? The equipment belongs
to the society you were brought up by. The individuality lies in how you
use it. My sympathies, for some reason, He with the private in the front
line against the brass hat; with the hodcarrier against the strawhoss, or the
walking delegate for that matter; with the laboratory worker against the
stuffed shirt in a mortarboard; with the criminal against the cop. When I
try
to use my head it's somewhat different. People are you and me. As for
allegiance; what I consider the good side of what's been going on among
people on this continent since 1620 or thereabouts, has mine. And isn't
there one of history's dusty attics called the Republic of Letters?
6.
On the whole I'm all for the trend towards American self-conscious–
ness in current writing. Of course any good .thing gets run into the ground.
I think there is enough real democracy in the very mixed American tradi–
tion to enable us, with courage and luck, to weather the social transforma–
tions that are now going on without losing all our liberties or the humane
outlook that is the medium in which civilizations grow. The reaction to
home-bred ways of thinking is a healthy defence against the total bank–
ruptcy of Europe. As I have come to believe firmly that in politics the
means tend to turn out to he more important than the ends, I think that the
more our latent
pra~atism
and our cynicism in regard to ideas is stimu–
lated the safer we will
he.
7. My attitude towards a war would entirely depend on what I thought
its internal results would he, though it's hard to conceive of a war that
would have good results anywhere. But how would I know when it began?
We live in a very odd period in human history when it's very difficult to
make broad generalizations about events or to label them beforehand.
Practically I'd probably try to get hack my old job driving an ambulance.
