94
PARTISAN REVIEW
cept, of course, for Mr. Mattick's unread·
able article which should have been left
in the original German) but the ''Ten
Propositions" were exasperating.
I
agree
with all your despairs but your hopes
seem chimerical. The falseness is the
same as in the "Facts of Life": you know
that we have been sterilized but your
wishes tell you that we are still potent.
6. Whatever your readers may say,
your poetry remains one of the high points
of PARTISAN REVIEW. The Eliot is as fine
as any since "The Hollow Men." The
Auden ("At the Tomb of Henry James")
was good if uneven. Certainly it is above
most of his recent products. At its worst
your poetry is precious - as in David
Schubert's "Simple Scale." But even in
preciosity you may find something ornate
and fine like the Moore poem in your
July.August issue.
7. Your reportage from France and the
article by George Orwell are excellent.
These and the articles on Art represent
the best of your prose.
Then
I
want to say something about
the Army, prompted principally by Pvt.
Shapiro's letter in the September.October
issue.
The Army is quite liveable. The food
is edible. A normal person can sleep in
the beds, and the work is non·existent.
The claims of the Government about good
treatment are
not
"substantially true."
They are pure fantasy. But they are not
objectionable since they are one of the
things which make Army life so amusing.
The men in the Army are not intelligent
in the genre of the pARTISAN REVIEW but
they are all amiable companions. They
have to be since we live so closely one
upon the other.
The prime characteristic of the Army
is its pure uselessness. Since it has been
an institution without duties in a peace·
time nation for the last twenty years it
has developed some rather natural traits.
Like religion in an apostate age it has
substituted ritual for duty, ceremonial
works for patriotic faith. Now when we
are supposed to be preparing for a highly
technical war it is still concentrating on
the trivialities of inspections, military
courtesy, retreat parades and so on. The
chief virtue of the good soldier is that he
is inconspicuously idle or engaged in
coa.
spicuous waste.
This "made work" is the chief deter·
rent to military morale. Otherwise
the
Army knows how to handle its men. Lib
the rulers of Aldous Huxley's "Bra'ft
New World" they have their soma (equala
3.2 beer, movies, a library full of Westm
stories, and regular chow) which keep1
men in the mass contented by not recoa·
nizing them as individuals.
Yours,
FoRT LEwis, WAsH.
PRIVATE Z
IN BRIEF
I
enjoy the magazine immensely,
aDd
find it the one remaining source of pro–
gressive artistic and political thought.
The revolting spectacle of the "liberal•"
and their weeklies makes PARTISAN
JU.
VIEW a necessary antidote to the alm011
universal falseness of American
period~
cals. - ROBERT M. PALMER, LAURENCE,
KANSAS.
And may
I
add parenthetically that
I
think PR is doing a first·rate job, even
if
I
don't always agree with its social pro–
gram.-CONRAD AIKEN, BREWSTER, MAss.
Your magazine is refreshing, reassur·
ing and stimulating in these days of total
assent to total war. Auden's Henry
James
poem, and Rodgers in last issue were
first rate and some of the most interestilll
poetry you have published. Good luck.
You'll need it before long if we continue,
politically, in our present direction.-
E.
P., FAIRFAX, CALIF.
pARTISAN REVIEW continues to be
the
most stimulating magazine on the mar·
ket; not (for me) because of its poJiti.
cal philosophy, but because it is the one
contemporary publication which is
coa–
sistently cultivated and serious·minded.
Thanks especially for Mr. Rahv's extn·
ordinarily fine essays. May subscriptio111
keep mounting.-D. P ., NEw YoRK
Cm.
May
I
say how much
I
appreciated the
PARTISAN REVIEW during the last
yell
and especially since being in the
Army!
-XYZ, CAMP CROFT,
s. c.
Although often enough disagreeing wiu
P.R.,
I
think it is one of the very
few
stimulating reviews
I
have come acr011
since
I
am in this country.·-G.
E., NEw
YoRK CITY,
