LETTERS
269
simple, clear-minded, and not without
grandeur.
His development in the last few years
typifies the disorientation of many such
intellectuals. In the first days of the war,
he signed- together with Deat, Jean
Giono, Alain, and the anarchist, Lecoin–
a manifesto calling for "peace at any
price" and motivated only by "the hor–
rors of war." Prosecuted, most of the
signers, with Deat in the-lead, repudiated
their signatures. Alain and Lecoin stood
linn,
as did Margueritte; I don't know
what Giono did. It was all in all a rather
miserable businus, in which Margueritte
showed real moral courage.
"Nothin~,"
he used to tell me, "nothing can justify
war; nothing could be worse." His point
of view was that of anarchist pacifism
and was really little more than a senti–
mental reaction. He saw the debacle of
June,
1940,
with no doubt great chagrin,
but probably without surprise, having
spent most of his life denouncing the cor–
ruption of
th~
Third Republic after the
crushing of the Commune. When the
former Socialist mm1ster, Spinasse,
founded
L'Efjort,
"an organ of national
reconstruction," to support- with the
help of former associates of Leon Blum,
who was at once imprisoned-the Mar–
shal's policies and the idea of collabora–
tion with the Nazis; when this sheet ap–
peared, I was saddened to read in it an
article by Victor Margueritte celebrating,
in oblique terms, the 'reconciliation' with
Germany.
MEXICO CITY
TASTE AND EGO
Sirs:
VICTOR SERGE
So
now, after its skirmish with Brooks,
MacLeish and the culture police, P.R. it–
self comes out against taste and individ–
uality-new recruit in the campaign for
vulgarity and literary hare-kiri.
What does the "Note by the Editor"
[Clement Greenberg] which p1ecedes the
poetry in the last issue, counterpose to
"current good taste" and the "enthusiastic
ego"? Some new revolutionary mood per–
haps? Some advanced technical insight?
No, he "does not necessarily mean Ex–
periment." He means "Behold now Eros
as the midnight groom." He means com-
p!ete power to his own taste (not good)
and his own ego (unenthusiastic).
Also writing on art in same issue (why
not?) this opponent of the "enthusiastic
ego" refers to himself, his tastes and
opinions no less than
10
times on
1%
pages. Soon we may expect-the obstacle
of good taste having been cleared away–
to have the pleasure of reading the Com–
plete Man's own verses.
HAROLD RosENBERG
WASHINGTON, D. C.
-Mr. Rosenberg seems to read my stuff
rather closely.-C.G.
"THE MEN FROM JAVA"
Sirs:
Your readers may be interested to
know that Jean Malaquais' novel,
Les
Javanais,
has been published over here in
English as
The Men From Java.
It is put
out by a small Polish firm, Minerva,
whose books are distributed by Faber
&
Faber. The translation-it is competent
and ftuid-is by John Marks. I have a
loan copy on my table at this minute, bor–
rowed from the local public free library
of Whitstable (a small oyster and fishing
village) . I asked them for
The Men From
Java
some six weeks ago and was told
they had already ordered the book on the
strength of a warm review in the
Times
Literary Supplement
(which is equivalent
to being blessed by a bishop) .
KENT, ENGLAND
ANTONY MANTON
HOBSON'S CHOICE
Sirs:
Victor Serge's description of his last
days in France ["On the Eve," PARTISAN
REVIEW, Jan.-Feb.,
1942]
well illustrates
why contemporary left-wing parties there
and here failed to win the allegiance or
even the respect of countless potential
supporters. In France, the feeble united
front, bewildered and torn by the irre–
concilability of its domestic programme
and the growing military threat from
without, was never a possible adversary
for the streamlined, concentrated German
expansion machine. In England, left wing
politics were so disunited and drained of
strength by internal feuds that it would
have been a full time occupation to fol–
low the course of the private battle.
Very many men of good will in Europe,
while understanding the significance of
