PARTISAN REVIEW
everyone you meet on the street who is polite enough to endure
your pedagogy. Now, do you know what I mean?"
It
was useless to argue the matter further. When a woman
has a practical problem on her mind she is not susceptible
&o
subtleties.
1
ad my wife did not really know Smertenko. I, who
was not at the moment overly concerned with obtaining a university
post, could see more clearly. I saw the puzzled soul of poor
Smertenko, and the mediocre brain too, pondering over the com·
plexities of literary analysis. And what my wife interpreted as
difficulty in listening I understood as the struggle to comprehend.
Nevertheless my wife's remarks must have affected me for
the next time I ran into Smertenko I found myself watching
him
instead of talking to him. And be£ore I knew it, he said something
to me.
Smertenko told me that he completely disagreed with me
011
all fundamental questions, that as far as he was concerned
I
approached problems too abstractly, was pedantic, academic
and
unilluminating, and that my notions about lyric poetry, which
I
have studied with particular concentration, could not be taken
seriously.
I thought, "I can lose my temper after I answer him."
"Smertenko," I said, "I have found that the people with whom
I have had serious literary discussions fall into three general cate–
gories. It has been possible for me to maintain friendly relatioos
only with those who can be included in the first two of these cate–
gories. Some people r..:cognize my profundity at once. Some
peo–
ple recognize my profundity when it is called to their attentiou.
The rest do not respect me. I see now that you do not belong
to
the first category."
"That's quite possible," said Smertenko.
"The question is: do you belong to the second category or
to
the third? You can take your choice.
If
you feel that you belons
to the third category you must, of course, be willing to accept
the
consequence of your choice. Our conversations could not continue."
It seemed to me that he turned quite pale.
"You mean to say that you won't talk to me?"
"Exactly."
He hesitated and then said with a sort of gasp, "All right.
I belong to the second category."
