286
PARTISAN REVIEW
tically inferior, you can regard it as great and, with equal justice,
as a paltry work. Profound, I should say, because Louis.Ferdinand
Celine in this outrageous and unsatisfactory novel has succeeded
in reworking in completely modern terms one of the great dra·
matic types. . . . But do you know what the significance is of a
dramatic type?"
"No," said Smertenko, "but you are going to tell me, aren't
you? :'
,"To tell you in complete detail I should have to distinguish
a dramatic type from ideological caricature on the one hand and
conceptless empiric ego on the other ... but .that would take us far
afield. Let me say this: Your true .dra:ffiatic
~ype
is nothing less
than an absolute perspective. A hackneyed phrase, but here is
what I mean: Imagine the most powerful telescope man can con·
struct, or the most delicate microscope. These "instruments. would
be absolutes of physical perception. · Nothing of. small or far
beyond their sights could by man be seen. Similarly with percep–
tion in the dramatic realm. Would you like to behol<l the world at
its most morally ambiguous? Then experience it with von
As~hen·
bach of 'Death in Venice.' But perhaps you would·like
tq
experi·
ence the world when it is most assimilable to inquiring mind?
Then look at it with young Bernard of 'The Counterfeiters' or
Hans Castorp of 'The Magic Mountain.' Through them you attain
your most educable eyes.. . ."
"Aschenbach, Bernard, Castorp," my wife broke in, "A,
B,
C.... Are you going to give us all the characters of literature in
alphabetical order? My husband, Smertenko, is a natural hom
pedant."
"Zossima. . . . The world as a miracle, hence susceptible
to
love,
if
you experience it as Father Zossima of 'The Brothen
Karamazov.' But if what in fact you want to see is the world in
its most degraded state,
if
you want to look at its botch and bung,
then you must peer at it with some groundling underman, Ther·
sites, punk of Ajax, or Apemantus, Timon's shrewd tormentor, or,
most perfect to my taste, the spiteful clerk of Dostoyevsky's
nove~
who calls himself a 'man from underground.' You need a
Man
From Underground. . . ."
"Repulsively right!" said Smertenko with a grin. "I am even
inclined to go along with you. But when are you going to journey
to the end of the night?"
