PARIETY
473
a problem of meanings, and with
the sleight-of-hand of those who
discover the. sources of Hitlerism
in Wagner and Nietzsche, she
argues that a poet with a poster
can
win
the war, bringing to
mind the dapper ghost of James
J. Walker, a famous song-writer,
who remarked, when a question of
the censorship of books arose, "I
never heard of a girl who was
ruined by a book!"
What next? Anything is pos–
sible, provided one cares not at
all for one's ·previous commit–
ments. There is a hint in
The
New Republic
piece that Miss
Rukeyser is now interested in the
advertising game. As Ring Lard–
ner used to say, there is a limit to
games and to fun, and to quote
once more: "Fun is fun, but a
girl can't keep laughing all the
time." The notion of big bill–
boards on federal highways with
words by Miss Rukeyser and per–
haps artwork by Thomas Hart
Benton-what a prospect for the
war-weary millions.
There will always he enough
bandwagons. The coming of peace
may bring a new period of social
consciousness and then Miss
Rukeyser may reappear as an Old
Bolshevik. In fact, there is no
position to which Miss Rukeyser
cannot have recourse, having been
so active at every one of them,
from
New Masses
proletarianism
to neo-Americanism. It should
be
remembered, too, that in the not·
so-distant-future the post of Li–
brarian of Congress may well he
available again. Miss Rukeyser,
who is the recipient of a large
cash-prize from the Academy of
Arts and Letters, not to speak of
other prizes, fellowships, and hon-
orable mentions, is thor:oughly
qualified to succeed Archibald
MacLeish if that gentleman should
ever choose to retire.
Any day now Miss Rukeyser
may appear with a poster, inter–
preting the 4 freedoms to the
American people. This is the part
for which she presents herself in
her
New Republic
hull.-"We can
mjake hold images, forward-look–
ing images," "campaigns of
images," "we can tie in the prob–
lems of food, of coal, of warm
underwear," "we need to surpass
ourselves," "we can only surpass
ourselves by facing our own time,
and by using our weapons."
Miss Rukeyser has not yet sur–
passed herself. But the weapons
~re
at hand. Perhaps her poster,
inscribed with "hold images," will
launch a new version of the 4 free–
doms:
FREE VERSE
FREE LOVE
FREE LUNCH
FREE-FOR-ALL.
R.
S. P.
Socialism and the Failure
of Nerve--The Controversy
Continued*
Reply to Sidney Hook
The resort of this scrupulous
democrat, humanist and enemy of
Bolshevik virulence to philistine
invective will not help him to
convince those who doubt his
views. The facts that he evades
and that are plain to any reader
of his articles in the
Partisan
Re–
view, The New Leader
and
The
Call,
are these: in 1939, both be·
fore and after the war had broken
out, he opposed the war, he at·
tacked the Popular Front as lead-
• Cf. "The Failure of the Left" by Sidney Hook
(PARTISAN REVIEW,
Marc~April, 1943) and "Socialism and the Failure of Nerve: An Exchange by DaVld
Merian and Sidney Hook (May-June, 1943).
