Correspondence
Art, Neurosis and Socie.ty
Sirs:
I should like to rescue a point from
Lionel Trilling's "Note on Art and
Neurosis" in the last PARTISAN REVIEW
that I believe to be important. To
state his position briefly: " . . . the
neurotic elements of the scientist, baRk–
er, lawyer or surgeon are of the same
frequency and the same kind as the
writer's"; the fiction of the artist as
uniquely neurotic is a philistine con–
ception peculiar to the nineteenth cen–
tury.
( 1) Trilling seems to fall into the
historical fallacy which holds that ex–
plaining an attitude is the same as ex–
plaining
i~
away. Supposing him cor–
rect in his assumption that the bour–
geoisie, aided by the artist's revelation
of his innermost processes, propagated
the notion of the latter's neuroticism,
we have still to consider other neglected
factors, notably what the neuroticism
essentially was.
·
(2) Even in his historical explana–
tion, Trilling overlooks a central fac–
tor: "The eighteenth century did not
find the poet to be less whole than
other men and certainly the Renaissance
did not." Trilling here posits a static ab–
straction labeled "Poet" who was mere–
ly reacted to, and never reacted in
turn, altering his outlook and person–
ality. But
it
was precisely the artist's
alienation from society, abetted by
events peculiar to the nineteenth cen–
tury, which fostered the neurosis, con–
tinuing into our day. While the scien–
tist, banker, lawyer, and surgeon were
also affected, they found a place in
society which the artist did not.
(3} Finally, it is noteworthy that
Trilling has chosen Thomas Mann, than
whom, no one in our time has better
shown the inner workings of the artist's
neurosis, to uphold his own contrary
view: "That the artist's neurosis can
be but a mask is suggested by Thomas
Mann's pleasure in representing his un–
tried youth as 'sick' but his successful
maturity as militarily robust and effi–
cient." This about the author who has
found for himself the formula, "Chron–
ist und ErHiuterer der Decadence, Lieb–
haber des Pathologischen und des
Todes, ein
A~thet
mit der Tendenz zum
Abgrund," the creator of Cast.orp, To–
nio Kroger, and Gustave von Aschen–
bach!
WILLIAM ELTON
Ohio State University
Paris Weekend
Sirs:
I thought you might like to hear
about a weekend in Paris 1945. Last
Saturday I was trying to get into a
show of Oscar Dominguez's latest
paintings when I came across a little
man who informed me that the place
was locked. There wasn't enough light.
In certain sections of the city the elec–
tricity is turned off until 5 p.m. The
little man asked me if I was a painter.
I said no but I knew what I liked. He
suggested that I step across the street
to see the Soutine retrospective exhibi–
tion. This had been my plan anyway.
He accompanied me there and we
found it. too was closed, for the same
reason. So we went to another gallery
where he was supposed to be in half an
hour or so, being an art and book
critic on
Gavroche,
a weekly which has
been going for some time since the
occupation. On the way we introduced
ourselves as men of letters. He was
interested to hear that I had translated
some Gide, and he interrogated me in–
tensely on American literature today . . .
who are the best novelists, who are the
greatest influences, etc.
He was especially eager to know how
the surrealists are taken at home, and
I told him I had heard Andre Breton's
lecture on surrealism at Yale in 1943.
This was not true : I missed the lec–
ture; but I didn't want to disappoint "
my interrogator. I did know, however,
that some of Breton's listeners, notably
