430
time. Somebody
is
always leaving
in a huff or being pushed out. Oc–
casionally there is a splash-up
crisis. Other activities are suspend–
ed or at least ruined and the com–
munity devotes itself to weeks of
uninterrupted feuding.
The atmosphere of such a col–
lege makes the students grow up
in some ways, for they are drawn
at once into educational contro–
versy, but those who want an
education suffer. At the best of
times the Black Mountain faculty
is small, and many fields of study
are not represented on it. Inade–
quate pay (your keep plus $5 to
$25 per month per person) and
constant trouble cause such a rapid
turnover of teachers that a student
is never sure how long he can
study any subject. History breaks
off at 1669, as the ex-professor
runs for the train. A major in
French has to finish up at Middle–
bury when the only French teach–
er is hurriedly removed. So it goes.
A course here and a course there
are brilliant, but nothing can be
planned ahead of time. In fact
some of the Primitivists say that
poverty and an atmosphere of
crisis are the making of the place.
They are certainly of its essence. In
eleven years less than thirty stu–
dents have graduated.
How shall one sum up such an
undertaking? Up to now the
shrewdest judge, though PR read–
ers may be surprised, is Bernard
De Voto, who in reply to Adarnic
wrote in
Harpers:
"It sounds like
Charles Fourier to me.... Mr.
Adamic expects Black Mountain
to multiply; but its predecessors
PARTISAN REVIEW
multiplied by fission, by division,
and that is the history of experi–
mental societies and colleges in
America. Black Mountain itself
carne about by secession ..." The
latest I hear is that Black Moun–
tain College has only about forty
students and that a group of ex–
Black Mountaineers in New York
is thinking of making another try
of it elsewhere.
I sincerely wish them luck. But
they should ponder the question
whether the defects of Black
Mountain and other. experimental
colleges are all accidental and
avoidable or inherent and inevit–
able. Black Mountain has had
many accidental failings. But I do
not think the conflict of personal–
ities, for example, can be number–
ed among them. One need not at–
tack particular persons. The root
error of all builders of special rural
communities for the improvement
of mankind is the same: they over–
estimate the extent to which we
can in these ways escape and sur–
pass our world. The economic
problem, for instance, is not evaded
at Black Mountain. Policy is still
economically determined, only by
the money-getters, not by the
money-givers. An educational sys–
tem is part of a social system. As
a determinant it is weak; it is it–
self largely determined. The writ–
ers who are now located m the
''regular" colleges and who may
have wondered if they should not
join the educational
avant-garde
of the experimental college can,
in my opinion, stay where they are
with a good conscience.
ERIC
RussELL BENTLEY
