that of Keats." The younger writ–
ers and poets he has had no chance
of reading in austerity-England,
where foreign books are almost last
on the import priority list. Our
chief disservice to the arts has been
that "America started the idea that
it is wrong to do no work and
abolished leisure and the leisure
class, or at least their sense of
ease," arousing guilt feelings in ar–
tists not working in the conven–
tionally accepted sense and driving
potential patrons of the individual
toward institutionalized and, there–
fore, disastrous forms of patronage.
He does not put much credence,
however, in the common complaint
that talent is being ground down
in the mill of American commer–
cial journalism-"at least the re–
wards in this country are large
enough to allow for periods of leis–
ure and if you have enough talent
you write yourself out of journalism
anyhow." The future of the arts in
a
non-conformist christmas gift:
a
membership in
CINEMA 16
experimental - documentary
scientific films
$10 a year
$6.50 half-season
admission by membership only
DEPT. D, CINEMA 16
59 Park Ave., NYC, (MU. 9-7288}
1368
America seems hopeful to him be–
cause, as against Europe, this is a
country secure economically and
politically, with a fantastic degree
of vitality, an appreciable and
growing public for good work and
"much blood that has not been
tapped for the arts-the great
thing if you're to be an artist."
"Poor Aldous," he finished up on
this tack, "with all those Huxleys
behind and around him."
To him the most surprising as–
pect of his career has been that he
has continually been accused of
"spitting on the public" while to
hi~
own mind he has done nothing
but eritomize the typically English
attitude of poking fun at the worst
aspects of the structure on which
English culture and security rest.
His latest work is a long poem en–
titled
Demos the Emperor,
not yet
published, in which he shows him–
self to be by no means discouraged
in his gadfly activities. It is a beau–
tifully phrased and trenchant at–
tack on contemporary standards as
he sees them. Whatever one's per–
sonal assessment of his judgments
may be, it is impossible not to ad–
mire a man who, both
in
his work
and in his personal life, has fought
so hard and with such pleasing re–
sults for standards above the com–
mon.
Anthony Bower
