PARTISAN REVIEW
The rest of the world is incapable of initiative, it relies on the forces
of inertia, it abandons itself to its own contradictions, and its ideas are
nothing but impotent stammerings of protest.
M . Bataille knows very well that Communism means "resolute con–
tempt for individual interests, for thinking, personal rights, and conve–
niences." But what is to
be
found on the other side? "The modern bour–
geois personality appears as the meanest incarnation that humanity has
ever assumed; but to this isolated 'personality,' to this mediocrity, Com–
munism offers a leap into death. Of course, the 'personality' refuses to
jump, but it does not, for all of that, become more appealing.... "
Bataille is by no means a Stalinist, yet he finds it useless to "close
one's eyes so as not to see in the Soviet Union of today, with its rude
and intolerant aspects, the expression not of decadence but rather, on the
contrary, of a will that nothing can daunt in its determination to resolve
the real problems of the revolution."
Such are the contradictions in the political thinking of the French
left, that the same Emmanuel Mounier, editor-in-chief of
Esprit,
after
publishing the above mentioned Stalinoid issue, in the January number
of his magazine reacts violently to the recent attack by
A.
Zhdanov-
WRITERS·CONFERENCE
Leaders:
Allen Tate
George Davis
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
June 21 - July 2
Katherine Anne Porter
Caroline Gordon
Erskine Caldwell
John Frederick Nims
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Robert W. Stallman
Louise Bonino (Juvenile}
RAY B. WEST, JR., Director
Workshops, Round-table Discussions, Lectures, Private Consultations with
Leaders.
Fees: $25.00 for the full two weeks. Board and room will be available
on the campus at reasonable rlltes. Fees include manuscript reading in
limited amount.
Fo-r further information write:
THE WRITERS CONFERENCE, University Extension, University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kansas.
612
