330
PARTISAN REVIEW
flames that must
be
brilliant gas in the hidden nocturne of my love."
For awhile I wondered just what sort of function these poems could
have for Peruvians. Finally, I concluded that they must be an auto–
matically accepted national custom.
But back to us Americans. In a volume like this one, where Amer–
ican writers are juxtaposed with those of other countries, certain charac–
teristics peculiar to them stand out. One sees, for example, that, by
comparison, they are extremely hard-headed and almost obsessively
searching. When they essay
les actes gratuites
or sheer Surrealism they're
like a bull
in
a China shop. This is both good and bad: it makes them
less fake and pretentious, but it also tends to make them duller. They
apparently have not yet emancipated their fantasy to the point where
it brings them the maximum returns. (Wallace Stevens and S.
J.
Perel–
man are two notable exceptions, not in this volume, who come to mind.)
Literature today is an intensely personal affair for the American
avantgarde writer. His old
je m'en foutisme
bit the dust with the death
of
View
and
VVV.
Now he takes himself so painfully seriously that
he needs an aggressive outlet. He finds this outlet in a displaced criticism
of his contemporaries, so that it has become almost a fad, for instance,
for the more sophisticated reviewers to disapprove of these New Direc–
tions anthologies. In going through this asylum, they realize, like the vis–
itors
in
Seymour Krim's brilliantly conceived story, "The Hospital," that
they
are the patients. And their rejection of the anthology is an indirect
attack on their own obsessions, or, to put it the other way around, a
defense against that which is crucially insecure in themselves.
Eugene Debs School Social Forum
MEYER SCHAPIRO
"What Makes Modern Art Modern"
An illustrated discussion
Friday, March II - 8:30 P.M.
ISAAC ROSENFELD and
CALDER WILLINGHAM
"Where Is American Literature Going?"
Friday, April 8 - 8:30 P.M.
Both talks at American Common
40 East 40th Street
New York City
Refreshments served: Adm. 7Sc
Anatole Broyard
Back issues of PR, now available at
reduced prices-30c each (regular
price SOc). Any four of the following
for $1.00.
JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH,
APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY,
SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER
A limited number of copies of the
August issue-The State of American
Writing, 1948: A Symposium - are
available at SOc.
