COMMENT
13
The international crisis affects the life of the individual in a
hundred thousand ways, whether through housing shortages, inflation,
or uncertainty and fear of the future. And this was true even before
many people understood Russia's foreign policy (it is not wholly clear
that anyone really understands it, not even the Politburo), for the
crowds in Times Square on V-J day looked lost, instead of jubilant;
they looked as if they were not sure what emotion would be appro–
priate to victory, or certain that they were victorious. In the same way
it was natural and naive to suppose that the defeat of Hitler would
end or reduce the infamy of racial discrimination, instead of intensify–
ing it and bringing a greater consciousness and self-consciousness of
it, so that, for example, New York Jews are accused by Jews elsewhere
of being the cause of anti-Semitism. And the phenomenon of racial
discrimination has itself become a leading theme of novels and films.
" THE COLD MEDUSA -FACE OF
LlFE"2
It is a truism that the great problems of an age are reflected
in works of literature, and that the authors of fiction may be
inspired by a desire to cope with them or to identify their personal
problems with the immediate problems of society. What is less likely
and what requires explanation is a profound modification in the ways
of attempting to deal with contemporary problems through the me–
dium of creative works. The unhappy ending can serve as a symbol
of the radical change which has occurred since William Dean Howells
remarked upon the kind of tragedy which Americans wanted. Eugene
O'Neill's plays were full of unhappiness and they were successful, but
a fair proportion of the audience felt that there was something strange
in enjoying the spectacle of agony, and one representative comment
about any such play was: "Life is awful enough; when I go to the
theater I want to forget about all that is awful, I don't want to be
reminded of it." No one now makes such remarks about Arthur
2. This phrase of Henry James, and its significant context, is quoted in F. W.
Dupee's forthcoming book on James, and there the context can be examined in
detail. James as an a uthor is an important witness of the thesis of this essay.
He was the first victim of mass-culture for he tried harder and harder to be–
come popular and the harder he tried, the more unpopular, and the better, he
became; and some thirty years after his d eath he has become the most popular
and the most famous of classic American authors, as the dramatization of
The
Ambassadors
on television demonstrates.
