162
PARTISAN REVIEW
At the college, the faculty had been divided in its opinion of
Stanley. Some felt the fascination he held for many of the
girls
was
as important as learning, perhaps even indistinguishable from it.
Others thought he failed to present a specific subject and that unless
students were to be indentured to him for life they could not carry
any body of knowledge away with them. One of Stanley's most
successful lectures brought everything to a head. The subject was a
recent essay on "Literature Considered as a Bullfight," and as
Stanley elaborated on its implications he drew the most intriguing
parallels between the absurdities and the realities of life and litera–
ture. The lecture actually went on for a week, for Stanley continued
to develop the theme as each student filed in and out of his office
for her regular conference with him. For days
his
thirty girls walked
about the campus, in their student-uniforms of sweatshirts and blue
jeans cut off at the knee and patched in the seat, vying with each
other in finding new examples of the idea of the artist as a toreador,
in the terminology they had picked up from Stanley. Unfortunately,
they could not relate the daring insights inspired by Stanley to
their work with other teachers, and the rumor spread, finally
reaching the administration, that Stanley was confusing his students.
Stanley was called in for several conferences with the Dean,
who tactfully suggested he integrate his course with the work of
the college, and some of his colleagues tried to be helpful by pro–
posing that they correlate their assignments. But Stanley felt that
integration was the collectivization of the platitude, and he became
homesick for the chance meetings and spontaneous conversations
that permitted him to pursue an idea as far as his imagination would
take him. When he said he would like to leave at the end of the
winter session, the administration did not try to dissuade
him.
Back home, Stanley picked up the threads of his life as though
he had never been away. His next wife had a strong character.
She was intent on keeping Stanley as he was and at the same time
changing him so he could be like everybody else. Her name was
Wilhelmina Saxon, but she had always been called Billie, and as soon
as she was of age she made the change legal. Billie came from a
small town in the Midwest, which left its mark in her open, sturdy
speech and her distaste for the quick and unstable life of the big
