as
a novelist, to show forth that wick–
edness, were it not that there are con–
ventions of behavior that show sym–
pathy and conventions of behavior that
show indifference, cruelty, selfishness,
and contempt. The novelist must con–
cern himself with those conventions,
those manners, both good and
ill.
Mr. Schwartz is capable of very fine
discriminations, and, when he commits
such lapses of logic and insight, it is
hard not to wonder. Is it that, in his
zeal for democratic liberalism and the
classless ideal, he is impatient with
literary concerns themselves, as well
as
with ideas about society that lack
political utility against, say, McCarthy,
against the immediate threats to our
freedoms, our traditions, and our
amenities? Do the coy, flippant, and
precious turns of the style show per–
haps a lack of faith in his own voca–
tion? I do not know. I hope not.
It is true that, in his zeal against
snobbery, he misrepresents facts, blurs
distinctions, and, no less important, sur–
renders, for irrational contempt, the
graceful courtesy of most of his criti–
cism.
It
is a bad time for critics to distrust
their profession, or to wish to govern
literature by political standards. That
distrust, that wish to govern, possesses
the investigators who are even now go–
ing to work.
Paul Ramsey, Jr.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Sms:
Most of what Mr. Ramsey has to say
consists of demonstrable inaccuracies
or distressing misinterpretations of what
I had to say, of what Mr. Aldridge
wrote, and of what Proust's intentions
were in the passage I cited. Mr. Ram–
sey has not read very carefully what
Proust says, in my long quotation, nor
what I say in comment. To be as brief
as possible, and to insert italics, Proust
says: "Placed for the first time in her
life between two duties as incompatible
as getting into her carriage and show–
ing pity for a man who was about to
die,
she
[the Duchesse de Guermantes]
,ould find nothing
in
the code of con–
"ntions that indicated the right line
paintings by
Nanno
365
de Groot
April 20 - May 16
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