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PARTISAN REVIEW
the dilemma by a dismal impersonation, a fading into the furniture
of the It.
Tom Rath's dream
is
the sexual dream of the commuter, the
longing for a Pepper Young rotation which can only come about
through the agency of war or amnesia. The inhibition of the sexual
longing of the commuter occurs far below the level of sin. It is not
the scruple of sin which deters the commuter from sexual rotation
but the implicit threat to his self-system of defenses against anxiety.
What if he is turned down? What if he is premature in his perfor–
mance? (What if Destry misses?) In Harry Stack Sullivan's words,
the mark of success in the culture is how much one can do to another's
genitals without risking one's self-esteem unduly. But when the Bomb
falls, the risk is at a minimum. When the vines sprout in Madison
Avenue and Radio City lies greening like an Incan temple in the
jungle, and when Maria develops amnesia, there is hardly any
risk
at all.
OF ISAAC ROSENFELD
I never knew him. We hailed, here or there,
and friendly words about each other's bad
&
halfway works we mouthed, and clowned. I had
briefings on him, years, over the waters. Fair
showed yet his promise; he enjoyed despair,
did wrong, set living people roaring or sad,
loved was, empty months mastered, sore made
&
glad
a wife, and liked children-from across, not down;
and so they loved him back. Only they said
'He ought to be a father, not a child'-
his own child too said so. I have to glare
into a room where, half-through, he crampt dead,
where all his lovers, seeking his cry, drown,
and solo I reel in a word dispelled.
John Berryman
