Richard Chase
RADICALISM TODAY
ADialogue
-Hello, Silverman. I was expecting you. Come in. Take
a chair.
-Shall I close the door? The corridor is rather noisy.
-Yes, please do.
-Professor Chase, your discussion in class of
The Wings of the
Dove
was most enlightening. But one thing is not clear to me. What
is the moral core of the book? R . P. Blackmur says.. .
-The Wings of the Dove
is not an apple, Silverman. There is
no moral core to speak of. James's novel is a poem, an elegy. After
we have read it, we feel sorry for the heroine and perhaps for all
humanity. We want people to be kind to each other. We do not like
personal betrayals of the kind perpetrated by Densher and Kate
Croy. As for the general vision of life in
The Wings of the Dove,
it is
a beautiful, an astonishing fantasy.
-If
I may say so, sir, some of us think that your attitude these
days is very sardonic. Have you abandoned the moral level of liter–
ature? Where is youth to find leadership in these troubled times?–
That's ironical, of course. But sincere too. Do you understand?
-Perfectly.
-Well, the fact is, Professor Chase, we think you have become
a radical in your old-er, middle age-no offense. Would you explain
what it means to be a radical today?
-That is a difficult but a sincere and meaningful question,
Silverman. I'll be glad to answer it. As you know, that is my profes–
sional duty, and in this case, my pleasure. I don't want to sound un–
necessarily ironic but the first thought that occurs to me is that
radicalism today is something students ask their elders about. But to
