114
PARTISAN REVIEW
Cha:se's recent book,
The Democratic Vista.!
I think Chase is wrong
in many respects, but it is better to make mistakes than to be silent:
and it must be said that in a time ruled by caution, Chase's bold ap–
proach to the subject is most admirable. The meaning of the book,
therefore, lies not so much in its specific arguments as
in
its general
stand, which reaffirms the need to keep alive what Chase calls the tra–
dition of "cultural radicalism and humane avant-garde," and to resist
the blaruiishments of the "middle way" that presents itself to us under
so many different names, but always with an irresistable appeal to
reality and democracy.
Chase's argument is put in the form of a dialogue in which the
leading personae, each representing a typical cultural position, spout
their views on everything from art to sex. A few supporting characters,
most of them women, contribute flavor and transition. The hero is Ralph,
obviously the author's mouthpiece, a sophisticated professor who speaks
up for the radical tradition in American literature, which is by nature
antithetic to "the formless middle way of feeling and thought." Ralph
sums up his views
in
this way: "In order to keep up a steady ;dissent
from the conformism and middlebrowism of the time, I have shown
how little these are justified by the best traditions of American culture
and literature." Ralph's foil, his Sancho Panza, is George, who imper–
sonates the spirit of modulation and adaptation, and, in reaction against
the intellectual wildness of the 'twenties and 'thirties, now has his mind
safely tucked away in the
Realpolitik and Realkultur
of the times.
"My generation learned," says George, "To distrust ideas such as those
to which Ralph clings. ... We became realists.... We found a justi–
fication for this cynicism (if that is what it was)
in
our discovery of
the ordinary life. . . . Weare wise in the ways of sex, of family life,
of community activity." George will go far.
Ralph is the high-minded rebel, defending true culture against its
enemies, but he remains a sweet arid reasonable figure, an educator, who
scolds and enlightens George as though they were in a permanent rela–
tion of teacher to student. Perhaps, in the absence of a true literary avant–
garde, this is the fate of the rebel; even a radical criticism today tends
to become academic, to base itself on intelligence rather than on new
movements and to search for ancestral themes to justify its existence.
Thus Chase-through the voice of Ralph-instead of taking our cul–
tural predicament as part of the problems of modem culture in general,
tries to relate it to the unique strains of American literature. This has
certain unfortunate effects. For example, it confuses the issue to link,
3. Doubleday, $3.95.
