IN THE FIX
1M
it scarcely counts, be it favorable or unfavorable. What does aes–
thetic judgment matter? What is really of import is surely not one's
judgment of dramatic merits or demerits. What matters is what
matters most; life itself, how you and I live it, with what
aim,
what
resolve, what enjoyment. What but prudence would keep us from
getting on the stage ourselves if Cowboy did indeed offer to min–
ister to us too? There is the thing forbidden ; but what is so bad
about it? No effort has been made to make it seem alluring; the
whole business of waiting for it, getting it, taking it and getting that
all-meaningful "flash" from it has been shown in as
grim
a way as
the most conventional moralist could wish. No, there is nothing
wonderful about taking heroin, not according to what I saw in
The
Connection.
The disturbing thing, though, is the insinuation of the
question: what else is wonderful?
For how many people, I wonder, is anything wonderful?
If
there are as many in that fix as I think, and if the play's effect is
as salutary as I assume it to be, people everywhere should be urged
to
see it. I promise faithfully that whenever I see anyone in a state
of moral disarray, spiritual collapse, worry about his goals, I shall
send
him
to see
The Connection.
A play, of course, cannot pro–
vide one with a new spiritual state, but only sustain whatever spiri–
tual state you have brought with you into the theater. Anyone who
finds his life boring will find
The Connection
less so. But this is not
ior people who know what to do with their time.
There are what have been called: "high" experiences. These
are limited in number, we can count them: love, friendship, heroic
adventure, martyrdom (this is ambiguous, it is probably the lowest
- -not meaning by "lowest" basest- as well as the highest of ex–
periences) , the act of creation. Not much haS been left out of this
list, but it will be noted that for very few people are many of these
so-called "high" experiences possible, particularly today, and they
are becoming increasingly less so. In fact, the widespread yearning
for artistic creation on the part of so many people not gifted in that
special way, reflects something negative, not something positive.
Namely, the absence of "high" experiences of another sort. But to
come back to
The Connection,
is getting "high" a high experience?
