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LEWIS COSER
lightly on the habits of the
qiviut,
when another, taking on the
whole of life and letters, simply gives off a chill. When we find
warm poets, and only then, we ought to be lavish or even gross in
our praises.
If you
.'
fear that you are
reading an advertisement,
you are. If we can't be cordial
to these creatures' fleece,
I think that we deserve to freeze.
THE USES OF SOCIOLOGY
Frank Kermode
THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION. By C. Wright Mills. Ox–
ford University Press.
$b.OO.
Sociologists have recently been among the favorite
whippingboys of literary men. This animus may be related to the
fact that the domain of cultural criticism and social commentary
which has been the almost exclusive preserve of the literary critic
and, less frequently, the humanistically-trained historian, has of
late been invaded by sociologists. Threatened with the loss of what
once were claims to exclusive possession, literary men have tended
to react with some violence against the intruders. Moreover, in–
truders, like Toynbee's external proletariat, tend to be uncouth. So–
ciologists, apart from a few rare exceptions, are given to a barbar–
ous disregard for the language, an almost willful disrespect for style
and elegance of presentation. Literary men have therefore found it
an enjoyable sport to make fun of these invading savages, much as
the British upper classes make merry over the non-U manners of
the
nouveaux riches.
The newcomers, moreover, did not invade the old settled areas
unarmed. They arrived loaded with all sorts of paraphernalia the
