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ELIZABETH HARDWICK
she got to her questions. The less pretentious public opinion polls, con–
centrating on current issues, are the most valid use of the method-and
we all know how little use they are.
By all of this I mean to say I was disappointed that the new
Riesman did not, except in a few essays, particularly the one by Norman
Birnbaum, appear in
Culture and Social Character,
and the appearance
he does make in this book devoted to him is already somewhat out of
date. His entrance into the political debate will make an enormous dif–
ference in his whole point of view. For the sociology he practiced
in
the past, the moment was everything, eternity nothing. But the news
of the day changes the attitudes these scholars are measuring faster than
projects and books and scholarly papers can keep up with them.
A word about the style of the sociologist, even though one hesitates
to remark again on what has been so much spoken about-the barbarous
language, the incoherence and ugliness of most of this writing. It took
an enormous amount of will power on my part to read through this
collection of essays. I suppose I shall be called one of those with a
"grudge against sociology." And why not have a grudge? I have come to
the belief that there is not merely an accidental relationship between
bad writing and routine sociological research, but a wonderfully pure
integral relationship; the badness is necessary and inevitable. The in–
sights of these people will necessarily be "insightful," and speculation
about "affection" will soon have you reading of "high warmth factors,"
and "indentification with the warmth indulger."
It
is the extreme
fragility of the insights that leads to the debasement of language; the
need to turn merely interesting and temporary observations into general
theory and large application seems the source of the trouble with these
incredible compositions. By seeking a false significance, a tone of pro–
fessionalism, perhaps it is natural that the "affectionate person" will
have to be called the "warmth indulger."
To return once more to Riesman, the rightness or even the per–
manence of his opinions cannot be decided now with so many remote
conditions to be considered. However, it is always interesting to watch
a man changing his mind, especially when the man has, like Riesman,
had a huge success with his previous views. (Eric Fromm's new book
May Man Prevail
is another instance of astonishing revision.) How can
one describe such leaps into the discomforts of a critical position? Regret
and courage seem to play equal parts-and from this dialogue the most
unusual possibilities suggest themselves.
Elizabeth Hardwick
