LONDON LETTER
269
and that is in his inability to sustain on the appropriate intellectual
level his critique of what he calls Snow's "Neo-Wellsianism" or his
belief in "jam." For it is probably Leavis-or at any rate that strange
double figure Leavis-Lawrence--who more than anyone else is respon–
sible for the particular version of anti-materialism that, as we have
seen, is so prevalent amongst a young and articulate section of the
British Left today. Accordingly, it would have been interesting
if
Leavis
had given us a succinct statement of just what he thinks is wrong with
the doctrine of jam-leaving it of course to others (for the problem
does not arise for him) to fit such a belief into a framework of Socialism.
Instead Leavis is evasive. It is, for instance, never quite clear whether
he means by "jam" material advance or a concern for material advance.
In other words, does Leavis think that the enemy of culture is a rising
standard of living, or does he on the other hand think that it is the
preoccupation with a rising standard of living that threatens culture?
If
he thinks the latter and not the former, with what right does he
think that the standard of living will continue to rise if people do not
continue to set great store by it?
If,
on the other hand, he thinks the
former as well as the latter, what is his historical evidence for such a
belief?
It may be said that Leavis has discussed these issues at length
elsewhere. (It may also be said that Leavis expressly disavows in this
lecture both the two views I have attributed to him; this is true, but it
is also true that he implicitly subscribes to them). The fact remains
that, by failing to give his own views the same serious heavy undivided
attention that he bestows upon the least of Snow's pretensions, he lost
the opportunity of raising a notable occasion from the level of advertise–
ment to that of argument. As it stands, the Richmond Lecture carries
with it unmistakably the flavor of a time of day so powerful, so sug–
gestive, so evocative for many an English writer: a wasted afternoon
in an old university.
Richard Wollheim
