THE NOVEL AGAIN
193
tween these two mythical diagrams of the human future- auto–
nomous character on the one hand, and resurrection into infantile
sexuality on the other- the mind of the age oscillates in bleak and
sickened discontent.
I have been implying that recent developments in the novel–
the movement toward poetic form, the inability to deal with society,
the poverty of ideas--are deeply connected with a general weakening
of the critical function in recent years. And although both conditions
have extensive histories, both have been exacerbated by the larger
circumstance in which all our cultural transactions now take place.
I refer, of course, to the Cold War, conceiving it not as a catch-word
of journalism but as the new phase of Western culture.
Sooner or later, I suppose, the Cold War is going to be charged
with everything, but I trust she
will
not mind if at this point I attach
my small share of blame along with that of others. A Cold War
is
the continued pursuit of war by other means. Critical thinking,
straitened, arduous, and problematical under the best of conditions,
becomes under conditions of war, and especially under the autarchy
of modern war, that much more so. When a society finds itself in a
state of siege, when it discovers itself really threatened for the first
time from the outside, it necessarily organizes itself to engage the
forces that oppose it. Its intellectual and critical energies are mar–
shalled as a matter of course, to the inevitable detriment of the
central tradition of criticism. It is a rare society indeed which will in
such circumstances continue to support a current of thinking whose
historic purpose has been to point out the flaws, inadequacies, and
contradictions of that society-and particularly if such criticism ap–
pears to coincide with the enemy's accusations. I am not alluding to
specific episodes or manifestations but have in mind those massive and
insidious pressures, conscious and unconscious, within any society so
beset to turn its energies of mind and passion away from examining
itself. Even those who argue the necessity of this process should
remain aware that certain necessities can prove fatal. That this kind
of necessity is fatal to culture is almost certain, culture and art
having regularly been the first luxuries to go under conditions of
protracted tension and war; that it tends to make the complex,
critical attitude of mind seem indecisive, irrelevant, and even traitor–
ous is equally undeniable; and that it may be causing grave damage
