126
8. H. HA661N
I might add further that it
is
Newman's habitual practice in
argument to deal with the peIVersion of what he
is
arguing about
instead of the thing itself, and to deal with it not as a peIVersion of
the thing but as its normal form. Thus he argues against the peIVersion
of the critic's operation that he refers to contemptuously at various
times as the critic's performing a fantasia on his own reactions to a
work, his writing about himself a propos of a work, his reporting the
reactions of his soul to masterpieces--against this not as a peIVersion
of the operation but as though this peIVersion were the normal opera–
tion of the critic reporting the life he perceives in a work. And New–
man's contention that this writing tells the reader nothing about the
work, but only things about the critic that are of no interest to anyone
else, is true only of the perversion he is attacking, not of the real
critical operation, which does tell the reader things about the work.
That operation may also tell him things about the critic; but these too
are of interest when the critic is a Shaw, and of no interest only when
he is a Newman.
Another big subject on which Newman writes repeatedly, and
with pretension greater than achievement, is form. He is concerned
-
~eL50N
4
LG
reN,
'/1'(\0
created
THE
",#i
WITH
THE
GotPeN
ARM
a~~ foo~
Us
DY\
a
WALK
oN
THE.
W,LD
S,DE
now
shl
teS
I
With
ihe
out7
ide
Iv°rld
hfi
avn "
nn er
Qti1e
of ten·trite
4)-fvr,~
They tell of man's aloneness. They
range from a tale of a lonely sixteen–
year-old delivery boy initiated into
lonely sex on Beekman Place, to Saul
Bellow's epic "Address by Gooley
MacDowell to the Hasbeens Club of
Chicago". This superb collection fea–
tures the talents of Joseph Heller,
George P. Elliott, Bruce Jay Fried–
man plus twelve more of the most
creative contemporary writers. With
a bold, brilliant and triumphantly
human introduction by the Editor.
Ne~oN ~GreNS
ONNBOO~
OF
LPNe50Me
M~ter5
$4.95, now at your bookstore
BERNARD GElS ASSOCIATFS
Distributed by RANDOM HOUSB
