362
PARTISAN REVIEW
High Art, but it seems
to
me that these are some of the questions that
criticism really ought to be called upon to deal with. It's simply not
enough
to
establish standards, to rule out
Roots
and other things like
that from the category of art, or High Art. Even if artists do not have
as their basic impulse
to
communicate, but simply like what they're
doing, it seems
to
me it's still incumbent upon criticism
to
consider
what kind of communication is actually taking place when a
hundred million or a hundred-fifty million are ort·of vibrating in
tune
to
a particular person's fantasies or researches or whatever they
are.
PHILLIPS: There's one thmg I'd like to question that both Michael
Wood and Morris Dickstein seem to agree on and that is that when
we look at television programs, we look at them technically. We try
to analyze the technique.
I
wonder how many of you feel the way
I
do, when
I
look at
Kojak,
and
Gunsmoke
and
Columbo;
it never
occurs
to
me to analyze the technique. Not on ly doe it not occur to
me but
I
wouldn't even know how to. The technique involves certain
high skills that these television studios in Hollywood have at their
command.
DICKSTEIN: Besides, the techniques of commercials are more interest–
mg.
PHI
1.1.1
PS: That's right, as a matter of fact
I
find that
I
mean not to look
at the commercials, but often do look at the commercials and don 't
look at the program.
KRAUSS: One thing that amazes me is that Mr. Dickstein cou ld say that
the audience for
Roots
was the same as the audience for
Gone With
The Wind,
or
Birth of A Nation.
I
mean, how can you assume that
that audience, an audience that was raised on television cou ld
possibly be the same-an audience that has really been put to sleep
by television cou ld possibly be the same as the other two audiences
you mentioned?
DICKSTEIN: Well, it's the ame audience though , the same hundred
million that just watched
Gone With The Wind.
KRAUSS: I'm talking about the original audience for
Gone With The
Wind.
MICHAEL Wooo: William, can
I
just say one thing about television.
I
mean,
I
wasn't suggesting that we all sit looking at technical things
on television.
I
was merely suggesting that in fact the ways in which
we normally do watch television are not omething we have a
sensible critical vocabu lary for. We have a reasonable vocabulary for
technical stuff, and we have a reasonable vocabulary for sort of
sociology, myth and whatever; but the actual business of whatever
