430
PARTISAN REVIEW
R ide
like an attempt to crea te drama tic form for
percepti on ~
too
profound for experi ence. Another way of say ing thi s is tha t h e has no t
quite learned the difference between experi enti al text and ex istenti a l
subtext, or between matu re art and something simi lar tha t cou ld be
call ed the shaping of heightened consciousness. There is a difference,
or else we would have to weaken our idea of a rt unti l it included proofs
of geometric th eorems. For all of its strange penetrati on Handke's work
still lacks something of the mys tery of experi ence. But thi s is the kin d
of criti cism we reserve for works of di stin cti o n.
Ira Hauptman
