ISAAC ROSENFELD
27
through the a tmosphere, by the excitati on of the orgone through solar
energy. But the form in whi ch this news comes - " Stop the press. Li ght
doesn 't come from the sun! " -is undeni a bl y fun.
Or must I suppose that to the degree I find such things funn y, to
that degree I am still res isting and looking for a way out?
A vi sit to
Commentary
to ha nd in the articl e on Gandhi. T hey' ve
had a piece of mine, o n Jewish Orthodoxy, waiting two years to ge t
published. Oh, well! I've been paid. But the sad thing is how their
opinions have chan ged- at Gl azer's and Irving Kri sto l'so At one time,
had it been publi shed when I first ha nded it in, said Na t, he would have
agreed with me-that Orthodoxy an ywhere is bad & that tha t intell ec–
tual ought to be heterodox, always with the ava nt garde- & Irvin g
smiled sadIy & shook his head. It's hard to believe that they, youn g
men, should have gone Orthodox! But their mi ser y apparentl y is
increas in g. Na t smil es less, he is heavier, more perpl exed & anxi o us
looking; Irv smil es more-but a fi shy smil e, a staring smil e. And Bo b
Warshow looks dangerously ill-his vo ice is more pinched off than
ever & he is cross & irrita bl e. Even Dick, the offi ce boy, has grown
cl umsy & fat. And they all agreed, of course, in attac king Reich &
calling psychoa nalys is nonsense.
It
was income tax day. Irving practicall y had to be forced to itemi ze
his deducti ons & save the 15 doll ars (he said pro babl y more) in
additi onal taxes he was prepared to pay, above the 300 doll ars or so he
had already withdrawn fr om hi s sa lary. And he argued with me th at a
writer should write and not bo ther with psychology !
Al as, alas. Youth is fl eetin g. The young men locked in o ffi ces,
locked in stale marri ages & grow ing qui etl y, des pera tely ill.
A ca tatoni c seizure in therapy. As res ult of the brea thin g &
muscul ar mani pula ti on, so much energy brea ks thro ugh, &I ta ke such
strong defensive measures aga inst it, that my arms do ubl e up & li e
twisted over my ches t, m y fin gers in the spasti c positi on; my li ps are
drawn in & tinglin g, my eyes twitching-& everything hurts, the
muscl es of my legs, bell y & bac k & face. I am sure I have the express ion
of a corpse. T hi s frequentl y occurs, says Singer,'" in peopl e of low
charge- & he advi ses me to get an accumul a tor. I am more than ever
· Dr. Ri chard
J.
Singer , whom Rosenfeld and hi s wife began
to
see
earl y in
1949.
