LIONEL TRILLING
507
bly repelling-life depended on solving the abstract problems pre–
sented to me- I wid wake with a hideous sense of desolation and loss
-absolutely hopeless- dominant in my thoughts the desire for chil–
dren- one night near the end of this period a great sense of being on
the point of
connection-
the connection between 2 things never before
connected, which if reconciled would be of incalculable good- it all
depended on my mental effort- but I could not do it- desolate- at
the same time (end) a great sense that by not doing criticism, not
using my "mind" I was losing all force and poetry whatever- giving
myself only to the novel was making me go all soft and nothing- at
the same time the novel was beginning to open up, but almost to
seem too easy- this association of events came suddenly of itself
&
is
almost too pat!- that old dodge: too pat!- facing sexual scenes of
novel- sexual fantasy in connection with them.
(1946)
Kenyon Conference- Laski
17
and his charm attack on the little Rice
boy-"Do you know what his name is? His name is Oogly-Moogly.
Oogly-Moogly . And do you know what he did last night?" etc.
(climbed the moon). -But the boy responded to it, loved it. He was
a thing to be conquered . -Laski's aptitude to have a story for every
discussion- what Henry James said- beaten by Laughlin at tennis
-what UncleJoe said-(what UncleJoe said was that he was a flex–
ible man but that Molotov was not and that Beria could work won–
ders by deferring to Molotov a little-he knew that Britain
&
U.S.
were without imperialist designs but he could never hope to convince
his Politbureau
[sic]
so long as our emissaries were acting as they
did.) His views on Russia were those of the man in the street with
PM
18
-it was astonishing-no cliche was too much for him-he had
deceived himself for so long that now he believed himself thor–
oughly- his Oxford Union manner on the platform- impossible to
suppose that such a man had anything to do with a nation's course .
-Yet he could charm- because he wished- because he had been
connected with events.
(1946)
At Kenyon: Frost's strange speech- apparently of a kind that he of–
ten gives- he makes himself the buffoon- goes into a trance of aged
childishness- he is the child who is rebelling against all the serious
I 7
Harold Laski.
18
A New York newspaper which began publication in 1940.
