374
PARTISAN REVIEW
character and it has in it an extraordinary voice, articulate and
pungent, whining and sharp. A man or woman can choose any
frame of belief he or she wants to now butJohnno warmly, implicitly
rejects that as isolation and argues over and over that life has to be
communal- and esthetic - and
friendly .
An esthetic basis for a
politics. An authentic basis, too. He is quite wonderful. That means
I think his work is terrific.
But I can't embrace it.
For one thing, his sense of things concerns another history of
God from the one I know. His sense of God has in it a sense of a
voice among pagans, bringing light, a sense of multiple presences,
then a sense of grieving outrage at the heart of the story, at the heart
of his poetry- the lamentable image, the truth, for him, the crucifix–
ion. Mine has at its center a sense of contract and of proof- I am
closer to Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence than I am to Irish visionarydom.
And I am four or five inches taller and twenty-five pounds
larger.
Johnno's sense of me as foreign in various ways and as an op–
pressor and enemy, as causing him to be violent and quick, I could
see that then and I see it now.
But that I existed too was beyond him and almost beyond me–
except as a kind of obstinacy of style: a sort of slow-motion tantrum.
I said, "But I
do
love you, Johnno." The tones of my voice shape
the meaning
rrry
way but not just malely but with some esthetic
authority as well.
He said, "I'm too much for you."
In those days I never boasted except to Johnno. I said, "How
many people do you think say that to me in the course of a month?"
Meaning how many people made approaches and then threats
of that sort or worse.
His head jerked: it jolted him, the idea and then
the facts
of my
physical existence.
"You love me! You know that you love me! Why do you look at
me the way you do! That's hunger. Why do you talk to me?"
"Because I want to.
If
I say something to you about Valery,
you'll
talk-
you're almost the only one. Everyone else just sits tight,
on their secrets, and doles out a little bit of useful talk now and
then-"
He said, scornfully, "Casanova-" Then: "I'm irresistible."
I said, "That's how it happens, with me anyway. I'd really like
to have it explained to me." Then, giving up: "Tell me, do you think
Valery
really
was a great mind?"
