FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF
LIONEL TRILLING, PART II
23July
[1952]
I hear on all sides of the extent of my reputation - which some even
call "fame ." In England it seems to be very considerable, and even in
this country it is something, and in France there is some small trace
etc. At Cambridge someone gave 3 lectures on me. I contemplate
this with astonishment . It is the thing I have most wanted from child–
hood on - although of course in much greater degree - and now that
I seem to have it I have no understanding whatever of its basis - of
what it is that makes people respond to what I say, for I think of it as
of a simplicity and of a naivete almost extreme.
[October 1952]
Parents' meeting at Dalton . An incredible cultural experience . The
parents sit in the library and are told by the headmistress
&
selected
teachers how wonderful the school is - with a lilt , a gleam, a sacred
enthusiasm of dedication, never a hint of humility or possibility of
error or failure . The parents are not invited to ask questions - at the
end of the speeches the meeting is over. D. says no school could pos–
sibly be as bad as they make it seem. Next day we both wonder:
what if the
parents
should speak of themselves in the same way?
Oct 1953
Discussing the restrictions of society at the time of jane Austen , I
spoke of modern mobility and the sense of possibility. One student
objected, insisting on the limitations of society now. It seemed to me
first that he was saying that there was no possibility of social move–
ment, then that he was saying that there were only a given number
of things a man could be in our society. Later, a friend of his came to
see me ; said that the first boy "as always" overstated the case - he
would now like to state it .
It
was that in our society one had to be
something; his friends knew that if they did not undertake one of the
professions, they would be nothing but bums, so with great bitter-
Editor's Note: These selections from Lionel Trilling's notebooks were made
by
Christopher Zinno
