534
PAR.TISAN R.EVIEW
dumbocracy in America is presently at its height. We must support and
facilitate the entry of minority groups into the mainstream, but not by
tolerating lies and debased standards. It is neither racist nor sexist to be–
li eve that some people are more beautiful than others, some more intel–
ligent, some braver, and some more talented. It is only racist and sexist if
we believe these qualities exist
beca llse
of (rather than
regardless
o~
race,
sex, class, or religion. Both the politically correct and their reactionary
opponents share that position, the one by denying the past, the other by
denying the future. Chekhov once wrote: "Great writers and thinkers
must occupy themselves with politics only to put up a defense against
politics." Lest the mindless form of politics called political correc tness
roll over us like a juggernaut, obliterating all serious art and original
thought, we had better find that protective line of defense, and find it
soon.
ANDREW DELBANCO
The Politics of Separatism
I
think I first fully realized what was happening to my profession when, a
year or so ago, I was participating in a seminar far from New York with
a group of high school teachers. We were discussing a poem by Emily
Dickinson. It is a poem that may be profitably read as a woman's ac–
count of what it means (and how it fee ls) to be directed by a man, con–
fined to the status of an instrument of his will, and allowed only enough
independence to serve as a facilitator of his pleasure. At first the teachers
seemed convinced by such a reading, as I was, and added to the discus–
sion many particular insights that tended to support it. Then, toward the
end of the session, one usually voluble member of the seminar (who had
been strikingly silent) spoke up. What she said was roughly this: This
poem moves me as an expression of erotic power. It reads like a tran–
script of my own marriage. It celebrates the completion of one human
life by its cleaving to another. It is about the mystery of how the surren–
der of will can enlarge the self It is a love poem.
As she made these points - which she delivered with a precision and
passion that my bald summary does not begin to convey - I realized I
was hearing something I almost never hear in my university classes. Her
remarks were neither mawkish nor narcissistic, but they had great per-
