COMMENTS
The debate over the NEA is superficial and confused, because the real issue
is not discussed by either President Clinton, who favors keeping the NEA,
or the Republicans, who want to abolish it. There's nothing wrong with
government support of the arts. In fact all great nations have funded serious
art. The trouble with the situation here is that the administration of the
NEA has given grants to trendy and offensive individuals and projects. And
this has taken place under both Democratic and Republican presidencies.
The NEA could fruitfully be continued if there was some way of getting rid
of the administration and choice of panels by politically correct academics
and performers. But of course this is not easy since a good part of our cul–
ture is controlled by far-out and politically correct people. In the abstract,
the general question of how to choose the right people is something of a
conundrum, since one could always ask who chooses the people who choose
the panelists. But sophisticated artists, writers, and critics can tell the differ–
ence between genuine and fraudulent projects. I hope this can be done, but
if not I'm afraid the NEA will no longer be able to serve a useful purpose.
The comparison by Morris Dickstein of Gore Vidal's critical work with
that of Edmund Wilson goes beyond the norms of the literary history
assumed in our editorial policies. To me, the comparison seems to represent
a radical, revisionist view of the world of criticism, or at least some ideo–
logical bias. Edmund Wilson's criticism had gaps and flaws, but he was a
major figure. The comparison ofJohn Updike with Wilson is also somewhat
of a stretch, but is arguable.
COMMENDATIONS
Saul Bellow's new novella
The Actual
(Viking) shows
him to be at the height of his powers. It is a masterly narrative of charac–
ters and si tuations revolving around each other-like the themes in a
fugue. One of Bellow's achievements is to tell a complex story through
colloquial tones and rhythms. I wish, as I've said, that Bellow would under–
take a portrait of our culture and the people who dominate it.
Philip Roth's new novel
American Pastoral
(Houghton Mifflin) is a long
tour de Jorce.
It is a symbolic and personal picture of the clash between the
traditional and the ultra-radical world that has taken place in the last thirty
or forty years. Especially telling is his story of the mad revolutionary logic
that led the extreme left and the Weathermen particularly to their crazy
deeds.
