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PARTISAN REVIEW
censorial Puritan spirit. Like a replay of parent and child, the corrector
demands the right to punish the artist's incorrigible impulse to misbehave.
It
is in the theatre, where the press wields the greatest power, that one
finds the greatest distance between artist and critic. Reviewers and the–
atre people have about as much affinity for each other as the mongoose
and the snake, and there is little doubt who has the biggest lump in his
throat. Indeed, if the American theatre is in trouble today, it is not
because it lacks fine, creative people in every area of activity. Actually, to
my mind, the number of gifted artists in the theatre today and the level
of seriousness are relatively high compared with past ages. The theatre is
in trouble, partly, because it lacks an informed, committed, and sympa–
thetic criticism. 1 am not talking about boosterism or cheerleading; I am
speaking of the kind of intelligent support that
F.
R. Leavis once gave to
D. H. Lawrence, Edmund Wilson gave to
F.
Scott Fitzgerald, and George
Jean Nathan gave to Eugene O'Neill, the intelligent mentoring that
helped these writers to learn and to grow. What we have instead today is
something I have come to call Himalaya criticism, after Danny Kaye's
famous rejoinder, when he was asked how he liked the Himalayas:
"Loved him, hated her." In other words, thumbs up, thumbs down.
Judgments based on ignorance, arrogance, and relentless opinionating.
There is a fourth horseman laying siege to the arts these days, perhaps
the most ominous of all, and its name is fiscal correctness. We live in a
time when our children are no longer being exposed to genuine art or
encouraged to practice it themselves. There was a period, right after the
Russians beat us into space with Sputnik, when the federal government
made an unprecedented effort both to improve our educational system
and to advance our artistic institutions. Virtually every cultural center in
this country dates from that period, along with most of the resident the–
atres, symphony orchestras, opera companies, and dance companies.
Since then, however, cuts in funding for the arts and arts education have
been draconian, symbolized by the virtual disembowelment of the NEA
and the elimination of almost all arts programs in public schools.
It
is an
enduring educational principle that when the funds are low, you fire the
music teacher. Under such conditions, no wonder NPR is ceasing to fea–
ture classical music. When American children think of music, they think
of rock. When they think of poetry, they think of hip-hop. When they
think of art, they think of graffiti. We are no longer developing audiences
for the serious arts. That is our government's contribution to the culture.
Fifty years ago, the majority of participants in the first
Partisan Review
symposium on the subject of "Our Country and Our Culture" seemed to
call for an embrace of American values and an end to alienation. The
