INTELLECTUALS AND WRITERS THEN AND NOW
531
Edith Kurzweil:
But now you are the exception.
Norman Podhoretz:
Well, I've never taught in a university. But to what
Bruce Anderson just said, I don't entirely agree with him about the loss
of the sense of connection between literature and something else.
There's no question that we've lost a center, such as the New York intel–
lectual world and certain other circles like it in other places. I don't
think universities are a center of intellectual activity at all, but I do think
that there are still some people around who feel very strongly about the
importance of the aesthetic realm, who feel that literature is its own jus–
tification, that it needn't be justified by its relevance to any other world
or activity, and that it is a part of life that refines consciousness, deep–
ens one's spiritual sense, and also gives great pleasure. One could say
that about the other arts, as well. So I think things are bad in one sense,
but not quite as dead as you suggested .
Hilton Kramer:Just
a correction about that remark of Mary McCarthy's
about "a mouth in search of an ear." It wasn't used as a generality, about
all intellectuals, but specifically as a description of Meyer Shapiro, and
anybody who knew Meyer understood that it was a
mot juste.
Art Meyer:
I'm a retired high school history teacher. I find myself
responding emotionally at times when I should be responding intellec–
tually. I'd like to hear from anyone who has ever taught in high school.
Do you believe there shou ld be a canon of literature or a prescribed his–
torical content that students should attempt to acquire prior to the age
of seventeen? Also, I believe-Professor Diggins, you've read it more
recently than I have and certainly more thoroughly-that the "Port
Huron Statement" began with a concern that certain values had been
lost by
1962.
They were making a plea for a return to earlier values,
which, in their youthfu lness, they may have mistakenly assumed to be
overly democratic. I also would like to mention that Eisenhower used
the phrase "the military-industrial complex," I believe in a warning
fashion. He had identified it during his presidency as a potential threat.
Perhaps the Port Huron kids were beginning to realize that there was a
potential threat from something called "the military-industrial com–
plex," and all the powers and pressures that those forces were bringing
upon the government of the United States.
Now, to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I am by no means
a defender of terrorism by individuals, by any cu ltural or political
groups, certainly by no religious groups, nor am I a defender of an
