LONDON LETTER
259
present eating as though it were a perfectly natural activity.
JUDGE
(twitching):
Just a moment. I would like to
write
that down.
[Heavy sarcasm.] A-natural.
..
DEFENDING COUNSEL: M'lud, my client has never de–
picted eating for eating's sake. He has always seen it as part of an
abiding relationship. There is no eating outside the family.
PROSECUTOR: Ha! M'learned friend is not being serious.
Can Mr. Wesker point to a single passage where it is not made all
too clear that his characters
enjoy
food? There is a difference,
is
there not, between decent, secret eating, eating on a diet, and this–
stuff-which ends time and again in
satisfaction?
It only remains to be said that, naturally, the Lady Chatterley
drama had already been put on in the USA and with the same
essential plot line. But, although I didn't catch the American
production, I can't imagine it was as interesting as the London one.
Cultural lag has its advantages.
Dwight Macdonald
