WI LLI AM PHI LLIPS
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Another typical example o f a lapse of charac ter occurred in the fifti es,
when I had lunch w ith M auri ce Merl eau-Po nty in Paris. M e rleau-Po n ty
was endowed w ith large intell ec tual abilities but also with a weakn ess fo r
the attracti o n o f Communi sm , at least ea rli er in his life , and a considerable
sense of ca uti o n to go alo ng with it. Wh o could blame him? H e was sur–
rounded by Sa rtre and faced a dom inating secti o n o f the French intell ec–
tual community. The Communi sts, w ith their influ enti al trade-uni o n
backing and suppo rt by th e medi a, we re the stro ngest party in France. It
even was sa id that th ey could have se ized powe r, but that Stalin was afraid
it might provo ke a wa r. At th e time, there was a small anti-C ommunist
community, an oas is, in Paris, in cl uding Sa ul Bell ow, R aym o nd Aron ,
Manes Sperbe r, H.
J.
Kaplan , Mary McCa rth y (this w as befo re her pro–
Vietnam phase), H erbert Go ld , D avid R o usset , and myself. At any rate,
during lun ch w ith M erle au- Po nty, I was arguing with him abo ut th e
Soviet Uni o n , w h cn I no ti ccd hc had become uneasy . I as ked him
whether he was di sturbed by thc poss ibility t hat thc people n ear us could
hear that he was cve n talkin g to an anti-Communi st. H e ro de thi s on e
out by repl ying th at they did no t undc rstand E nglish , th e language in
which we we re speaking.
These are but sca ttered memo ri es of a pervasive blight that spread not
through a dccade, as Audc n sa id , but th ro ugh a century. All in all ,
throughout most of th e twcnti cth centu ry, Communi sm produ ced terro r
in the East and di sto rtcd li ves in th c W est. Unfo rtunately, som e of its ef–
fects still persist in our thinkin g and in o ur susceptibility to uto pian visions
of liberation.
On
Rereading
Teachers constantl y have to reread books, to refresh their
memories and to bo ne up o n th e mea nin gs o f th e tex ts. 1 have bee n
rereading reccntl y to chec k o n Ill y ea rli e r impress io ns - w hi c h had
dimmed. In o ne case I fcl t I had ove rva lu ed a wo rk , in ano ther I had
probably undervalu ed it. But in all instances , I became aw are th at the
power of the works and o f course thcir lasting qualities came from th eir
sense of centrali ty, o f somc capturc of an aspcct o f the nati o nal character.
Many yea rs ago, at th e homc o f Drs. Vela and H enry Lowenfeld , I
found myself disagrec ing w ith H cin z H artmann , w ho claimed that there
was no such thing as a nati o nal charac ter. I was in no mood to argue w ith
the eminent psych oa nalyst abo ut so vaguc and specul ati ve a subj ect, but
was egged on by Dr. Vcia Lowcnfcld to pursue the disagreeme nt . I ar–
gued limpl y, partl y beca use th e example of literature refl ec tin g the na–
tional character had no t occurred
to
mc.
Now, it seems to me an impo rtant compo nent. For exampl e, w hen I
