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T H E P O L I T I C A L

E C O N O M Y O F

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

O IL

A N D T H E

U N D E R D E V E L O P E D

C O U N T R I E S

by Michael Tanzer

The dynamics oi power

politics in the struggle for

contio] of the world's oi}

resources.

$12.50

25 B e ac on S t r e e t

v i M M H iailMil 1

your MIND

your HEART

your HAND

io th MENTALLY ILL

support your

lectuaiized reasons, in a timg when

there are no more observers in the

world and we are all Jews.

The three-page Theses on Feuerbach

is a better guide than the 500 pages

of Feuer's book. You will find that in

Marx & Engels: Basic Writings on

Politics & Philosophy,

edited by Lewis

Feuer (some years ago). The ideas

there are not infallible, but they

wise and humane (and, inciden

more understanding of capitalists

Feuer is of the young). We learn

that the world has real problems w

are historically rooted in part

ways we order our lives, and

treatable therefore, if we will

stop interpreting and start acting

Ke n n e th B u r ke :

T o w a r d t h e P e r f e c t l y P o i s o n o u

The Artist as Critic:

Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde

Edited with an introduction

by Richard Ellmann

(Random House; $10.00)

In his expert introduction to this book,

Richard Ellmann remarks on Wilde's

cult of the dang erous :

What muddies this point of view

in Wilde is his looking back to con-

ventional meanings of words like

sin, ignoble, and shameful. He is

not so ready as Nietzsche to trans-

valuate these, though he does re-

shuffle them. His private equation

is that sin is the perception of new

and dangerous possibilities in ac-

tion as self-consciousness is in

thought and criticism is in art. He

espouses individualism, and he en-

courages society to make individual-

ism more complete than it can be

now, and for this reason he spon-

sors socialism as a communal ego-

tism, like the society made up of

separate but equal works of art.

Wilde's preference for such old-time

words as sin has its counterp art in

what would otherwise be a surprising-

ly frequent use of perfect and per-

fection. The following passages indi-

cate the range:

fection is idleness: the aim of

fection is you th. . . . Life

literature, life and the perfect

pression of life. . . . To be pre

ture is to be perfect. . . . M

perfect by the critical spirit alo

. . . W e might make ourselves s

itual by detaching ourselves fr

action, and become perfect by

rejection of energy.

Wilde sums up in that most uneas

all literary species, an outraged

thor's Letter to the Editor, whe

tempting to defend

The Picture o

rian Cray.

It is poisonous if you

but you cannot deny that it is also

fect, and perfection is what we a

aim at. In a review of poems by

ley, he says that rhyme gives

delightful sense of limitation whic

all the arts is so pleasurable, an

indeed, one of the secrets of pe

tion. How ever, he can as readil

in the other direction. When n

that through poetry Mrs. Brow

realizes her fullest perfect ion, he

ther observes, 'She would rh

moon to table,' used to be said o

in jest; and certainly no more

7/23/2019 Kenneth Burke_Toward the Perfectly Poisonous

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the possibility of a form which,

, he uses exactly the same for-

l Th e Soul of Man Under Social-

( soul is another of his now

the perfe ct writings of his Wa l-

he writes, A healthy work

personality, another word for

being individuality.

ting will no longer be an artificial

the natural expression of life's

uty, he is persistent in his dictum

the sphere of Art and the sphere

between saying that only a

a judge of pain ting and his

only an artist is a judge of

For in art there is no special-

All arts are in their essence the

whereat he adds a twist, But the

bly in saying, Th ere are not

but one art merely, he was

ttitude was involved in one's

of secret sin was at odds with

was merely in a different chan-

challenge, All art is imm oral.

instance, we read in Th e Decay of

that As a meth od, realism is

; art is not to be

In The Truth of M asks ,

s, we are told that Perfect accu-

f detail . . . is necessary for us.

;

"That dawn which

saw the first

coming of the

Europeans

to Africa is

for African

writers no

sim ple dawn but is charged w ith

layered mea n ing . Tha t m orn ing

w h i c h s aw t h e b e g i n n i n g s o f

European cultural imposit ion was

fraught with danger for the spiritual

protector of the African writer, for

his totem ."

-WILFRED CARTEY

are inc luded in th is un ique a

major work. The author, a po

himself, has created a vast k

cloth, into which are woven t

images and symbols of a

land,

cu l tur e, and a pe op le. He h

allowed us to hear history.

"Walking in thehi l ls

of Legon, I heard

the murmurs of the

wi n d .Sitting by the

Winn ebaS ea, I lis-

W h i s p e r s

f r o m a

C o n t i n e n t

W i l f r e d

C a r t e y

WHISPERS FRO M

A CONTINENT

thevoiceof

Africa today

speaking to

generations of

the future. It

is no t

literary

criticism in the

a c a d e m i c s e n s e T h c L i t e r a t u r e o f C o n t e m p o r a r y B l a c k A f r i c a

but a poetic and

passionate summ on-

ing forth of African

experience through

African l i terature.

The many novels, poems and

plays that Wi l f red Car tey of fers

and involves us in

dramatize the wrench

ing forces of c olo -

nial ism,

the exile

and flight of the

black African,

his search for ^

self, and the fi -

nal return through ' " , ' .

revolt to belief and

faith in his future. Leopold

S e n g h o r , A i m e C e s a i r e , L e o n

Damas, Chinua Achebe, are a few

among the fi fty leading contem-

porary Black African writers that

tened to the,

back-and-for

movements

the wate

Standing on t

Afric an so il at th

hour when t

heart strums t

guitar

dreams

voices

the

ch

dren Ara

and Adw o

Alice an d Eku

Abena a

Ama wi ,

Qua

and Ay eki, I receiv

the whispers from

cont inent. To Mother, an

to al l those who l isten to

c h

dren 's vo ices , g ive back the

whispers."_wiLFRED CARTEY (In h

new book WHISPERS FROM

C O N T IN E N T )

His book is a must. That is to s

we must read Dr. Cartey's boo

because Dr. Cartey has given

some valuable research, he h

taken time to give us authent

material and to allow us to mak

our o wn analyses and draw our ow

conclusions. Dr. Cartey does n

just shout lost culture, he retrieve

i t . "STOKELY CARMICHAEL

8.95, now at your bookstore

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xing

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LUTHER KING,JR.

1929-1968 .

The Original Address

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WA XING VE RB AL (New Republic)

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PiBflSB send the records whose numbers I

hav circled below,

5

18 36 37 38 39 40

41

48 49 50 51 52 53

54

I

nclose

plus 25t postspe

and

handling.

Name.

supply US with

the

facts which

the ar-

tist

is to

convert into effects. Th oug h

he writes that neither in costumenor

in dialogue is beauty the dramatist's

primary aim at all. The true dramatist

aims firstatwhatischarac teristic, the

statement must

be

understood

as

modi-

fied, three pages later,

by a

reference

tc that

joy in

beauty

for

beauty's sake

without which the great masterpieces

of art can never be understood.

Mr. Ellmann's introduction sums

up

things admirably, as regards both

Wilde's aestheticism and its relationto

his sinful man -love. Even so, it is

worth noting that,in hisessay on the

gentlemanly poisoner Wainwright,

Wilde hits upon

a

stricter definition:

Sin should

be

solitary,

and

have

no

accomplices,

How

closely should

we

read that text? Would it mean that,

after his fa ll into homosexual en-

tanglements (presumably in iS86) he

could not wholly embody the idealof

individualism which he hoped for in

Utopian socialism? Insofar

as

sexual

analogues

for

socio-political situations

are concerned,

the

perfect

individu

nUstcould hav e erotic com merce on ly

withhimself.

As regards

the

book proper, there

are

two ideal places

to

begin.

The

first

is

A Chinese S age,

the

review

of a

translation

of

Confucius, which begins,

An eminent Oxford theologian once

remarked that his only objection to

modern progresswasthatit progressed

forward instead

of

backward.

Throughout,

the

stress

is in

keeping

with paradoxical thoughts

on the use-

lessness

of all

useful thing s. Wilde

suggests that the English publication,

two thousand years after Confucius'

death, is obviously premature. The

quality of Wilde's sympathy with this

book well indicates

the

quality

of his

own conceits, when they

now and

then

come nearest

to

perfection.

The other recommended starting point

is Poetry and Prison, a review of

poems that Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

wrote

in

connection with

his

imprison-

ment. Literature

is not

indebted

to

Mr. Balfour for his sophistical 'De-

fence of Philosophic Doubt,' which is

oneof the dullest booksweknow,but

it must be admitted that by sending

Mr, Blunt

to

gaol

he has

converted

a

clever rhymer into

an

earnest

and

deep-thinking poet,

In the

light

of

greatly. Blunt's

had the

dignity

political offense, whereas Wilde, th

poetically identifying himself

Christ, had to suffer the burde

mere scandal. As Mr. Ellmann

puts it, So long as he had b

scapegrace the door to comedy

still o^en; once having accepte

role

of

scapegoat

the

door

was

cl

After

his

release from prison ,

tried

to

write another play

in h

mer manner,

but the

kind

of

c

uity best suitedto hisgifts was br

There was nothing to do bu

which accordinglyhedid.

His reviewsare a charming com

tion of perception and patter.

are much better than his more

tentious pieces, which

are not s

defined

by the

requirements

o

business

at

hand,

and

which

more deeply affected

by the

com

tions

of the

Dorian Gray com

(a guilty senseoftoo greatahiat

tween secrecy andpublicity).

A quite differently slanted r

might have resulted from aselect

his witticisms. Also, along with

social shrewdness, engagingly

pressed, there

are

many serious

sages

of

great sympathy

and

b

for instance

his

pages

on

he

D

Cotrtedy. But of the

kind

of

p

we most spontaneously think

of

carian, here's the perfect one:

Whistler always spelt art, and w

lieve he still does, with a capita

Wildedid too.

But let's consider one more exh

review

of

only seven lines (whic

cidentally,

may

throw light

on

W

resistances

to

what

he

calls reali

'The Chronicle of Mites '

mock-heroic poem about theinh

tants

of a

decaying cheese,

speculate about the origin of

species,

and

hold learned discus

upon

the

meanings

of

Evolution

the Gospel according

to

Dar

This cheese epic

is a

rather un

oury production, and thestyle

times,somonstrousand sorea

that the author shouldbecalled

Gorgon-Zolaofliterature.

Hometown Source

The editors wish

to

call attent

to the fact that Jean Carperw

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