New-old write-wing
Terzuolo, Eric R.
American Writers Congress NEW-OLD WRITE-WING A CASE OF PROGRESSIVE NOSTALGIA "A whirl OF ideas, controversy, and catharsis." That is how the Nation described the American Writers Congress, held...
...This is true in the sense that virtually all the participants identified themselves as politically progressive...
...Judging from the composition of the Congress, one would conclude that no actual Christians are taking progressive positions in print...
...The opening comments of Meridel LeSueur, an eighty-one-year-old feminist author who had participated in earlier congresses, seemed to bridge the decades a bit too effortlessly...
...It is important to avoid adding a stronger censorship on the left to the restrictions that elements of the New Right seem ready to impose...
...One wishes that her words had been taken to heart...
...Perhaps the market does have something to teach the left...
...In her powerful and generally well-taken opening remarks, Toni Morrison warned against elitism, the notion that rare things necessarily are better than plentiful ones...
...How many considered that the nature of the writer's work might make a national union an inappropriate form of organization...
...Catchwords were much in evidence...
...One heard some good sense and a great deal of valuable information circulated...
...Repeated scornful use of the term "blockbuster" suggested a rather fundamental disdain for popular tastes in literature...
...The attempt to create an orthodoxy among progressive writers would risk alienating those of genuinely independent mind...
...Of those three elements, catharsis was most in evidence...
...The theme was simple: "The villain is an all-embracing ideology...
...It was good to see some 3000 people gather to voice and, perhaps more importantly, share their angers and anxieties...
...Also left aside was the fact that in the United States trade unions have not always been the best defenders of the rights of the genuinely downtrodden...
...The ban on importation of printed matter from Cuba certainly is inconsistent with the concept of a free market of ideas...
...A noted historian of women, Blanche Wiesen Cook, used it in reference to an eminently sensible and decent article by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison in the October 3 issue of the Nation...
...Talk of a union also tended to ignore the fact that many of those who write make their livings in other ways, as editors for example...
...Grizzuti Harrison cited the case of a New York woman who protested that Christopher Street and neighboring areas were no longer congenial places for many long-time residents, who felt they were being forced out by the burgeoning gay population...
...The Nation termed the political tone of the proceedings "exuberantly progressive...
...There was talk of better marketing techniques for progressive literature, but no one addressed the need to change the kind of progressive literature being marketed...
...But the conduct of many of the "exuberant progressives" at the Congress indicated a certain similarity of temperament...
...Wiesen Cook offered an excellent demonstration of precisely the attitude her target was deploring...
...Yet one should bear in mind that, in another sense, nostalgia, rather than progress, was a dominent motif...
...The word "union" seemed to have an almost mystical hold on many of the participants...
...The desire to wrap a historical mantle around the collective shoulders, as well as an exciting sense of solidarity, made it easy to forget about the less savory aspects of the history of the left in the 1930s...
...Still, it would have been encouraging to hear someone admit that more philosophical meditations on nuclear energy, more complex works on political economy, more hermetic poetry and prose are not what progressives need to write and distribute if they actually want a large audience...
...In fact, the thrust of her article had nothing to do with homosexuality...
...ERIC R. TERZUOLO (Eric R. Terzuolo, a previous contributor, is an assistant professor in the department of history and political science at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland...
...e in Maryland...
...One of the charges that progressives and liberals often level at the Moral Majority is that of readiness to damn individuals for their position on a single issue-abortion, prayer in schools, national defense, etc...
...That is how the Nation described the American Writers Congress, held in New York, October 9-12...
...Writers have organized quite effectively for mutual assistance and support at the local level, in structures that seek to impose no ideological uniformity and do not look to New York for centralized guidance...
...Some other disturbing attitudes were to be found...
...The woman in question, whose letter to the Village Voice was never even published, soon found herself under attack for giving aid and comfort to the Moral Majority...
...Some other words seemed to have a similar appeal...
...An attempt, however, to unite American writers on the basis of the essentially political program of the Congress would be a risky proposition...
...One also heard Raymond Aron assailed as a "whore of the CIA," implying perhaps that no one could hold opinions contrary to those of the left in anything resembling good faith...
...Tastes are not completely a given...
...The interesting neologism "homophobia" was much in evidence...
...What would be their place in the union...
...That would benefit no one...
...Still, it seems unjust to cite that ban with the implication that Cuba is a model of intellectual freedom...
...Lenin put it quite succinctly: kto kogo, who does what to whom...
...All this is not to say that the Congress had no bright spots...
...Book bannings at the local level and cutbacks in support for the arts and humanities at the federal level have left many people, not just writers, with a certain sense of cultural oppression...
...With so much attention to the religious trappings of the Moral Majority, this was perhaps to be expected, but does not thus become excusable...
...Despite the atmosphere of solidarity, certain progressive forces were not represented...
...In that process of sharing, however, many ideas and the opportunity for fruitful controversy seemed to get lost...
...It seemed at times that the basic question was not one of intellectual freedom for all, but simply a matter of which side would be able to impose an orthodoxy on the other...
...The piece was a plea for tolerance of diversity of opinion...
...One heard expressed the hope that Bud Schulberg, who testified against many alleged Hollywood Communists during the McCarthy era, was now enjoying the comforts of the lowest circle of hell...
...The vote in favor of creating a National Writers Union was overwhelming, and one had the sense that expressions of doubt were not appreciated...
...Cuba'' was one...
...The possible limits on freedom of expression are already considerable...
...Would there be a place for those who did not feel themselves part of some oppressed literary proletariat...
...Grizzuti Harrison termed these attacks "nonsense," and thus committed the sin of homophobia...
...On the whole, in fact, the circumstances of the Congress seemed to encourage suspension of one's critical and analytical sense...
...The shadow of the writers' congresses of the 1930s was a long one...
Vol. 108 • December 1981 • No. 22
