Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR FIEDLER Only the excellent series on the child in modern culture by Leslie Fiedler (NL, March 31, April 14, April 28) could make up for the loss of Granville Hicks. Such articles not...
...Isn't economic aid less wasteful...
...Does salvation from economic collapse depend upon defense contracts and millions of strong backs—servicemen—not competing for civilian jobs...
...Shouldn't our foreign policy be based on the exclusion of American trade and investment in any dictatorship, or, at least, those that axe not allies...
...Whether they operate Maine dairy farms or live in Georgia shacks, their indebtedness and poverty —as Tris Coffin pointed out in his March 17 "Washington—U...
...William T. Whitney Jr...
...S. A." column—are growing...
...Beyond the historical setting of Huck's act, moreover, there is the timeless moral question of the value of human life...
...AIDING DICTATORS How sensible was Representative Charles D. Porter's article of April 14 ("The Struggle Without End") ! He is a brave trail-blazer...
...Who would even democratic Latin American nations use the arms against...
...Such articles not only keep the politically-minded reader in contact with literature and criticism, they also add a needed dimension to his social science...
...New York City Victor Lasky HUMAN RACE I note Mark Starr's letter (NL, May 12) in which he supports "the Cousins view that the United States should join the human race...
...This brings up a larger question: Are wars essential to general national prosperity...
...As things stand, however, I believe an apology is due Huck Finn and his admirers...
...Huck was definitely pre-puberty...
...And I wonder when both Starr and Norman Cousins will reject the reverse jingoism of their position...
...After observing the depravities of the Soviet world, the brutalities of Indonesian liberalism, and the behavior of Latin American student intellectuals, I submit that Starr might have suggested that the "human" race join the United States...
...But why just Latin American dictators...
...It simply will not do to equate Huck Finn's act of stealing Jim with that of Ra&kolnikov or Leopold and Loeb...
...San Francisco Park Chamberlain FAMILY FARM In his letter of April 21, H. P. Trusler, "a country grain dealer . with some farming and livestock interests," notes that "not all farmers wish to reside on 'the family-sized farm.'" If they own modern machinery, he continues, they cannot afford to operate the family farm...
...Princeton Harry Montgomery Award Leslie Fiedler two open-toed sandals and black leather jacket for his devestating analysis of the "beatniks.'' The almost total lack of literary quality in the work of the "Howl" group is matched only by their childish bleating about the society they feed on...
...Washington, D. C. Ralph de Toledano...
...Brooklyn Richard Shulman How do you explain (or how does the Congressman explain) the peculiar stance of Representative Charles 0. Porter who, while so ardently campaigning against dictators like Trujillo, reportedly supports U. S. aid to Marshal Tito and U. S. recognition of the bloodiest dictatorship of 'em all in Soviet China...
...Having turned away from the belief that the United States is the best nation on earth, they have tacitly accepted a view that it is the worst...
...Berkeley, Calif...
...And if you will pardon the expression, never the Twain shall meet...
...Randolph Center, Vt...
...We can weigh the two interpretations of our world and choose one or the other, but we abrogate reason when we say that the cherishing of life or the taking of it by an individual can be morally judged only by a majority within his group...
...Still, I must balk at one of Fiedler's points...
...Couldn't we both win the hearts of the uncommitted peoples and retain the loyalty of our allies by demanding that steps be taken to end colonialism (which is a kind of dictatorship...
...The catastrophes awaiting the small farmer dwarf the misery he lives with today...
...Had his voice changed, or had it even begun to change, he would never have attempted such a disguise...
...If by this Fiedler means that Huck is post-puberty, he is surely in error...
...Having enjoyed and respected Fiedler's work for some time, I am hopeful he will refute my interpretation of his words...
...How is it possible to equate Huck's act with a nihilism which denies the existence of moral and human values...
...In terms of the Southern majority Huck may have committed a sin and a crime, but he was hardly acting as "the lonely arbiter of morality" as Fiedler would have it...
...Finally, why give military aid to any nations not on the same continents as the Communist nations...
...James Wooley Much of what Leslie Fiedler writes about Huck Finn is based on his theory that Huck is "sexually mature" and "physically a man...
...To accept the existence of a complex and often contradictory set of social values and then to deny a choice to the individual is to side with all the evils which plague the world today...
...Thus Trusler, who appears to be far removed from the peasant class himself, implies that we must accept the passing of the family farm as inevitable...
...Leopold and Loeb were enamoured of a philosophy which rejected values (human or divine...
...He proved that it is to our advantage not to coddle Latin American dictators...
...Where will the small fanner go...
...The choice between joining the urban unemployed and falling into peonage to the corporation farmer is far from a happy one...
...Wars," he tells us, "seem to be essential to high farm prices...
...I hope that Trusler does not have a hand in the ultimate solution of the farm problem...
...Within his society there were men who would have applauded his act, while within the broader society of the United States the moral issue of slavery was so confused that no simple imputation of "sin'' and "crime" will suffice...
...If the choice is between war and prosperity, then the American plight is desperate...
...These people are homeless in the national economy, and strident voices demand that we hasten the allegedly inevitable removal of marginal farmers from their land by throwing them upon the mercy of the law of supply and demand...
...The Raskolnikovs may be right—that is not the issue: Huck acted in such a way as to affirm a philosophy of values...
...Remember that Huck dressed himself as a girl at one point in order to get information from a town sworn an...
...But small farmers still constitute the bulk of the American farming population...
Vol. 41 • May 1958 • No. 21
