On the Times and the Timeless

...I know I will never in this life catch it, with a net result that I will be the most birdless bastard in creation ' That sets forth the basic argument in the book, and its dialectic moves forward effectively The men deftly present their positions They never slip into sterile question-begging, and they know just when to stop to a\oid the kind of flat disagreement that would serve no purpose Berhnrut's bete notre seems to be any form of loose thinking, a virtue occasionally resulting in a stretch of clotted exposition that taxes even a sympathetic reader In thee nd, however, the hard going is eminently worth- ward here in a kind of epiphany The while, we cover an amazing amount latter reveals a quintessential Judaism of ground in 171 pages Of the five unique in modern fiction, and the for rounds of talk during the two days the mer a breadth of outlook one would friends are together, perhaps the most never expect from a military man moving and revealing is the third when One lesson in all this is that the most they are taking a break from the main convincing way to bring characters to subject Voudray and Hurwitz come for- life is to allow them to think and give voice to their ideas Another is that, modernism to the contrary notwithstanding, much of the meaning of contemporary life remains to be uncovered The Colloquists is a highly original book—not everyone's cup of tea perhaps, but surely a bracing draught for the patient and receptive...

...The realities are so real, the urge to define them seems like an effort to evade them It is easier to cry out, to divert, to do anything but pay close and impassioned attention to what is and what is not This richly rewarding, albeit difficult to read book flings modernism's fatuities back into its teeth and bestows close attention on the nature of reality Cast in a form peculiarly its own, it could be thought of as either fiction or philosophy I incline to the former because its characters and events overshadow the theoretical expositions, striking and original as the latter often are Here the ideas, instead of defusing the action, actually bring us closer to its heart This book may serve to end our present literary parochialism and revive an interest in enduring meanings The story could not be more simple Three men well on in years, old friends despite sharply divergent temperaments, meet about once a year to come abreast of themselves and to speculate on the times and the timeless The book is mostly talk, but it is probing talk that takes astonishing turns One of the three men is Philip St Clair Voudray, a former general Commissioned m the field, a veteran of campaigns m Europe and Korea, Voudray's climb up the ranks made him a soldier to the marrow Ultimately, though, the traumatized man within prevailed, sending Voudray in active quest of meaning He had set a burning eye on the top spot in the Army, the chief of staff, when his opposition to the Vietnam War compelled him to resign Martin Hurwitz is a retired high school teacher, unrecognized poet and, above all, a Jewish mystic for whom the overcast of reality occasionally lifts to reveal God The third character, more enigmatic than the others, is William Fanbitt, a writer and independent radical who believes he has found a philosophy of life that can bind our inner and outer selves Between them, these men bear witness to every facet of contemporary existence The reader does not have to agree with the conclusions they come to, but there is little doubt that they are richly representative figures Although the reunions—which have been taking place since the end of World War II—are occasions of friendship, they are governed by firm ground rules First, anything said must have its origin in personal experience, since no abstract proposition can be fully understood until it is known who said it, where, when, and why Second, each session is to be devoted to a theme agreed upon in advance, providing a tie post for the participants' disparate personal reflections A third rule bars prolonging any disagreement, one of the disputants must widen or deepen his idea to accommodate the others' positions Voudray, with his caustic wit, acts as intellectual enforcer to keep the talk on course No one man brings about any radical changes ot mind, it is enough if he can germinate the awareness ot differing possiblities The session covered in the book takes place in September 1970, m Newark, New Jersey Fanbitt had proposed that his friends come prepared to discuss the underlying premise of his life In accordance with the group's first rule, he relates how one day as a young man he rode on the tailgate of a truck to deliver lumber to a site where he was building a cabin, and how while sitting there dangling his feet idly he felt a suffusive happiness—a transport that burned its way into the most recessed tissues of his consciousness He argues that such bliss is the essence of all humanity, the true source of whatever wisdom the race has been able to marshal In response to a question from Hurwitz, Fanbitt says, "Forgive me, Marty, but not God, not justice, not love, not physical health, not material possessions, not ego strut, not knowledge, not understanding, not art, not occult world or other worlds, not anything justifies human life but the bliss of life It is the one and only natural re-quitement " Neither of his friends agree Hurwitz accuses Fanbitt of wanting to build a city of God without God, something that he claims has been tned again and again in vain Voudray has a different objection He charges Fanbitt with exalting an experience that the overwhelming majority of the human race has never had He says " you are undenmmng me Don't you see you are asking me to ease my grip on the scrawny little bird 1 hold in my hand on the promise there is a far lovelier bird or two in the bush...

...On the Times and the Timeless_ The Colloquists By Peter Berhnrut Spectrum 171 pp $10 00 Reviewed by H. William Fitelson Lionel Trilling thought that fiction should concern itself with the relation of reality and appearance His own stones and novel were a brilliant validation of that belief Trilling also knew, however, that modernism considered the realities of the 20th century too stark to need probing As Picasso, that high priest of modernism, has said, "I do not seek I find " The impact of two world wars, the Holocaust, totalitarianism, and the nuclear age has made the literature of examination appear almost foolish Why bother to hunt for what is so overwhelmingly there...