April 1, 1943
Editorial Comment: The Inorganic Muses
For some time I had planned to prepare an essay, as soon as I could rely better upon my feelings in the matter, about the radical innovation I seemed to […]
January 1, 1943
Poetry from Right to Left
It is a strange experience to read through such a random selection of verse as this one. Time alone, “brutal,” as Mr. Jarrell would say, “as a thumb,” made it, […]
January 1, 1943
The Composer in Search of Freedom and Progress¹
A Mozart symphony, coming to us over the radio, might be performed in London or in Leningrad, in Rome, Berlin or in New York. Concert programs are basically alike throughout the […]
January 1, 1943
Broadway Letter
New York, November 1, 1942. More and more, the war effort is making its expected inroads upon stage personnel, and the capacities out of which theatre springs are being converted […]
January 1, 1943
Cities’ Renaissance
Our cities are deathly sick! Ask any mayor and he will show you how their fever curve rose as their bodies were broken in the last stage of their mechanization, […]
January 1, 1943
Basic in Reading
It is significant that C. K. Ogden, the inventor of Basic English, has never used the term “semantics” in connection with his invention. Indeed that term has become current only […]
January 1, 1943
Music Letter from England
London, October 5, 1942. Over here there is a boom in Culture; and a cosy place is assured for the arts in the democratic New Order. One wouldn’t wish to […]
January 1, 1943
The Novel: Between Art and Science
The novel lies between fine art as pure expression and science as explanation, partaking of both yet closer to actual conditions than either. Science remains remote even when thought of […]
January 1, 1943
Basic, Latin, and Other Languages
It is hard to see why the enthusiasm for a universal language is so very recent. The modern world let Latin die. Perhaps Latin was too hard to learn. Perhaps […]
October 1, 1942
Non-Materialistic Naturalism
Materialism has as at no time been common among professional philosophers, since Plato and Aristotle became authoritative. Before that time, it was dominant: the Epicureans and early Stoics were materialists, […]
October 1, 1942
Notes on a Democratic Philosophy
We hear frequently these days that if democracy is to survive it must have a new faith; that battles are not won by tanks and planes alone, but also by […]
October 1, 1942
Mythology (For the Study of William Blake)
It is time to argue that the central problem in William Blake, a puzzling poet, is not mysticism at all, as has been generally supposed, but mythology; a mythology which […]