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 suggest that the eminent people who periodically make such pronouncements are one and all pie-faced; but one might legitimately point out that their attitude is itself suspect—part of the divorce between the arts and “life” which is symptomatic of the general plight we find ourselves in. It won’t do officially to delineate the place of the arts in a civilization: if you make the civilization the arts will take care of themselves. The “revival” of interest in the arts today is largely synthetic or fortuitous. The few artists who really matter will go on with their task of preserving emotional honesty and of re-creating the human spirit; but the loudly advertised racket won’t make it any easier for them.
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