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Candor and Perversion: Literature, Education and the Arts

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As with his previous works, such as FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE and THE INNOCENT EYE, Roger Shattuck manages to cover many topics in his new book. There is no thematic link between the essays--it is enough that Shattuck writes well about each subject. Shattuck is, along with William Pritchard, Denis Donoghue, and Andrew Delbanco, one of our most perspicacious and eloquent critics, as he is equally adept at analyzing a writer's words (such as in his essay on Mallarme's poetry) or a social phenomenon (such as in his essay "Radical Skepticisim and How We Got Here"). The clarity of his writing prompts one to question the value of the opaque prose produced by many academics in our age.

"Candor & Perversion" collects nearly forty of Roger Shattuck's previously published essays on a broad range of topics in education, literature and the arts. Nearly all of these essays were published after 1985, predominantly in Salmagundi, The New York Review of Books and The New Republic. It is an outstanding collection of essays by a scholar of wide-ranging, thoughtful and sober intelligence.

The collection is divided into two parts. The first part, "Intellectual Craftsmanship," contains a series of polemical essays that deal with topics generally subsumed in recent years under the term "Culture Wars." In this part, Shattuck stakes out his position clearly in a number of essays dealing with the proper role of education and the importance of the canon. Thus, in the essay "Nineteen Theses on Literature," Shattuck states that, "we have brought ourselves to a great deal of perplexity about the basic role of education." This perplexity arises from the question of whether education's proper role should be "[to] socialize the young within an existing culture and offer them the means to succeed within that culture" or, in the alternative, "[to] give to the young the means to challenge and overthrow the existing culture, presumably in order to achieve a better life." Shattuck's response is in favor of the former, choosing a conservative view of education's role. In doing so, he essentially resolves this question consistent with a position he articulates in another of his essays, "Education, Higher and Lower," where he states that, "some of us have come to believe that it is possible, even necessary, to be liberal in political matters and conservationist in cultural matters."

These polemical pieces on the role of education are followed by a number of essays that explore such topics as "The Spiritual in Art," "How We Think at the Movies" (where he explores, among other things, whether thinking is possible without language), "Life Before Language: Nathalie Sarraute" (where he examines Sarraute's attempts to capture, in fiction, mental life as it exists before it "gets caught and stifled in the rough net of conventional language"), "Michel Foucault," and "Radical Skepticism and How We Got There." In all of these essays, Shattuck explores, with erudition and balance, a range of topics that have been prone in recent years to irrational polemics.

The second part of the collection, "A Critics Job of Work," contains essays that are best described as literary journalism. In a series of essays under the broad title "Tracking the Avant Guard in France," Shattuck explores the biographies and artistic significance of a range of artists and writers, including Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Sarah Bernhardt, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau. The most telling of his essays in this part of the book is titled "From Aestheticism to Fascism," where Shattuck calmly proffers the lineage that ran from the "antinomian, decadent aestheticism" of the "art for art's sake" movement to the 'irrationalism, racism and nationalism that produced the most vicious and destructive aberration of modern times' in Germany and Italy.

The final essays in the collection are broadly grouped under the title "America, Africa and Elsewhere." Here, Shattuck explores a number of writers, including Mary Settle, Arthur Miller, Octavio Paz, V. S. Naipaul, and Leopold Senghor, as well as the artistic significance of the collaboration between Stieglitz and O'Keefe. These essays are wide ranging, insightful and balanced. The last of these essays, "Scandal and Stereotypes on Broadway: The New Puritanism," seemingly comes full circle from the opening essay of the book insofar as Shattuck reiterates his culturally conservative position in a stinging review of "Angels in America," stating that it was a play for which he was ashamed of himself for not having walked out. In Shattuck's words, the play "represents Puritanism inverted."

"Candor & Perversion" reaffirms Roger Shattuck's position as one of America's foremost cultural commentators. If you're interested in the polemics that have engulfed education, literature and the arts in the past decade, I can only say: read this book! You may not agree with Shattuck, but you will find his intelligent and careful reasoning regarding these issues a refreshing change from the often muddled and irrational posturing that characterizes much writing on these very important subjects.

This is a great book that attempts to see through our modern educational and literary theories in order to reach a more truthful and substantial way of thinking about how we educate the mind through reading, writing and literature.

This isn't a perfect book. At times Shattuck relies much too heavily on what I would call "crutch" artists (Marcel Proust and Jean Arp being two of them), and at other times he seems almost guilty of nepotism in his applauding of the work done by close friends. However, the overall success of the book is in opening the reader to entertain less mainstream or popularly-accepted ideas that eventually may bring about a better educational system and more engaging and critical readers of literature in America.

I don't feel the book is quite as revolutionary as the author expects, nor as "anti-pc" or "anti-liberal" as many readers might first suggest.

Instead, the book works best as a tool through which the reader is more fully exposed to the current debates on education, literature, and what it means for something to be "art" or for a person to be an "artist."

Candor & Perversion collects nearly forty of Roger Shattucks previously published essays on a broad range of topics in education, literature and the arts. Nearly all of these essays were published after 1985, predominantly in Salmagundi, The New York Review of Books and The New Republic. It is an outstanding collection of essays by a scholar of wide-ranging, thoughtful and sober intelligence.

The collection is divided into two parts. The first part, Intellectual Craftsmanship, contains a series of polemical essays that deal with topics generally subsumed in recent years under the term Culture Wars. In this part, Shattuck stakes out his position clearly in a number of essays dealing with the proper role of education and the importance of the canon. Thus, in the essay Nineteen Theses on Literature, Shattuck states that, we have brought ourselves to a great deal of perplexity about the basic role of education. This perplexity arises from the question of whether educations proper role should be [to] socialize the young within an existing culture and offer them the means to succeed within that culture or, in the alternative, [to] give to the young the means to challenge and overthrow the existing culture, presumably in order to achieve a better life. Shattucks response is in favor of the former, choosing a conservative view of educations role. In doing so, he essentially resolves this question consistent with a position he articulates in another of his essays, Education, Higher and Lower, where he states that, some of us have come to believe that it is possible, even necessary, to be liberal in political matters and conservationist in cultural matters.

These polemical pieces on the role of education are followed by a number of essays that explore such topics as The Spiritual in Art, How We Think at the Movies (where he explores, among other things, whether thinking is possible without language), Life Before Language: Nathalie Sarraute (where he examines Sarrautes attempts to capture, in fiction, mental life as it exists before it gets caught and stifled in the rough net of conventional language), Michel Foucault, and Radical Skepticism and How We Got There. In all of these essays, Shattuck explores, with erudition and balance, a range of topics that have been prone in recent years to irrational polemics.

The second part of the collection, A Critics Job of Work, contains essays that are best described as literary journalism. In a series of essays under the broad title Tracking the Avant Guard in France, Shattuck explores the biographies and artistic significance of a range of artists and writers, including Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Sarah Bernhardt, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau. The most telling of his essays in this part of the book is titled From Aestheticism to Fascism, where Shattuck calmly proffers the lineage that ran from the antinomian, decadent aestheticism of the art for arts sake movement to the irrationalism, racism and nationalism that produced the most vicious and destructive aberration of modern times in Germany and Italy.

The final essays in the collection are broadly grouped under the title America, Africa and Elsewhere. Here, Shattuck explores a number of writers, including Mary Settle, Arthur Miller, Octavio Paz, V. S. Naipaul, and Leopold Senghor, as well as the artistic significance of the collaboration between Stieglitz and OKeefe. These essays are wide ranging, insightful and balanced. The last of these essays, Scandal and Stereotypes on Broadway: The New Puritanism, seemingly comes full circle from the opening essay of the book insofar as Shattuck reiterates his culturally conservative position in a stinging review of Angels in America, stating that it was a play for which he was ashamed of himself for not having walked out. In Shattucks words, the play represents Puritanism inverted.

Candor & Perversion reaffirms Roger Shattucks position as one of Americas foremost cultural commentators. If youre interested in the polemics that have engulfed education, literature and the arts in the past decade, I can only say: read this book! You may not agree with Shattuck, but you will find his intelligent and careful reasoning regarding these issues a refreshing change from the often muddled and irrational posturing that characterizes much writing on these very important subjects.

In CANDOR AND PERVERSION, Roger Shattuck takes the reader on a guided tour of modern culture. This is no book that has a focused intent. Instead, he writes dozens of short essays that range from literature and literary criticism to literature's sister arts of film, music, and art. For those whose interests lie mostly in only one of these areas, those that deal with the others is a tough slog. This is not to say that the book's entirety is a jumble of oddly connected themes but it becomes pretty clear that as soon as one wanders from his favored area of the arts, then his interest begins a similar wandering. Shattuck's general theme is that regardless of the art involved, that art has become watered down with what he calls the "perversion" of the title, that is that the belief that poststructuralist thought that denies the existence of Eternal Truths has crosslinked into literature's sister arts, mostly to their detriment. He calls himself a political liberal and a cultural conservative. As he ranges from essay to essay, he shows the reader far more of the latter than the former. One of his most interesting chapters deals with Michel Foucault, a writer/philosopher who Shattuck readily admits that a little of Foucault goes a long way. It is in this brief essay that Shattuck reveals his true self, someone who has little patience for fakes and frauds who use linguistic legedermain to achieve notoriety even as they are hailed as misunderstood geniuses by those who refuse to acknowledge that arcane and convoluted prose do not equate with true wisdom. For readers whose interests range over the same extended cultural spectrum as Shattuck's, then CANDOR AND PERSVERSION is a worthwhile read. Alas for me, it was more of a slog than a pleasure.