eighteen easy lessons, how tonspeak Roland-Barthes, a langu^enwhich bears some resemblancento French.” Terry E^eton, a criticnwho regularly produces in thenMarxist mode, has created, nondoubt unwittingly, a guide thatncould be called Talk ModemnLiterary Theory Like a Pro. Poststructuralist,nfeminist, psychoanalytic,nand Marxist forms ofncant are all there, ready for excisionnand reapplication by thosenwho like to sound “with it” atncocktail and/or herb-tea parties.nOstensibly, E^eton’s book is ancritical examination of SamuelnRichardson’s Ctorissa (1748) anbook discussed primarily in classroomsnand there but rarely. Notnonly is Clarissa some 2000 p>^esnlong, but it was, well, written bynRichardson. Eagleton announcesnthat Clarissa is a book whosentime has come, or, in his feshionablenformulation, “The wager ofnthis book is that it is just possiblenthat we may now once ^ain benable to read Samuel Richardson.”nWe’d like to call that bet, but wenfeel that it’s un£ur to take advantagenof child’s play.nEagleton, through WalternBenjamin, maintains that booksnpass into a dormant state and arenreactivated when the conditionsnare right: it’s not unlike the suspended-animationnscenario usednin gtade-B science-fiction movies.nRichardson is for revitalizationnbecause his novels:nare not only or even primarilynliterary texts: they entwinenwith commerce, religion,ntheatre, ethical debate, thenvisual arts, public entertainment.nThey are both cogs in anculture industry and sacrednscripture to be reverentlynconned. In short, they are organizingnforces of what, aiternGerman political theory, wenmay term the bourgeoisn’public sphere.’nTo be briefer: Richardson’s novelsnare long and little read so onencan therefore say just about anythingnhe wants to about them:nChronicles of Culturenwrote Shakespeare in Merchantnof Venice, “The devil can citenScripture for his purpose.” Eagletonncan use Richardson for hisnobjective. Richardson becomesn”the eng^ingly modem deconstructionistnadrift in an infinity ofntexts,” which has a more sophisticatednring to it than “18thcenturynprinter-tumed-novelist.”nThe character Lovelace is nonThrow the Bum Out!nRaynMmd Mungo: Confessionsnfrom Left Field: A BaseballnPilgrimage; E. P. Dunon; New York.nBaseball, as far as we know, isnstill the national pastime, thoughnits position may be usurped byncocaine snorting. If RaymondnMungo’s observations have anynvalidity—which is questionable,ngiven his past, which includesnthe founding of the LiberationnNews Service and a stint as then”religion editor” olMotherJonesn—then cocaine is on the upswingnMr. Mungo cites a source (hardlynunimpeachable: an actor whonplays on Laveme & Shirley ) whonclaims that 70 percent of all ballplayersnuse cocaine. Say it ain’t so.nBaseball’s popularity can, innpart, be attributed to the regularitynof the game. Events are wellnordered; playing positions arenwell defined. Those who are alreadynregular often find baseballnto be boring. Those who lacknthat tidiness find comfort in baseball.nFew of these people are asnirregular as Mr. Mungo. Mr.nMungo (we assume that he isnbipedal), for example, says thisnabout himself, his former comrades,nand their consequences,nthough he doesn’t recognize theneffects as stemming from hisn”causes”:nThe sixties at Boston Universitynwere exciting In onenelectrifying coup after anotlier,nwe placed a black militantninto the office of Studentnmere rake in Eagleton’s handlingnbut a “post-structuralist precursor,nmaster of neologism and …ndouble entendre, given to transcribingngrunts and yawns semiotically,nmildly radical in politicsnand fescinated by textual marginalia.”nWhat Lovelace did tonClarissa, E^eton attempts to donto the entire so-called YalenSchool. DnCouncil president, myself intonthe editorship of the B.U.nNews, drove the Army ROTCnoff campus, forced the universitynpresident into earlynretirement, burned our draftncards, staged massive protests,nsit-ins, and marches Todayn… Boston is a kind of livingnhell to me The steady declinenin public education andnrise in crime and urban decaynhave left a city in peril ofnlosing its soul. The tableaunthat most affected me was thensight of schoolchildren uprootingnthe flowers in thenPublic Gardens. .. . Some ofnthese ten-year-olds havenswitchblades.nGiven his antics during the 60’s,nit would be just to chain him to anpost in the Public Gardens, tonassign him to his own little circlenof the Inferno that he helpedncreate.nMr. Mungo is no longer a dedicatednyoung rebel who perceivesnhis mission as the betterment ofnmankind through the destructionnof civilization. It’s not that hendoesn’t think that it should bendestroyed, it’s just that he has enterednhis autimin years (he wasnbom in 1946, but given the chemicalndamage to which he’s subjectednhimself he must be ancientnbeyond his years) and sonhe’s more concerned with RaymondnMungo than anything ornanyone else. The noble sentimentsnof the 60’s radicals are evidentnin a passage wherein Mr.nMungo describes a recent visitnnnhe paid to a demonstration againstnthe construction of the Naritanairport in Japan. He announces,n”I’m opjxjsed to the Narita airportnas much as to the San Francisconairport and all airports. I’mnopposed to nuclear power,” Hisncredentials are still in order. Butnthen the worm squirms: “But disapprovalnof the land-ravagingnNarita development and thenwhole direction of nuclear madnessnin Japan ran squarely upngainst my natural desire to escapenharm, stay alive, and to holdnon to my pot” He slithered away.nConfessions from Left Field- AnBaseball Pilgrimage is tangentiallynabout baseball. The fieldnselection is deliberate. Mr. Mungonhas a void at the center of hisnexistence, so while flailing about,nlooking for something to stuif itnwith, he has leached onto baseball.nOld hippies don’t die, theynfester. Someone should take Mr.nMungo out to the ball game andnuse him for batting practice. DnCorpses onnthe CouchnAllison Davis: Leadership,nLove & Aggression; HarcourtnBrace Jovanovich; San Diego.nIf the departed witness eventsnon earth, then the publication ofnthis inane book will cause embarrassmentnnot only for its readersnbut also for its subjects. Fornmen as talented as FredericknDouglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, RichardnWright, and Martin Luther King,nJr. it would be sheer torture tonknow that a book as stylisticallynand intellectually inept as thisnone had been written about them.nThese four gifted black leadersnendured lives made diflScult bynprejudice and oppression fl-omnvs^iites (slavery in Douglass’sncase), disloyalty and misunderstandingnamong blacks, and confusionnand strife in their ownn