tions of political hysteria served him dailynby the Bloomsbury coterie and the unifiednBritish left. His adroitness in subtly andnpoetically chronicling the psycho-culturalnintercourse between the conqueror andnthe conquered was slighted and despised,nhis presentiments scorned. In his writing,nthe osmosis of civilizations blended opennhatreds and subliminal fascinations intonhuman fates—and the radical Britishnintellectuals who clamored against thisnfeat appear to us now like the monkeysnin the Jungle Book who react to whatnthey dislike with a disgusting din. Mr.nWilson, a distinguished English writer,nnotes all of this with the delicate touchnof a responsible biographer. He cannotnresist the temptation, however, to “modernize”nKipling’s relationship with hisnliterary agent, an American by the namenof Wolcott Balestier—as if simple friendshipnbetween men has been once andnforever erased from the surface of thenearth by an edict from the Gay Task Forcenin San Francisco. DnIn FocusnLebowitz’s SeminalnTormentsnFran ‘Lehowitz: Metropolitan Life;nHenry Robbins/E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.; NewnYork.nJudging by her photograph, FrannLebowitz looks like a feminist radic-libnGreenwich Village storm trooper. Contrarynto the externals, her book reveals anmind tormented by the finest enigmas ofnexistence. She seems to remain in a statenof non-stop confrontation with thenLiberal Culture’s cruelest cliches. Shenboldly proclaims the subtlety of thinking,na human being’s most precious ally. We,nin the Midwest, know that thoughtfulnessnis a value, but to affirm the same innManhattan nowadays amounts to a heroicnstance. She must be fully aware of thenperils she faces in that wilderness ofnliberal publishers, editors and trend­nsetters, after having written and publishednsentences like:n”Women who insist upon having the samenoptions as men would do well to considernthe option of being the strong, silent typen. . . Communists all seem to wear smallncaps, a look I consider better suited tontubes of toothpaste than to people . . .nThere is no such thing as rock-and-rollnin Italy, so all the kids there want to benmovie stars instead of heroin addicts.nThis is very pertinent news if you have antaste for the underaged because it meansnthat it is possible to have an entire conversationnwith a 15-year-oId withoutnfeeling as if you have to throw up.” DnMartin’s MalaisenMalachi Martin: The Final Conclave;nStein and Day; New York.nMalachi Martin, a former Jesuit butnstill faithful Roman Catholic theologiannand writer, has come up with a set ofnquestions, suspicions and conjecturesnwhich may seem revelationary to thenmajority of American Catholics, butnsound old hat to the patient observers ofnthe Eastern European scene. In a partlynfictional account of the present and thenforeseeable future of the CatholicnChurch, Mr. Martin makes it clear thatnthere are forces within the Vatican whichnare banking on the political conquest ofnthe world by the Marxist creed institutionalizednin the Soviet state. Thus, innorder to survive in such a world, somenpower brokers in the Catholic hierarchynhave proposed a peace between the philosophies,nhave established a pattern of coexistence,nand have divided the spheresnof influence of the future.nThe proponents of this uncanny allianceninfer that now may be the onlynopportunity to do so, while the Vaticannstill has some chips on the table andnwields an awesome might in somensocieties. By supporting the “exploitednand oppressed” who allegedly dreamnabout the communist take-over in LatinnAmerica and Asia, the Church can thennnnassociate itself with the winning side andnput itself in a position to strike bargainsnwith the victors and rulers of the newnsocieties. The dialectics of such a theorynis supposed to be perfectly compatiblenwith the Christian ethos: there’s a deeplynseated Catholic tradition of championingnthe cause of the poor and since thenCatholic kingdom is not of this world, itnis once again rendering unto Caesar whatnis his.nImmediately after World War II, thenSoviet secret police, pouring into thenCatholic nations of Eastern Europe innthe wake of the invading Soviet armies,nscouted for collaborationists. They foundnthem among the ranks of the pre-warnFascist henchmen who masked theirntotalitarianism with their noisily promulgatednallegiance to tradition. Havingnlittle trouble adapting to Red totalitarianism,nthey soon started subverting thenChurch for their new masters. By thentime Pope John XXIII assumed the HolynSeat, the fascist-Catholics-turned-marxian-neophytes-and-proselytizersnwere solidlynentrenched in the Vatican’s EasternnEuropean politics. They worked to subvertnthe solid Catholic hierarchy whichnstood firm against Communism in thenpost-World War II reality. However, thennatural rejection of Communism by thenCatholic masses in Poland, Hungary andnCzechoslovakia, reenforced by inspirednleaders like Cardinals Mindszenty andnWyszynski, proved to be durable evennagainst the complots of the KGB andnGestapo experts backed by several misguidednpragmatists of the Eastern Europeannbishopry.nThe most significant post-war phenomenonnis the emergence and success ofna new Catholic intellectualism in thenareas where Marxism has tried to becomenthe official, rigidly observed and brutallynenforced “faith.” In contrast to the expectationsnof the pro-Communist clergynof the West who demand nothing morenthan survival in a future world dominatednby Marxism, Catholic thought and literaturenseems to be developing and bloomingnin the very areas where Communismnreigns. New spiritual bonds between then15nChronicles of Culturen