Entry 11:

Dear Sarah:

I'm torn which way to go ... the avant-garde and French cinema ... the cult of the revolutionary ... the politicization of the NEA ... and I'm still eager to define more clearly our discussion of the atavistic massacres now proliferating around the world.

OK. The politicization of the NEA. Briefly. The Endowment has come to be relatively trivial, but that is not because of the hounding of Republican critics. It's because of contradictions that have been building for some time between the role of the patron and the role of a public agency in a contentious democracy. The small grants that have caused mini-scandals are just the dust particles around which mighty hailstones congeal (hmmm ... I'll rethink that metaphor, but time is short and dinner is almost upon us). And there are weighty issues here.

That is why I agree with my employer about featuring that story on Page A1 this morning: Though the numbers are trivial, though the book is minor, the event is resonant and reaches beyond the NEA. The aspects of this children's book that caused problems were probably the very aspects of the book that won over panels to begin with. Judging from the book's description (and I too would like to see it), it came with just the proper sort of ideological baggage to guarantee NEA attention: folk romanticism, political romanticism, political pedagogy (learning about multiculturalism from the "grass roots"), even sexual romanticism (from the book: "The men and women were sleeping or they were making love, which is a nice way to become tired and then go to sleep"). Its selection was a reflection of what is wrong with the NEA's approach to funding; so was the cancellation. And these conflicts show something about how confused we are about art in America, and not just about multiculturalism. ...

But instead of going deeper into this knotty realm, let's try for something lighter ... RJR Nabisco and the liability of tobacco companies? Intel compromising with FTC? Newspapers and the Internet? Just say the word ... well, maybe we'd better start fresh tomorrow.

In fact, I notice that my morning's scrambled eggs have congealed and the coffee has a rancid film on it. That's what happens when I work all day at the breakfast table. I'll take off now to watch a tape of A Clockwork Orange and think about Ludwig van.

Best,

Ed