It [socialism] Was A Kind

The Strongest Argument For The Un-materialistic Character Of American Life Is The Fact That We Tolerate Conditions That Are, From A Materialistic Point Of View, Intolerable. ... No Nation With Any Sense Of Material Well-being Would Endure The Food We Eat, The Cramped Apartments We Live In, The Noise, The Traffic, The Crowded Subways And Buses. American Life, In Large Cities, At Any Rate, Is A Perpetual Assault On The Senses And The Nerves.

The Strongest Argument For The Un-materialistic Character Of American Life Is That We Tolerate Conditions That Are, From A Materialistic Point Of View, Intolerable.

The Erotic Element Always Present In Fashion, The Kiss Of Loving Labor On The Body, Is Now Overtly Expressed By Language. Belts Hug Or Clasp; Necklines Plunge; Jerseys Bind. The Word Exciting Tingles Everywhere.

It Is Impossible, Except For Theologians, To Conceive Of A World-wide Scandal Or A Universe-wide Scandal; The Proof Of This Is The Way People Have Settled Down To Living With Nuclear Fission, Radiation Poisoning, Hydrogen Bombs, Satellites, And Space Rockets.

A Novelist Is An Elephant, But An Elephant Who Must Pretend To Forget.