Letters, Apr. 25, 1949

(2 of 3)

TIME, in a review of my Watch the North Wind Rise [March 28], states that I wrote of Christ:

The outrageous Child who stole the ax of

power,

Debauched his virgin mother And vowed in rage he would be God the

Father . . .

TIME unkindly attributes a blasphemous howler to historically-minded and not at all eccentric me . . .

My poem is concerned with the variously-named demigod or "spirit of the year"—e.g., Zeus, son of Rhea . . . who in early European religious theory was at first wholly subject to his all-powerful variously-named Virgin Mother. As Europë, "Broad-face" (her full-moon title), she named this

Continent. About the third millennium B.C. he rebelled against her, seizing her sacred hammer or ax or sickle, and is credited in some versions of the myth with having seduced her ; afterwards he set himself up as an authoritarian, patriarchal Thunder-god and kept her in subjection. His tragi-comic destiny (as appears in the poem) is to grow senile and be demoted to a mere God of Revels, a greasy Santa Claus.

The well-loved figure of Christ, securely fixed in the immemorial Stabat Mater tradition of the West, will never take that road; but is likely to assume increasing prominence, while the outrageous child continues to rampage in the East with stolen hammer & sickle.

ROBERT GRAVES Majorca, Spain

Mercy, Justice & Ridicule

Sir:

To Joseph Goldstein and others who consider The Merchant of Venice anti-Semitic [TIME, April 4], I would suggest they . . . reread the play with the open-mindedness they ask of others. Viewed from the 20th Century, the Christians make a pretty poor showing, on the whole. It is they who suffer from delusions of grandeur and indulge freely in insults and jibes; it is they who . . . mouth words like mercy and justice, only to evade an honest bargain by means of a cheap legal trick . . .

ALISON WALKER Boston, Mass.

Sir:

Influenced by certain demands of one Joseph Goldstein ... I seek the suppression of Alice in Wonderland because it ridicules the plight of the poor Mock Turtle, a practically defenseless minority . . .

TOM GUSHING Asheville, N.C.

Hollywood O.K.

Sir:

I was sorry to read in the April 4th issue that Jack Warner disliked Treasure of the Sierra Madre and held up its release. This is not true. On the contrary, everything I have done at Warner Bros, in over 25 years has had his complete cooperation. He purchased the story and assigned it to my production schedule. It is also unfair to leave the inference that John Huston parted company with Warners because of Treasure of the Sierra Madre. After that he directed Key Largo . . .

HENRY BLANKE Hollywood, Calif.

Sir:

Your statement that Johnny Belinda was produced over the protests of Mr. Jack Warner is completely erroneous. Mr. Warner encouraged me in making Johnny Belinda, as well as every other picture I have produced for Warner Bros. For your information, no material for production here is purchased, prepared or actually produced without his okay and enthusiastic support . . .

JERRY WALD Hollywood, Calif. i e

Sir: