In Defence of Art: Critical Essays and Reviews by Louis Dudek (review)

152 LETTERS IN CANADA 1988 couples 'the popularity of autobiography and the proliferation of creative writing workshops' without any suggestion of a causal link between the two are characteristic of his illogical, fuzzy thinking. And the entire introduction is unargued. It moves in a muddled and vague appeal to cultural history from Hawthorne, through Thoreau, Heraclitus, Jung, Robertson Davies, and Otto Rank. Beyond a dislike for 'our climate of indeterminacy and relativism,' little emerges from this heterogeneous survey, least of all any sense of the range of Canadian autobiography, of the relevance of previous criticism and theory of the genre to our autobiography, or of the issues which arise from his contributors' essays. Those essays are uneven in their quality but they deserve better than this from the editor. (SHIRLEY NEUMAN) Louis Dudek. In Defence of Art: Critical Essays and Reviews. Edited with an introduction by Aileen Collins Quarry Press. 302. $29.95; $19.95 paper Perhaps the most remarkable fact about this book is that it exists at all. Those of us who do not live in Montreal are unlikely to have been aware of its contents: over a hundred specimens of Louis Dudek's 'critical journalism' selected out of over two hundred articles published in newspapers since 1958. That in itself is a surprise. But in addition these essays (mainly from the Montreal Star and the Gazette, with a few from the Toronto Globe and Mail and elsewhere) are - wonder of wonders - serious discussions ab0ut poetry and matters of the intellect. Dudek is, in his own words, 'an old-fashioned critic,' and he is continually lamenting the decline of popular culture ('in this century only best-sellers and soap advertisements are designed for great audiences'). Yet somehow he was able to persuade the Montreal Star in the early years and the Gazette from mid-1965 until 1969 (and sporadically thereafter) to publish reasonably regular contributions on literary and especially poetic matters as ifa sizeable general readership still existed. These may take the form of book reviews (from Britain and the United States as well as Canada) or more general articles on cultural topics of the moment. They are written clearly but without any trace of journalistic oversimplification; furthermore, they presuppose readers who not only share his artistic interests but are prepared to read in a newspaper what many people these days consult (if at all) only in libraries. Occasional contributions (all, significantly, reviews) have graced the pages of the Toronto Globe and Mail book page since 1979, where they tend to stand out as seriousminded intellectual exceptions to the breezy middlebrow rule. Such rich literary fare on a regular basis is not, so far as I know, available (to our shame) in the newspapers ofwhat we now call English-speaking Canada. HUMANITIES 153 Those who are familiar with Dudek's earlier work - whetherin prose or verse - will know what to expect from this book, and they will not be disappointed. Here is Dudek fulfilling his accustomed role as defender of literacy, artistic tradition, and intelligence against mass civilization (though he wouldn't grant the word 'civilization' to this phenomenon), rampant philistinism, and the muddled advocates of McLuhanism. The book is divided into four parts. The first is entitled'A Plea for Education: Essays on Contemporary Culture'; the other three sections consist of gatherings of reviews - on literary modernism, Canadian literature, and 'the Sister Arts' (painting, sculpture, theatre, film). On all subjects, Dudek's good sense, clear mind, and firm (but by no means narrow) taste are conspicuous, and the book is notable stylistically for a memorable directness that continually verges on the epigrammatic. For example: 'Civilization is, in its depth, the repossession of all the human past'; 'If popular taste mattered, gladiatorial fights would still be considered the greatest show on earth'; 'The world is divided into the unfree and the too free'; 'It's dangerous to fall into the good graces of the Canadian Authorand Bookman.' The book has been edited and introduced by Aileen Collins (for reasons unknown, the publishers have coyly suppressed the fact that she is Dudek's wife). The introduction is accurate and appropriate as an indication of what is to follow, though...