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Philip Johnson Begins a Much-Needed Re-Evalu- Ation of the Intellectual Legacy of One of 20Th-Century Architecture’S Most Significant Figures

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Philip Johnson Begins a Much-Needed Re-Evalu- Ation of the Intellectual Legacy of One of 20Th-Century Architecture’S Most Significant Figures The THE NEWSPAPER OF THE LITERARY ARTS Volume 5, Number 2 March 1995 Ithaca, New York A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Lincoln Center Ph ilip Johnson: Life and Works Franz Schulze Knopf, 465 pages, $30 Kazys Varnelis Franz Schulze’s biography of Philip Johnson begins a much-needed re-evalu- ation of the intellectual legacy of one of 20th-century architecture’s most significant figures. While the quality of his designs may be open to debate, Johnson has played a key historical role in shaping architectural discourse as the founder of the Museum of Modem Art’s architecture department, co-organizer of MoMA’s seminal exhibit on “International Style” modern architecture in 1932, and subsequent promoter of German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, historical eclecticism, postmodernism, and deconstructivism. In this first book-length biography on the architect, Schulze has some sur­ prises in store for the general public, chiefly in documenting Johnson’s activities in the late 1930s as a fascist, anti-Semite, and active propagandist for the Nazi govemment.The book may well prove scandalous for architecture, whose criti­ cal-historical establishment has maintained a public silence on the topic while gossiping about it in private. Sources on Johnson’s past—contemporary accounts, his own writings, histories of the period, even articles in magazines like The New Yorker and Esquire—were available many years prior to the publication of Schulze’s biography, but printed references to Johnson’s past in the architectural media have always been carefully circumscribed. (In contrast, over 300 articles have been published on Paul de Man’s collaboration with the Nazis and similarly copious discourse exists on Martin Heidegger.) Although not an authorized biography, the Schulze book was written with Johnson’s cooperation. While publication was originally to take place only after Johnson’s death, Schulze published it this year as the now 88-year-old architect showed no signs of slowing down. As in his book on Johnson’s architectural mentor Mies van der Rohe, Schulze organizes his narrative as a biography, paying particular attention to his subject’s psychic state. But since Schulze only grudgingly gives citations, it is often hard to tell when he has derived knowledge from interviews and publications and when he extrapolates what went on in Johnson’s head. Schulze begins with an account of Johnson’s family and upbringing. Bom in see Philip Johnson, page 8 Jack Sherman I nside John Vernon on The New Historical Novel, page 3 Duane Chapman on South Africa’s Kruger National Park, page 5 Edward T. Chase on Global Joblessness, page 16 page 2 The BOOK PRESS March, 1995 Letters to the Editor politicized schools of Lit Crit, but does SDS response,” I am reduced to “a sixties tural arts” than the literary. I’ve gotta wonder Bloomdido Esolen think that they are exemplars of tem­ SDS spokesman,” the SDS theories were how it actually flies under the flag of your perate poise and balanced judgment? Harold responsible for everything bad that subse­ masthead? But why let the sign on the door To the Editor: is not the only serious critic who has objected quently happened in the University, and the limit the menu when a sweet, readable piece Gary Esolen’s commentary on Harold to the reductive obsession with race, sex, and consequence of SDS opinions is the anti- like this comes along....It was fried chicken Bloom is a lot more civil than Richard class in much current criticism and the vulgar Semitism of some black nationalists. A nice, at The Moosewood....Ithaca Hours at Wal- Klein’s disdainful bashing of him. Even so, it use of “the West” as a synonym for oppres­ comfortable piece of stereotyping, but it has Mart.... suffers from the political condescension of a sion, a crude club with which to beat up on little to do with the complicated questions Enough. You get the picture. The sixties SDS spokesman, who still finds it hard “dead white males.” that faced thousands of people in and around “Moore” piece encouraged me to plow to imagine how anyone who was not “reac­ Harold, who is passionate about Jewish Cornell in 1969. It would be tempting to start through (most of) the rest of the issue and, on tionary” could have failed to sympathize with history and Israel’s survival, was keenly arguing about details, but I doubt if it would the whole, to enjoy it. I still feel like my plow the black protestors’s repudiation of the cam­ aware in 1969, before many other intellectu­ lead to useful or even civil discourse. has hit a very large stone when I see the word pus legal system, forcible occupation of the als were, of the ominous element of anti- I will say that I think there were heroes “theory” tossed around with such abandon. student union, and importation of rifles into Semitism in some black nationalist dema­ in April of 1969, and they were the people But that is doubtless the house of cards you the occupied building. So he imagines a crisis gogues and pseudo-scholars. He admired the who put political stereotypes aside and must visit from time to time to keep the cus­ of conscience must explain Bloom’s pro­ black novelist Ralph Ellison, but Harold was looked for, and found, a workable, non­ tomers coming back. (In the post-NAFTA found agitation and divergence from skeptical that his admiration would be shared violent solution to a very tense and difficult service economy “would you like some liter­ Esolen’s support of the protestors. by a strongly politicized black studies pro­ situation. ary theory with that, ma’am?” doubtless gen­ Harold was a colleague of mine at Yale gram. In fact, Ellison was never invited to erates as many jobs as McBurger’s mini­ and a friend when he was here at the Society speak at Cornell though some anti-Semitic —Gary Esolen mum-waged billions-fold inquiry about of the Humanities in 1969. He had fears more demagogues and pseudo-scholars have New Orleans “fries”!) I hope you continue to not take the apocalyptic than mine and was as disturbed recently made their appearance at campus “literary” part too literally and leave the the­ as Esolen perceived him to be. He thought the events, sponsored by black organizations. orists to clamber [sic] for publication in their university should be closed down, while I Harold would not be surprised to hear about more “esteemed” journals. The Bookpress is thought doing so would hand the protestors it. Double Take a pretty gpod piece of work. Thanks. even more of a victory than the concessions Harold is deliberately and audaciously pro­ they did win from an administration that was voking because he knows too well the ten­ To the Editor: —Daryl Anderson understandably worried about the potential dency of many academics to join “the herd of As a recently arrived Ithacan I was pleased Ithaca for violence in the predicament they faced. It independent minds.” He has never traveled in to see the range of local-flavored alternative was one they had allowed to develop because packs. His passionate career in literature may publications—as a former writer and staff they had failed to prepare for the legal reme­ have drawn on a penchant for apocalypticism member of Buffalo’s Alt./Alternative Press I dy of an injunction and had allowed the guns in his character and outlook, but there is no know how hard it can be to keep such a beast Erin go Branagh (which they knew about) to be imported into need for a “crisis of conscience” in 1969 at on its feet. Although I never really consid­ Willard Straight Hall. But a stiff price would Cornell to explain his literary ambition. He ered myself a follower of the “literary arts,” I To the Editor: have been paid for any of the alternatives has always taken Emerson’s advice: “Whoso did cut my teeth at Alt. writing reviews (and Nicholas Nicastro’s review of the films available in April, 1969, and none of us is would be a man must be a nonconformist.” got lots of free books in the bargain!). So I “Frankenstein” and “Interview with a Vam­ entitled to be easily confident about the wis­ was especially intrigued to find The Book- pire” in February’s The Bookpress certainly dom of whatever choice we made. —Cushing Strout press stacked next to all the other papers on sheds light on the reasons for their populari­ Harold knew that the SDS response to the Ithaca some comer or another. ty with American studios and audiences. But crisis was in terms of student “power” and Maybe I just picked up an especially bad his reading of them as intending to reflect “participatory democracy.” Applied to acad­ issue that day—back in the fall—or maybe I contemporary American politics seems sus­ emic structures, it resulted in the assumption just thumbed to an especially pompous arti­ pect. Consider this: Neil Jordan, director of that all functional differences of interest Esolen Responds cle in that issue. I clearly recall that my first “Interview,” is from the Republic of Ireland; between teachers and students could be (and second) take was that you were just Kenneth Branagh, director of “Franken­ redueo4 towtuffli of power. I remember argu­ To the Editor: packaging the sort of university-town over- stein,” is from Northern Ireland and current­ ing the point with Gary Esolen in a depart­ Regarding Bloom’s reaction to the 1969 conceptual abstractification that keeps the ly lives in England.
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