CULTURAL FALLOUT
SI —Your contributor Mr. Alan Brien protests that my criticism of George Lukacs is a case of 'the free, man teasing the caged animal.' I doubt if Lukacs sees himself in this unflattering light. I doubt even more if his misguided Western admirers do. They have acquired the habit—on what evidence one does not know- of viewing him not only as a major intel- lectual figure (which he ceased to be some thirty years ago), but as a lonely embattled thinker persecuted for his heresies.. Whereas in prosaic truth he has owed his almost unbroken public eminence (not to mention his physical survival, which was never seriously menaced) to a record of pliability remarkable even during the Stalin era. The purpose of my critical excursion into his past was to confront the reality with the myth. Mr. Brien quotes a parenthetical remark from a somewhat lengthy essay, and contrives to give the impression that • I• have foolishly denounced Lukacs for not measuring up to Socratic standards. Actuall3', 1 contented My- self with observing that he had managed to disillusion even his most loyal followers, who were certainly prepared to make liberal allowance for tactical caution. For the rest I regard the whole issue as relatively unimportant compared with Lukacs's inflated intellectual reputation,' which was the real subject of my article.
GEORGE LICHTHEIM 11 Re'dington Road, NW3
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