All the Men - 1964

Of po etr y, painting, sculpture , photo graphy,dancing and sin g­ ing—of such diversions andothers known asArt— whatsha ll be said? Th ey ex ist. Th is we mus t ass ume,otherw isewe may no t as sumeour own ex ist ence .What else is there to say? We cont empl at e and spec ­ ul at e, and studious lyexamin e, and if so moved by th e work before us we undertaketo quest ionor exp lai n,in some deg ree ,why we ha ve pau sed . Whoever listens might the n nod and smile, or offe r up a cur iou s thought, responding as be fit s him; but he re comesa tim e,no ma tter how conf ounded,outraged ,stu pe fie d,or bemuse d we be by the wor ld's fan tas tic gyrat ion , when we murmur, () ! do no t as k: 'What is it?'—with Prufrock simply le t us go and mak eour visi t. Ultim ately it is fin ished— thereas oning, the queryin g,th e ad ­ mira tion and the censure—and two by two, unnumberedranks, in to the Ark aga in we go , while what was done remains , unp erturb edas shards of Ozymandi ason the leve l sand. So here is a book of photogra phy,abou t which no thing will be sai d. Pictures were meant to be looked at . Perhaps thes ehave been somehow enhancedby the mis cel laneou sthoughts of var ious mi nds. Th at is for each to deci de.

Written by E VAN S. C ONNEU, (Ev an S. Coun cil is an edito r of (,'ontact, th e San Francis co lite rar y quarter ly. His shor t storieshave appeare d in vario us maga zines , an­ thologie s, and textboo ks. A coll ecti on of his stori es was pub lish ed under the titl e The Anatomy Lesson, and he is the aut hor of thr ee novels, Mr s. Bridge, which has l>eentransl ated int o several lang uag es. The Patr iot, and hismost recent and highly praised work. Notes From A Bottle Found On The Beach At Ca rmel.)