Volume 40, Number 4 · February 11, 1993
Fatal Attraction
By John Weightman
Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956
by Tony Judt
University of California Press, 348 pp., $30.00
This excellent book has been given an oddly inappropriate title. 'Past imperfect,' in its literal meaning as a grammatical term, distinguishes a particular tense of the French verb from the 'past definite' and the 'pluperfect.' Here it is being applied metaphorically to a certain historical time span. But history is different from grammar; since all historical periods, whatever their virtues, have invariably been defective in some respect or other, there is no sure point of comparison, no perfection, to give meaning to the metaphor. Besides, the subject the author is dealing with—the strangely uncritical attitude toward the Soviet Union of a majority of French intellectuals in the aftermath of the Second World War—was not a mere lapse from perfection; it was a strong, collective psychosis, an aggressive moral blindness, and so the joky, punning title is rather out of keeping with the seriousness of the theme.
Review, 5361 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |