Comment by Jonathan Schell. The most appalling result of America's policies in Asia has been the destruction of Asian peoples & Asian culture, but the most ominous result has been the consistent undermining of our own ends and the destruction of ourselves. This is a popular point to make. During the recent emergence of...

Fiction The Circle by Vladimir Nabokov. Dr. Innokentiy Bychkov recalls his childhood in Russia. He was the son of the village schoolmaster in Leshino. He remembers his and his father's relationship to the local nobility, the family of Count Godunov-Cherdyntsev. The Count once helped the elder Bychkov out of a political jam and he is...

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Photographer by George W. S. Trow. Talk story about James Van DerZee, who is 85-years-old, black, & a photographer. Writer met with him one afternoon to go through his book with him. "The World of James Van DerZee" is a moving record of the lives of many black people. There was a picture of...

The Current Cinema by Pauline Kael. Review of "Straw Dogs", directed by Sam Peckpinpah. Its subject is machismo. It has been the obsession behind most of Peckpinpah's other films. In this film the hero - a weak intellectual - is forced to kill in order to save the life of an innocent person who has sought refuge in...

The Race Track by G. F. T. Ryall. Gulfstream Park opened its 40-day meeting last week in the choice spot on the Florida racing calendar that Hialeah has had since 1925. It was a triumph for the persistency of Jimmie Donn and his son, James, Jr., who have been trying for more than 20 years to get...

Fiction Literary Footnote by James Stevenson. Series of captions in French and drawings by the author which begin with a quote from William H. Gass in the N.Y. "Times" Book Review: Proust frequently had tantrums in which he crushed his friends' hats. Writer goes on to show before and after pictures of the hats of M...

Musical Events by Winthrop Sargeant.

A Reporter at Large II-COVERUP by Seymour M. Hersh. REPORTER AT LARGE about the Army's investigation of the Son My massacres of S. Vietnamese civilians (women, children, & old men) by US troops, on Mar. 16, 1968. The troops, attached to the Americal Div., carried out the operations, supposedly against the Vietcong, in the hamlets of My Lai 4...

Comment by Donald Barthelme. Pres. Nixon's announcement that he is withdrawing 70,000 troops from Vietnam over the next 3 months is both welcome and a little unfair. In an election year the President alone can deliver this kind of good news. The other major candidates should have the right to make troop withdrawals, too...

Books by John Updike.

The Talk of the Town Efficiency by Carol Hale. Memorandum distributed to National Headquarters Staff of the Girl Scouts of the USA: National Staff Directive System--Instruction: To: Headquarters Staff From: Director, General Services & Properties Dept. Subject: Electrical Appliances-Percolators/Immersion Heaters/Portable Heaters Encl.: None Reference: None 1. Purpose: To provide information to all staff regarding use...

The Talk of the Town Tribute by Jane Boutwell. Talk story about a reception at the Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center to celebrate the release of records made from 2 memorial concerts for Woody Guthrie. Woody was the most prolific & influential folk singer of his generation, & when he died, in 1967, after a 15-year battle...

Comment by Michael J. Arlen. These are thrilling times to be alive... Howard Hughes. Does the Hughes Tool Company actually exist? We like to think of it as a great, beautiful, spooky thing out there in the dessert: low buildings with no windows... The Hughes Tool Company has a telephone number in New York. We...

Poetry Skulls by Leslie Norris. Last night the snow came...

Poetry Solipsism and Theology by Robert Penn Warren. Wild with ego, wild with world-blame...