of the Berlin stories.

But in those earlier stories the interest was directly realistic, the beautifully observed characters held us as part of a Berlin in transition, a Berlin of peculiar and potent hypnotic force in which Arthur Norris and Kuno von Pregnitz danced their absurd measures. The new characters are no less well drawn and no less convincing, but as pointers to the spiritual pilgrimage of the narrator they seem either inadequate or forced; and, separate and highlighted as they are in the narrative by Christopher's selfabsorption, they have insufficient interest in themselves. True, they are variously related to Munich and the coming war, but that war itself is only an episode in the new book, not a culmination.

The first episode, "Mr. Lancaster," has been published as a separate story and in its deft presentation of youth's failure to make sympathetic contact with lonely middle-age it remains dis tinctly competent short story something by Mr. Isherwood out of his Somerset Maugham side. The failure of "Ambrose," the second episode, is more difficult to explain. I suspect that the curious mock pederastio island Utopia which Ambrose in his desolate gaiety builds up had in its original so curious and Intense a quality that the author does not realise how seldom his memory has fully conveyed this strangeness to the reader. As a result Ambrose, Geoffrey and the boys come over too often as bores. }

THE third episode Christopher in England during the Munich weeks has one particularly disastrous distor tion. To have been in the AudenIsherwood-Spender world may well have been exhilarating and memorable, but the fact remains that the eruptions of "Stephen Savage" (a sly Shelley), the editor John, and

ANGELS WANTED

Hugh Weston strike an intolerable note to those of us who know a little about them; and for the general reader these passages must be sheer nonsense.

Especially is this so with E. M. Forster, who is "E. M." is cast (and surely rightly) for the saint's role at that time. that time. Mr. Isherwood's thanks for an influence so apparent in his early work should be offered in some way less destructive to his own art. "The odd-shaped brown paper parcels in which E. M. carries his belongings from country to town and back again are either too little or too much to convey Mr. Forster's goodness. In any case all this is an annoying coterie cult suggestive of snobbery in an author who is otherwise quite extraordinarily honest and sincere.

All these complaints may seem marginal, but they relate to a central defect: in his cult of the private emotion and. the personal relation ship, in his honest determination never to leave his own genuine experience, Mr. Isherwood sometimes fails to see that, presented to a general audience, what was personally signi ficant may appear blown up or trivial.

Luckily all these faults are largely redeemed by the long last episode, "Paul." Here the more mature Christopher is engaged enough with the tragic Paul to realise the inade quate depths of his engagement. Paul

the most expensive male prosti. tute in the world "is a fully realised human being, an absolute proof of the value of Mr. Isherwood's concentration on the louche world in fletion.

Whether he is practising yoga, working as a pacifist or smoking opium, Paul's involvement is always complete. When the more mature Christopher goes down on a visit to Paul's private hell he does so in carnest and the reader is fully engaged. When the young Christopher fails Mr. Lancaster, Ambrose and Waldemar he also inevitably falls the reader.

SEE BACK COVER.

mattschine REVIEW

EDUCATION

HOMOSEXUALITY DISCUSSED AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE BY DR. JULES GROSSMAN

The following brief report of a sex lecture by a member of the faculty of San Francisco State College represents some viewpoints which are seldom expressed, but may be of considerable Importance in assessing homosexuality. Dr. Grossman's lecture was reported in THE GATER, daily newspaper of San Francisco State College, in April.

Homosexual relations are not that much different than heterosexual relations Dr. Jules Grossman told his audi. ence Tuesday, "they are just limited in apparatus."

Grossman, president of the San Francisco Psychological Association and associate professor of psychology here, went on to say that most of the acts engaged in by homosexuals are also practiced in normal relations.

An advocate of the developmental theory rather than the biological theory, Grossman contends that something hap pens during the development of the child, at the time he is most aware of sex; that causes. the deviations from the norm.

He feels that the biological theory, which proposes that the homosexual has an abundance of hormones of the opposite sex, does not explain the whole story.

"While it might account for the active partner in the relationship, it does not explain the Lesbian who plays the female role."

Grossman defined homosexuality as "not so much an attraction toward someone of the same sex as it is fear of a person of the opposite sex."

A child, he feels, normally identifies with the parent of the same sex. When that the is thwarted, the child turns to the other parent.

Most children or adolescents go through a stage of homosexual experience, Grossman said. In this way he explains that the adult homosexual is actually, regressing to childhood behavior. This, he feels, can explain why many homosexuals are married and have children. The act of intercourse brings back anxieties he felt as a child and causeI him to seek other relationships.

In fact, Grossman feels that a man having intercourse with a woman, but fantasizing a male partner, is still having a homosexual experience,