POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY OLIVER KAMM IN THE TIMES
I think you quite wrong in your regard for Updike's political patter, at least if these samples are typical (I've not been a follower of his thought, regarding him as a sophisticated entertainer rather than a great writer).
His attitudes about war are all too typical in America and fairly trivial by any standard. His comparison with sex is nothing less than slightly ridiculous, if not perverted.
He is a good writer, at least with a certain limited standard of judgment, a technician, a standard with which a master like Graham Greene would not agree.
But, in any event, being a good writer is no protection against political or other kinds of stupidity or prejudice.
John Steinbeck was a perfect example. And Ezra Pound. Martin Amis. We have the same phenomenon in all the arts. How about Wagner? And many, many others.
