The Pygmy and The Giant

Extract

Like the king of England the president of the Modern Language Association reigns but he does not govern. His constitutional duties are negligible: he presides over a few meetings and he appoints a Committee on Resolutions. To those who fear that if the presidential term were extended beyond one year, they might have to listen to two or more addresses by the same incumbent, I bring comfort: nothing in the constitution nor the by-laws requires him to deliver any address whatever. But the president, again like the British monarch, retains one right—the right to be informed. I have sought to be informed during my year in office; and I pay hearty tribute to the Executive Secretary, other members of the Executive Council, members of the staff of the central administrative office, and about one hundred members of the Association who, in response to inquiry, wrote me, most of them at length, giving me their opinions on the structure and present conduct of our society. In many cases these commentaries were joint products of groups of humanists consulted by the writers of the letters. For what I am about to say, however, I only am responsible.