Glowing with pleasure or pale with responsibility, these boy and girl schismatics nurtured in the Party and now feeling its disapproval (expressed parentally by withdrawal of financial support) showed extraordinary discipline, cheerfulness, and patience in handling the crowds, mostly their contemporaries, though there were elders of the movement present in the front “honorary” rows. Two giant Christmas trees on either side of the platform struck the festive, family note. The occasional boos and hisses directed at the speakers were in the festal spirit—a form of sardonic applause accorded the enemy for his courage or simply for his long-windedness. No speaker was prevented from continuing. I do not think a meeting of this kind would have been so orderly and good-natured in the United States, though it is impossible, really, to imagine a parallel there, since a meeting on the topic of “What Can Literature Do?” would not have been attended by four thousand young people, even if the fire laws would have allowed it in a hall the size of the Mutualité.These Parisian students expected something from this panel.
