In this piece I want to try to get away from heroic tales because I don't believe them. Not being religious, I don't need a substitute. And I do not believe that cultural criticism, any more than Leavisite habits of 'feeling life', brings salvation. Being a pragmatist (in the philosophical as well as the practical sense) I do not believe that there are any theories exempt from ideology or the claims of context and contingency. But I do believe that English is important and I want to go on working in it. Why?