Time

LETTERS 4

TO OUR READERS 17

CHRONICLES 19

MILESTONES 27

CONGRESS: The High Price of Gridlock 28

Voters are primed to punish Democrats for the mess

Tom Foley: The speaker falls behind at home

Ted Kennedy: Are his days numbered?

Republicans: Newt Gingrich's eyes are on the prize

THE POLITICAL INTEREST: Hope Grows in Harlem 41

Some help is finally reaching the inner cities

HAITI: Delicate Balance 42

Disorder shows how vulnerable Bill Clinton's policy is

Close Call: A reporter caught between the factions

BOSNIA: Off the Hook 49

Izetbegovic excuses Clinton from his promise on the embargo

DIPLOMACY: Nuclear Hardball 51

Pyongyang's brinkmanship threatens its talks with the U.S.

DISASTERS: The Cruel Sea 52

The ferry Estonia takes more than 900 to the bottom

BUSINESS: Devilish Derivatives 54

The exotic investments strew wreckage across the country

TRADE: What Price Asia? 61

Doing business in China means spawning imitators

IDEAS: The Ultimate Reading List 62

Harold Bloom defends his, though it's full of Dead White Males

MEDICINE: Taking Potshots at Prozac 64

Psychiatry's chief gadfly claims pills don't help the mentally ill

Voices of Hope: A radio show features recovered schizophrenics

COVER: Free at Last 66

In a brash display of cultural audacity, a new wave of African-American painters, writers, dancers and musicians sets off an exciting renaissance by laying claim to the artistic traditions of both blacks and whites

Henry Louis Gates Jr.: A leading black scholar looks back at renaissances past and finds hope for the future

THE ARTS & MEDIA

Show Business: Quentin Tarantino's enthralling Pulp Fiction combines the high octane and the highbrow 76

Theater: Show Boat just keeps rollin' along 80

Cinema: Schlock auteur Ed Wood is now a brand name 82

Albert Brooks is hilarious in The Scout

I Don't Want to Talk About It stars a beguiling Mastroianni

Books: Imperium explores the crumbling old Soviet Union

85

Walter Winchell gets a superb biography

Barry Lopez's Field Notes speaks to the denatured urbanite

Television: The real scandal is how Quiz Show treats TV

91

PEOPLE 93

ESSAY 94

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published weekly except for two issues combined into one at year-end for $61.88 per year by Time Inc. Principal Office: Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y., 10020-1393. Reginald K. Brack Jr., Chairman, CEO; Don Logan, President; Joseph A. Ripp, Treasurer; Harry M. Johnston, Secretary. Second-class postage paid at New York, New York, and at additional mailing offices. (c) 1994 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. TIME and the Red Border Design are protected through trademark registration in the United States and in the foreign countries where TIME magazine circulates. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TIME, P.O. Box 30601, Tampa, Florida 33630-0601. For subscription queries, call Customer Service at 1-800-843-TIME (8463).