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PARTISAN REVIEW
at Josephine. You might admit to yourself that there is much
food for laughter in Josephine-and in an abstract sense we are
always close to laughter; in spite of all the sorrows of our life, a
kind of mild laughter is habitual to us-but we do not laugh at
Josephine. At times I have the impression that the people conceive
of their relationship to Josephine as one by which this frail, pili·
able and somehow remarkable creature-rema.rkable, in her opin·
ion, for her singing-has been entrusted to their care. The reason
for this is clear to no one, but it seems to be an established fact.
And no one laughs at that which has been entrusted to one; to
laugh at that would be to fail in one's duty. The utmost malice
that the most malicious among us can show towards Josephine is
to say now and then, "Laughter fails us when we look at Josephine."
And so the people take care of Josephine the way a father
would who has adopted a child that stretches out its little hand to
him-whether in pleading or command, one could not tell. Our
nation might be thought unequal to such paternal obligations, but
actually, it discharges them, in this case at least, in exemplary
fashion; no single individual is capable of doing what the nation
as a whole can in this respect. The difference between the powers
of that nation and the powers of the individual is so enormous in
fact, that it suffices for the nation but to draw its. protege into the
warmth of its nearness in order to protect it. No one, to tell the
truth, dares mention such things to Josephine. "I don't give a
squeak for your protection," she would say. And we would think,
"Yes indeed, that is just what you do, really." And besides,
it
does not disprove anything when Josephine rebels; it is rather the
way of a child and the gratitude of a child, and it is the way of a
father not to pay any attention to it.
But other things are involved which are more difficult to
explain on the basis of this relationship between the people and
Josephine. Josephine, you see, has the opposite opinion, and thinks
that it is she who protects the nation. Her singing rescues us, sup–
posedly, from dangerous political and economic situations-no
less than that-and if it does not drive misfortune away, it at least
gives us the strength to bear it. She does not put it in this way
exactly, nor in any other way-she says little in general, she is
silent among all the chatterers-but it flashes from her eyes, it can
be read from her closed mouth-among us only a few can keep
