220
PARTISAN REVIEW
noticed. Although we are really preoccupied with quite different
things, and silence reigns by no means simply for the sake of the
singing, and many of us do not even look up, but bury our faces in
the fur of our neighbors, making it seem as though Josephine were
exerting herself before us in vain, yet it cannot be denied that
something of her squeaking reaches us irresistibly. This squeak·
ing, lifted up at a time when silence is enjoined upon all others, is
almost like a message from the nation to each of its individuals; in
the midst of a crisis Josephine's thin squeaking is like the miser·
able existence of our people amidst the tumult of a hostile world.
It does us good to think that Josephine, this nonentity as a voice,
this nonentity as a performer, can still assert herself and find a
way to reach us. At such moments, certainly, we could not endure
a really artistic singer, even
if
one were to be found among us; we
would refuse unanimously to put up with such nonsense. May
Josephine be shielded from the realization that our listening to her
is evidence against her singing. But she probably suspects this
anyhow, otherwise why would she deny so passionately that we do
listen to her? Yet she always manages to sing or squeak this sus·
picion out of her mind.
But even without this, there would still be one sure consola·
tion for her, the fact that to a certain extent we actually do listen
to her, in the same way, probably, that one would listen to an
artistic singer; and she achieves effects for us for which an artistic
singer would strive in vain, and which are granted only to her
insufficient powers. It is most likely that this has something to do
on the whole with our way of life.
Our people have no youth, just barely a tiny moment of child·
hood. It is true that demands are regularly raised that children he
granted a special liberty, a special indulgence, the right to a little
freedom from care, to a little silly romping, to a little play; we are
called on to recognize this right and help make it an actuality;
demands like these are .raised and almost everybody approves of
them, nothing is more worthy of approval, but there is also nothing
which the facts of our life can less permit. The demands are
approved, attempts are made to carry them out, but soon every·
thing returns to the old state of affairs. Our life is such that a
child has to take care of itself as soon as it can run about a little
and recognize the world around it; the areas in which for economic
