LITERATURE IN OUR TIME
event of an American victory, the best of us will be put into the jars
of literary history and won't be taken out again.
A dear-sighted view of the darkest possible situation is in itself
already an optimistic act.
It
implies, in effect, that the situation can
be
thought
about, that is, that we are not lost
in
a dark forest and that,
on the contrary, we can break away from it, at least
in
spirit, that we
can examine it and thus already go beyond it and take up our reso–
lutions in the face of it, even if these resolutions .are hopeless. Our
engagement must begin the moment we are repulsed and excommu–
nicated by the Churches, when the art of writing, wedged in between
different propagandas, seems to have lost its characteristic effective–
ness. It is not a question of adding to the exigencies of literature, but
simply of serving them altogether, even without hope.
(Translated by Bernard Freehtman)
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