Arthur Koestler
FATIGUE OF THE SYNAPSES*
Leo Nikolayevich Leontiev had been struggling for three
hours to write the eight hundred words of the cabled version of his
speech destined for home consumption. To reach the deadline of the
next Friday issue of "Freedom and Culture," the text of the cable
had to be delivered by 8 p.m. at the latest to the office of the Com–
monwealth Government's official News Agency. It was now 6 p.m.,
and the Agency had already twice telephoned for the text. Leontiev
had two hours left to write it and to change for the reception which
Monsieur Anatole was giving in his honor. He rose impatiently and
crossed the soft carpet to the French window.
The hotel was one of the famed old buildings in a side street
from the Rue de Rivoli, and the windows of his suite overlooked the
Place Vendome. The square looked even more solid and restful than
usual at this late afternoon hour of a hot summer day. It had con-ti–
nuity, as his old friend Monsieur Anatole would say. Leontiev tried
to recall the sight of the slums of Belleville as an antidote, but did
not succeed. The image that appeared before his mind's eye was that
of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
He went back to the graceful Regency desk and started once
again on his labors. The trouble was that it was not enough to trans-
*
This is a chapter from
The Age of Longing
(to be published by Macmillan
in March ), the action of which takes place in the middle 1950's. "It is not,"
Koestler says in the preface, "a visionary tale of the future; it merely takes the
present one step further in time." The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has
changed its name to "Commonwealth of Freedom-Loving People" by decree of
the Marshal of Peace. H ero of Culture and Joy of the People, Leo Nikolayevich
Leontiev, poet laureate of the Commonwealth, has come to Paris as star delegate
of the Rally for Peace and Progress.
