542
PARTISAN
REVIEW
em anny surrendered to the enemy; and in exchange, though with
the greatest honors, he was beheaded. The Eastern army occupied
the country and the new life, that of Murti-Bing realized, began.
The heroes of the novel, once tormented by philosophical "insatiety,"
now came to the service of the new society. Instead of writing the
dissonant music of former days, they composed marches and odes.
Instead of painting abstractions, as before, they turned out socially
useful pictures. But since they could not rid themselves completely
of their former personalities, they became outstanding cases of
schizophrenia.
So much for the novel. Its author often expressed
his
belief
that religion, philosophy and
art
are living out their last days. Yet
he found life without them worthless. On September 17, 1939,
learning that the Red Army had crossed the eastern border of Poland,
he committed suicide by taking veronal and cutting his wrists.
Today, Witkiewicz's vision is being fulfilled in the minutest
detail throughout a large part of the European continent. Perhaps
sunlight, the smell of the earth, little everyday pleasures, and the
forgetfulness that work brings can ease somewhat the tensions created
by this process of fulfillment. But beneath the activity and bustle
of daily life is the constant awareness of an irrevocable choice to
be made. One must either die (physically or spiritually), or else one
must be reborn according to a prescribed method, namely, the taking
of Murti-Bing pills. People in the West are often inclined to con–
sider the lot of converted countries in teIms of might and coercion.
That
is
wrong. There is an internal longing for hannony and hap–
piness that lies deeper than ordinary fear or the desire to shield
one's self against misery or physical destruction. The fate of com–
pletely logical, non-dialectical people like Witkiewicz is a warning
for many an intellectual. All about
him,
he sees the frightening ex–
ample of internal exiles, irreconcilable, non-participating, eroded
by hatred. In order to understand the situation of a writer in a
"popular democracy," one must seek the reasons for his activity and
ask how he maintains his equilibrium. Whatever one may say, the
New Faith affords great possibilities for an active and positive life.
And Murti-Bing is more tempting to an intellectual than to a
peasant or laborer. For the intellectual, the New Faith is a candle
that he circles like a moth, eventually to be consumed by its flame.
