H.
J.
Kaplan
LETTER FROM HOME
A conversation with the editors of
Partisan Review:
is interested in my first reactions to this country. "How does it feel
back?" PR would like a piece on France, where I have been
working for more than ten years, now that I can take a more
view." ... Since I have returned, myoId and rather distracted
with what was going on at home has become a sort of anxiety. It
is
parable to having a mission in a country where the language is
related to one you know, but different. Living on the verge of
hension gives you the cold sweat of the mountain climber who,
himself in trouble, strikes out along a ledge knowing only that each
forward will make it more difficult if not impossible to go back.
the moment he must concentrate on each movement ahead, but
pounds in his mind is the fear that his ledge may be leading him
where.
Distance simplifies and distorts, as everyone knows. So in
I was able to lecture confidently about this country which has
a great buzzing confusion since my return. Does this mean that
have been saying to French audiences, from within the French .
is false? I'm afraid that it does: such falsehood is inherent
in
communication. But if we can apply the laws of optical
reestablish the size and shape of objects in space, no such general
exist to correct our views of each other and of other peoples. We
find specific causes for each distortion. Each situation becomes
French call a
cas d'espece
and must be described, as it were,
ologically, with only the most hypothetical-if any-references to
categories, and laws.
Must?
This is an essentially moral imperative, for it goes
saying that human situations can be and frequently are
other ways. Polemically, for example. The odd thing is that
in
country, where I am told we are in an era of great good feeling, so
