WALTER BENJAMIN
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alienation-effects, give the performance epic features. With small
companies something similar can happen. I recall the Geneva perfor–
mance of
L e Cid,
at which the sight of the King's crooked crown gave
me the first idea for the book on tragedy which I wrote nine years later.
Here Brecht on his side quotes the moment in which the idea of epic
theater is rooted.
It
was a rehearsal for the Munich performance of
Edward
II.
The battle that occurs in the play has to hold the stage for
three-quarters of an hour. Brecht could not cope with the soldiers. (Nor
could Asja [Lacis], his ass istant director.) He finall y turned to Val–
entin , a close fri end of hi s at th a t time who was attending the
rehearsal, with the despairing question: "Well, what
is
the matter with
the soldiers?" Valentin: "They're pal e-they' re afraid." This was the
decisi ve remark. Brecht added: "They're tired." The soldiers' faces were
given a thick coat of chalk. And on that day the style was discovered.
Shortly afterwards, the old theme of logical positivism came up. I
was fairly intransigent, and the conversation threatened to take a
disagreeable turn. This was prevented by Brecht's admitting for the
first time the superficiality of his formulations . He did so with the fine
dictum: "A deep need must be approached superficially." Later, when
we went over to his house (for the conversation had taken place in my
room) he said: "It is a good thing to be overtaken in an extreme
position by a reactionary epoch. That way you reach a middle posi–
tion ." This, he said, was what had happened to him; he had become
benevolent.
In the evening: I should like to give someone a small present for
Asja; g loves. Brecht thinks it wou ld be difficult. The view could be
taken that ]ahnn was rewa rding her for spy services with two gloves.
1st July.
Very sceptical answers are elicited whenever I touch on
conditions in Russia. When I enquired recently whether Ottwald was
still in prison, the answer was:
" If
he'? still alive, he's in prison."
Yesterday Steffin said she doubted whether Tretiakov was still alive.
4th July.
Yesterday evening. Brecht (in a conversation on Baude–
laire): ''I'm not against the asocial-I'm against the nonsociaL "
21st July.
The publications of writers like Lukacs and Kurella
cause Brecht much concern. H e thinks, however, that they should not
be opposed in the theoretical area. I switch the question to the political
area. Here too he does. not mince his words. "The socialist economy
does not need war and therefore has no stomach for it. The 'peacelov–
ing' disposition of the 'Russian people' means no more than that.
There can be no socialist economy in one country. Arms production
has necessarily been a severe setback for the Russian proletariat; in
