80
PARTISAN REVIEW
whi ch writing poetry, or indeed crea ting art of any kind , may help
one to do those thin gs-to serve God, for exampl e, by writing a great
poem in His praise?
PSR:
It seems unlikely a lillie school child wo ul d be abl e
to
do tha t.
K:
Well , a child a t least could make th e beginnin gs of such an a ttempt.
The child could awaken in him- or herself feelin gs th a t he or she
might otherwise not h ave had.
PSR:
Ours is not exactl y a reli gion of " di scoveri es about God and
about our feelings about God " as your Wes tern ones sometimes seem
to be. We KNOW about God, know who and wh a t He is, and we love
Him. We worship Him, respect Him, and fcar Him . I cannot
imagine an ythin g that I could " di scover" a bout God . Indeed,
perhaps, if I studi ed the ancient texts with the help of the sagest men
of our world for many many years I mi ght a ttain to some new detail
of understanding, as a chemi st mi ght di scover somethin g new about
the na ture, say, of water. But, to continue with the analogy of wa ter,
it is its coolness, its wetness, and its cleansin g p roperti es that will be
most important, no ma tter wha t else is di scovered. And so with
God's majes ty, mercy, and might.
It
is ha rd , bes ides, to see how a
school child, under the best of circumstances, could di scover any–
thing new about Him. And certainl y nothing th a t would be to him
of proper concern.
K:
I was hoping to perhaps introduce the teachin g of writing poetry
into Moroccan educa ti on . I take it you think tha t would be a foolish
thing to do.
PSR:
No t foolish but hopeless. How idi oti call y chauvinisti c and
imperialisti c even the best-intenti oned of you Europeans are–
K:
I am an Ameri can .
PSR:
For me
to
all intents and purposes the same thin g .
K:
How imperi ali sti c? why chauvini st?
PSR:
Don't you rea lly see it? Yo u are trying, simpl y, to " introduce" to
us,
to
our children, in the tenderest ph ases of th eir lives, your ruling
idea of what the nature of God and experi ence precisely is–
"discovery," "self-express ion ," and so on and so on . Wha t if an Arab
man appeared, as charmingl y as you do here, in your country and
announced hi s intenti on o f teachin g Fa ta li sm to every Ameri can
child before he was nine years old?
K:
But fat alism-poetry is-
PSR:
No, my fri end. Your country will thri ve on poetry, even poetry
by children , doubtl ess, but mine goes forward on o ther seemingl y
but not necessarily trul y darker pa th s. You sho uld be more aware of
what you are doing.
