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a nd cha nge their world in one genera ti on. I'm bein g, of course, to
a certa in degree, ironical about this . And ye t I find life on the
kibbutz stimul a ting. The othe r thing is tha t, having li ved here for
twenty-five years now , I have a n intima te acqua inta nce o f about
400 people. It's a sma ll community , it's a small vill age . But I know
those 400 people very well indeed , I have seen genetics a t work , I
know the goss ip , I know the sto ries behind their facades.
If
I had
lived in T el Aviv or in J erusalem or , fo r tha t ma tter , in New York
City , I would never have come
to
know such a ra nge of people. I
would have been proba bl y surrounded by other writers, intell ec–
tu als, schola rs, a rti sts, sitting a nd ra tin g one a nother.
Goodheart:
Writers ofte n bite the ha nd tha t feeds them . Isn't there a
kind o f inhibition about telling the sto ries of 400 intimate
acqua inta nces?
Oz:
Well , in the first place, the price I'm made to pay for thi s is that
those people know about me a little more tha n I'd like them to
know about me - but tha t's only fa ir , a nd I'm consciously willing
to pay thi s price. Biting the ha nd - no t reall y . I've never been
interes ted in , so to speak, direc t photogra phy. I'm much more
interes ted in pho tosy nthes is, so to speak, tha n in photogra phy.
Goodheart:
Do you conce ive of the Israeli writer as hav ing a spec ial
rol e in Israeli soc iety? In Ameri ca, a writer can a ffo rd to indulge
himself and he frequentl y does. Solzhenitsyn speaks of the Sov iet
writer who is true to himself as a sta te within the sta te . As a
di ss ident he has a n e no rmou soc ia l res ponsibility. Wha t a re a n
Israeli writer's res ponsibilities a nd freedoms?
Oz:
Yes, there is a bas ic Slavonic traditi on in H ebrew litera ture. I
guess tha t's wha t is needed in tru e litera ture. The writer is
regarded by ma ny as the heir of the prophet, the one who could
tell people wha t's go ing to ha ppen a nd wha t they should do. I
think there is no way of ta lking about "be ing the Israeli writer": I
think the litera ry scene in thi s country is one o f the mos t fasci–
na ting ones in the world - not necessa ril y one of the bes t ones, but
one of the mos t fasc ina ting ones. Processes a nd deve lopments
whi ch occurred in European litera tures ove r ce nturi es took place
in H ebrew within decades . At the ri ght time o f the day in Tel
Aviv , a t leas t until a few years ago, you will see the J ohn Donne of
H ebrew poe try a nd the Alle n Gin burg of H eb rew poe try a nd the
Lord Byron of H ebrew poe try, all o f them still a li ve a nd ki cking
ha rd , on speakin g terms or ra ther on sc reaming terms. Just about
eve ry litera ry tradition in the world : a rcha ic nine tee nth-ce ntury,
prerevoluti ona ry Ru ss ia n , mys tic Polish traditions, Germa n
express ioni sm , French expe rimenta lism .
