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centuries and the mortality of the body. Waking, you notice,
however, that you are not simply looking to the right and left, but
assimilating the landscape and gradually becoming someone
else from these visions. You are not who you were yesterday, be–
cause you have become mortal.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Thank you. Are there any questions or
comments from the audience?
TATYANA YANKELEVICH (Andrei Sakharov's stepdaughter):
In the discussion of dissent in Russia and Eastern Europe, unfor–
tunately, the people who were spoken about were not pre–
sent-some of the names I will mention were already mentioned,
but nevertheless I'd like to repeat them-Georgi Vladimov, Ser–
gei Ride Tchudovska, Anatoly Marchenko, Tatyana Velikanova,
Kovalyov, Yuri Orlov, Andrei Sakharov-all of them I'm certain
would have gladly used the opportunity to come here if they had
had such an opportunity. They would be interested to
hear everything that was said in this conference. We here are
flooded with information and often we cease to value the fruits of
human intellect and labor. At the same time the Soviet dissidents
and those in the other Eastern bloc countries are suffering from
what one might call informational hunger, or famine, although
it is probably a more wholesome feeing than that of information–
al indigestion. In general this conference seems an important
and interesting one. The only thing I regret is that the discussion
doesn't seem broad enough. Perhaps
Partisan Review
will fur–
nish us with another valuable opportunity to discuss what an
open and a closed society are, and other such highly important
and interesting issues.
Since this conference is about writers, I would also like to
mention a statement my father made in defense of Georgi Vladi–
mov, who has been persecuted for quite a few years now and is in
danger of arrest and further harassment. We should remember
not only Vladimov, but other people who are sacrificing all they
have-even their lives-for the free word and free thought.
Thank you.
MR. NEWMAN: I am interested in the feelings of writers to–
ward reality. In my opinion, the difference between the West and
Russia can be determined in the following way. As Professor
Daniel Bell said yesterday, in Russia literature is a very serious affair
and Russian tradition requires that the writer relate very serious-
