PHILIP ROTH
597
thought he could just betray a few hours a day and otherwise get on
with being National Artist, Artist of Merit, and winner of the State
Award for Outstanding Work. Well, it is obvious what to do. I said,
'Blecha, I will follow myself for you . I know what I do all day better
than you, and I have nothing else to keep me busy. I will spy on my–
self and I will write it up, and you can submit it to them as your
own. They will wonder how your disgraceful writing has improved
so overnight, but you just tell them you were sick. This way you
won't have anything damaging on your record, and I can be rid of
your company, you shitface.' Blecha was thrilled. He gave me half of
what they paid him and everything was fine- until they decided that
he was such a good spy and such a good writer, they promoted him.
He was terrified. He came to me and said I had gotten him into this
and so I had to help him. They were putting him now to spy on big–
ger troublemakers than me. They were even using his reports in the
Ministry of Interior to teach new recruits. He said, 'You have the
knack of it, Rudolf, with you it's just a technique. I am too imagina–
tive for this work. But if I say no to them now, it will go in my record
and I will be damaged by it later on. I could be seriously damaged
now, if they knew you had written the reports on yourself.' So this is
how I made a bit of a living when I was young. I taught our
celebrated Artist of Merit and winner of the State Award for Out–
standing Work how to write in plain Czech and describe a little what
life is like. It was not easy. The man could not describe a shoelace.
He did not know the word for anything. And he saw nothing. I
would say, 'But Blecha, was the friend sad or happy, clumsy or
graceful, did he smoke, did he listen mostly or did he talk? Blecha,' I
would ask, 'how will you ever become a great writer if you are such a
bad spy?' This made him angry with me . He did not like my insults.
He said spying was sickening to him and caused him to have writer's
block. He said he could not use his creative talent while his spirit was
being compromised like this. For me it was different. Yes, he had to
tell me- it was different for me because I did not have high artistic
ideals. I did not have any ideals.
If
I did I would not agree to spy on
myself. I certainly would not take money for it. He had come to lose
his respect for me. This is a sad irony to him too, because when I left
university, it was my integrity that meant so much to him and our
friendship. Blecha told me this again only recently. He was having
lunch with Mr. Knap, another of our celebrated Artists of Merit and
winners of the State Award for Outstanding Work, and secretary
now of their Writers' Union. Blecha was quite drunk and always
