Adam Zagajewski
FREEDOM IN EXILE
My statement will be short, but divided into two parts.
Part
1:
Freedom of Expression
I'm living in Paris now, but I keep observing the situation in my
native country, in Poland. You may measure it by asking how many
of your friends are imprisoned. Adam Michnik, a friend of mine, a
brilliant writer, is in prison . Marian Terlecki, a young and not very
known writer and journalist, is in prison. Some of my friends are still
free . I keep watching it because there is no excuse for forgetting the
fate of your friends . It is quite simple. You need not be a writer to be
conscious of it. You need not be an artist to know that there are at
least two different incarnations of the state nowadays: totalitarian
states and democratic states. It is impossible to say something which
would not be stupid or meaningless about the state, without distin–
guishing at least two types of that beast, the state. The same is true
for politicians. I have a lot of respect for nontotalitarian statesmen.
Men of action and of responsibility - why should I consider myself
better or wiser than they are? They are in quite a different position .
I make drafts; I am free to reconsider my draft, to change it, to de–
stroy it.
It
may take a month, or a year, to compose a poem. But
politicians cannot make drafts; they have to act immediately, taking
an immense risk of error.
Freedom of expression is an Orwellian subject, and Orwell de–
serves his worldwide fame. But there is a problem . While watching
and checking and controlling whether freedom of expression is being
maintained, we may lose something. Even Orwell had to pay a price
for his political vigilance. Wasn't he, as a prose writer, a little bit too
pedantic, too matter-of-fact?
I may admire some politicians, but for their actions, for their
courage, not so much for their imagination, their language, their
vocabulary. Freedom of expression is vital, but it may be dangerous
for us to become only vigilant controllers of others' deeds and sins.
There is appearing a new race of intellectuals - controllers of the
Editor's Note: This essay was first presented as a talk given at the Forty-eighth
International PEN Congress in January of this year.
