182
PARTISAN
R~VIEW
Of course I know that there is this very special temptation - to
be interested in politics rather than in the reality of human experi–
ence. Because there is no general wisdom, no plausible theory of the
world, we may be tempted by political exercises, by poor political
language. We, powerful in our unpractical sphere of images rand
penetration, envy politicians their power.
It
is a mistake.
O~well
should be our teacher- to a certain degree. We have to be vigilant,
but we should not leave our field, our sphere. We have our mOments
of clear vision, we have our drafts, we are changing them and
l
im–
proving them. We do not bear practical responsibility. We are bear–
ing intellectual responsibility, because we are trying to decipher the
meaning of the world.
Sometimes I think that a writer, who, unlike me, is living ip his
country, in his native town, in the house which perhaps belonged to
his family for a long time, may suffer a situation of exile much more
painfully than I do, if he surrenders to the temptation of political
lang~
and abandons the fertile field of life .
