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famous, a sort of populist dismissal of everythin g we have been offered
from high places, places a littl e too high for the taste of the general
public. T hi s Marxism-populism has really taken hold in some quarters of
th e universities and also in the media, to th e extent that its in–
terpretations are hi ghl y publicized. I think we're in danger of seeing a
new dark age come over the mental life of the country. It is a very seri–
ous matter.
Questioll:
I am a Rutgers University student. There are many young stu–
dents who aspire to be writers and who are still in the process of form–
ing their ideas. What advice, through your own experience, would you
give to them?
Czeslaw Milosz:
In
this
society? I don 't know.
Joseph Brodsky:
First of all , I don 't think one shou ld
aspire
to become
a writer - there's too much literature as it is. But seriously, one who as–
pires to become a writer shou ld bear in mind that the practice of liter–
ature, writing, that is, is a tremendously insecure profession . You never
gain expertise. For instance, take a pilot, a banker, or a doctor; the
more each practices, the greater is the guarantee of the safe landing, the
successful transaction, the correct diagnosis. If you are a writer, the more
you have done, the less sure you are of yourself. Yet the ambition is al–
ways very strong, and if one has set one's eyes on a writing career, one
wi ll of course proceed. The on ly advice that can be given to an individ–
ual w ho wants to become a writer is to be obstinate in the pursuit of
this ambition.
Williatn Phillips:
Stephen Spender, the British writer, tells the story
that when he was a young man and first met
T.
S. Eliot, Eli ot asked him
what he wanted to do. When Spender replied that he wanted
to
be a
poet, Eliot answered, " N o, no, you don't want
to
be a poet; you just
want to write poetry."
Questioll:
Mr. Bellow, you mentioned Vaclav Havel's
Letters from Prison.
What lessons can we learn from Havel's experiences as a writer and now
as an intellectual and a politician?
Saul Bellow: I
think that we might get a much more dependable
interpretation from Czeslaw Milosz, since he knows both sides of the
equation much more intimately than I do.
