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as a nostalgic realm between two empires, not as the leftover of the
Habsburg Empire, but by their economic realities, which are rather un–
pleasant to ponder. The choices they have made have moved them to–
ward becoming client states of Germany. Of course, the option of be–
coming a client state is preferable to that of becoming a pauper colony. I
think that is what is going to transpire and to define the cultural climate.
However, something more substantial will happen. There is a new
element. The Lutheran element or the Protestant work ethic will gain
the upper hand over the Catholic sensibility of these countries. This may
even apply to Poland. In order to operate successfully in the economic
zone dominated by the deutschmark if you are Catholic, you will pretty
soon have to forego some of your precepts; eventually, you will even
have to say goodbye to the siesta.
Questioll:
My question is somewhat a change of pace. The economists
have a concept called "barriers to entry" which relates to how difficult it
is for a new business to enter the marketplace . If we look at American
society today, at the individual level, we as writers, perhaps compared to
the past, have even more barriers to entry. To be a novelist, you must
have published novels, and so on. If you want to be a college professor,
you must show your research papers and convince your colleagues that
you are an intellectual. In order to work today, you must be computer–
literate. Do we have, in fact, today, more invisible people than at the
time your novel was written, Mr. Ellison?
Ralph Ellison:
Remember, part of the problem for the invisible man
was that he was invisible to
himself,
that he didn't grasp his own com–
plexity, and I'm afraid that there are many others today who don't fully
grasp our
Al'nerican
complexity, because we still think in terms of black
and white. It's an ongoing factor in American experience. Let's look at
the intellectuals who tell us how to live and how to move toward
perfection. In this country that spreads from ocean
to
ocean, all too
often intellectuals don't travel, or they don't spend enough time in the
various areas so that they might grasp the variations that have been at
play for years in the American ideals. They will
tell
me who I am, but
they do not bother to
find
out
who I really am. I think that one of the
roles of intellectuals and writers, when confronted with a great upsurge
of change in society, should be to help express such complex definitions
of ourselves as inclividuals.
