INTELLECTUALS AND WRITERS
SINCE THE THIRTIES
549
Question:
Someone spoke of revisionism. I am wondering whether so–
cialist realist cu lture will ever be revisited; is there any element of truth in
it? Is there anything redeeming in it, so that one hundred years from
now, someone will see something of value in it?
Joseph Brodsky: I
don't think we have to wait that long. I am ab–
solutely sure that the Slavic scholars will coin a term for that period,
designating it, let's say, as the period of high classicism; they will have
to
put a new wrinkle on it, if only for the sake of maintaining their jobs.
They will feel compell ed to justify the literature of this period in order
to keep it from being recognized as garbage. Otherwise, their academic
degrees wou ld appear retroactively void.
Question:
Mr. Ellison, over the decades, artists and writers of color have
often left the United States to go abroad, to be recognized and to grow
as intellectuals and artists. With much of the world opening up and some
greater intolerance to an extent occurring in the United States, do you
see an emerging trend of artists of color again leaving to go abroad? If
so, are there hot spots or colonies where this is occurring?
Ralph Ellison: I
don't think I can answer that. During my college
years, I wanted to go to Paris, because I read books that romanticized
the lives of American people in Europe . I couldn't do that, so I hopped
a freight train and went briefly to Chicago, which had some mixture for
me, an Oklahoman, of strangeness, largeness, and an availability of styles
that were being created throughout the country but finding expression
there within the city. I don't think it' nece sary for a writer to go to
Europe just to be recognized. If you have something that is worthwhile,
it seems that you can get anyth in g published in this country. I think that
many, many of the young editors today are people who were taught by
Saul Bellow; even a few who were taught by me are turning up. They
are searching for quality. One mark of that quality is what a writer has
made out of an honest assessment of reality as he sees it.
Qllestion:
My question is directed to Mr. Brodsky and Mr. Milosz. There
is a debate going on in Eastern Europe, in particular in the "Ruble
Zone," if you will, about whether a reckoning should be held for writ–
ers and intellectuals who formally or informally worked for the various
secret organizations in these countries. Obviously, there are good argu–
ments both for and against this. There is a lot to be said for intellectual
honesty and the potential for national catharsis. On the other hand, there
is the danger of possible national witch-hunts, particularly in Russia with
