INTELLECTUALS AND WRI TERS
SINCE THE T HI RTIES
553
were the o ther branches o f culture. T hey also we re sanctifi ed befo re
Communist times. So I expec t that in the future there may be some
mutuality between pri vate enterprise and cultural instituti ons.
Joseph Brodsky: I
would like to add something. I do n 't believe that in
a ma rket economy, already introduced in the realm o f publishing and
literature in the fo rmer Soviet Uni o n , a writer's creati on will be different
fro111 what he mi ght create under ano ther economi c system . His returns
may be smaller, but his crea ti o n will be exactly the same - a piece of pa–
per in the typewriter o r nowadays o n the word processo r, o r from th e
fountain pen. W riters will simply have to brace themselves fo r a less- sweet
dea l tha n they had befo re, th at's all . T he re is no advice to give here,
whatsoeve r. What defin es o r determines the fate of a writer is the quali ty
of his wo rk .
Qllestioll :
Have th e politi cal changes give n rise to a new world audi ence
for writers from th e East, now that th ey are free to publish abroad , free
fr0111 censorship?
Joseph Brodsky:
Demographically, o f course this is so. But qualitatively
there is no new audi ence that writers can ca ter to.
Qllestioll:
At the risk o f pigeonh olin g you , Mr. Mil osz, how do you see
your own ro les as having changed - do you see yourself as an exil e , as an
emi gre, o r as a voluntary mi grant? Ho w does the fact that th ere now is
freedom to return to your fo rmer country affect you?
Czeslaw Milosz:
T he right to li ve w hereve r o ne wants has been
granted, but I stay in the United States fo r vario us personal reasons, and
also - I say thi s half-j o kingly - because in Poland I am a N obel laureate,
and that is very restri cting.
In
Califo rni a, in the Bay area where I li ve,
there are, I think , some sixteen N obel laurea tes, so it alleviates the bur–
den. As to my place and my role, they are determin ed by my poetry. I
am a poet of the Polish language, and I have continued to write in Pol–
ish. I translate myself into English w ith help, but basically I have my place
in the history and in the present o f Polish poetry. My books are usually
published there at the same time as they appear here. T here is no division
for me between literature created there and literature here.
Joseph Bro dsky:
May I add to thi s? Th e essence of the questi o n
IS
about o ne's attitude towa rd o ne's own past. I do n 't think it changes.
You simpl y can 't step twi ce into th e same rive r, whether you are pre-
