COMMO N HI ST O RI CAL ROOTS
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precurso r of th e ali enati o n whi ch pervades and defin es the modern
world .
The stranger, conscio usly o r unconscio usly, is always in a sort of po–
tential o r partial exil e , and all real writers are perpetu al exil es o f this
world , even if, like Proust, they hardly ever leave their rooms.
Beyond exile , real writers' relations with their countries of o rigin are
complex and dramati c. Thomas Bernhard disavow ed hi s own country
without leaving it, forbiddin g the publica tion of his books in an Austria
that refu ses to analyze and acknowl edge its wounds.
The arti st is, no matter how paradoxical it may seem , a secret la–
borer of love. Is th e exile a " disappo inted lover"?
Against all odds, love continues to tempt th e artist in exile, no mat–
ter how sa rcasti c, codifi ed , o r evanescent hi s wo rk . H e daily reinvents the
premises of the diffi cult sea rch ; he hono rs his idea l reader, a strange r bo th
like and unlike himself, with the gift o f an exacting love.
Thus does the writer continue hi s never-ending adventure and thus
does he humani ze his shipwreck , wherever it may be.
Susan Sontag:
Th ank you . W e' ll take qu esti o ns from o ur audi ence
now.
Qllest;OIl :
I have a qu es ti o n fo r T atya na T o lstaya . You have drawn a bi–
nary pi cture of exclu sio nary nati o nalism o n the o ne hand and im–
perialism , nasty but high-cultured , o n the o ther hand. I think that sort o f
binary visio n is very diffi cult to entertain. What is at issue in the fo rmer
or rea l Soviet Uni o n is no t a cho ice between th ose two alternati ves, but
the fac t that the republics whi ch have seceded from the Soviet Uni on are
trying to establish democ rac ies w here nati o nal mino riti es o f all kinds
would have o rdinary human ri ghts. Why shouldn ' t th ey eventually end
up as democ rati c as, say, Finland , Austria, o r G reece? With all the prob–
lems they may have, they are no nethel ess an improvement ove r w hat
Russian imperi alism has brought in th e past. T atya na T o lstaya's attitude
seems to trea t the issue as if it were ridi cul ous. She gives us a pi cture of
Finnish tribes wanting to take bac k Moscow and St. Petersburg, when in
fact, she maintains, the reason why one can be so cultured , why there is
culture at all in Russia, and why o ne ca n be so mu ch at home all over
the fo rme r Sov ie t Uni o n , is th at th e o th e r nati ve cultures w e re
deliberately discriminated aga inst and eliminated .
Tatyana Tolstaya:
I understand your po int of view perfectly well ; it's
extremely w idespread and ve ry fa mili ar to me. I just tri ed
to
po int out
that my reacti o n to th e we ll-known and well-discussed confli ct between
so-call ed imperi alism and the so- ca ll ed democrati c movement is indeed
