582
PA1~
TISAN REVIEW
to transcend our individuality? To believe in an abstraction which we
call "nation," because otherwise many people, not only intellectuals,
would feel rootless and lost? Is there not such a need?
Tatyana Tolstaya:
Yes, there is a need. And there are also needs inside
each person that contradict every other individual's needs; that is what
makes it so difficult. So when you enjoy better conditions that others, if
you feel more or less comfortable on certain basic levels, then you turn
to other needs. For example, if you are at ease within your language and
your culture but feel oppressed by the regime you live under, then your
thoughts and feelings may turn toward how to change that regime
through reforms. In contrast, if you are offended within your language,
then you may think about that first. It's not the regime, necessarily, that
extinguishes this or that language. There are many historical processes
which contribute. We have lost hundreds and hundreds of languages in
the history of world culture, and it's a pity. But that's that. The only
way to try to preserve a certain language is to create literature in that
language, so that even when the language is extinguished, its culture re–
mains in the literature. For example, we don't have the Sumerian lan–
guage any more, but we have the great Gilgamesh Epic.
Qllestion:
I would like to comment on what Susan Sontag has said, that
nationalism will become obsolete because of capitalism. That may be–
come true in the long run, and indeed capitalism is extremely interna–
tional. Yet right now, isn't the opposite true, precisely for economic
reasons? Aren't nations and national groups really vying for their share of
the economic pie, and in fact reinforcing nationalism? It seems that
because of economic reasons, capitalistic reasons, nationalism is in fact
being vitalized.
Susan Sontag: I
don't think it is; I think it's actually dysfunctional. I
think it will contribute to excluding these nations, or giving them a
smaller share. The result will be that the proletariat, the disadvantaged, of
various countries will be strongly motivated by nationalist feelings, but
their rulers will have a transnational perspective. A new kind of gap is
opening. Nationalist feelings, however understandable, however in–
evitable in the current situation, are not constructive economically. They
are central to a new pattern of political and economic retardation.
Qllestion:
I came from Bulgaria four years ago, and I knew the
111-
tellectuals very well. They wanted to have someone from their circle on
top . Now we have someone. Our President, Zhelyu Zhelev, is a
philosopher; President Havel from Czechoslovakia is a poet. Is this
