MICHNIK
383
poet, living in disfavor on the margins of official life, told this
Voltairean-Marxist that one day he and his colleagues at
Kuznica
would
wake up behind bars. "Now," said Pasternak, "you are like birds
singing in the trees. Everyone is singing his own tune.
In
a cage, even a
gilded cage, you will be described as a 'former futurist,' a 'former sym–
bolist.' You'll find yourselves in a zoo for 'enemies of the people.'"
These were words to send shivers down the spine. They were also
prophetic.
Kott saw Russia through the eyes of Gogol-a Russia where "there is
no laughter, only fear," where "there is emptiness and silence," where
"everything trembles and shivers like a leaf," where everything "is
imbued with menace." Where "disorder" reigns, where all is "confusion,
muddle, and nonsense." Where everything, even sleep, "begins and ends
in dread."
In
the faces of apparatchiks and security agents, he saw the
outline of such a Russia beginning to take shape in Poland. Fearing any
kind of Russia, he never sympathized with its dissidents. He fled from
Russia and sought refuge on the campuses of American universities, in
experimental theater, and in exploration of the erotic. His essays
acquired a different rhythm when he wrote about Poland, about Witkacy
and censorship, about Borowski and Gombrowicz, Andrzejewski and
Grotowski-and especially about Stempowski and Konwicki.
Kott saw Konwicki's
A Polish Complex
as signifying the revival of
history. The revival of the legend of the January Uprising in Konwicki's
ultra-contemporary style of writing caused Kott to declare: "Time did
not stand still. It's just that history has revived." Kott regarded Jerzy
Stempowski as his mentor.
In
a
I976
essay on Stempowski, Kott
returned to the question of how one should behave at a time of apoca–
lypse or plague, the end of the world, when "all moral and social norms
collapse and all apparent choices seem pointless." He had once written
that every choice, even a heroic one, is a farce. Now he reiterated Stem–
powski's view that after the flood one has to seek out people who "will
prepare themselves for another flood and may have a new plan for
building a newark."
In
other words, one must seek out dissidents because there is some–
thing both noble and valuable in their attitude. Kott wrote:
There are two different dissident traditions: the Aryan and the
Puritan; and the Central and East European and the Anglo-Saxon.
But one element common
to
both traditions is rejection of state
religion and recognition of individual conscience and unfettered
intelligence as the last resort which makes it possible
to
distinguish
