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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UUNET.UU.NET!LHDSY1!HOVMB.HOU281.CHEVRON.COM!TKMARC
- Message-ID: <9212230410.AA11992@relay1.UU.NET>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slovak-l
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:00:09 PST
- Sender: Discussion of Slovak issues <SLOVAK-L@UBVM.BITNET>
- From: lhdsy1!HOVMB.HOU281.CHEVRON.COM!TKMARC@UUNET.UU.NET
- Subject: Why writers?
- Lines: 47
-
- Mr Frajkor invited opinions on Havel's plays.
-
- I have seen two. The one about Havel himself when he worked at the
- beer brewery; I saw it in Czech language, with Pavel Landovsky, and
- it was a masterpiece. I also saw Largo Desolato, in English, and I
- was totally unimpressed; I am not sure if it was because of the play
- itself or because of the poor translation/implementation.
-
- I have also read most of Havel's essays. Although I do value their
- political and moral content, I feel that what sets them apart from
- similar productions (and there is a lot of it) is their literary
- value. While some of Vaculik's, Simecka's, or Kusy's stuff may
- have been even more politically important, I value Havel's writing
- much more. The only other writer (of this category) that I hold in
- such high esteem is Vaclav Cerny.
-
- Mr Frajkor also invited opinions on why writers played prominent
- role in 1968 as well as in 1989.
-
- I do not believe that writers had all that much influence on what
- expired in 1968. True, there was the 4th congress of the writers'
- union, there was Vaculik's "2000 words," there was "Kulturny Zivot"
- and "Reporter" etc etc. But these phenomena were mostly pushing
- the limits of the freedom that was allotted to them by the political
- bodies. Although they were undoubtedly contributing factor, and they
- were important, I don't think they stepped out of their roles as
- writers. The reformed communism of 1968 (which really started in the
- early sixties) was almost exclusively shaped by the politicians.
-
- It was different in 1989. I suspect part of the reason why is that
- the cultural life after 1969 was so severely suppressed that unusual
- number of artists (mostly writers) were sort of pushed over the line.
- Remember, it was the arrest and trial with a music band called
- "The Plastic People of the Universe" that set off Charter 77. I suppose
- the absurdity of the total ban of anything creative or remotely
- interesting in the field of literature was much more upsetting than
- that fact that the people involved in politics in 1968 were banned
- from political life (rather than hung or jailed).
-
- The communist will to power cracked in 1989: I remember reading
- a quote of Jan Budaj saying "chlapci, moc je na ulici, len you treba
- zdvihnut" ("guys, the power is out there on the street, all we have
- to do is pick it up"). It seems to make sense that writers where
- among those who had the stamina and energy to take the banner and run
- the country for a while.
-
- --Kamil Marcinka (Internet address: tkmarc@hovmb.ion.chevron.com)
-