On Writing and Politics by Gunter Grass, translated by Ralph Manheim, introduction by Salman Rushdie
London: Secker & Warburg, 1985 (first published in German 1984) ISBN 0436187736
Those few who may read my blog regularly will know that I've been on a bit of a Gunter Grass kick this year, having read The Rat and Peeling the Onion, and recalling my reading earlier of both The Tin Drum and The Flounder. Grass's individuality cannot be doubted, and in On Writing and Politics we can see, in snippets, how his individual take on writing developed.
The items in this book are a combination of written pieces and addresses, and/ always circle back to the obsessions that Grass maintained all his life - trying to understand the German story of World War Two, progressing his view of democratic socialism via incremental parliamentary reform, and bemoaning the rupture of Germany and particularly Danzig, after the War.
As Salman Rushdie points out in his introduction, Grass, despite still living in Germany, was actually a refugee emigrant, constantly returning to his native home in his books, as he describes in the essay describing how he came to write The Tin Drum.
He writes about his literary inspiration Alfred Doblin in more than one of the pieces in this book, showing how he predicted the future, and how his writing is much more than Berlin Alexanderplatz. His piece on Kafka explains how he was the writer that first understood that bureaucracy is the new totalitarianism, and how no truly great writer can be claimed by any ideology.
He writes about Heine's grappling with anti-semitism in writing The Rabbi of Bacharach, in an essay dealing with how German youth had to face the guilt of the nation for the war. The political pieces in the book have much to do with the failure of revolution, of how the East and West were moving towards the same big-government capitalism, and how the hope for justice for the people lay in parliamentary socialism.
On Writing and Politics is a useful little insight in the mind of one of the great writers of the second half of the Twentieth Century.
I have included below my notes on each piece in the book (when I read a book of essays I like to take a little note on each piece as I read them).
Introduction by Salman Rushdie
Grass as emigrant and refugee, returning to his homeland in books, elaborating on the stupidities of German and World politics.
Doblin, my teacher [1967]
Essay on the debt owed by Grass to Alfred Doblin, an expose mostly about Wallenstein - avoids Berlin Alexanderplatz. Doblin's ability to be many things at once, to live with his contradictions - split personality of doctor and writer. Plea for people to engage with his complete oeuvre. "I can hope at the most, ten years after my teacher's death, to help arouse your curiosity, to tempt you, to help him find readers. He will upset you; he will trouble your dreams; he will make you gulp; you won't like the taste of him; you'll find him indigestible and he won't agree with you. He will change his reader. Anyone who is satisfied with himself should steer clear of Doblin."
Tin Drum [1974]
Brief description of writing Tin Drum, description of living in Paris, early poem about Oskar as Stylite, trip to Poland for research, writing in furnace room - first three drafts stoked the furnace. "But by then I was already famous and didn't have to stoke the furnace any more while writing. Since then I've found it harder to write."
Kafka [1978]
Description of Kafka as the master of understanding how bureaucracy is the new totalitarianism. How great writers can't be suborned into supporting an ideology. How the Czech Prague Spring was crushed.
Racing with the Utopias [1978]
Grass describes his tour of Asia and Africa while reading Doblin's Mountains, Oceans, and Giants, a post-apocalyptic novel. He shows how we are heading into that future owing to overpopulation, despoilation of the environment and repressive government, of whatever type. He focusses on repression of writers by governments, and oppression of the poor by those higher - the eta of Japan and the slums of Bombay.
What shall we tell our children? [1979]
Grass approaches the problem of war guilt by discussing Heine's story The Rabbi of Bacharach. Heine never finished it, despite a lifetime of tinkering with it, and predicting repression of the Jews would move from religion to state. Grass attempted to write a conclusion that jumped time from the 1800s to the 1930s, but couldn't make it work - hte then goes on to discuss The Diary of a Snail, which juxtaposes the destruction of the Jews in Danzig alongside 1960s German politics. He muses on what he would have done in Nazi Germany if he was slightly older, on the TV series The Holocaust, and on what he should tell his children.
Literature and Revolution or the Rhapsodist's Snorting Hobbyhorse [1969]
(Address to Belgrade writer's conference) Bemoaning the tendency of writers to jump on revolutionary bandwagons, to little effect - a defence of Social Democracy and a reminder that workers are mostly not interested in writers. "Only too often the heralds of revolution have become uncritical apologists for revolutionary terror."
Erfurt 1970 and 1891 [address 1970]
Talking about the meeting of West and East German leaders in Erfurt, and reflecting back to 1891 creation of SDP policy in that town. The gap between the theory of revolution and the practical effort to make worker's lives better, and how the two can't be reconciled. The stigmatization of revisionists, when to be one is actually a good thing - the fact that East and West will never re-unite while one side is revolutionary and the other revisionist.
Writers and Trade Unions [address 1970]
Short piece on whether writers can and should become part of a union - will they strike? will they work to a pay scale? what benefit do they bring to a union? Copyright law the only law that complies with the constitutional injunction ' property confers an obligation' - goes back to the community after a certain time - should other property be treated similarly?
A Warning against the force of habit [address 1972]
Address in Athens. Force of social democracy. The similarity between East and West - coup in Greece vs. repression in Czechoslovakia. Western private capitalism and Eastern state capitalism - treating peoples as parts of a security bloc rather than countries and nationalities. Working toward democracy.
The Artist's freedom of opinion in our society [address 1973]
Address to European representatives. Reminder that freedom of opinion also means allowing opposing voices. Writers aren't necessarily different to anyone else in allowing freedom of expression (viz. Futurists, Communist Writer's Unions). East and West both repress opinion (Czech and Greece). Europeans need to do something about it.
The destruction of mankind has begun [address 1982]
Pointing out that man is destroying the planet and wondering if there is any point to continuing to write, as writers only do it for posterity and immortality.
On the right to resist [address Jan 30, 1983]
50th anniversary of Hitler's ascension. What lessons can be learned - he gained power because people wanted it, and those that didn't weren't prepared to resist. Contrast to 1983 with extraordinary police powers and decisions to host nuclear weapons on German soil, Grass issues a call for peaceful resistance.
Superpower Backyards [newspaper article 1982]
Description of a visit to Nicaragua, just after the Sandanista's takeover. Comparison of that to Solidarity - repressions by USA and USSR - Pope condemning in Nicaragua what he supports in Poland. Germany unwilling for help.
