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To
Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays by
Czesław Miłosz (2001) 462 pages.
It
is impossible here to give justice to lengthy discussions of religion or
philosophy in which Miłosz frequently engages. Highlights of some of the
author's recollections stand out, however. For example, he recalls how the
prominent pre-war theater director Leon Schiller became a dogmatic Communist by
day while prostrating himself before the crucifix at night. Substantial
attention is given to Jerzy Andrzejewski, the author's good friend, whose
changing political, allegiances after the war make one's head spin. Miłosz's
recollection of his four and a half years at the Polish Embassy in Washington
D.C. is quite grim. He felt like a dog on a leash and took frequent naps to
"separate myself from this nonsense." Still, this was a controversial
period in the author's life as the Embassy was totally boycotted by Polonia
after 1945. Of
course, his leftist political views were known in the 1930s when the
social-economic order of that period was his adversary. Some readers will
disagree with his statement that the pre-war Polish intelligentsia was "a
stratum never known in Western Europe, not to mention Anglo-Saxon
countries." In reality it was not some weird social order
but the growth of a middle class that had. begun during era of the
Positivism. The West had had a middle class for many generations. - - The slow
conversion had had a middle class for many generations. The slow conversion of
Miłosz probably began during his visits to Warsaw from Washington, where he saw
people in the street who looked wild, their eyes were fixed, and they generally
wore rags, thanks to the new economic order. This realization led him to the
radical change of views in the 1950s. The
last part of the essays contains an elaborate discourse on the Seven Cardinal
Sins, recently included in Miłosz's ABC as well as lengthy ruminations
about literature that include comments about T.S.Vliot, Robert Frost,
Pasternak, Brodsky, Simone Weil, Shestov, and Dostoyevski. This segment
will appeal to literary aficionados. To sum up, this is a commendable job of the
editors, who also supplied excellent End Notes. George
E. Suboczewski |
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Two
scholars joined hands in editing this volume: Bogdana Carpenter of the
University of Michigan and Madeline G. Levine of the University of North
Carolina. It is a very thoughtful selection of some 40 essays lifted from many
books by Miłosz; they are of considerable interest to the English speaking
reader. The essays are divided into three distinct parts that clearly relate to
different stages of Miłosz's writing career. This short review can mention only
some of the material, which, as always, contains strong views so characteristic
of the writer. Perhaps