So, I've found myself asking this question: how much literature have we not been privileged with because those writers have lost the immediacy of their homes, their base, and often, their muse? Exiled writers obviously continue to produce stories, and certainly those stories would not have come to being had they not been pushed out. But, on the opposite end is another, more subversive, result in stories not told because they have been silenced by those forces that have removed the author from his home. This is especially true when a nationalistic view is at stake (and exiled authors do tend toward the nationalistic, which is why they are often deemed "dangerous," though, there doesn't have to be any reason for their persecution). The regimes are, naturally, quite aware of the power it gives them. The author's loyalty (and therefore his writings) are called into question, and as time goes by, the separation limits the effect of point of view, and an inevitable vagueness about their home sets in. Think of all the authors accused of being traitors because they were forced from their homelands (whether under threat of violence or otherwise): James Joyce, Dante, Gunther Grass, Joseph Conrad, and Gabriel García Marquez to name just a few. There have been a couple of recent events and articles that made me consider this.
The first, after telling my mother of my Abraham Lincoln Brigade finds last week, she gave me the book, One for My Baby, by Alvah Bessie. It's a a novel set in the 1950s about a comedian finding his way through the world of underground nightclubs in New York and San Francisco. And specifically, his experiences at a club called The Night Box, with its population of "clowns, sweethearts, walking wounded, genuine artists, and pinheads." The reason this is relevant is, it turns out Bessie was a friend of my Uncle's and they fought in Spain together. And he did, in fact, write a book about the brigade upon his return, Men in Battle. However, what Bessie was more well-known as is having been an Academy-Award nominated screenwriter (Objective Battle) and author--one of the Hollywood Ten. Bessie was held in contempt and imprisoned after refusing to answer HUACs questions about his communist affiliations. In looking up more about him, I found this wonderful interview from The Blacklisted Journalist, where he discusses his experiences. And, a few years ago, his hand-written journals from his service in Spain in 1938 were published, edited by his son and they include military documents, a working draft of Men in Battle, and the typescript of Spain Again.
The other thing was a BBC News article last week about the city of Edinburgh's bid, through Scottish PEN, to become a "city of refuge" for persecuted writers; offering sancturary and safety for authors and journalists who cannot work safely in their home countries. The International PEN established a "Writers in Exile" network in 1999 and have "adopted" about 100 writers. Cities around the world take part, including Las Vegas (of all places ... though I suppose, not such a stretch as it is surely a refuge of the dispossessed). According to an old Salon article, in true Vegas fashion, the town set up Salman Rushdie with a $3 million "Free Speech Hondo-Haven," that included, among other things, "a wading pool, a wet bar, and three-inches of bulletproof plexiglass [sic]." PEN has also become active in monitoring anti-terrorism policies and their effect on freedom of expression, and though surely no surprise, a recently released report on governments post-9/11 show "a significant increase" in the number of writers that are being "detained, imprisoned and tortured worldwide."
In the 1940s and 50s HUAC used the Alien Registration Act (aka the Smith Act) to launch their attack on the American Communist Party, whom they believed had infiltrated not only Hollywood, but other "left-wing" groups such as the Works Projects Administration, and specifically one of its sub-groups, the Federal Writers' Project. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, this excerpt from it might ring a few bells:
Sec. 2. (a) It shall be unlawful for any person--
(1) to knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise, or teach the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government;
(2) with the intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any government in the United States, to print, publish, edit, issue, circulate, sell, distribute, or publicly display any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence;
(3) to organize or help to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any government in the United States by force or violence; or to be or become a member of, or affiliate with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof.
Reading the above, frankly, chills my bones. What is it they say about history
repeating itself?
There is a 70th anniversary celebration of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade event taking place at Cooper Union on April 30, if you're in town.
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Cartoon: Bill Mauldin, United Feature Syndicate (1946)
CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES. - The Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution
