Literature and the Arts

     At enormous expense, France has shipped to Japan in a special plane the big Delacroix painting "Liberty leading the people," showing flag-waving Marianne leading the crowd to storm the barricades in the revolution of 1830. That the French government, which is struggling to survive amid mass demonstrations, should make this gesture, indicates that the spirit of the "Marseillaise," which glories bloody revolt, still survives as a national fiction. Can anyone tell me if it was sung in Vichy France?
     The idea that writers and artists should be political revolutionaries still survives in many places, including U.S. campuses. It was common in the Spain of the the second republic (1931-36), which I lived through and which ended in the Civil War. The situation demanded prudence and political skill, neither of which was possessed by the writers and artists of the period, such as Garcia Lorca, Pio Baroja, Picasso. The old French concept of the revolutionary artist had infected Spain, where the latest French fashion had an enormous impact.
     Although brought up to revere writers and artists, I came to regard the Spanish gang as an irresponsible mutual admiration society which fooled people into viewing them as geniuses. Shouting can provoke an avalanche. Running a country requires professional skills and a high sense of responsibility. Marianne should be buried in the Pere Lachaise. We are entering a period when the call will be for responsibility from all.
     This brings us to the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who enjoys a prestige like that of Garcia Lorca. He wrote for that great newspaper El Tiempo, but he now has his own feature service. I had become suspicious of him ever since he acted like a clown at the presentation of his Nobel Prize In a recent long feature piece, he described a dinner he and the Mexican Carlos Fuentes had with President Clinton at Martha's Vineyard. It was not just a reasonable defence of Clinton. It was wildly psychophantic, making Clinton appear to be an almost superhuman genius. His enemies were dismissed as Puritans. It was a tribute to Clinton's persuasive powers, and Garcia Marquez was clearly publicizing the fact that he had had dinner with the U.S. President, just as his clowning at Stockholm was publicity for his Nobel Prize. In Havana recently, he expressed his admiration for his friend Fidel Castro. In view of the incredible plight of Colombia and the lack of a sense of responsibility there, he reminds me of Garcia Lorca's behavior when Spain faced civil war.

Ronald Hilton - 02/23/99