Briefe an Susanne, Kommentar                                             Brieftext

 

251. Paul                                                            Liverpool, 4.9.1967

[im Original:] Dear Susanne,

Thank you for your letter and for the card from Brighton. You certainly seem to be enjoying yourself in your last few weeks here. I do hope you have got over your sore throat and are up and about again. I have also had to spend a few days in bed with a cold, but I feel a lot better now. Unfortunately, I went out this morning to help a friend of mine mend his car. I had to get underneath it, and while I was tightening a screw the screwdriver slipped and hit me in the face. Luckily I was only cut on the cheek: it could easily have been my eye.

I had intended going to the Proms with my sister, but she has no more holidays until late September, when I will be back at college. You certainly won’t forget your visit. You were lucky to get your car back with everything in it. Still it didn’t spoil your tour around London. I am glad you managed to visit the Tate Gallery.

As you say, it is too vast to see in one visit. I was interested to hear your views on Rodin. I went to an exhibition of his in Newcastle some time ago, but I must confess I found it very difficult to understand and appreciate. If you are keen, and are still going home by train, many of his works are in a special museum in Paris, the Musée Rodin.

I agree it is a pity that Carnaby Street and such should symbolise modern Britain, but do not take it seriously. Carnaby Street is not so much important for its fashions as for the profit which many people must be making from it. The disaster is that young people are so gullible and lacking in good taste.

Did you see the programme on B.B.C. 1 the other day, called “China Diary”? The American documentary taken on a visit to China. What did you think? I was aware that Mao-Tse-Tung had a tremendous hold on China, but I have never seen such power exercised over peoples minds as in that film. All based on that little book! He has certainly achieved political and “cultural” domination, but I think be must ultimately fail. He has tried to make a unity, a commune by denying the independence and individuality of the people, with no respect for persons as persons. Yet I think you can only have a successful commune or community when each individual has fully realised he is an individual. Society is not a collection of people who are the same, like machines: it is a group of people who are unique yet united. At Carlisle, for example, our community was realised, when we each first found ourselves, and then came together into one body and community. How friendship, love, and involvement in society (if you can see what I mean) can exist in China, I just don’t know. People are mere units in one vast complicated whole. They are too like bees to be human. How one begins to communicate with them I don’t know either. They reject everything that we take for granted. I have been trying to get a copy of the “Thoughts” in Liverpool, but with little success. If you have a moment could you let me know the name of the publishers? I think I remember you saying you had an American edition.

I expect you will busy in the next few weeks, packing and sorting all your rubbish. I too shall have to get ready. But I shall drop you a line before the 16th.

I can understand your reluctance to speak German again. When I came back from Rome a couple of years ago I had great difficulty in finding the right English words even in simple conversations. Still you get used to it quickly, and you must take every opportunity of speaking all the languages you have learnt, even German.

Still I must go. For now let me wish you “good packing”.

With love and prayers,

from,

Auf den Rückseiten der Photos [im Original]

myself, Loch Lay, Scotland. August. 1967.

my sister. August 1967.

Tate-Galerie] größtes britisches Museum für moderne Kunst in London.

Musée Rodin] Pariser Museum im 7. Arrondissement. Es ist dem Werk des französischen Bildhauers, Graphikers und Malers Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) gewidmet.

Carnaby Street] Straße im Londoner Stadtteil Soho; seit 1965 waren hier die modernen Modegeschäfte angesiedelt, die weltweite Trends setzten.

Did you see the programme on B.B.C. 1 the other day, called “China Diary”?] Die BBC sendete im 1. Fernsehprogramm den 1967 produzierten Film “Red China Diary with Morley Safer“, in dem über die chinesische Kulturrevolution und die Roten Garden berichtet wurde. Mao Zedong (1893-1976), chinesischer Revolutionsführer und Staatspräsident, löste 1966 die große proletarische Kulturrevolution aus. Vordergründig sollten mit ihr die reaktionären Tendenzen, die sich insbesondere unter den Parteikadern und der Intelligenz breit gemacht hatten, und den Erfolg der kommunistischen Bewegung zu vereiteln drohten, niedergeschlagen werden. Effektiv lieferte das brutale Vorgehen gegen die angeblichen Rechtsabweichler Mao jedoch den Vorwand, um seine innerparteilichen Konkurrenten auszuschalten. Die von Mao gegen die Rechtsabweichler aufgehetzten Jugendlichen, die so genannten Roten Garden, waren zu Beginn der Kulturrevolution vor allem die Kinder von Parteikadern und der Intelligenz (Hochschuldozenten, Lehrern, Höheren Beamten, Akademikern), die ihre Eltern und Lehrer überwachen und denunzieren mussten. Das Vorgehen gegen die angeblichen Rechtsabweichler war äußerst brutal. Zahllose bisherige Stützen des Staates wurden von fanatisierten Massen ermordet oder schwer verletzt und demütigenden Behandlungen ausgesetzt. Während der rund zehn Jahre dauernden bürgerkriegsähnlichen Kulturrevolution starben über 7 Millionen Menschen, darunter auch alte Weggefährten Maos, die von ihm als Konkurrenten empfunden wurden.

All based on that little book!] 1964 wurde das „Kleinen Roten Buches“ mit den angeblichen „Zitaten des großen Vorsitzenden Mao“ veröffentlicht und weltweit in ca. 1 Milliarde Exemplaren verbreitet.