20 quotes on how not to live a social life
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On March 13, 1964, the court of the Dzerzhinsky district of Leningrad found the 23-year-old poet Joseph Brodsky guilty of parasitism and sentenced him to deportation for five years to the Arkhangelsk region. For the Soviet system, this was a show trial: a harsh sentence in an administrative case demonstrated the system’s unwillingness to tolerate antisocial behavior. For Brodsky himself, the process also became indicative: it was here that he first publicly tried to defend the right to determine for himself what it means to be a poet, and indicated his intention to remain a private person in a country that does not recognize private life. We re-read Brodsky’s interview and essay and collected his thoughts on how not to live a public life and the value of a private one.
1
If art teaches something (and the artist first and foremost), it is precisely the particulars of human existence. Being the most ancient – and most literal – form of private enterprise, it, wittingly or unwittingly, encourages in a person precisely his sense of individuality, uniqueness, separateness – turning him from a social animal into a person.
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1987
2
Regardless of whether a person is a writer or a reader, his task is to live his own life, and not an imposed or prescribed from the outside, even the most noble-looking life. For each of us has only one, and we know well how it all ends.
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1987
3
The system can only kill you physically. If the system breaks you as an individual, this is evidence of your own fragility. And the meaning of this system, perhaps, is precisely that it reveals fragility.
From Solomon Volkov’s book “Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky”
4
I don’t believe in political movements, I believe in a personal movement, in a movement of the soul, when a person, looking at himself, is so ashamed that he tries to make some changes: within himself, and not outside. For any political movement is a form of evasion of personal responsibility for what is happening.
“The Writer is a Solitary Traveler,” letter to The New York Times Magazine, 1972
5
Communalism in the sphere of ideas, as a rule, has not yet led to anything particularly good.
“The Writer is a Solitary Traveler,” letter to The New York Times Magazine, 1972
6
It is possible, for example, not without reason to assert that the future really came in our century with the first sounds of boogie-woogie, which completely abolished the concept of an individual melody or tune, which is similar to the fate of the concept of private tragedy in the light of a nuclear disaster.
“View from the carousel”, 1990
7
With our growing numbers, we are increasingly becoming members of society rather than individuals. The feeling of one’s uniqueness either weakens or becomes doubtful. Our selfishness, like our orgasms, takes on an increasingly public character: not because they are observed from the outside, but because of their contexts and consequences.
“For whom the crumbling bell tower tolls,” 1991
8
If literature has a social function, then it seems to be to show man his optimal parameters, his spiritual maximum.
“Why Milan Kundera is unfair to Dostoevsky”, 1985
9
The poet has only one duty to society, namely: to write well.
From Solomon Volkov’s book “Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky”
10
Time spent reading a book is time stolen from action; and in a world as densely populated as ours, the less we act, the better.
“Writer in Prison”, 1995
eleven
A person has enough metaphysical instinct (or potential) not to fit into the framework of any confession, not to mention ideology.
“Isaiah Berlin at Eighty”, 1989
12
The search for universal social justice, which has occupied European thought, roughly speaking, for the last four centuries, in our time has too often led to exactly the opposite results. Considering the number of lives spent in this search, the sought-after Holy Grail turned out to belong to a dead end with complete disregard for the individual in the end.
“Isaiah Berlin at Eighty”, 1989
13
What is written in prison shows you that hell is the work of men, created and staffed by them. And this is your prospect of enduring it, because people are cruel to the extent that they are paid for it, negligent, corrupt, lazy, etc. No system created by man is perfect, and a system of oppression is no exception.
“Writer in Prison”, 1995
14
In general, you can survive in prison. Although hope is exactly what you least need when you enter here; a lump of sugar would be healthier.
“Writer in Prison”, 1995
15
Society pays for indifference to culture, first of all, with civil liberties. Narrowing of cultural horizons is the mother of narrowing of political horizons. Nothing paves the way for tyranny more than cultural self-castration.
From Solomon Volkov’s book “Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky”
16
The individual must ignore the circumstances. It must start from more or less timeless categories. And when you start to edit – in accordance with what is allowed or not allowed today – your ethics, your morals, then this is already a disaster.
From Solomon Volkov’s book “Dialogues with Joseph Brodsky”
17
Any discussion on social issues, of course, comes down to the problem of free will. There is a paradox in this, since, whether the will is free or not, a bridle will be thrown on it no matter the outcome of such a dispute.
“Isaiah Berlin at Eighty”, 1989
18
No matter how disgusting your situation may be, try not to blame external forces for it: history, state, authorities, race, parents, phase of the moon, childhood, untimely potty training, etc. The menu is extensive and boring, and its very vastness and boredom is offensive enough to restore the mind against using it.
“Speech at the Stadium”, 1988
19
The mechanism of suppression is as inherent in the human psyche as the mechanism of emancipation. Moreover, it is more modest, and in the end more accurate, to recognize oneself as a beast than as a fallen angel. I have every reason to think so, for in the country where I have lived for thirty-two years, adultery and going to the cinema are the only forms of private enterprise. More art.
“Less than One”, 1986
20
You either have to fight for the spot or leave it. I preferred the second one. Not at all because you are unable to fight, but rather out of self-loathing: if you choose something that attracts others, this means a certain vulgarity of taste.
“Less than One”, 1986
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