Gunter Grass

Nu stiu cat de mult a fost discutat in Romania cazul Gunter Grass . Pe scurt, GG a primit Premiul Nobel pentru Literatura in urma unei lungi cariere in care a luptat (ca personalitate publica, prin discursuri, articole, carti, atitudine) sa curete Germania de toate urmele naziste. In vara anului trecut, am citit un articol despre scandalul starnit de acest “stalp al societatii” germane si “arbitru al moralitatii” atunci cand a marturisit in autobiografia sa ca a fost ofiter SS. Din comentariile mele, probabil deja ati ghicit ca Gunter Grass nu imi e simpatic. Probabil din cauza ca sunt mai amorala de felul meu sau pentru ca am citit prea mult Ibsen, nu stiu…

In orice caz, as vrea sa recomand tuturor urmatorul articol din The NewYorker. Gunter Grass povesteste despre “cum si-a petrecut razboiul”.

Iata cateva fragmente:

It happened while I was serving in the Luftwaffe auxiliary—a force made up of boys too young to be conscripts, who were deployed to defend Germany in its air war. The service was not voluntary but compulsory then for boys of my age, though we experienced it as a liberation from our school routine and accepted its not very taxing drills. Rabidly pubescent, we considered ourselves the mainstays of the home front. The Kaiserhafen battery became our second home. At first there were attempts to keep school going, but, as classes were too often interrupted by field exercises, the mostly frail, elderly teachers refused to travel the wearisome dirt road to our battery. [..]

And we boys did, in fact, inflate ourselves to men when we stood at attention with our guns by our sides or presented them or marched with them on our shoulders. You might say that we took the expression “A soldier’s gun is a soldier’s bride” literally. We thought of ourselves as engaged, if not quite married, to the 98 carbine.

De ce il recomand? Pentru ca, undeva, in inima asta cinica de soim al patriei in Epoca de Aur, povestea lui Gunter Grass in totalitatea ei (a tineretei fesciste si a premiului Nobel) m-a impresionat si confirmat ca e OK sa fim cinici.